Bankruptcy; Jungle; Sick

I met with the attorney Friday morning to discuss the final details of the bankruptcy petition. Pages and pages of questions. As we read through the material, I kept wondering if anyone actually looks at the pages. Gads! What a tiresome job that would be.

One of the most depressing aspects is discovering what you have is worth so little. Although I'm surrounded by books, chairs, tables, electronic equipment, etc., it all has such limited marketable value. If I took everything and spread it out on the front yard for a giant jumble sale, how much would I get?

On the other hand, it at least means I get to keep everything. If the market value is in excess of $10,000, the creditors can come in and pick and choose at will. The giant jumble sale would certainly not bring in $10K.

Earlier in the week, the attorney had asked if there were any outstanding medical bills. And my quick retort was no. But then I remembered I'd never gotten a bill for a trip to the emergency room in August of last year. I remember at the time they listed a very old address, and two or three days later, it struck me they did not ask for an updated one.

We carefully listed all the creditors, and I double checked each against my files. About an hour after I left, the attorney called and asked if I'd run a credit check; I'd never seen a reason to do so since I knew it would just depress me. He said he would, then called back and said the names did not match. I began to recall that some of the companies had been recently bought my someone else. But the names on the billing statements had not changed. The attorney said he would list anything that appeared on either list.

So either Friday afternoon and today, the petition was filed.

By the way, I asked about income tax refunds. Alas, I loose them. If I'd done my taxes earlier, I could have spent the money on upgrades to the house.

As part of the bankruptcy petition, you have to list how much is in your checking account. So I'd spent money to reach a level of about $100. Hence my lack of funds for a trip to the doctor.

At least for May, I can try to save something for an emergency. There are a number of steps I can take that will cut expenses.

I don't know what I'm going to do about the jungle called a yard. Especially if working in it makes me sick. The biggest problem is that over the years as it was cleaned, instead of the debris being bagged for the trash, it was raked to the sides. So you have these mounds of limbs, straw and leaves that are tangled in with a massive number of roots.

I've been able to thin out the dead branches from a number of the trees. I keep finding bricks and paving stones covered by grass. Even though I thought I'd gotten them all, I found another set yesterday.

There's also a curious block of cement that was sitting next to one of the pines. It looks like it was molded in a green plastic container of some sort. It's so heavy, all I can do is to roll it. I have been able to chip off some segments using a drill. And I bought a new drill bit to try, but I've not gotten around to using it.

Then there's the bailing wire which I guess was bought at some point for fencing. I've come across two large rolls and three small ones.

Did I mention the stumps? I've hacked and chopped and dug at these to no avail. My next trick will be to try a reciprocating saw.

My intent is to make the yard much easier to maintain in the future.

This is about all I'm willing to discuss this evening. I have that really nasty feeling of depression that appears whenever I'm sick.

PAX!