khatru | Entries tagged with today-i

So the next day I tried using the voice to text on my phone keyboard. This is what I got - I've broken it up with punctuation, because apparently I don't talk with any. (As this is the first time I've used it, I don't know how to put punctuation in while talking.)

So this is an attempt to use voice to text: I was up at 5:00. I was up at 6:00. I was up at 7:00. I was up at 8:00. All of these were too early to call the dentist. Well, 8 probably wasn't, but since I was hoping for an appointment in the afternoon when people woke up, I didn't call. I wasn't up again till 10:00, and finally I called the dentist. (for the filling that fell out the day before). Surprise, they could take me right away! ("Can you be here in 25 minutes?") Fortunately, I could hear the Elder Child moving around downstairs, starting to get ready for work at noon, and when I called down he said ok. I had him drop me off at the dentist, and told him to go get food, because I expected it to take at least an hour. Sure enough, almost exactly an hour later, I was ready to get picked up. The dentist saw no decay, and just did a bit of scraping to get off some plaque that had gotten under the filling. (For a while now, I've been ignoring (due to covid and immune diseases) the fact that it felt like that tooth had had some enamel break off. It's the largest filling in my mouth. (And, apparently, it's multiple fillings in different parts of the same tooth. Apparently, what actually happened is that the filling had shifted, and what I thought was the tooth having departed, was the filling sticking out toward the inside of my mouth.) But apparently it wasn't awful, and the main reason he gave me some novocaine is that I'm REALLY REACTIVE to the sound and smell and sensation of drilling.

(note: the last half of that para is me typing while here, not that I talked all that in.)

He put a new filling in. Now, this is the tooth that, a few years ago, it took like 8 tries over 9 months ish, to get a filling to *stay* in. Unfortunately, as it's the very last tooth on that side, it's incredibly difficult to do the work for a crown or a root canal. Thus, if we can't get it to stick, he recommends taking the tooth out. So after I got to the ground floor of the office building I poked in discord, and about 15 minutes later the Younger Child said "Let me know when you're done" via sms. (Apparently, my discord message came through while Elder Child was quickly eating and waking Younger Child up, and thus wasn't seen.) Younger Child came and fetched me home and FINALLY I had some food (thank God I could have food it was peanut butter and jelly I ate two of them).

When my mom died, in going through her stuff, I found a record of an account that she'd made, at the time I believe it was called 'in care of' or something, for a minor child. I think I might have started the process of getting it in my name - which should have happened when I was 18! - and then it fell off my radar. They'd send 'this is how your account is doing' updates to that address, and since I have friends as tenants in that house they'd periodically deliver it to me and I'd toss it in a box. A few weeks ago there was a company name I didn't recognize, and I opened the mail this time, and it was a 'btw, the minor is certainly an adult by now and should really resolve this." So I called the company, and found out that they'd have to send me paperwork which would have to be stamped by a bank ("Medallion Guaranty"). Since I was downstairs, I opened the Very Large envelope, and saw forms that I couldn't immediately tell how to fill out. So I called the company, and someone helpfully went over it on the phone with me. Our local bank didn't require a appointment to walk in! Got there around 2:30 pm, and went in with the scooter so the Younger Child could take the 'check engine light is on' car to see what that meant. I also had 2 checks from my house/car insurance company that they claimed I had sent me because they said I hadn't actually cashed the previous ones. (Which I thought I had, but I don't have records of it and I decided not to argue) so that was another $1100 into the bank. However, the mechanic was too busy, and Younger Child came back while I was still getting things signed. I wasn a little disappointed, as this meant that I didn't get to have a minor adventure of driving the scooter home, but not awful - I'll note that I could have sent him home and taken the scooter home anyway.

But we stopped at the local chain convenience store and got sandwiches. Upon arriving home, I found a letter from the town's zoning department, which has decided that my grass is too long and that one of the cars in the driveway is "unregistered, uninspected, and disabled" which is only partly true. This is minor aggravation at best, but the letter was dated the 23rd, sent on the 26th, and I received it on the 28th, and it claims I have 3 days from the date of the letter to respond or else it's considered final, with upwards of $1000 fine. I called them up and got a person that was the wrong department and they forwarded me to the correct department which, of course, sent me to voicemail. I found out on Saturday that they had called back within a half hour, but my phone never rang. (This is one reason I really do NOT like the 'notched' top of the phone, because it hides half the notification icons. Yeah, it has a little dot that shows there are more, but seriously, that little dot is really not obtrusive enough.

And I just remembered that last bit now, at 7pm. So I guess I call tomorrow.

-----

The rest of last week was mostly boring. I got very cranky about having my query for dinner be unnnoticed for 45 minutes on Friday, so I ordered myself some sushi and let the kids fend for themselves. Friday would have been the 32nd Wedding anniversary, so that's a thing. Saturday, spent a few hours playing D&D on zoom, Sunday played WoW, and then tried to recover my Second Life account, as someone on one of the wow discord servers I'm on is a maker there, and offered to fund me some new infrastructure stuff that I didn't want to deal with when I found out a few years ago when I last thought about showing up there again. While I had accurately remembered the password for the email account I was using for Second Life, I didn't remember the password for the SL account itself. Their password recovery offered "Give us the first names of these three friends of yours." and I'm like bwahahaha I have no clue - and "What is the amount in USD that we last charged to your paypal or credit card." That was, at best, early 2017 (which is when I logged in last) and more likely back in 2014, and paypal doesn't keep the records that far back. (I might have them. SOmewhere. On a hard drive. That I was using in 2015. ....) I put in a ticket (at 3am my time) and haven't heard back yet. :(

Today I did... not much. Talked the kids into dealing with taking the fan out of the roof and closing that up, and closing, in turn, the hatch from the bathroom to the attic. We never did get the roof fan functioning. *sigh* Made sure all the storm windows were down (the ones that exist), and Younger Child did a bit of cleaning around the small ceramic heater I have in my room so I can use it. Unfortunately, the tiny fan heaters I got for the hobby room are making unhappy-fan noises, so I need to figure out if that's Disaster!don't!use! or 'yawn, i need to wake up'.

I also FINALLY found a useful contact point for the maker of my keyboard, to find out what its equivalent in mechanical switches would be, because i have a mechanical keyboard on KS that I get to choose the switches for, and I wanted to have it as close to this as possible because I like this keyboard. (I intend the KS one to be for the laptop that I hate the keyboard on, so I don't have the use the folding keyboard I got very happily last year that has started doublebouncing keys. I'll probably still use the folding one for travel, because space, but I'd like a better one for home.) And then, having found out what "mechanical-like switches" were, and that the newer term is "mem-chanical", I spent an hour or so poking around the net finding out wtf memchanical is, and figuring out what the equivalent in actual-mechanical is likely to be, so I can finally fill out the form (that's due tomorrow) to tell the KS campaign folks what switches I want.

And then I wrote this. We haven't gotten the car checked yet, and some friends in Massachussetts have been mentioning, on the discord server, various news items about states prepping for problems with the elections, so that's a thing. :/

Yee. Haw. Onward.

Current Mood: hungry
Current Location: Home-Den
Current Music: vague noises from the ground floor
Crossposts: https://khatru.livejournal.com/34877.html

I write this about 6:15 pm my time, trying to figure out what I'd done all day.

I sat down in my hobby room this morning, with 'I should do bills' as my concept. So far I have

