Hell Month™
I was very lazy over the July 4th holiday, since I knew I needed to save my strength for what I have deemed Hell Month™. This weekend, I shall embark on a miserable journey to (hopefully) complete several outstanding issues with my parents’ estate.
July 9-16 - I’m headed to the sunshine state to clean out my parents’ condo and get it on the market. And sell their car. And sell their fishing boat. And get a small estate affidavit from the county court for the life insurance policy my dad never updated. All while working my regular job because I’m running out of PTO! (Do you need a fishing boat? Hit me up.)
July 17-19 - I’m traveling to Chicago for a big work meetup, which is exactly what I had in mind when I elected to remain a remote employee after the initial phases of the pandemic. Psyched to put on the work clothes I no longer own and pretend like I’m excited to see people.*
July 20-30 - I’m hanging out in Wisconsin with my sister to prep for my dad’s memorial, which will take place on the 29th. Don’t I want to honor my dad’s legacy? Of course—but that doesn’t make it any less stressful. Plus, I’m going to have to hug so many strangers. Ugh.
Farewell, my comfortable bed, my lovely little house, my cozy routines. I’ll return to you one day.
I’ll keep you updated about how all that goes. At some point I intend to create a new section for the site about selling your dead parents’ property—houses, cars, etc. Sure, there’s plenty of real estate advice out there, but it’s different when it’s a house that was dropped in your lap in the worst possible way and you may or may not have enough money to keep paying the mortgage.
In the meantime, I did make some small updates to the life insurance section. It seems these insurance companies are unaware that siblings exist. My dad had two annuity policies that my sister and I both submitted claims for—on the advice of my dad’s agent—and both times the companies started paying me, but not my sister. Fortunately it only took a phone call to resolve the issue—but it’s weird, right? People with multiple children die a lot. You’d think they would have this down to a science.
Wish me luck on my travels. I strongly suspect I’ll need it.
*I am genuinely psyched to see approximately 6 people.