Nyuk-nyuk-nyuk-nyuk!

“What a mess!” I kept exclaiming. “What a royal, royal mess!”
My Excel® “Expenses” spreadsheet was messed up.
All of February 2017 was missing, although it was actually mislabeled.
“Sub-totals for February 2017” was mislabeled “3/31;” there were two sub-totals labeled “3/31.”
Although I didn’t see that until poking around later.
My Excel “Expenses” spreadsheet is for my tax-lady. Don’t know as I need it, since as a senior I get the “standard-deduction.” But I keep driving it because I can.
My spreadsheets are .xls, an earlier Excel format. The latest format, .xlsx, I don’t know. My years-ago Excel training was .xls.
My tax-lady may need it this year — I gave away my motorcycle to the classical-music radio-station out of Rochester I listen to, WXXI.
That’s a $1,700 deduction = the auction price. My charity deductions may make my expenses exceed the “standard-deduction.”
I didn’t wanna sell my motorcycle to someone I knew, and have themselves killed on it.
That happened to my brother, and his motorcycle wasn’t a crotch-rocket like mine.
The person he sold to was killed, although it wasn’t his fault.
People wanted my motorcycle, which I never rode, and they were unlikely to be killed on it.
But it might happen. I would feel awful if it did.
So how do I correct this grievous error, the worst I’d ever seen?
I find errors occasionally, and so far enough marbles were present to fix.
And that’s despite having a stroke 24 years ago, plus my cheering-section, sometimes a contributor, died five years ago.
—First hairball: Excel wants the new .xlsx format. I want the .xls format.
I grabbed a 2014 .xls and deleted everything — one fell swoop. I saved that as my “fixedexpenses.xls.”
—Next move: Everything in my messed “Expenses.xls” was right, except it was missing February.
I would construct a “Fixed” from everything right.
I copied all the January rows, and “pasted” into “Fixed.” February I would reconstruct from scratch.
“February” was in this rig somewhere, but I couldn’t think of a way to find it.
Then I discovered February was still there, sub-totaled as March. I didn’t hafta reconstruct. All I had to do was correct the mislabel.
WHEW! Reconstructing would have taken another hour, maybe two. I’d already blown at least two — mainly deducing the error.
What’s amazing is I do this despite my long-ago stroke.
So far I’ve fixed quite a few errors, but none as intimidating.
I know people who throw up their hands; especially those my age (73). Plus, I don’t need it. My wife wondered why I bothered.
I do it because it’s fun; and so far I’ve been able to solve the hairballs.