Fetched my smaller-box-of-pills-I'm-taking from the storage room
Fetched the brita pitcher from the bathroom
Filled the kettle and turned it on
Refilled the brita pitcher
set up the mugs with gypsy cold care, vita 'genius', and teapot with 'scottish breakfast'
set up the soup mug with canned veggie soup to mix boiling water into
made 3 ham&cheese roll-ups (1 slice ham, 1 slice swiss, 1 line mustard on an angle, roll)
poured boiling water into 2 mugs and teapot
realized i didn't have enough water left for soup
refilled kettle and turned it on
Refilled brita pitcher
eaten protein rolls
Poured water into soup
set up my pills for the week
taken my morning pills
ate soup, while I
fussed with email (triaging 'don't need to read', 'should read but later', and 'just delete')
put my fill-pillpods-from-this-box away
noticed the bag of refilled meds on the table in the storage room, and fussed with putting my cache of pills in order again (trying to have oldest most grabbable, and have small space for it, so had to reset a few times as I knocked things over, fortunately not to the floor)
Brought the containers of one set of migraine meds (maxalt), into the hobby room (some of which were ziploc baggies of 9 pills (what I can get a month), some of which are in small boxes labeled for 9 pills)
Spent time writing the filled-dates in large marker on the baggies, and the boxes
Belatedly realized that there were actually only 2 expiry dates
re-ordered them by expiry date rather than prescription-filled date (all the ones in baggies were the same date, so they all went into one baggie with the expiry date on it, and all the boxes got individually dated because they are too tight a fit to be combined)
fussed with email and read some patreon-sent comics
Remembered I wanted to look up the stuff the orthopedist put into my knee and looked up knee gel injections
Realized I was clearly not remembering the name of the stuff correctly.
Remembered, halfway through writing a patient portal message to the doc office asking about it, that I had recorded the session (because they wouldn't let me have anyone else there to help me remember)
Spent 10 minutes listening to it, to get the name and the bit of convo with my questions after
Found it online and read around for a bit
Stumbled across Psoriatic Arthritis references, and fell into that rabbit hole for a bit (apparently it correllates with everything else I have, and no one's figured out if there's any cause or all just correlation
remembered bills!
opened a bunch of snail mail, one of which was from the 529 account we never touched for Younger Child
looked up what to do if you don't use the 529 moneys that were saved, took a while to find anything useful, and read around a little
Found a package of a Kickstarter reward in the mail. Opened it, found d&d miniatures.
Found no indication who it was from. Looked in email for what it likely was. Checked them over to make sure they survived the trip across the pond, and that I got them all.
Re-read some of the updates
Decided the tummy weirdness was maybe hungry
Pulled bread from freezer, put in toaster
Found a sweater, cause maybe the fidgets are thermal discomfort
Asked for butter to be brought upstairs cause I was out
Commented on the campaign that I received them
fussed with email, sorting emails relating to that campaign into the 'Completely Done' folder
Finally butter was delivered, ate lukewarm toast
opened some more mail, some of which were bills that I noted and set into the pile to deal with
3 of which were bank statements, of which 1 was long (brokerage) and I tried to read, 1 that confused me (previously dormant savings account suddenly sending reports again), 1 useful.
One of which was another Kickstarter package, of a gmless one-shot rpg that was much easier to find in my mail
Commented that i received it, thank you
fussed with email, sorting emails relating to that campaign into the 'Completely Done' folder
20 minutes after I ate toast I was EVEN HUNGRIER, so asked for and got hot dogs, eventually by 4:30pm
took my 4pm pills
Opened up a letter from my cobra company, looked up what to do when cobra ends
Remembered bills BEFORE going down that rabbit hole!
Opened a bunch of snail mail and realized I wasn't finding some that I was pretty sure were already put on the hobby room table
talked on discord about a house in new hampshire
realized Elder Child was probably asleep
talked to Younger Child about dinner
ordered chinese
Found the rest of the bills under a box as I was talking to YC
And then it was 6:30 and I needed to go set up to play wow.

No bills were dealt with.

Remember I said it was morning when I sat down? It was 7:30 am when I sat down at the table, figuring to do bills. ("Do" in this sense is: open mail, note moneys due and when on envelope, note same in ledger book, write check, note moneys sent and when check written in ledger book, address/return address envelope, reconcile checkbook, put it all away.) I wanted to have the bills mailed today.

And yes, I've broken it down that finely because it really really felt like each of those was an actual step. As in, I have to think about it to do it. I am so. Tired. Of. Brain. Fog.

I played 3.5 hours of WoW, realized I was brainfried, thought about going to bed, and noticed as I stared at my screen that I'd sent the above writing to myself to post here from my desktop, cause I can't recall my password to login to DW on my laptop, which is what's in the hobby room. It's now 1:45 am. I actually *woke up* around 5am, after restless sleep all night.

It's getting to the nonfunctional time of year. Otter's Mom died Oct 28; Otter and my anniversary is Oct 30; no family around to celebrate my birthday on Nov 19, or do thanksgiving with. Can't even go visit folks for post-thanksgiving weekend. Otter died on Dec 8, My dad died on Dec 23, and I am somehow to make sure I have new insurance post-december 31, when I don't even know exactly what I'm getting from Social Security yet - I was 'approved medically' but 'still deciding non-medically' and what the fuck is even that. Do I get money or not? WHEN?

I swear, I need a personal assistant. Someoen I can say, "this needs to happen" and it will.

Fuck, I forgot to take my foodless pills. And midnight pills.

Current Mood: blank
Current Location: Home-Den
Current Music: fan white noise
Crossposts: https://khatru.livejournal.com/34367.html

i'm sorry, this really does end up better looking when I'm making a list, to be an html list. Much neater.

C dragged me awake at 9am to eat food so I could take meds, and also to do infusion. (circa 40 minutes task, eating happening while infusing)
I managed to get myself dressed and dragged downstairs to get my hair brushed/rebraided in time to half-doze for about 5-10 minutes. There was some delay but I can't recall what it was, just "doc will understand for this". We were out the door at 11:20 ish for a noon appt with Paindoc who is not-at-Doctorville.
Rehashed my hospital adventures for paindoc. Got an scrip for extra breakthrough pain meds.
Since I was almost falling asleep every time someone wasn't talking to me in the doc office, I declared a need for caffiene. Panera won out over the diner near paindoc, as I wasn't awake enough to appreciate the fact of a salad bar.
Got call from nurse visiting today who wanted to visit right then. Since I was walking out of paindoc, and had an appt at Doctorville at 3pm, that wasn't going to work. We settled on 5pm this evening.
Panera. Coffee. Strawberry Poppyseed Salad, in honor of Otter who ate it over everything else every time it was in season. Unfortunately for me, it may be the sweetest of their salads. stupid carbs.
Arrived at Doctorville at 2:20 for a 3 o'clock appt. Since they were fitting me in anyway (my appt was last week, while I was in the hospital. Oh well.) I didn't think it would matter. I was going to get the shot from the nurse, until she saw the IV tap, at which point she went to get the doctor. "No no, the shot is fine with that, but that isn't fine! What happened?" Rehashed hospital visit with AllergyDoc.
Got text that ~~Visigoths~~Plumbers were happening: R had called them cause both tubs and 1 sink were refusing to drain. This was as we were leaving Doctorville. I texted back, asking if they'd stay long enough for me to talk to them, eta 15 minutes. It really is that close.
Talked to ~~Visigoths~~Plumbers about what needed to be done, and what additional I wanted them to do while they were all up in my pipes. Then they tried to upsell me on the age of my water heater. I don't think they expected me to ask about a tankless option. See, back when we bought this house, my dad was head of maintenance at a YMCA, and was proselytizing the delights of tankless heaters. We just couldn't afford it in 1990, nor in 1996 when we got the one that's currently in place. But, I have money-to-fix-the-house now!
After negotiation, the plumbers went to plumb the tubs, and the visiting nurse showed up. That was an amusing bit of overlap. She untaped everything and retaped it, leaving the thing sticking into my arm. Also ran an infusion (which was late, but Visigoths) and took blood and vitals. Wheee.
R made dinner, and as we were eating I got a call from an "RN associated with your health insurance" asking me all sorts of bullshit. I suppose there are people who walk out of the hospital, even with a tap in their vein, and proceed to do all sorts of stupid shit. I patiently answered all her questions, making faces at R and C all the while.
After dinner (yummy hamburgers with garlic mashed in, cauliflower, and minor salsa (cuke, tomatoe, diced; add garlic, basil, very small amount of generic store bought balsamic vinaigrette)) C and I worked on making characters for the Pathfinder game that's starting up.

C is now asleep on the couch in the air conditioning, and I want to work more on the character but I'm hitting my head against rules. Also, need to infuse. So I'm going upstairs and maybe poke at it there. Or maybe play wow. Or maybe find another book to read.

I CAN DO ANYTHING YAY no not that.

Current Mood: mostly pleased
Current Location: Home-DR
Current Music: a/c rattling.
Crossposts: https://khatru.livejournal.com/29703.html

I've been doing a lot of stuff that doesn't look like much.

