Saturday, October 21, 2017

Three Beautiful Things 10/20/17: Slowly and Steadily, Session at the Inland Lounge, The Deke's Way is Great

1. I buckled down this morning and did a little math and arrived at how Mom's assets should divide out between Christy, Carol, and me. Carol dropped by to sign some papers regarding the transfer of a grave plot Dad owns in Spokane and she had, independently of me, done some math of her own and our numbers essentially matched. We are still waiting to be able to deposit a couple of Mom's assets into her estate account. I'm very happy that the three of us agree on this division. 

Carol went to Wallace to transfer the title of Mom's car into her name and neither one of us had the legal acumen to realize that I, as the estate's personal representative, would be the one to release the title. So, Carol got the necessary paperwork in Wallace, drove all the way back to Kellogg, presented me with the papers to sign, and she drove back to Wallace and submitted the papers. Carol is now the rightful and legal owner of Mom's 2009 Chevy Malibu.

Slowly, steadily we are learning more about closing out an estate and we are getting it done.

2. I enjoy going up to the Inland Lounge just as it opens on Fridays and Saturdays at 3:00. It's usually not too busy and I can get in some yakkin' with Cas. I had a good session today for about ninety minutes. I enjoyed drinking a throwback favorite -- in fact, a favorite of Dad's -- VO and water, and not only did I get in some good banter with Cas, but had another fun time listening to Doug "Bird Legs" Burmeister tell me more tales about, among other things, bowling trips to Reno and Las Vegas, his observations of his mid-ninety year old parents, and what he sees as the prospects for the 2017-18 Kellogg Wildcat boys' basketball squad -- Bird Legs likes their chances to do really well.

3. Back home, the Deke got out some computer printing paper and a ruler and drew a diagram of our kitchen, with special emphasis on the cupboards and drawers and mapped out, in writing, what we will put in each one. She also cleared stuff off the walls of the stairs going into the basement. Her charting of the kitchen is a work of genius. Her plan is logical, increases the convenience of our kitchen, and will help us be even better organized.

Not only did the Deke work this out, she also prepared a spaghetti squash baked with ground sausage and Swiss chard. Christy and Everett joined us for dinner and we were all mightily impressed with the Deke's cooking and our meal.

I am staggered, in the best way possible way, by how much energy the Deke has for cooking, playing music, and other projects around the house now that she is retired. I have always loved to cook and was stoked over the last several years to do the cooking for the two of us, but now we are both cooking and getting other tasks done and it's mighty fun working together on these things.

It's especially fun to eat the Deke's cooking again: she's really good at it.

I mean, really good.

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