the ordeal of the will....

ok, so...the ordeal of the will is worth documenting...it all started when I took to tidying up the guest room for my brother's annual xmas visit. It came to me that I should gather together all of the relevant documents from the filing cabinet so that my mother and I could review them with mother during his visit. I found the pre-paid burial information right way...but the will done by Leslie and witnessed several Thanksgivings ago was nowhere to be found. I did find an old will, one done by my friend from home Rob that my mother had hand-edited after my father's death. She had marked out his name as executor, ands penciled in mine. She specified that her Indian jewelry go to me, and that her Hummels be divided between my brother and me. Given that my brother was coming in to town for our annual Shakertown dinner and that Andrew's girlfriend and Cayle's boyfriend would be joining us, I decided that I would type up a new will for mother using this corrected will as a template. We could discuss it all with mother after dinner, and the two not-yet family members could act as witnesses. Sounded like a plan....I even made two copies of the will, on lavender (harder to lose) paper....The signing went well worth us all sharing a laugh over Stuart being legally required to take half of the Hummel collection....Stuart left for home with a copy of the signed will and a copy of the template will, and I thought all was just fine. Until last evening, when I chanced to mention this episode to our friend Mark, the lawyer who handled Cayle's adoption. He told me that this will was not valid, because it was typed and had not been drawn up by a lawyer and signed by that lawyer. A handwritten will, in grandma's own hand could have been witnessed by two non-related individuals. Yikes! I finally got ahold of my friend Leslie this morning, and we have made plans to meet at Red Lobster with mother so that she can execute her will and notarize it before I leave for Paris on Friday. Heavy sigh.....

Password Retrieval...

ok, so...when one blogs this infrequently, the password to this very blog becomes shady...and after several wrong attempts I was forced to select the "Need Help?" option....which involved texting me an access code to my previously identified cell phone number....gracious.....having gone to such trouble to get logged on I feel an obligation to leave some evidence of being on this site. So....how is my day going, you might ask? I have had several texts from my mother's caretaker letting me know that mother soaked up a pair of depends at some point during the night, then took them off, tossed them to the floor and failed to put on another pair....so her bed was soaked when the caretaker arrived....and what was I going to do about it? Fr starts, mother likely has more than one unopened plastic mattress covers she bought when my dad was in this same place in life....yep- there were two on the top shelf in her linen closet. End of emergency....until the next emergency. these texts were coming through as I was leading a support group, and I had to excuse myself to answer. To not answer immediately is to invite texts asking if i got the first text...so I might as well go ahead and respond. Heavy sigh. I have tomorrow off after our departmental Christmas breakfast at Cracker Barrel. Trying too plot out where I will go to browse and in what order, and whether to go back to H-Burg for Rotary or to skip it all together...if I can remember to put a sheet or tarp in my car I may go ahead and buy a tree assuming there are still tress out there to select. The Kroger in H-Burg had only a single tree left, and it looked a be pitiable. I do not own an artificial tree, and do not intend to buy one. I much prefer the scent of real pine...I may also start in baking a few kinds of cookies and other treats....or I may watch a movie and work on my needlepoint project- a sleeping cat that looks just like Andrew's Cricket, to cover a pillow. Not likely that I will get it done by Christmas Day, but one never knows until one tries...Ah well....my lunch time is nearly over...must be back to work.

snowed in....for a third day in a row

ok, so....the county judge executive closed all county agencies, including mine, for an unprecedented third day in a row. Probably just as well as most of my staff live 'out in the county' on roads not yet cleared and so while I might have been able to make it I could not have opened without at least one clerk and one nurse...so what would have been the point....wondering about the likelihood of closure for Thursday at this point given that snow continues to fall and the temps will drop to near or below zero with wind-chill. As for me, I have thoroughly enjoyed the last two bonus days off....I have watched 14 episodes of Miss Fisher Murder Mysteries on Netflix....and have worked on a second afghan .....having finished the one I was determined to finish as a NY resolution and discovering I had enough odds-and-end shades of cream yarn for a second one. If this weather keeps up I may finish it....and then maybe start on finishing the quilt top that may have been started when the boys were little and blue and peach were the 'house colors'. The 'quilt project' is stuffed into a bag...and I have not had the heart to take it out and to figure out where it is in the process...or whether the pattern has been included in said bag.....heavy sigh....I am making orange pound cake out of a white cake mix, canned mandarin oranges and vanilla yogurt that needs to be used up...planning on using orange extract rather than orange juice, which I may just drink with some leftover champagne....why not?....I am also heating up bean soup that I had frozen when I decided I had had enough of eating it as a leftover at supper and work-day lunch.....there may be enough eggs left to make a small batch of cornbread to go with the bean soup....and if I can manage to make time I will prepare for my class scheduled for Thursday night.....if I do not prepare the snow will surely stop, the roads will surely be cleared and the temps will surely warmmmmmmm...enjoy YOUR day.....

binge watching.....