Conversed with R about $THINGS. The primary thing coming from that is that we're moving up the timeline on househunting. Since I want to have overlap between getting a new house and selling this one so that I'm not frantically trying to pack, and the main reason I was setting it off 1-2 years was so that C would have a geopolitically appropriate address for his school, we can disconnect looking/moving and C's address need, and just leave him in the house on his own for a bit. So now I'm actually looking at the not-quite-spam mail that I'm getting from the three websites, and have brought R in to the ONE that lets you connect someone in (WHY IS THIS NOT A GENERAL THING???) and we're leaving comments for each other on houses.
Three of us went to a set of 3 open houses this past Sunday. First one was a house I wouldn't offer on, because it doesn't have the minimum accessibility I would need, but it was very local and a good learning experience. I also proceeded to inform the people manning the open house exactly why I wouldn't offer for it (there was much more than just the lack of accessibility, such as the complete lack of insulation in the attic, with sunlight visible in multiple places under the eaves). Second one, the people who were opening the house failed to show, it being after 2pm on a 1-4pm open house. We left. Third house was up in Bloomfield, move in ready, with some oddments that all older houses have (like, why was there a deadbolt on the door between the kitchen and the basement?) and all the accessibility I'd need. However, parking is minimal, and there are things (like one of the sets of steps from the house to the back yard is in the way of getting anything large *to* the hatch to the basement) that means that it's probably not actually the right house for us.
I had a week+ of doctor visits, that ended up with a small twinge in my back that I've had since about 2 weeks after Otter died flaring wildly. Paindoc thinks I might have gotten another compressed nerve, wants to MRI, and agreed to wait till I got insurance. That pain hasn't quite settled down, and is affecting my ability to do much. I've also felt lower energy since Sunday and the three open houses where I was walking around on uneven ground (looking around the houses) and doing stairs.
I came downstairs this past Monday to do bills and stuff, and was so out of it that I didn't even realize it was after 7 before I actually got moving on paper/mail intake until I was suddenly handed dinner. I meant to come down yesterday, and failed, ending up taking migraine meds, and extra pain meds. Today I woke up at midnight (top fo the day) and fell asleep again at 7, barely managing to eat food and take morning pills; ended up taking an extra pain med some time later; woke up just before 4pm pills, and dragged myself down here to at least do bills if not the phone calls, only to find that the fucking ATT bill is not here yet. *sigh*
Exiting Housemate has slowed down her exiting, due to her own health issues. Completely reasonable, but I'm getting antsy to have stuff gone. It's at the point where it's mostly just stuff to be put in trash and recycling, and I'm beating my head against C to do that, because R is doing EVERYTHING ELSE and we're really done.
To the point where R caught a cold (or something, it apparently came on faster than usual) and was sleeping a *lot*. A bunch of takeout later, a bunch of barely-touch-into-the-oven later, a few Inform-C-he-was-cooking-and-could-just-be-pissy-if-he-wanted-but-that's-it meals, and R took some money and slept in a nearby hotel for a few nights so that the allergen load would be less/different. Also, finally went to doc even tho temp never got over 101, and was given antibiotics anyway cause former smoker.
The kids, finally, after literally 2 weeks of nagging, moved the Forester out from underneath the dangling slate.
Finding a roofer to take on our roof has, again, been special, with 1 ghost on an estimate, 1 'you'll hear from us in a couple of days' that turned into two phone calls and a voice message later saying, "yeah, we do slate but not jobs that big" (WTF?), 1 semi-reasonable estimate, and 1 that said 'you need a whole new roof'. We have the lower estimate for the small roof that was damaged by the tree set to happen next week, and then we work from there, I guess.
May is the first month that I'm paying bills out of the account made with the life insurance money. Of course, the car insurance 6month is due this month, and the house insurance is due June 1, so there's going to be a huge dip to start with. Hopefully financial guy won't get nervous. :D
The car insurance customer service guy actually called late last week - later than he had said, but he *did* call back. Apparently C's good student discount is valid for, at least, this cycle of insurance payment. Yay! $2900 for 6 months is annoying as fuck.
I think that's all.

Contemplate agitating at ATT to change billing date.
Try to take Skitty to the vet for checkup when C is home.
Do more of the stuff that needs to be kept up with.
Find out when annual taxes are due
Arrange to actually get the roof fixed. IN PROCESS
call tax assessor office 9a-3p Barbara 9087692906 AFTER 12:30 WEDNESDAY as of 20180208
Decide day of month I need to pay bills. (2 days before end of month is not enough time)
Clear out envelope of Bills Since Death and sort into records, bills, whatever.
Figure out what to do about cpap machines (company emailed back, saying donate or whatever) (in process)

Talk to R about:

Container specifically for estate stuff. - Catbag?
Container for my paper notes on phone calls.
Container for medical records current year, bills and other
Container for keeping records, current year (currently back half of step sorter that R got from Staples, and repurposed wire mesh phone stand)
Container for medical records specifically for past years.
Containers for keeping records for past years, to hold paid bills and record keeping.
Container for tax info papers bundled by year for past years.
Container for my frustration and sanity. (Research ongoing. Last marble was found in dice bag, perhaps something similar?)

Crossposts: https://khatru.livejournal.com/28195.html

Woke up at midnight for my midnight food/pills, from a dream where I was trying to solve an epic quest, possibly with other people, and all the NPC ish people were no longer able to help us. We had to remove some bodies ?alive? from laying over other things protectively, and they were large and heavy and resisting, and we were down to the last one and I realized my cat was sleeping on my arm and I had to go to the bathroom. *sigh*
Woke up again about 10am after about 6 hours of sleep, and realized I was actually awake. So I texted R that I wanted to go out Notary Public hunting today, to be able to mail off the form for TIAA to give me Otter's pension. There were more dreams, but I didn't retain them.
Called TIAACREF to ask how long it will take to get the money once they get the forms. "5-7 business days." I'll believe it when it happens.
Called the person who had called me about owing money to the doctor group that Otter had apparently been paying $200/month to that I had no clue about until she called me as another phone number available to bug. I got the payoff number from her, made that check out and stuffed it in an envelope to mail while we were out.
Looked for the paperwork to turn the Merrill Edge account over, and couldn't find it. Sent the contact person an email owning my flakiness and asking for a new set of paperwork.
Went to the bank we started up the account with in December, and asked if they had a notary. They did, the guy who did the paperwork to start the account, who was happy to see us and just did his notary thing.
Went to the post office and sent the thing off for that pension fund certified mail, to get a return receipt.
Came home and did bookkeeping reconciling banking and making sure my checkbook was up to date.
Called the 401k plan company to find out how long it would take to get their money. After a bit of circling around with her trying to get her system to agree that I was me, ended up finding out that they have the two checks - one money for me, one money for the IRA I'm starting up, in the mail today. Wooo!
Culled through the things that have accumulated under the cut, and I've basically finished all of them. I'll include them above the cut this time. Go me!
Checked the mail, and nothing important was there. The most convenient branch of the bank that my mom's house account is with is closing, which is annoying, but no bills or anything else.
Received a phone call from the lawyer in Florida who is dealing with my aunt's estate. We started talking and then he sounded like he couldn't hear me, and then hung up, and rejected my callback. WTF-ever.
Went Upstairs To Play WoW!

Arrange to actually get the roof fixed.
call tax assessor office 9a-3p Barbara 9087692906 AFTER 12:30 WEDNESDAY as of 20180208
Decide day of month I need to pay bills. (2 days before end of month is not enough time)
Clear out envelope of Bills Since Death and sort into records, bills, whatever.
Figure out what to do about cpap machines (company emailed back, saying donate or whatever) (in process)

Talk to R about:

Container specifically for estate stuff. - Catbag?
Container for my paper notes on phone calls.
Container for medical records current year, bills and other
Container for keeping records, current year (currently back half of step sorter that R got from Staples, and repurposed wire mesh phone stand)
Container for medical records specifically for past years.
Containers for keeping records for past years, to hold paid bills and record keeping.
Container for tax info papers bundled by year for past years.
Container for my frustration and sanity. (Research ongoing. Last marble was found in dice bag, perhaps something similar?)

Crossposts: https://khatru.livejournal.com/27493.html

Called COBRA Management company, to get my account details since I had misplaced the piece of paper I had written them on. I was told that the only record of me in the system was as his dependent, that he is listed as 'terminated' and not 'deceased', and this is incorrect and must be dealt with. I took a case number, and left them to deal.
Emailed Otter's HR to tell them of this, and that something is very confused.
Was told by R what the details of the account were, and successfully got into the COBRA management company's benefits account to continue to elect COBRA for my health insurance. Only to find that, having listed Spouse&Child as needing insurance, I *must* include the Primary Plan Participant in the insurance, and that doing so has the wrong number of people being insured. Apparently because Otter is NOT listed as deceased, things are SERIOUSLY upgefukt.
Called COBRA management company again and confirmed that yes, this is the reason it is all upgefukt, and they need to talk to Otter's employer and get things straightened out, and that it will take 3-5 business days, as it always does. Oh, and that another company will be the COBRA management company on April 2nd. Yes, I know, I called them 2 days ago and they said to complete the coverage with you folks.
Screamed for about 2 minutes straight, and then took many deep breaths.
Spent time trying to figure out who has our tax info from the cryptic note left by Otter on his computer for me. Even accounting for his atrocious spelling, I can't find anyone with any name anything like the names he wrote down that has ever heard of him, or our 6+ years of unfiled taxes.
Spoke with R about the various research projects I'd given her: our food spending is consistent on a monthly basis so we can work on that number as our budget; the post card from our local mazda dealer talking about a recall doesn't have one that is dangerous that we seem to be affected by; the insurance company that was dealing with the tree that came down on our roof had gotten back to her about when the check was cashed, cleared, and other identifying information, and that information was not found in our records.
So I Called up his bank and asked if they could find that information for us, to confirm that it was cashed by him. They said yes, but we'd have to come in person to talk about it.
Went to Otter's bank (where I now have a couple of accounts) and talked to them, and yes, indeed, that check was deposited into his account. Yay. So much for that 2k.
Did some Ingressing while driving around.
Went to BJs with R, doing some price comparing and picking up some pens that I love that are really inconsistent as to where I can find them, and these were 10packs of the matching pen and pencils. In addition to the groceries.
Had pizza for my 4pm food next to Stop & Shop.
Sat in the car while R went into Stop & Shop, because she wasn't going to be long enough for me to get in any cruising for interesting things, and she doesn't like the scent of lilies.
Came home and Called the lawyer in Florida who's taking care of my father's sister's estate. Talked to a person this time!!! But not the lawyer. He's out. But now he's it!
pored over the TIAACREF pension beneficiary form, and grepped through papers failing to find the information for the new IRA for me.
Got called into the kitchen to help R butcher a chicken. (I'd given verbal directions before, but this was eyes on while she wielded the knife.)
Found another set of papers with the account number of the new IRA for me, and used that to fill out the TIAACREF paperwork.
Called TIAACREF help line to figure out some confusing back-and-forthing in the form to fill out. (Mostly my confusion, less their writing, and making sure I understood that really, I didn't have to write anything on 4 pages of this.) (I wrote "DO NOT NEED" on them just to be clear.)
Proudly signed it only to realize that I should not have signed it because it needs a notary and I'm supposed to sign in front of the notary. Fuck.
Put it down to deal with tomorrow because I've been up for 19 hours and I'm done.

