Friday, January 24, 2025

Monday, February 3, 2025

Yesterday was quite the marathon. I decided to sleep in, which set off a domino effect for the rest of the day.

Day one of Tax-Aide at the bank is always the craziest. Not only do we have to take appointments in person, but there’s a mob of about 40 people lined up at the doors before the bank opens. The bank opens at the exact same time the volunteers arrive. (Perfect timing, right?)

Thankfully, Cindy helps us manage the appointments on the first day. She drive separately so she can leave after the chaos ends.

However, things weren’t going to be that easy. Shortly after I left, Cindy called me: her car’s driver-side window decided it didn’t feel like rolling back up after she’d lowered it to clear off the snow. So, I pulled a U-turn, picked her up, and somehow, we still managed to get to the bank a few minutes before the doors opened. The clients, clearly trained for our Day One sprint, rushed to the basement—lights off and all—while the rest of us scrambled to settle in.

Normally, I’d take the stairs to beat the crowd, but now I have to rely on the elevator. (I’ll save my opinions on elevators and escalators for another day.)

Once we got set up, the clients were surprisingly pleasant—bless the patience of the Sun City crowd. Most of them already know the first-day drill, so they didn’t complain. That said, I still can’t figure out why they insist on lining up so early when we have over 700 appointment slots available. But hey, some folks just have to be #1. And if I’m being honest… I get it. (Cue me looking at myself in the mirror.)

The initial rush went smoothly enough, although I quickly discovered that taking appointments wasn’t my strong suit. I attempted to write down one client’s name and phone number, and let’s just say, it looked like Wyatt’s who spells his name backward and is still learning the alphabet. If I were to compare the two, Wyatt’s was more legible. After that, I tapped out of appointment duty.

Once the crowd thinned out, I shifted to testing the equipment—router, printer, Chromebooks, all that jazz—to ensure secure internet and printing were up to par.

Meanwhile, I also had to unload and organize the last batch of supplies for tax season. Cindy, held me back and told me to stay put. She ferried everything inside while I attempted to make sense of our storage bins.

But then the fall happened. While trying to move a bin (and apparently doing an interpretive dance move involving crossed legs), I lost my balance and went down. To make things worse, I toppled into Cindy, almost taking her down with me. Thankfully, I didn’t turn it into a tag-team disaster.

Cindy immediately tried to help me up, but I was more worried about her back than my pride. We hit pause, regrouped, and with a bit of teamwork (and a lot of caution), I managed to get back on my feet. No serious injuries—just my ego bruised. For those keeping score at home, that’s fall #5, and this one didn’t even fall under the “I was being stupid” category. That’s… unsettling. I might be developing a talent for unexpected floor dives.

With that crisis averted, we got everything organized and I returned to testing the equipment. Cindy had to leave for a bit to let Bear out, and she made me promise to stay seated while she was gone. That’s a tough ask for someone like me, but I managed to behave (mostly) and avoided further mishaps.

At 2:00 p.m., we closed up shop, stashed everything in the storage room, and headed out. Of course, we ran into more clients trickling in. Politely informing them that we were closed always feels like a mean joke. Despite the less-than-ideal process, everyone takes it in stride and expresses gratitude for what we do. Hearing the thanks is always the best part of this volunteer effort.

Instead of going straight home, we treated ourselves to a late lunch (or an early dinner) at Cooper’s Hawk to unwind.

The day ended without any major disasters, so I’ll call that a win. Let’s see what today has in store!

Everybody have a great Friday.

Love you guys! ❤️