ok, so....I have ventured in to the world of binge watching, made possible through the advent of streamed content.....Ventured is not the correct word, as it brings with it the implication that I have never binged before....back when I was recovering from the broken ankle I watched all of the episodes of Lillehammer...and Foyle's War...or at least I think that is when I lay upon the couch and watched...this may be a Brian Williams-style memory.....but of late I have binge-watched The Blacklist....during an unfortunate few days of GI distress when I stayed home from work.....and lay upon the couch streaming Netflix.....and I have re-watched all of the available episodes of Sherlock.... mostly on Saturdays while walking on the treadmill while others were away....I have also recently rewatched all of the episodes I own of Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot.......and now I am binging on Elementary, or at least as much of a binge as one can do with the DVD's containing 4 episodes, given that this program is not old enough to be in the fully-streamable category. I find this program to as delightful as a show featuring gruesome murder, thefts, etc. can be.....smartly extracting the essence of the original Holmes stories and playing them out in NYC with a recovering addict as Holmes and a 'fallen' female surgeon as Watson. I watched all four episodes of the last DVD yesterday, the first after work before anybody else returned home for supper. One must fill in the gap between the present moment and next Thursday when the newest 'fresh' episode of The Blacklist airs.....this particular show reminds me of Alias, a series that lasted 5 seasons and one that my daughter and I have binge-watched on purchased DVD's over the years. Over the holidays I rewatched all of the Harry Potter movies. We (collectively) made a point of rewatching all of the extended play Lord of the Rings and Hobbit films.....prior to viewing the last Hobbit installment on the big screen in the local theatre. I have considered giving the rewatching of Downton Abbey a go.....but I am not sure I wish to relive WWI, or the death of Lady Mary's husband....at least not yet.....and I probably should start at the beginning of Dr. Who...if for no other reason than to see what all the fuss is about....maybe in my spare time....

to Spain and back.....

ok, so....I have been to Spain and back since I last blogged.....the first time I went to Spain I blogged daily in internet cafes near our hotels in Barcelona, Bilboa and Madrid, as this was 2002 and personal Wi-Fi devices were either not yet invented or not in my personal possession.....therefore that trip was better recalled in prose than this trip...despite the techy available of instant posting of photos to FB.....the logistics of this trip were as precise as the last....from airline reservations to train connections to hotels/hostels.....and nearly to site entrance pre-bookings....who knew that Park Guell would be so crowded as to require a pre-booked tour time? Thankfully, I had thought to book timed entrance/tower tickets to Sagrada Familia, which was literally crawling with tourists eager to see what progress had been made since a previous tour.... leaps and bounds progress....so much so that the pope has already visited to consecrate the church as a basilica...we are not likely to go back to Barcelona any time soon, as this visit was tacked on to the end of the first pilgrimage installment.... St Jean Pied-de-Port to Pamplona.....when we return to Spain to hike Pamplona to.....somewhere down the Camino we will either arrive in Spain through some other entrance point, or fly in/out of Barcelona without taking extra site-seeing days. Our four-day Camino hike was a good start, but we will lever finish this journey if we only hike four days at a stretch....hoping for at least eight days next trip.....as close to Burgos as possible....we have started a list of lessons learned, such as clothing items that worked and those that did not.....and that changing out socks mid-day prevents sweaty feet from blistering.....much as we envy those we know locally who started at the 100 miles to go mark and walked eight days to get their certificates in Santiago de Compostella....I cannot imagine skipping the beginning...the taxi ride from Pamplona to St Jean Pied-de-Port, the 5 mile up-hill hike to Orisson, the 17 mile hike up and over the Pyrenees to Roncesvalles, the up and down pine-scented trek to Zubiri, and the overheated finale to Pamplona....I freely admit that I went a full week without walking at all when we got back....but given that I have a certain level of fitness to maintain I am back to walking 30 minutes on the treadmill in the mornings and an hour in the evenings....hopefully I can shed a few extra pounds between now and out next section...and maybe I can memorize a few more words in the local language before next time as well.....hope springs eternal....

last-minute details.....

ok, so....my installment-plan pilgrimage starts tomorrow, and there are still so many loose-ends to be worked out, details to be divulged to family and final decision made on what essential wardrobe pieces must be packed and which left behind.....Since our last big trip mother and I have worked out her funeral arrangements and paid for these plans in full...must remember to make sure the eldest knows where the folder is kept.....I have stockpiled several frozen meals as well as purchased gift cards to places that my mother enjoys either sit-down or carryout....both for the convenience of my son and daughter who will share in her care while I am gone, but also for mother's entertainment.....she does so love to eat out. I need to make sure the eldest knows where our will is kept.....which bills are paid directly from my checking account and how one can access them....just in case.....paper bills no longer arrive at the house so the first sign of non-payment could be the termination of phone service or electric or both....of course, I do not intend to die suddenly while I am away, nor do I really believe that mother will do likewise....but if I do not prepare for the worst-case scenario, that is precisely how things will work out....as for other details, my spouse and I had a good laugh last evening when it was determined that I speak Spanish about as well as I speak Italian, which is not very well....in such situations where no English can be spoken I always revert to be rudimentary understanding of French punctuated with sign language and gestures.....at this point language barriers are the least of my worries.....I am concerned about the potential for storms and/or rain (in Spain) and whether or not it will fall mainly on the plain, or on us as we hike across the Pyrenees, about getting too hot or too cold, about where I shall find relief when nature calls.....and that is assuming that with adequate pacing of our hike I can complete each day without throwing in the towel and calling a taxi.....as numerous folks have done before me...the ladies in my Sunday school class have assured me that it still counts if I pay a taxi to drive my pack to the next Refugio..... heavy sigh.....I have not been to Spain since 2002, and I am certain that much has changed....we shall be in BCN just ahead of the independence vote...which should be interesting.....and we are fighting a terrorist war, which frightens me to no end.....but I will soldier on with my travel plans, because to d otherwise would be letting the terrorists win. Pray for us....

disappointment...

ok, so....i worked for weeks archiving the photos and prose that documented my eldest's TransAmerica bicycle ride in 2009 as a tribute for his 30th birthday....and he was underwhelmed by the gesture to say the least....which is code for he would rather have had the cash.....gentle readers, as i age I am less likely to leave cash to anyone, let alone my children.....at this point, the blind native american fire fighters of South Dakota may be my charity of choice.....