Not including the other stuff. Done.

Crossposts: https://khatru.livejournal.com/27212.html

So I was writing this on Monday, Feb 5th. Apparently, I never posted it. (sigh). I'm leaving it as is, the top part at least, with minor changes.

Monday, Feb 5th, I:

Woke up in time to take pills, but didn't eat anything (and thus didn't take the metformin) because what I had available to eat in sufficient quantity really really needed to be heated up, and I don't have a convenient way to do that upstairs.
Came down around 10ish, convinced C to make me cheese flat and tea
C left right after that, so I puttered till R came down and had food and then we
Went to the bank and paid the mortgage thank you very much to the friends who gave me the money.
Came home to get me something to drink that wasn't sit-in-the-car-in-winter-too-cold.
Went to the eyeglass place to have them fidget with my glasses. Turns out the computer glasses had not had the anti-glare coating, which I had finally figured out was part of my problem with them. Once you get used to that, man it sucks not having it.
Did a very minor amount of ingress as we drove around.
R went out and deposited a check that I had gotten in snail mail from someone who wanted to help but didn't want to do paypal
Organized myself to do next things.
Texted John, my FIL Finance Guy, saying I wanted to ask him something, and would it be better to text, to call, or did he have an email? I got a call back within moments, where he told me that he didn't have time to talk. (o.O) And that I should call him tomorrow.

Tuesday I had a lovely day, where I spent the entire time playing WoW. I had started it cause I was awake at 8am, and didn't think I had anything important to do till I would call John, my FIL Finance Guy. And, somehow, I went from "noon, I have time to finish this thing" to "5pm, wtf?" and didn't call. And then had a humongous steak that was exceedingly nicely cooked, of which I put 3/4 into a container and in the fridge for future meals and fell asleep about 8:30 pm.

This morning I was awake by 5am, and was going to get on WoW again and continue my streak with an alarm set for noon, but I got distracted by all the things that the people I follow on twitter linked to over the weekend. And now I'm downstairs, dammit, and about to text John my FIL Finance Guy if today is good to call or not.

And then, hopefully, I'll get forms filled out.
( all the stuff for the future that's nearly the same in every post )

Crossposts: https://khatru.livejournal.com/24858.html

Wednesda - wednesday? - I had that lovely phone call with the life insurance company. The subsequent phone call with the mortgage company went even less well, as apparently they don't have any means within their system to account for the concept of 'partial payment'. All they do is hold the money until/unless they have enough to count as a payment. If this happens before their system instigates foreclosure, all well and good. Otherwise, they send the money back and it's in foreclosure. I had a small bout of hysterics, and have been hiding in bed (somewhat literally) ever since.

This morning I was actually awake at 7am ish. Took my pills, sat up poking at phone games till C came up to tell me it was 11am or so. I actually lay back down cause I was feeling tired-ish, and after a half hour gave up and came downstairs so I wouldn't be alone. I've done some useful things:

Detailed list so I feel better about it

ate late lunch
record bank activity into my ledger book so I can correlate more information
wrote out checks for att, oil, allergy shot copay,
asked R to take care of bullshit forms for the day
Signed forms for life insurance, Otter's ashes to be returned (sooner than anticipated)
recorded new bill/payment info into ledger
Consulted with R regarding dinner, pulling a recipe from my childhood that was tagged interesting
Fell asleep while R made dinner
Eventually woke up and ate delicious dinner, discussed/evaluated with R, deemed a success by both. Even C went back for seconds.
Gave up being downstairs and came upstairs.

Failed on:
currently trying to get the impetus for
filling out forms for 401k
filling out forms for TIAA pension

Now to see if I can manage to play wow today. If not, Diablo.

Crossposts: https://khatru.livejournal.com/24635.html

So far today:

Called life insurance person direct, left message with my name, Otter's name, claim number, my cellphone number, and the fact that I called a couple of weeks ago and haven't ever heard back.
Called Abby and made arrangements about the chocolate party
Called Specialty Pharmacy, returning their fucking annoying automated call. And, just like on the 9th (which they have records of me calling), I *again* had to give them permission to send the med, and apparently the $60 copay is *every month* until max out of pocket. Which I don't recall it being, but Otter handled it cause it was his insurance etc, and I just don't know for sure.
Called PSEG wrt lack of return envelope. Customer Service Rep has no clue why there was no envelope, as far as they know there's no program about asking to not get envelopes, and they made a note to make sure for my bill to have envelopes again. Would that everything were this easy.
Called Oil Company - overage mentioned on receipt received 20180119 is actually all paid up.
Called Verizon and fought my way through the voice menu to a person, where I talked about how the person who moved the account over from my deceased husband's name had said that I should call and ask to be put back on the 2 year plan to get the lower rates. I was told, this time, that my *discounts* were locked in till 2020, but that I would still be subject to any basic rate increases. They also said that, should that happen, I should call again to find out if I had the lowest prices available, which apparently I currently have.
I had also tried to create a myverizon account, first, to see if I could do it myself without poking the phone monster. It got all the way through the setup process till I got to the 'create account' button, and then failed to react at all. No spinny things, no visible aspect on the browser frame to indicate any sort of processing or transaction. It was like I wasn't clicking the button at all. I turned off my adblockers, and tried again, same effect. So that's when I called the phone menu system to beat it into submission. I mentioned this to the person I got on the line, and they connected me to what I think was called the 'e-troubleshooter'. Who walked me through it twice more, including clearing cache and cookies, to the same result. I actually have a trouble ticket in to the 'devs' to figure it out. I'm betting some combo of linux and firefox and blockers, but we'll see.
Called Water Company to ask about the charges that weren't on the previous bill. I'm wrong, it was on the older bill. Also, account wasn't name-changed, it was complete new account. Person on phone looked at Otter's bill history, and said that most often it was about $55 or less. So whee, I guess I budget 60 for months we go over.
Called life insurance basic help line. Oh, this was special. First, my Claims Consultant is not the person listed on the letter, it's someone else. I now have their first name and their extension. Second, they don't know how much the insurance is for. Apparently it depends on Otter's earnings, and his cause of death. Sometimes that REDUCES IT. FMH. Third, of COURSE they don't put the interest information on the brochure about the "security account" that I can put that money into, cause obviously it's going to change on a fucking whim. Now I'm *really* pissed off.
Sent email to Otter's HR person detailing the info in the phone call, and asking them to please clear up whatever issue they are having. Stupid fucking shit.
tbd

Call SocSec lawyer and see if she wants to meet (partner of no longer eligible lawyer)
call tax assessor office 9a-3p Barbara 9087692906

Call mike the lawyer about the north bergen house deed.
Find out if I called Meryll Lynch about angus gone, account come to me?
Decide day of month I need to pay bills. (2 days before end of month is not enough time)
Contact EZPass and find out how it was being paid and figure out if I need to do anything with it.

To Do Soon

Cannot do until make payment! Waiting on Life Insurance. Call Mortgage, ask for late fee to be removed.
Fill out forms for 401k
read in detail, evaluate, car/home insurance offer from AAA
Get onto Otter's computer and look for the file he left me.
Deposit checks received (2017-12-22: 1 to date.)
Clear out envelope of Bills Since Death and sort into records, bills, whatever.
Figure out what to do about cpap machines (company emailed back, saying donate or whatever) (in process)
Find out wtf to do about the argument with the insurance and the roof
DO NOT LOSE PRINTED FILLED OUT FORMS BEFORE DEATH CERT SHOWS UP!!!!!

Talk to R about:

Container specifically for estate stuff. - Catbag?
Container for my paper notes on phone calls.
Container for medical records current year, bills and other
Container for keeping records, current year (current back half of step sorter that R got from Staples)
Container for medical records specifically for past years.
Containers for keeping records for past years, to hold paid bills and record keeping.
Container for tax info papers bundled by year for past years.
Container for my frustration and sanity. (Research ongoing. Last marble was found in dice bag, perhaps something similar?)

