Rick Hess??? Mike B??

Nope, I've not yet heard back from Rick. I understand there are still about 400,000 NO residents that have not yet returned. With all the damage, I imagine those that are there have more pressing things to attend to than posting in newsgroups.

I do still frequently think a good thought for him, though.

OK Mike - thanks for the update.

Rick, and family, came through the hurricane physically ok.

John - thanks for the update. Hope we see him back in the 'family' here soon.

I echo that sentiment.

Thanks to all for the thoughts.

I am well.

My home, as well as most investment properties suffered considerable damage. I am extremely fortunate that I have insurance to cover most of the damage, as well as good contacts with subcontractors and suppliers to rebuild. I have something over 130 insurance claims, so my life (in a hotel in Ponchatoula, LA) has consisted mostly of dealing with insurers, mortgagees, attorneys, permits & inspection departments, government bureaucracy, etc. I've not had much time for recreation, including newsgroups. But I'm not complaining; many have not been as fortunate as I.

To those of you in this NG who have emailed me with your thoughts, and even offered assistance and rooms in your homes: I have been very touched by your generosity to me, a complete stranger save for this NG. There are some wonderful people in this world and some of you are right here.

Best wishes to all of you,

Rick Hess snipped-for-privacy@BellSouth.net (Eliminate SPAMMERS)

So glad to hear you are OK. My sympathy goes out to you for having to deal with 130 insurance claims! Holy cow! Looking forward to you posting here once you are on an even keel again.

PS. Your email address is showing in the headers, you may want to munge it to avoid spam.

Rick - I just saw your POST on 1/20 - glad to know all is reasonably well. hopefully, Q can help you deal with the 120 insurance claims - think of the use you can make in subcategories! All kidding aside, glad to see you're still around.

(snip)

To Mike: I'm using the web interface to get here (not a newsreader) and I see what you're saying. However, I'll leave it as is since it's an old, obsolete address and I'm too lazy to figure out how to change it to my name.

Thanks for the thoughts, Andrew

You bring up an issue that doesn't get discussed too often in this NG, and has many opinions on the "correct method": Handling casualty losses with Q.

Actually, I've never found a really sanitary way to handle casualty losses in Q for what will become a casualty loss claim on my tax return; but here's what I do:

For insurance settlements I use an income category titled "Insurance Settlements". One could probably link this category to tax form 4684, line item 3 or line item 24 (for personal use property or business property respectively), although I gave up importing to T-Tax many years ago.

I have an expense category for "Casualty Loss Recovery Expenses".

I was tempted to start a new thread for this subject, but I didn't feel like "throwing rocks at a hornet's nest", since I don't frequent the NG much lately.

Rick Hess