Yesterday I had to go to Canon City and there was a bit of snow on the ground. When I came home I decided to take the back way (on Oak Creek Grade) which can be scary at times. But with the trees covered with snow it was just gorgeous:






Today it was still snowing a little bit but not enough to get out of hand. I send thanks to my neighbor Dave for plowing out my road!!

I packed 8 boxes today and I still don't see any progress.

This weekend is my firm's Christmas party so I'm going to take Coco with me up to the townhouse and spend the weekend -- I want him to start to get used to his new home. The party is Saturday night. I will be leaving Coco alone for four hours and hope he doesn't alienate my new neighbors by his "separation anxiety" barking. It wil be a good test. My wonderful neighbor Cathy will look in on the cats while I'm gone.

And yesterday I used Oil of Clove on my toothache and that stuff is like a miracle. I applied it every time the pain came back and it worked wonders. Then today I got up and did not have a toothache at all. Right now it's late in the day and still no toothache. I am very puzzled.

This weekend when I go up to the townhouse I'm going to take a few of Marshall's things that I held onto so that his presence will be there with me. That may sound pretty silly and I'm sure the day will come when I will join the world again without missing him so much. The hospice people told me that would take a year.



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Beautiful scenery

What ... A ... Day ..

Well, I am now the proud owner of a townhouse in Thornton.  I left the house at 7:00 this morning to get to Denver by 11:00 so I could rent a storage unit for a few months while I sort things out.

Then I went to the townhouse and met the builder and had my walk-through.

Then I found my way to the title company for the closing and the closing took about 3 hours.

Then I went back to the townhouse to unload some things from the truck that I had brought with me (towels, cleaning supplies, coffee pot, etc.).  When I got to the townhouse the front door was standing wide open.  That was kind of unnerving.  I tried to reach the builder but he was long gone.  Nothing seemed to be bothered so I guess he just didn't pull the door closed good after the walk-through.  Then I had trouble getting the garage door open.  But I finally got everything unloaded and hit the road to come back home only to find that I-25 was bumper-to-bumper for miles and miles.  Thanksgiving traffic.  It took forever to get home.  I am so grateful to my neighbor Cathy -- she came over to check on the animals twice today.  Otherwise I would have really been worried because I was gone for 15 hours!

I really missed Marshall today.  He would have driven the title company guy nuts.  Whenever we bought anything that needed paperwork signed, Marshall would always read every single sentence and he would ask tons of questions.

Anyway, now I own two houses.  Yikes.

And I still have a toothache.  The dentist couldn't find anything wrong so he says to stick it out through the holiday because maybe it's a sinus issue that will go away on its own.  Great.

Closing date

My closing date has been set for Tuesday, November 24, at 1:30.  And I've got one heck of a toothache.  So hopefully tomorrow I will be able to get in to see the dentist before I have to drive up to Denver for the closing.  I hope some day things calm down.

Yesterday I heard from the VA and they are now starting to pay some of my pharmacy claims.  That was great news.

Still waiting for the headstone to be done, as well as the military grave marker.

Today is the 4-month anniversary of Marshall's death.  Hard to believe, isn't it?

Packing

I try to pack up at least 4 or 5 boxes every day and I swear it seems like I haven't done a thing.  It is overwhelming.

I have to tell you that as I'm packing, I am finding myself constantly picking something up and saying, "Honey, do you think you'll need this at the new house?"  And then feeling so sad -- and dumb.  I just cannot accept that he's gone.

The finance people called me today to tell me that the VA has finally come through with some of the remaining paperwork for my loan.  So I imagine the loan closing date will be set pretty soon.  Then I can get busy with window coverings, garage door opener, and other things on my list.  And start getting used to a big mortgage payment.

There's going to be a blizzard tonight up north.  Winter is here.

Old Photo

I have purposely not looked at photo albums since Marshall's death because I knew it would be emotional.

But I was going through a drawer this evening and for some reason this photo was there.  It's from 1998.  I sure wish we could go back to that time.  Look at how happy we were.

Medicare

Now I'm getting worried.  Over the past month I've been getting letters from Medicare addressed to The Estate of Marshall Mullins.  I didn't understand any of them but it just sounded like they were reviewing some charges and there would be futher communication later.

Today I got a 6-page letter from Medicare (again addressed to the Estate) saying that a bunch of charges were being denied.  The letter was very legalistic and I read it three times and don't understand it.  The only part I understood was the part that said "our decision is unfavorable to the Estate."  I don't see any amounts mentioned and I'm really not sure what to do.  But this is all I need, a bunch of bills to pay that I wasn't expecting.  I'm going to just wait and see if I get anything further.  My funds are quickly disappearing and this is scary.  I will report when I hear anything else.

Today I met with the moving company and because of the holiday season schedule, we have scheduled my move for January 4 and 5.  My closing is tentatively set for November 30.  So I will have the month of December to get things done in the townhouse before the furniture arrives (like internet setup, phone, electricity, installation of garage door opener, etc. etc.).  It's nice to have a few things settling into place.

Some good news today

Marshall had three trailers that I've been trying to sell.  One of them went quickly.  The second one -- which is an enclosed trailer he used for the motorcycle -- has a buyer, but when I got the title out I saw that the title was in Marshall's name and mine isn't on there.  So I called the courthouse today and I need to go in tomorrow and go through the paperwork required to put the trailer in my name so that I can then sell it.  So it's a little convoluted but at least I'll be able to do it.  Then I'll just have one trailer left to sell.

I found a possible buyer for our fancy ATV (which they tell me is actually a UTV).

And today -- glory be -- I received my VA pharmacy card in the mail.  Now if they just start actually paying the claims, life will be good.

But the best news of all is that I found a moving company that specializes in mountain moves.  In fact, he tells me that's their specialty.  He will be coming out on Wednesday to look around and give me a quote.  That just made my day.

I got quite a bit of packing done today, too.

My bank

I'm at a point now where I kind of thought all of the after-death stuff had been taken care of.  But no....

I have been noticing that every time I go to the bank to deposiit my paycheck there seems to be a lot of confusion and supervisors brought into play.  So finally I asked if there was a problem.

It turns out that if the deceased's bank account had any kind of direct deposits (Social Security, VA, annuity, pension, etc.), there is a hold put on those accounts -- FOR ONE YEAR -- with regard to deposits, not wthdrawals.  That's in case the VA or Social Security misses the notification that the person has died (or, even worse, doesn't get notified at all) and keeps on making monthly deposits and the spouse keeps the money without notifying anyone.  It makes sense, but it sure was a surprise to find out that I had to get deposits approved.

And I got really worried because I am basically going to be wiping out that account to take money to the closing at the end of the month.  I've been assured that there won't be any problem at all with withdrawing funds.

Every day is another learning experience.