Actually did something.

The last few days I've been .... Ok, more like the last week, I've been doing nothing. My sleep cycle has cycled around to me being awake from anywhere from 6-10pm, to 6-8am. C has been poking me both at 11:30 am ish and at 1:30 pm -ish, and even when I sit up and try to get up, I'm falling back asleep. Last night I didn't wake up at all till about 10:30 pm. Tonight I managed to get up around 6pm, and come downstairs cause bills, goddammit. I had asked C to tell me what bills there were, and he did. Yay. There were also some letters from Social Security back on the 25th (yay for inculcating "write teh date received on the envelope, dammit"), one of which was acknowledgement that I was getting the widow's benefit of $255 (which hit my bank account on the 19th, iirc, after the meeting on the 16th), and the other acknowledging upcoming hearing (tho no date set yet.) That was cc'ed to lawyer, too. So yay.

I *have* been getting online and doing wow things overnight, tho, which at least forwards my nominal mindless pleasure.

Realized my checkbook and the bank readout were hundreds of dollars off, and so did the arithmetic to resolve my checkbook, finding an egregious error that should never have happened at all. So yeah, $200 off where my checkbook says low, ok. where my checkbook says high, bad.
Looked on the life insurance letter for the general customer service number.
Paid bills. Still working on tracking what's needed, so can't tell what budget should be yet.
Organized what should be done next.

Now, to play wow.

Call Abby re chocolate party
Call PSEG wrt lack of return envelope, was this asked for, can it be changed?
Dig out previous water bill and find out what the difference is for, and call for explanation.
Call Verizon and ask for discounts again. 2 yr contract?
Call Oil Company - overage mentioned on receipt received 20180119
Call SocSec lawyer and see if she wants to meet (partner of no longer eligible lawyer)
call tax assessor office 9a-3p Barbara 9087692906
Call life insurance folks again. And again.
Call xolair pharmacy about bill, thought it was going on credit card.

Call mike the lawyer about the north bergen house deed.
Find out if I called Meryll Lynch about angus gone, account come to me?
Decide day of month I need to pay bills. (2 days before end of month is not enough time)
Contact EZPass and find out how it was being paid and figure out if I need to do anything with it.

To Do Soon

Cannot do until make payment! Waiting on Life Insurance. Call Mortgage, ask for late fee to be removed.
Fill out forms for 401k
read in detail, evaluate, car/home insurance offer from AAA
Get onto Otter's computer and look for the file he left me.
Deposit checks received (2017-12-22: 1 to date.)
Clear out envelope of Bills Since Death and sort into records, bills, whatever.
Figure out what to do about cpap machines (company emailed back, saying donate or whatever) (in process)
Find out wtf to do about the argument with the insurance and the roof
DO NOT LOSE PRINTED FILLED OUT FORMS BEFORE DEATH CERT SHOWS UP!!!!!

Talk to R about:

Container specifically for estate stuff. - Catbag?
Container for my paper notes on phone calls.
Container for medical records current year, bills and other
Container for keeping records, current year (current back half of step sorter that R got from Staples)
Container for medical records specifically for past years.
Containers for keeping records for past years, to hold paid bills and record keeping.
Container for tax info papers bundled by year for past years.
Container for my frustration and sanity. (Research ongoing. Last marble was found in dice bag, perhaps something similar?)

Crossposts: https://khatru.livejournal.com/24438.html

Today started with me needing to take a migraine pill when my alarm for my 8am pills went off. At some point later, C came up to see if I needed to be awake, at which point I asked for food, please, so I could take the rest of my meds. I came up ~~for air~~ from the migraine around noon, with no food. I managed to get talking enough to ask for eggs, and came downstairs so I was functional for the 1pm call to cancel the trash pickup account.

Which went much easier, once they could get me on the line with someone. Whee.

Now I have to figure out what I can do with this migraine lurking.

Received phone call and, finally, cancelled the trash pickup company I don't like.
Had R create a receptacle for incoming income tax prep items.
Resolved checkbook and bank (using online statement, go me) As I found back in the day, having spending money and bills come from the same account is dangerous.
Called R down to use the debit card to pay off student loan. Aiieeeeee
Failed, due to the debit card not having enough daily transfer to do so, and my having somehow not gotten the account number when I opened the account. wtf?
Created a box for bills paid to date out of the shipping box for the leather checkbook cover and handbag that I ordered from Oberon Designs. Pretty, but could be better. And yes, expensive, but pretty. C did most of the work.
Created a "done pile" container from a metal mesh phone stand I got from Staples years ago that we found in a pile still in the plastic wrap. (No, I don't know why I bought it, it was circa 2006).
Figured out where to put them where they are both within reach and out of the general way.
Opened recent mail, marked up notations on envelopes, sorted into inbox/record keeping.
Found bank statement from account that student loan money was in, confirmed account number, to be paid. (aaiie, 9500, so much for having some unexpected money.)
R cooked one of the keto recipes I found on the web. As is common so far, I like it, she doesn't. *sigh*

OH, and...

Went to credit union and brought the home equity loan up to date, and then put enough money in the formerly joint account to pay the HEL monthly for 10 months, and set that up to happen automatically.
Did some Ingress things while on RU campus
Went to the optician and picked up my glasses. Which are driving me crazy, but I'm giving them a week.

Call life insurance folks again. And again.
call tax assessor office 9a-3p Barbara 9087692906
Call mike the lawyer about the north bergen house deed.
Find out if I called Meryll Lynch about angus gone, account come to me?
Decide day of month I need to pay bills.
Record received bills into ledger.
Call oil co re payment due listed on receipt for last delivery
Call xolair pharmacy about bill, thought it was going on credit card.
Contact EZPass and find out how it was being paid and figure out if I need to do anything with it.

To Do SOON!

Cannot do until make payment! Waiting on Life Insurance. Call Mortgage, ask for late fee to be removed.
Fill out forms for 401k
Read in detail, and evaluate, life insurance mail from credit union BY JAN 25
read in detail, evaluate, car/home insurance offer from AAA
Get onto Otter's computer and look for the file he left me.
Deposit checks received (2017-12-22: 1 to date.)
Clear out envelope of Bills Since Death and sort into records, bills, whatever.
Figure out what to do about cpap machines (company emailed back, saying donate or whatever) (in process)
Find out wtf to do about the argument with the insurance and the roof
DO NOT LOSE PRINTED FILLED OUT FORMS BEFORE DEATH CERT SHOWS UP!!!!!

Talk to R about:

Container specifically for estate stuff. - Catbag?
Container for my paper notes on phone calls.
Container for medical records current year, bills and other
Container for keeping records, current year
Container for medical records specifically for past years.
Containers for keeping records for past years, to hold paid bills and record keeping.
Container for tax info papers bundled by year for past years.
Container for my frustration and sanity. (Research ongoing. Last marble was found in dice bag, perhaps something similar?)

Crossposts: https://khatru.livejournal.com/23786.html

Today, I:

Woke at 7:43; ate some leftover food in my room, took my 8am pills, went downstairs carrying pills, phone, and more leftover food from my room.
Drained the teapot into a cup, and made fresh tea.
Moved things around in the kitchen - not so much cleaning as arranging things to be cleaned.
Nibbled on more leftover food, while neatening the table so I could use it. This involved frequent walking back and forth into the kitchen to throw handfuls of things away.
Went through some of the piles, creating ... heaps. (note, this is a computer science data structure conceptual difference.)
Called Life Insurance Company Again. Left another message, mentioning that this was the second call, when I had called before, and my phone number.
Called the town tax assessors office to see about appointment to change things in to my name. Talked to (didn't get name). Assessor left early today, will be in 9a-3p next two days. Interesting convo, person who answered got a non-answer when she asked about same thing.
Gave up on trying to use the second monitor for dinign room machine. Wrote a note to be taped to it, had C remove it to computer part storage in basement.
Called PSEG, confirmed up to date.
Called RUFCU branch manager Heather, left message about making an appointment to come down with paperwork about accounts. FIND L8 FORM!!!!! (note: Can be downloaded from http://www.sussex.nj.us/documents/surrogate/itl8.pdf )
Called Bank America card to check that payment cleared. It did, next due March 1st (because the one I paid counted against the bill I got in January, that was due Feb 1st.) Doh. Called back cause I forgot to ask for the late fee to be removed, which they did. Only $27, but hey, every little bit counts.
Called back PSEG to ask to remove late fee. CSR claimed they don't charge late fees on residential accounts. o.O I never noticed.
Called Verizon, confirmed up to date, got late fees removed, and moved it all over into my name. (still need to fuss with setting up the account, but can't do that till it all finishes processing through the system, which apparently takes 48 hours wtf.) This was a relatively long call, with a very patient person named Michael, who figured out a way to go back and find something he had read to me at the start of changing things over, so that I could take notes and be sure to understand about pin and password adn hard reset and etc.
Made the appointment with the RUFCU person to deal with those accounts, after a bit of phone tag where each barely missed picking up the phone for the other.
Also, sometime after Noon, talked to R about the various containers needed, ref below.

