Today is Sunday, May 15 and there are only 224 days until Christmas so get started on those cards and Christmas letters. You don’t want to wait until the last minute.  Today we remember the birthdays of Claudio Giovanni Antonio Monteverdi, Francisco Pujol and Jean Balissat.  On this day in 1602 Cape Cod was discovered by English navigator Bartholomew Gosnold, in 1905 Las Vegas, Nevada was founded and in 1940 nylon stockings went on sale for the first time.  In Austria it is Independence Day, in the US it is I am an American Day and it is also National Chocolate Chip Day.

I don’t have much to discuss this week.  I have been working on getting paperwork taken care of and dealing with the myriad issues of settling Elaine’s affairs.  I am amazed at the amount of paper required to get this done.  Keep in mind that the lovely Elaine did not have a large number of stocks and bonds that need to be dealt with.  She did not have intricate financial accounts that require lawyers and accountants to get them settled.  We are talking about an 11 year old car, a small IRA that was originally her mother’s and a small insurance policy.  Because the car and the IRA were only in her name, the court has to get involved.  This will, of course, drag things on for quite some time.

Getting the insurance settled and updating our bank accounts is another story.  The insurance company sent me the forms to complete so that they can settle the claim.  I think it will cost them more than the policy is worth to get this done.  I spent close to 15 minutes on the phone talking to an agent just to get the whole thing going.  They sent me a packet of paperwork to be completed that was big enough to require extra postage.  They included a postage paid envelope to return it.  Once they receive it, someone on their end will have to slog through the information to process the claim.  And then they will have to issue the check.  Based on the size of the policy, I would have thought they could have done the whole thing by phone.

The banks are also interesting.  For reasons not worth going into here, we have funds in a couple institutions.  Both banks are located in the same state, so one would think they are governed by the same regulations.  Apparently, one would be wrong.  Because of my background working in banks and a credit union, I had a general idea of what to expect.  I also had the benefit of the lovely Elaine’s experiences dealing with her parents’ affairs.  It seems that neither bank is aware of what some of the regulations are, nor are they aware of what they required as recently as last year when dealing with deceased accounts.

There is nothing more disturbing than to go into a bank, explain why you are there and then have them present you with the wrong paperwork to fill out.  One would think that they would have a standard procedure set up so that it is always done the same way.  Again, one would be wrong.  I reviewed the packet given to me in the one bank and was assured by the less than impressive person that everything was there.  “Alls you have ta do is sign where I marked and it’s done.”

I asked her if this was the first time she had handled this type of thing.  She assured me that it was not.  I suggested that she review the forms before we proceeded.  She gave me one of those big sighs to show how ridiculous I was being, but she quickly scanned them and then pushed them back to me telling me they were fine.  I asked if I could speak to a manager.  That got me a glare, but at that point she was happy to be rid of me.  The manager and she spoke and then I was invited to his desk.  I sat there while he made a show of reading the forms and then he said, “Everything appears to be in order.  All you have to do is sign where it is marked and it will be taken care of.”

Incredulously I said, “Are you serious?”  He assured me that he was.  At this point I showed him that they were using the wrong forms, based on the type of account I had.  I also pointed out that the spots marked were where the manager was supposed to sign, not the customer.  He became very apologetic and got the correct forms.  We finally got everything done, but it remains to be seen if it was all done properly.  His excuse for the confusion was that they don’t get a lot of “this type of thing.”  I will probably be looking to switch banks once this is all settled.

This week our fact tells us that according to Genesis 1:20-22, the chicken came before the egg.  Finally that is settled.  Now if we can just get the tree falling in the woods thing worked out, we will be in great shape.

Since this is the official day – I am an American! And proud of it.