Miss Piggy; Washers and Dryers; Exterior Doors; Wood Cuts

Friday the last AARP supplemental insurance check, for mother's stay in the nursing home in December, showed up in the mail. At last!

As I'd discovered a couple of weeks ago, the bankruptcy attorney had indicated that he needed to be paid before any additional action could take place. So nothing had been going on.

I grabbed some papers and headed for my bank to place the check into my account. I had the power of attorney, the will and the death certificate. I can only assume the porcine-looking clerk did not understand my request, because she said they could not open an account in the name of a deceased individual. But if I would have a seat, someone would talk to me about creating an estate account.

My reason for placing the check into my account was to eventually eliminate the joint account. But if I followed Miss Piggy's recommendation, I'd wind up with three accounts instead of one. I waited about ten minutes knowing that I could easily be there for 45 minutes before seeing someone. At the end of the ten minutes, I headed for the door and crossed the street to the bank that manages the joint account.

There was something about fatso's attitude that really irritated me. First off, I could tell she didn't want to be bothered with anything out of the ordinary. Second, she reminded me of my previous boss who I absolutley detested. (Jennifer was without doubt one of the worst people I've ever worked with!)

In the midst of this, I was reminded of an old story about W.C Fields. Fields is playing golf, and another golfer says, "Mr. Fields, you're drunk!" Fields replies, "And you're fat, ugly and stupid. Tomorrow, I may be sober. But you'll still be fat, ugly and stupid."

Monday, I trotted off to the attorney's office and wrote him a check for the remainder of the fee. From our earlier conversation, I knew that at the time of the filing, I can only have a couple of hundred dollars in my name. Which means I have to spend down to that amount. And pray that no emergency crops up. He indicated that I could spend the money on auto or home repairs. But certainly nothing that could be viewed as a luxury item.

When I got home, I did some washing and slung the items into the dryer. Later when I checked the items were still not dry. So I reset the dryer for another 45 minutes. But at the end of that, the items were still not dry. So I pushed buttons and noted reactions and discovered that the dryer was not working. Not surprising, since both the washer and dryer are over 25 years old. It immediately hit me that a very legitimate use of my funds would be to buy a new washer and dryer.

Tuesday, I drove off to Lowe's and started looking at washers and dryers. My gawd, they're expensive! From the high $100s up to over a thousand per unit. I selected two in the mid $200 range. A thousand dollars for a washer! For that amount I could get an elderly Jewish woman to come in twice a week and tell me dirty jokes in Yiddish.

The good news was that they have next day delivery, and they will cart off the old units. (For an extra fee, of course.) So bright-eyed and bush-tailed, I was up this morning at 7:45. And at about 8:30, the truck drove into my drive way. Amazing!

There's another couple of home repair projects that I've been worried ,about for months - the two exterior doors. These doors date from the late 50s and are hollow core. Which means they are very unsecure. And both are warped. So today I thought I'd re-visit Lowe's and glance at exterior doors. The price of the washers and dryers were like a moon-cast shadow in comparision with the doors. You could easily spend $5,000 for an exterior wood door. And then pay another chunk to have it installed.

Every door I looked at had a leaded glass window. Far too fancy and expensive for my very modest dwelling. By now I was getting panicky, so I knew it was time to head home. Tomorrow, I'll hit Home Depot.

Sunday, another friend and I headed for my usual buffet place, but the lines extended into the parking lot. A quick turn around the corner brought us to "Ruby Tuesday." Unfortunately, this is also not one of my favorites.

After lunch, we took in the Georgia O'Keeffe exhibit. Apparently O'Keeffe did keep paintings around for years, then she might ship them off to the conservator. This time I wondered if the frames were original. Some looked far too new for the painting.

Downstairs, we were able to view some wonderful Japanese prints that were not there on my first visit. I've always had an affinity for the distilled imagery of woodcuts.

PAX!