After the long call to Verizon it was my 4pm pill time, so I ate some absolutely nummy veggie soup that R made. And then I lost all interest in continuing further, and so went back up to my room to do more pleasant activities. Which may end up being sleep.

I'll note that I went to bed almost immediately after going up to my room after dealing with DMV yesterday, so yeah, 12 freaking hours of sleep.

call tax assessor office 9a-3p Barbara 9087692906
Call mike the lawyer about the north bergen house deed.
Find out if I called Meryll Lynch about angus gone, come to me?

To Do SOON!

Cannot do until make payment! Waiting on Life Insurance. Call Mortgage, ask for late fee to be removed.
Fill out forms for 401k

To Do Later

Read in detail, and evaluate, life insurance mail from credit union BY JAN 25
read in detail, evaluate, car/home insurance offer from AAA
JANUARY 23rd: Call old trash service AGAIN adn make sure account is CANCELLED.
Get onto Otter's computer and look for the file he left me.
Deposit checks received (2017-12-22: 1 to date.)
Figure out what to do about cpap machines (company emailed back, saying donate or whatever) (in process)
Find out wtf to do about the argument with the insurance and the roof
DO NOT LOSE PRINTED FILLED OUT FORMS BEFORE DEATH CERT SHOWS UP!!!!!

Talk to R about:

~~Container for current month bills before they are paid.~~ R picked up a mail sorter thingie.
Container for medical records current year, bills and other
Container for paid bills, current year.
Container for record keeping, current year
Container for medical records specifically for past years.
Containers for record-keeping for past years, to hold paid bills and record keeping.
Container for tax info papers for current year
Container for tax info papers bundled by year for past years.
Container for my frustration and sanity.

Crossposts: https://khatru.livejournal.com/22847.html

I don't recall doing anything yesterday. I came downstairs cause I didn't want to sit alone in my room, but that's it.

Had brunch at Panera with C, who was my driver today.
Went to SocSec office and talked to someone, giving them information to fill in a form. I will be getting $255 lump sum payout as immediate death benefit, in a couple of weeks, direct deposit. He also filled out a form to go with the disability hearing that is pending, to hurry it up and to have everything decided at once; if I am declared disabled, I get socsec payments immediately. Otherwise, I have to wait 4 years.
Stopped by the Paindoc building and had C go up to the office and pick up the forms for handicapped parking placards.
Went to DMV with two titles in hand, and the form to fill out for the missing title we've given up on finding. Got distressed and flummoxed by the forms, looking for information I didn't have and didn't realize I needed. Gave up and went home.
Got C and R to get me the odometer readings adn VINs and such, which involved jump-starting one car that had run out its battery somehow. (Because with new cars, there is no dial, you have to have the car on to see the odometer. *headdesk*. Filled out ALL THE FORMS.
During this, had a small snack, cause it was pill time.
Went BACK to DMV and waited on line for a bit; someone came through checking forms and said I was ok, and that it was ok to sit on this chair near the front and leave C on line for me. Ended up having to go through the line twice: the first two titles were put into my name, and the new duplicate title was done, and the handicapped parking placards, for $189. And then I had to fill out the new title to put it into my name, for another $64.50. (4.50 to move the registrations along with them, on each car.)

I believe it was about an hour or so total, it just felt like forever. I'm fried, aching, and going to bed soon.

Find notes re: calling credit union branch manager directly about making an appointment to close/change accounts
Call Credit Union, make appointment for showing them stuff. FIND L8 FORM!!!!! fuck. (note: Can be downloaded from http://www.sussex.nj.us/documents/surrogate/itl8.pdf )
Find notes re: talking to various companies/entities about adjusting late fees etc wrt extensions.
Call PSEG, ask for late fee to be removed? Check what needs to happen to be considered up to date?
dammit, there was something else and it just fled my mind. Had to do with other things on those notes.

To Do SOON!

Cannot do until make payment! Waiting on Life Insurance. Call Mortgage, ask for late fee to be removed.
Fill out forms for 401k
Call number at town hall about making appt to talk to folks about putting house/bills in my name only. (look for business card. Catbag? DeathCertEnvelope?

To Do Later

Read in detail, and evaluate, life insurance mail from credit union BY JAN 25
read in detail, evaluate, car/home insurance offer from AAA
JANUARY 23rd: Call old trash service AGAIN adn make sure account is CANCELLED.
Get onto Otter's computer and look for the file he left me.
Deposit checks received (2017-12-22: 1 to date.)
Figure out what to do about cpap machines (company emailed back, saying donate or whatever) (in process)
Find out wtf to do about the argument with the insurance and the roof
DO NOT LOSE PRINTED FILLED OUT FORMS BEFORE DEATH CERT SHOWS UP!!!!!

~~Container for current month bills before they are paid.~~ R picked up a mail sorter thingie.
Container for medical records current year, bills and other
Container for paid bills, current year.
Container for record keeping, current year
Container for medical records specifically for past years.
Containers for record-keeping for past years, to hold paid bills and record keeping.
Container for tax info papers for current year
Container for tax info papers bundled by year for past years.
Container for my frustration and sanity.

Crossposts: https://khatru.livejournal.com/22713.html

I did nothing Saturday; woke up late, headache-adjacent. Had C put bengay on the aching parts, and a hotsock. (Similar to http://bedbuddy.net/ but not that brand.) After a few hours (after the bengay was soaked in and not a problem for adhesive) I had him put on a lidocaine patch. Neither of those helped significantly, but it's possible they kept it from being worse.

Woke up earlyish on Sunday, but instead of trying transdermal effects, took one of my hoarded Good Pain Meds. Got to the computer after a bit, poked around on WoW most of the day; ended up falling asleep ZONK in my chair at 6:45, while waiting for the folks who I play with to appear online at 7pm. *sigh* R woke me up for dinner at 7:40, I got on WoW, we played till 10:30 or so. Maybe later. I did wow things for a few hours more, and suddenly woke up, in my chair, covered iwth random pieces of clothing (apparently I was cold, but never woke up) at 7:45 am. Took meds, crawled into bed.

Woke up at 11:30 ish by C, checking if I wanted/needed anything. Asked for food, ate it, eventually decided that I didn't really want to do anything but I also didn't want to sit in my room alone. (which is what I did yesterday, never getting checked on till 4pm or so) Am downstairs.

Received email from life insurance! yay! No information on how much the payout is. An offer of having the money in an interest bearing account wiht the insurance company. No information on how much the interest is. I called the number for my consultant at 2pm, left a message. No response. The packet included a pamphlet about What Beneficiaries Need To Do After The Death Of A Loved One. The first chapter is "in the first two weeks". The second chapter is "weeks 3 and 4". the third chapter is "In hte next month." I'll note that Otter died on Dec 8, and the postmark on the envelope is January 10th. Fuck them.

Having agitated AGAIN for the kids to PLEASE look for the title of the car that was gotten in late November, more likely early December and thus on the day before Otter went into the hospital, I finally got some motion out of them. They found the envelope from the bank that held the car loan, with the old title (with the lien holder on it) and the various papers from the visit to DMV that acquired the new title and the handicapped placards for Otter. Unfortunately, the new title wasn't in it. Also, none of the receipts listed the date of the transaction. (wtf dmv?) So we STILL don't know, for sure, when it was done. *argh*

Aggravation, annoyance, and a chilly house. Wheee.

