This is the day

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Reminder alert!

God is in control.  The beginning of the day is the first opportunity to agree!

“This is the day the Lord has made.  I will rejoice and be glad in it.”

A simple start.

Some exercise does pay off

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Yesterday we unloaded furniture and filled an apartment with boxes.

In the midst of all this, I have to think back less than five years.  At that point, my knees were in bad shape.  I was about to have total knee replacement surgery.  I could barely walk around the block.

The surgery was successful.   The legs were no longer bow-legged.  Nor was there the constant pain of arthritis.

The one catch?  Keep on exercising or you will lose the mobility.  So, I have kept on exercising.  I try each day to spend 20 minutes on a stationary bike.  I enjoy fun times with children and youth.  As I come to the end of the day I am thankful for all I have been able to do.

And so, yesterday, I was in and out of the trailer.  I was not winded, nor is my body feeling overly tired today.  Of course, I used a wheeler and made sure I took trips back and forth with a judicious amount of weight – nothing too heavy. 

Some common sense along with continued exercise meant yesterday was enjoyable! 

Does it all fit?

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Here we stand, getting ready to pack the trailer!  A quick overview of a one bedroom apartment and we all think we can make it fit.  We have packed other trailers before.  But we have underestimated!  And so the afternoon of packing takes a bit longer that we thought.  In the end we find a way and we are ready to head out the following day.

As much as we try to get rid of stuff, more stuff appears.  That’s what I see in the basement of my house.  I have more boxes to go down.  Boxes of music and other paraphernalia from Jill. 

It all adds up.  Until the adding machine stops.  And I realize that something has to go.  We realize that subtraction is what we need to do.  Things have multiplied way too much and now it’s time to take stock and restock.

I’ve had to do that type of evaluation.  I’m expecting a new boarder in a few weeks.  My basement suite has a few things (toys and winter clothes and baby play pen) that can either stay in the suite, or be moved to make more room.  Saturday is my take stock day.  We’ll see what I come up with.  Hopefully I won’t add anything more before then!

Complex and complicated

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As an executor of an estate, you get caught in the machinery.  As you  begin to seek out change of status, or even such a simple thing as getting cell phone funds transferred, you encounter the chicken and the egg!

You need a death certificate – a funeral director’s certificate usually works, but not always.  In which case the wait to process the certificate can take 6 weeks.  Then you need verification that you are the executor.  A will can provide that, but do you want to expose a cell phone carrier to all the intricacies of a will which have nothing to do with them.  So you seek out other forms of verification. 

You end up tripping over what was done last and what needs to be done, and which should come first, and what can wait, and . . .

Now, the banks are getting into more complicated processes.   A few years ago I opened an estate account for my father.  All I needed to do to get money out was write a check.  At the end of the year I completed a tax form to verify any income.  And I kept my family/beneficiaries informed.

Just this past week I needed to open an estate account for probably the one check that needed to be processed for Jill’s estate.  As I set up the account I was told the bank had changed policies.  Before I can take money out of the estate account I have to submit bills and have the expenditure approved by the bank.

They are covering themselves – Revenue Canada is being much more diligent in overseeing expenditures in estate accounts.  Having said that, I wondered how it has come about that the work of an executor is now being taken over by a bank!!

Oh the mysteries of being an executor in today’s distrustful society!!