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gonzaiJim died overnight Wednesday, so going up Thursday was the right thing. Mom and Rick both seem to be OK for the most part, we all seem to be mostly relieved that he didn't linger for years. Esp. since he was really miserable in the nursing home, and he'd continued having minor strokes for months after the initial major one. We were pretty much resigned to the situation and to a large extent it's a load off our minds.
As it turned out, not only didn't my cell work at Jim's place, but the landline and the internet were both disconnected and Rick's cell didn't work either. Extreme radio silence for a couple days. We spent almost the entire time cleaning out Jim's place. Rick and Carl (Jim's best friend and attorney-in-fact) already had met with the lawyer and the funeral home, etc. so all Mom and I needed to do was help clean up. (There will be a lot of legal work...among other things, it appears Jim's 'financial advisor' at Smith Barney was at best incompetent and may have been draining Jim's accounts to a very large tune.) That took a day and a half and we didn't make it as far as the garage, that will have to happen another day. Seems Jim had been disintegrating for a couple of years, and his home and yard were all garbage and rot. Great. But Carl and his wife Debbie had cleaned a lot before we got there, and they'll be hauling off the many bags of garbage we produced this week later. The only break we took was to go to Carl & Debbie's for dinner Friday, they cooked and I played Settlers of Cataan with their son Andy. Andy loves the game so much he bought a limited edition, hand-painted 3-D version of the game. Last night was the first time he got to play the game against someone who knew how to play and really wanted to play, so I made his day. (He won, but I led until near the end.)
Meanwhile, CJ had to spend most of the time in her crate as she and Rick greatly dislike each other. (She seemed to hit it off just fine with Carl & Debbie, but their dog, Mia, hated me(!)) The first night, we couldn't get the garage's spotlight to turn off and it was aimed at my room, so CJ thought it was daylight at 1am. Nothing like letting the dog out at 1am in the rain. Then she didn't understand why she had to go back to bed, so she howled till morning. Great. The second night, we got the light off and CJ was fine until 5 or so, at which time she decided to crawl into bed with me...and give me a bath. Sleeping in my bed, OK, but no baths, all right? Sleep? What's this sleep thing? I also banged up my legs pretty badly on the sofa bed's edges, picked up either a cold or an allergy, cut my hand on Jim's car, picked up a wide assortment of bug bites and did a lot of damage to my hands, shoulders and back between the driving & cleaning & hauling stuff. Barely managed to fit it all in the car, CJ had nearly no room for the ride back and we had to leave a few things behind pending the garage cleaning. There were some decent things there as it turned out, I got a Blu-ray player, 'The Dark Knight' on Blu-ray, several Harry Potter DVDs, some software and a lot of blank DVDs, inkjet labels and photo paper, paint brushes, a nice folding chair for craft shows and a TV table. Mom picked up a lot of kitchen appliances (I'll be darned if I know how we're going to get the microwave out of the car), kitchen supplies, cleaning & food items, a ton of Victor Borge DVDs and CDs, stepstools, 'grabbers', childhood items and photographs. Try cramming all that into a Mazda 3 along with luggage and a dog. I had to give up my hopes of bringing back several tubs of Sunset ice cream. Sunset is an ice cream parlor in Williamsport which has been around since Mom was little, and we always went there when I was a pup. $2 for a 'single' dip cone, which is actually the size of most places' triple dip. They don't have licorice or caramel ice cream anymore (bummer) but I settled for a cone of butterscotch. Maybe teaberry next trip, when I should have room for a cooler. I hope.
We may or not go back for the garage cleaning, at the moment we don't really need to except to help, and Mom & I aren't much help. Mike might go. Shooting for October for a memorial service though. And that's the last two days.
As it turned out, not only didn't my cell work at Jim's place, but the landline and the internet were both disconnected and Rick's cell didn't work either. Extreme radio silence for a couple days. We spent almost the entire time cleaning out Jim's place. Rick and Carl (Jim's best friend and attorney-in-fact) already had met with the lawyer and the funeral home, etc. so all Mom and I needed to do was help clean up. (There will be a lot of legal work...among other things, it appears Jim's 'financial advisor' at Smith Barney was at best incompetent and may have been draining Jim's accounts to a very large tune.) That took a day and a half and we didn't make it as far as the garage, that will have to happen another day. Seems Jim had been disintegrating for a couple of years, and his home and yard were all garbage and rot. Great. But Carl and his wife Debbie had cleaned a lot before we got there, and they'll be hauling off the many bags of garbage we produced this week later. The only break we took was to go to Carl & Debbie's for dinner Friday, they cooked and I played Settlers of Cataan with their son Andy. Andy loves the game so much he bought a limited edition, hand-painted 3-D version of the game. Last night was the first time he got to play the game against someone who knew how to play and really wanted to play, so I made his day. (He won, but I led until near the end.)
Meanwhile, CJ had to spend most of the time in her crate as she and Rick greatly dislike each other. (She seemed to hit it off just fine with Carl & Debbie, but their dog, Mia, hated me(!)) The first night, we couldn't get the garage's spotlight to turn off and it was aimed at my room, so CJ thought it was daylight at 1am. Nothing like letting the dog out at 1am in the rain. Then she didn't understand why she had to go back to bed, so she howled till morning. Great. The second night, we got the light off and CJ was fine until 5 or so, at which time she decided to crawl into bed with me...and give me a bath. Sleeping in my bed, OK, but no baths, all right? Sleep? What's this sleep thing? I also banged up my legs pretty badly on the sofa bed's edges, picked up either a cold or an allergy, cut my hand on Jim's car, picked up a wide assortment of bug bites and did a lot of damage to my hands, shoulders and back between the driving & cleaning & hauling stuff. Barely managed to fit it all in the car, CJ had nearly no room for the ride back and we had to leave a few things behind pending the garage cleaning. There were some decent things there as it turned out, I got a Blu-ray player, 'The Dark Knight' on Blu-ray, several Harry Potter DVDs, some software and a lot of blank DVDs, inkjet labels and photo paper, paint brushes, a nice folding chair for craft shows and a TV table. Mom picked up a lot of kitchen appliances (I'll be darned if I know how we're going to get the microwave out of the car), kitchen supplies, cleaning & food items, a ton of Victor Borge DVDs and CDs, stepstools, 'grabbers', childhood items and photographs. Try cramming all that into a Mazda 3 along with luggage and a dog. I had to give up my hopes of bringing back several tubs of Sunset ice cream. Sunset is an ice cream parlor in Williamsport which has been around since Mom was little, and we always went there when I was a pup. $2 for a 'single' dip cone, which is actually the size of most places' triple dip. They don't have licorice or caramel ice cream anymore (bummer) but I settled for a cone of butterscotch. Maybe teaberry next trip, when I should have room for a cooler. I hope.
We may or not go back for the garage cleaning, at the moment we don't really need to except to help, and Mom & I aren't much help. Mike might go. Shooting for October for a memorial service though. And that's the last two days.