Crossposts: https://khatru.livejournal.com/22495.html

Yesterday, I

Ended up... at this point I can't recall if I was awake all night, or just woke up hella early. I think the former, because I was up and in WoW when C came up to make sure I was up.
Discussed with C the thought of leaving about an hour early for my doctorville visits and going to the bank Otter had accounts in to close them out, that's also the bank that has our mortgage.
Also took my morning pills despite not having food.
Went to the bank and was seen relatively immediately. However, it took on the order of 45 minutes for the Customer Service banker to research what needed to be done to a) turn a joint account into a solo account, and b) turn a solo account into an estate account. This involved filling out 2 L8 forms, one for each account. (Then why is there room for more things in the space to list items? o.O) We left with the first done, and the second waiting for me to get the estate tax number, leaving only 15 minutes to get to doctorville (which takes about 20).
Got to Doctorville not that late, which also didn't matter much as the first visit was to give blood to be analyzed for my endocrinologist visit on the 22nd, and wasn't time critical. The intake person was sympathetic to my dubious insurance status, and offered to simply bill it as if I was still under the same insurance..
(Right now, I realize that I *was* up all night, because I had been required to fast for the blood work, and so wanted to be awake to make sure I had food right up until I couldn't, so I wouldn't be cranky/whiny at the point where I was needing food.)
Was poked for blood which only hurt a little bit, and only needed one poke. yay! C had, indeed, recalled to have food available, and I got down the elevator to the next floor before I was overcome with FOOD NOW and sat in the hallway to wolf down the cheese and crackers.
Went to allergy office and registered there, completely surprised by them not asking for insurance info (which is usually asked for at every intake) or copay.
Talked to office assistant and accepted condolences; doctor, who gave the shot, and assured me that, while Doctorville did not take *new* patients with medicaid, they did accept it as 'changed circumstance' for established patients, and that he personally would be happy to see me to administer the shots without charge, as long as the shots were paid for by medicaid, which he expected would be.
Talked to office staff to make next appointment, where I was told they already had the next shot in hand, and would be happy to get "samples" from the company to use on me until insurance was settled.
Had lunch at the Doctorville Cafeteria while I waited the requisite time to ensure I wasn't having a negative reaction to the shot. (Yes, every time. It's weird that way.)
Acquired the estate tax number while at lunch, taking advantage of Doctorville's wifi and having the internet in my pocket.
Texted with R while at lunch regarding the fact that we'd run out of oil, again, what the oil company said about when they could get to us, and what we could do in the meantime.
Hit Doctorville's art for Ingress making it the appropriate color again. By this time, I was starting to feel achy, my tummy being more and more gassy, and generally unhappy.
Went back to bank to set up estate account. The person I'd worked with before was busy with a long task, so I was seen to by someone else, who had to research how to do what I was asking to be done, because apparently the change to the joint account wasn't being reflected in the system yet, she didn't realize my name was not the same as my husband's, she couldn't figure out how to convert the solo checking account to an estate account, and took a while to decided it would just be closed and an estate account opened, and then had problems doing that because, as I overheard her on the phone to her guide, the correct buttons weren't showing up when she was trying to create an account. This took over an hour, all told.
Decided not to go to the optician to get the one pair of glasses that have come in, despite the fact that it's the pair where they put the old lenses into a plastic frame to hold me over, and they've been making me crazy, and instead
Came home and went directly to bed, taking one of my higher end pain killers instead of my usual one, it now being pill time, and generally being in large amounts of pain and aggravation. Yes, the shots often make me feel out of sorts, and eventually (like, hours later) uncopeful, but I don't recall deep ache over most of my right side being a symptom before. Also, tummy was massively more unhappy, and I don't think I ate anything.

I ate a little bit of dinner when it happened (chinese delivery, roast pork w/snow peas, carrots, and ?bok choy? without any gravy) and went back to bed. Around midnight I had some toast to take my pills with, and a little later a microwaved potato with a pile of shred cheese, and then went to bed again. I woke up around 8am, to the alarm I've finally programmed on my phone, feeling still a little achy but much improved. I ate some food, had my pills, read a little bit of the latest(?) Liaden book, and am now downstairs as of around 11am to deal with the day.

Also, on the 10th, I called up att customer service and did a one-time payment by phone to make sure it was paid before the due date of the 11th for service cutoff. Interestingly enough, the letter I was sent said "pay by the 11th" and the phone service said "pay by the 10th".

So far today, I

Cleaned out the main teapot, and made tea
Opened all of the mail from the past two days, sorting into trash, shred, records, and bills.
Ignored a phone call, and then listened to the message, it being the paindoc's office saying the forms for DMV about the handicapped parking placards were ready to be picked up.
Ate the lovely lunch that R made for me.
Called the old trash company, and was put on hold.
While on hold, Addressed envelopes to send out the L8 forms from the bank yesterday, stuffed them, sealed and stamped, now waiting for being mailed.
While on hold, Sent email to Otter's company's HR person, regarding absence of communication from life insurance company or COBRA management company, asking if she can find out if they've sent me anything, or give me a contact more direct than hitting up the web.
After 35 minutes on hold, Talked to Adrian who gave me the final payment number, and told me that since there is a suspension of service due to being unable to pay, he could not actually cancel my account, and I will have to call back AGAIN to cancel the account after the payment is received and posted. *headdesk*
Called up oil company to see what arrangements could be made about paying other than having it automagically put on the credit card (which explains a lot about why the credit card is so loaded). Talked to Ruby, the credit manager. Put a reminder on my calendar to call in May about getting on the monthly budget plan, and to talk about getting on the price lock plan.
Sent email again to Otter's HR person: We had wanted to find out when we had maxed out our out-of-pocket expenses, and had needlessly continued paying copays, so that we could go have an argument with our healthcare providers regarding that money, and hopefully get it repurposed to cover any uncovered costs. Otter seemed to think he had to go through HR, and I asked if that was true, or if I got to wade through United Healthcare's phone tree to find the info.
Tried to look up on the web if the ingredients of Macuhealth interfered with Synthroid. Was only able to find those ingredients in combination with multivitamins, which is usually in combination with minerals, which do interfere with Synthroid, so was unable to conclude anything useful. Meh. (trying to figure out how to apportion out pills across the timeslots.)

Short day, but I'm done, as I'm dozing off again. Wheee. Stupid sleep cycles. I wanted to do stuff this evening.

Find notes re: calling credit union branch manager directly about making an appointment to close/change accounts
Call Credit Union, make appointment for showing them stuff. FIND L8 FORM!!!!! fuck. (note: Can be downloaded from http://www.sussex.nj.us/documents/surrogate/itl8.pdf )
Find notes re: talking to various companies/entities about adjusting late fees etc wrt extensions.
Call PSEG, ask for late fee to be removed? Check what needs to happen to be considered up to date?
dammit, there was something else and it just fled my mind. Had to do with other things on those notes.

To Do SOON!

Cannot do until make payment! Waiting on Life Insurance. Call Mortgage, ask for late fee to be removed.
Find the mazda car title. (R found the other two)
Fill out forms for 401k
Call number at town hall about making appt to talk to folks about putting house/bills in my name only. (look for business card. Catbag? DeathCertEnvelope?

To Do Later

Read in detail, and evaluate, life insurance mail from credit union BY JAN 25
read in detail, evaluate, car/home insurance offer from AAA
JANUARY 16th: Go to SocSec office and deal with death stuff.
JANUARY 23rd: Call old trash service AGAIN adn make sure account is CANCELLED.
Get onto Otter's computer and look for the file he left me.
Deposit checks received (2017-12-22: 1 to date.)
Figure out what to do about cpap machines (company emailed back, saying donate or whatever) (in process)
Find out wtf to do about the argument with the insurance and the roof
DO NOT LOSE PRINTED FILLED OUT FORMS BEFORE DEATH CERT SHOWS UP!!!!!

~~Container for current month bills before they are paid.~~ R picked up a mail sorter thingie.
Container for medical records current year, bills and other
Container for paid bills, current year.
Container for record keeping, current year
Container for medical records specifically for past years.
Containers for record-keeping for past years, to hold paid bills and record keeping.
Container for tax info papers for current year
Container for tax info papers bundled by year for past years.
Container for my frustration and sanity.

Crossposts: https://khatru.livejournal.com/21764.html

Jan 8 didn't happen. Every time I thought I was awake, I fell back asleep.

It's noon ish now. I've been awake since aout 5am, but I'm only now getting to the point of doing things.

Bleah.

Called paindoc and talked to some staff member, who said of course he'd be willing to fill out the dmv handicapped parking form. I didn't ask if she was sure, I hadn't even given my name, but I'm not going to argue.
Called Doctorville about getting anti-hive shot, appointment for Jan 11
Called Doctorville about lack of synthroid. Made appointment for bloodwork, and followup exam.
Realized that I was flailing, decided I was hungry, C offered to make me food. Ate it.
Printed out handicapped parking application (had R set up the printer, realized that attaching it to the dining room desktop involved crawling under the table, swapped to my laptop and printed it from there)
Filled it out which involved realizing that it wants the signature of the registered vehicles' owner, and determining that by the time I hand them that piece of paper, I will be the registered vehicles' owner....
Sent R off to drop it off at the doctor's office, which is what the staff person on the phone said to do.
Processed all currently unopened mail - some with intake undated, some from 12/23. Sorted into bills to pay, things to process wrt death, things to look at soon, things to laugh at, trash, shred.
Pulled out my ledgers from when I was paying bills regularly, created new pages and filled in current data.
Wrote out checks and put in envelopes for everything but the mortgage (last day the 15th), the Home Equity Loan (I have weird mail that I need to talk to them about) and the cellphone bill, which they sent me mail that I got today saying they'll shut it off if not paid by the 11th, so I need to talk to them tomorrow about paying that in person somewhere.

---

Call old trash company and cancel the account
Call Mortgage, ask for late fee to be removed.
Call PSEG, ask for late fee to be removed? Check what needs to happen to be considered up to date?
Call ATT, tell them check in mail today, or where can I walk in and pay? No online, thank you.
Call Credit Union, make appointment for showing them stuff. FIND L8 FORM!!!!! fuck. (note: Can be downloaded from http://www.sussex.nj.us/documents/surrogate/itl8.pdf )

To Do SOON!

Find the mazda car title. (R found the other two)
call oil company about account and payments etc.
Fill out forms for 401k
Call number at town hall about making appt to talk to folks about putting house/bills in my name only. (look for business card. Catbag? DeathCertEnvelope?

To Do Later

Read in detail, and evaluate, life insurance mail from credit union BY JAN 25
reqad in deatual, evaluate, car/home insurance offer from AAA
JANUARY 16th: Go to SocSec office and deal with death stuff.
Get onto Otter's computer and look for the file he left me.
Deposit checks received (2017-12-22: 1 to date.)
Figure out what to do about cpap machines (company emailed back, saying donate or whatever) (in process)
Find out wtf to do about the argument with the insurance and the roof
DO NOT LOSE PRINTED FILLED OUT FORMS BEFORE DEATH CERT SHOWS UP!!!!!

~~Container for current month bills before they are paid.~~ R picked up a mail sorter thingie.
Container for medical records current year, bills and other
Container for paid bills, current year.
Container for record keeping, current year
Container for medical records specifically for past years.
Containers for record-keeping for past years, to hold paid bills and record keeping.
Container for tax info papers for current year
Container for tax info papers bundled by year for past years.
Container for my frustration and sanity.

Crossposts: https://khatru.livejournal.com/21538.html

Today, I:

Laid in bed for 5 hours, during which I did not sleep overnight. I expect this is due to having woken up around 8pm yesterday after taking migraine meds and letting my body be unhappy.
Received a phone call from the doctor's office where I had a 10:30 am appointment to get my anti-hive shot. Apparently, they had not received the medication from the specialty pharmacy, and thus we need to reschedule. They gave me the number of the specialty pharmacy so I could kick them
Got dressed and got downstairs about the time I would have if we were going out to the doctor.
Called the Surrogate's office for the county Otter died in (which more than one person had said was where I needed to go), to find out where it was, and also to ask about the fact that the DMV website said that, to transfer the title, it needed stuff from the county he lived in. Turns out 'county he lived in' was correct. They gave me the number to call them.
Called the Surrogate's Office for the county we live in, got directions, and was told I didn't need to bring any proof of what he had, or any papers like that, they'd figure out everything there.
Went out with C to have breakfast at the diner, as it was on the way to the county admin building.
Stopped at the eyeglass place for C's glasses, as it was also on the way. His were ready, mine were not. (unsurprising, both.)
Got to the County Admin Building and walked from where the car was parked through the long hallway and into the Surrogate's Office section in mostly one fell swoop. A slow swoop, but a swoop nonetheless.
Waited for a while, and then talked to the assistant surrogate or something the like, and found that while they were not going to question me about the value of anything, they really did want the checking account numbers and the VIN of the cars. She was willing to type it all up and leave 'currently unfindable' in place of the info we didn't have. I poked my phone onto Kelly Blue Book website to get the values of the cars, which she persistently lowballed. I received "Affidavits of Surviving Spouse", which apparently stands in for Surrogate's Certificates when the estate is worth less than $50,000. Yay, we're poor?
Got directions, and went to DMV to retitle the cars, it being almost 30 days since Otter died, and that's what the DMV website tells me is the grace period for this. As it turns out, if I don't produce the titles, I can't just create titles in my own name with their database info and the relevant paperwork. I must *first* ask for copies of the titles as they currently exist, at the cost of $60 per title, and THEN I can ask for the titles to be changed over to my name, at the cost of $60 per title, with the registration carrying over for $4.50. We have three cars.
Noped the fuck right out of that and came home.

Partly due to pain, partly due to 'i am not paying nearly 400 dollars to do this', and with the gentle words from the nice police officer who had drawn duty that day in Somerville's DMV office, who told me that as long as I don't do Bad Things (tm) (like commit crimes, or do things that might cause people to try to find the owner, or try to register the cars again in the decedent's name) that I won't be hassled over it.

Oh, and I also called the pharmacy to find out why I hadn't gotten my synthroid refilled along with everything else. Apparently I'm out of refills.

To Do

- Call paindoc again re willing to fill out handicapped parking forms.
- Call allergy doc about resched shot.
- Call old trash company and cancel the account
- Call endocrinologist about getting more synthroid
- PAY BILLS
- Find the mazda car title. (R found the other two)
- call oil company about account and payments etc.
- Fill out forms for 401k
- Call number at town hall about making appt to talk to folks about putting house/bills in my name only. (look for business card. Catbag? DeathCertEnvelope?
JANUARY 16th: Go to SocSec office and deal with death stuff.
Depending on paindoc answer, DL handicapped parking forms from DMV and get him to fill out, if he's ok with it.
Get onto Otter's computer and look for the file he left me.
Deposit checks received (2017-12-22: 1 to date.)
Figure out what to do about cpap machines (company emailed back, saying donate or whatever) (in process)
Find out wtf to do about the argument with the insurance and the roof
DO NOT LOSE PRINTED FILLED OUT FORMS BEFORE DEATH CERT SHOWS UP!!!!!

Things I need:
Container for current month bills before they are paid.
Container for medical records current year, bills and other
Container for paid bills, current year.
Container for record keeping, current year
Container for medical records specifically for past years.
Containers for record-keeping for past years, to hold paid bills and record keeping.
Container for tax info papers for current year
Container for tax info papers bundled by year for past years.
Container for my frustration and sanity.

Crossposts: https://khatru.livejournal.com/21365.html

Ok, back to work

Opened today's mail which was a bank statement (Yay, info for an account I didn't have info for! Money exists!) and an invoice for the furnace service last monday (nothing owed, yay) and found a few more sympathy cards (thankyou)
Called Lawyer again about what to do for next steps. Left message. Sent email.
Called paindoc re whether he'd be willing to sign off on handicapped parking forms. (Then DL from DMV and get him to fill out, if he's ok with it.)
Called town hall Of COURSE sewer is late. $155.32 to bring it current. Can pay next week. Also, bring death cert, talk to Tax Assessor's office, get stuff in my name. (maybe wait till after mortgage killed off?)
Talked to kids about getting a tree, and other shopping things via the BJs coupon book that arrived ?yesterday?
Called Mortgage. Set into motion getting my name on their paperwork (i wasn't listed on the loan cause last time we refi'ed I wasn't working), set into motion info about death, got info on where to send things ("ATTN: Deceased Processing Team" -- sounds like they do post mortems :D ), penalties will be waived when they happen, and I should ask for payout amount when I'm actually going to do it.
Looked up what is needed to declare someone dead to Social Security. Can't do it online, has to be in person or on phone.
Called up Social Security and got put on the line for holding: 1 hour, 30 minute wait, as of 3:40 pm. I didn't believe they would call back, and I had no more calls I could do today, so I put my phone on an external battery and waited.
Filled out 529 form while waiting on hold.
Read instructions about filling out 401k beneficiary payout form.
Sent email to cpa re taking some cash when I rollover Otter's 401k acct
Sent email to HR person asking if Otter owned any stocks (I know he had some in previous incarnations of the company, just don't know about current.)
Opened other old mail, finding direct deposit pay stubs and a couple of old bills
Took delivery of paid-for meds from drugstore.
Added needed meds to pill pod, got C to put the rest away
Pulled out eye supplements from my bag and added t hem to today's pill pod, had C put the rest away.
Call picked up finally at 5:15 pm. I didn't get the guys' name, unfortunately, I was so astonished at not being dropped. I gave him all the info he asked for, and the death had not been reported yet, so he put all the info in and set me up with an appointment to present all the various forms in person on January 16 (boo, so far ahead) in nearby Union. Maybe this won't suck too much.
Called the cpap machine place at 5:30 pm, only to get the emergency-after-hours. Since it isn't an emergency, used the contact form on their website to ask what to do with the cpap stuff.
called friend who offered to visit next week to help do re what she would do, left message
Called oil company, they're closed too. Giving up on phone calls till Tuesday.

To Do On Tuesday Dec 26:

Call paindoc again
Call lawyer again. Try for morning.
Call Oil Company.
Call old trash company and cancel the account

Things Still To Do

DECEMBER 27th: Go to town hall, pay sewer bill, bring death cert, talk to folks at (phone number on note page) about putting house/bills in my name only.
JANUARY 16th: Go to SocSec office and deal with death stuff.
~~Call paindoc re whether he'd be willing to sign off on handicapped parking forms.~~ (Then DL from DMV and get him to fill out, if he's ok with it.)
Get onto upstairs computer and finish linking paypal
Get onto Otter's computer and look for the file he left me.
Deposit checks received (2017-12-22: 1 to date.)
Find the lights I bought last month (two small boxes taped together before mailing) (C remembers seeing them, but didn't find them in the fast look he was willing to give before going back to playing Hearthstone for hours)
Decorate tree
Figure out what to do about cpap machines (in process)
Find out wtf to do about the argument with the insurance and the roof
call oil company about account and payments etc.
Fill out forms for 401k
DO NOT LOSE PRINTED FILLED OUT FORMS BEFORE DEATH CERT SHOWS UP!!!!!