Day 185, FOPAL, furniture, volunteer dinner

Wednesday 6/5/2019

Went for a run. It seemed a little harder than usual, possibly because, for the first time this year, the air was already warm at 9am. About 11:30 I went down to FOPAL for the usual Wednesday sorting session.

Back home I found an email from Katie the tax accountant, giving a list of the documents they will need to proceed with the estate tax filing, the infamous Form 706. It looks like an hour or more finding documents. I decided to defer that to Friday.

Also in my in-box: email from IKEA giving the delivery time for my bed and mattress: sometime between 9am and 9pm Friday. That led me to refresh the page tracking the order of my remaining furniture items. Back in April I went to West Elm and ordered a bunch of things (Day 137). A couple of items I took home that day as flat packs; they are now in the big pile in the dining room. A couple more arrived last week. Two other items were delayed. Now, refreshing the tracking page, I see that the last of them has arrived at the local warehouse.

Let’s see, I had a piece of paper documenting my last conversation with the West Elm deliver center, where did I put it? Panic, panic. Not in any penda-flex. Oh, there’s a banker’s box where I put all the stuff from the top of the desk. Hah! inside it, along with pictures and desk items, is the piece of paper with the receipt and phone number.

So I call the delivery center and the nice person sets me up for delivery on Monday. That will complete my furniture; everything will be here by Monday night, ready for the movers to take to CH on Saturday. Wow.

On the day I move I will need to unbox and assemble: a bed, a settee, a table, two chairs, an arm chair, and a desk. The bed is the only essential one, but I arranged with Angela to schedule a Channing House Facilities Person to assist me for three hours, 2-5pm that day. She is supposed to get back to me if that won’t be possible, owing to it being a weekend, in which case I will have to hire a gig worker, probably from TaskRabbit.com, the outfit that IKEA suggests for assembly work.

At 4:40 I headed out, to the Museum for the annual Volunteer Appreciation Dinner. A pretty low-key event, 50 or so gray-haired folks getting thanked by the Museum staff, free dinner and drinks. Some interesting news was mentioned by both Len Shustek (the board member and major donor, whose name is on the Shustek Center in Fremont where I spend alternate Thursdays), and by Dan’l Lewis, the CEO. When 20 years ago the Museum was able to buy its present building from the bankrupt Silicon Graphics (wow, has it been that long since SGI went under?), the $25M purchase included not just the big white building at Shoreline and 101, but 17.5 acres of land surrounding it. Most of that acreage is asphalt parking lots. Meanwhile Google has been buying up all the surrounding land, with future plans for a huge development, thousands of homes and retail.

Len reviewed some of the other computer museums, and talked about how difficult it was to create a museum that would last. The excellent Living Computer Museum in Seattle had only one major donor, Paul Allen, who died last year. Now its funding is in doubt. One I’d never heard of, the American Computer and Robotics Museum in (of all places) Bozeman, MT, is struggling. It was the work of a married couple, and now the husband has died and the widow is trying to carry on. So with these examples in mind, the Museum board is considering what they might do with some of their parking lots, possibly developing part of the space in a way that would increase the Museum’s endowment substantially and help ensure its longevity.

Day 170, FOPAL

Cannabis report: The Kiva gummies are fairly large. It occurred to me when I took two at 9:15, that a gummy, which largely dissolves in the mouth as you chew it, should be processed a little faster than a soft-gel or a chocolate. However, I felt no effects at all in the following hour.

Did the 12mg CBD/3.6mg THC dose affect my sleep? Possibly! I only woke up enough to check my watch one time (12:45), as opposed to 2-3 times in a typical night. I slept soundly from then to 6:10am. Now, how can I get a clearer picture of the situation? Should I not take any tonight? Unfortunately, sleep quality is so subjective that the placebo effect, or its inverse, is inescapable. The only way to be sure would be to have identical-looking gummies and have someone randomize them for me.

I think I’ll just continue with the third preparation I bought, the Kiva chocolate which has 5mg/5mg. That’s 40% more THC. Possibly will edge the THC level to where I’ll feel a buzz? But half the CBD.

Tuesday, 5/21/2019

Sent off an email to the advisors, saying I want to move on the infamous Form 706, estate tax portability. Walked to the YMCA through light rain showers, and back.

Since tomorrow has several things happening, I decided to do my FOPAL work today. I found 6 boxes of computer books waiting. After culling and pricing I shelved maybe 40 books, and sent four boxes to the bargain room. Then I did an hour and a half of sorting.

Bought a few grocery staples, then went home via the hardware store where I bought two, combination smoke and CO detectors, with voice alarms. A tinny little voice, based on what I hear pressing the Test button, but certainly if this voice starts squawking at you about smoke in the middle of the night, you’ll wake up. Tomorrow I should find time to mount them.

Tonight is a presentation of 42nd Street in the CH auditorium. There’s a resident, Robert, who is a film buff and organizes series of films. This is the first of an American Musical series. I had supper, and in the supper line was greeted by a couple of women as “the new man”. OK… Unfortunately the film didn’t really hold my interest. I left after about 40 minutes of it.

Day 162, Documents, FOPAL, realty

Monday, 5/13/2019

Watered the plants, then went for a run. On return I opened the big envelope of documents from the Lawyer, and brought the

fireproof box

out to the table.

The fireproof box was a purchase of a decade ago, when we were separating ourselves from Wells Fargo. This was actually before Wells Fargo got in so much public scandal; they just did a few things that annoyed us, and we moved our money to SFCU. That has worked out very well, the local Credit Union gives excellent service, and their web interface is very usable. But besides our money account at WFB we also had a safety deposit box. What to do with the birth certificates, car pink slips, etc. from there?

Turns out, you can buy a heavy box that will resist a house fire for 40 minutes or more. It probably couldn’t survive the kind of ashes-to-the-foundation fire we’ve seen in the major California wildfires, but it could stand up a typical single house fire where the fire department can give it its full attention. (It should certainly survive any kind of fire that might start at CH, a cement building with sprinklers.) We got one and gave up the WFB box.

The main tenant in the box is the Brown Binder, the binder of estate documents: the Trust, the Living Will, Power of Attorney, Burial instructions — basically, everything my successor Trustee needs to take care of me if I’m completely incapacitated, or to wind things up after I’m dead. Previously, these were all about Marian and me as a couple, with each of us naming the other as heir, conservator, etc. Now they have all been redone simpler to handle just my affairs as Survivor Trustee.

I went through the Brown Binder and replaced all the old docs with new ones. There were a couple of informal docs I write. One is the Document Locator, which explains all the others as well as listing things like credit cards and bank accounts and so on — key facts the Successor Trustee needs. Another is my Digital Directive, listing all the online accounts and passwords to be shut down. Both were much out of date and I spent an hour editing them and printing them and putting them in the binder.

Finally I went through all the contents of the box, moved a couple of things out; Marian’s birth certificate for example went to the Marian History folder elsewhere. And put it all away with a sense of accomplishment. I also paid the

utility bill

but was brought up short when looking at it, because there was a $36 balance still due, and a $0.70 late fee. What? Simple explanation: the prior bill was for $284, but when entering it in the bill-pay app, I apparently keyed in $248. Hmmph.

Anyway, off for FOPAL, where I spent two hours culling the Computer shelf. Sent books that had been there three or more months to the bargain room; lowered the price on some that had been there two months; moved some sub-sections around. Then went to help with sorting as a flood of donations were coming in the door. I could only do an hour because I got a text from

Chuck.

We were to meet at 4, but he asked if I could come earlier. Sure, no prob. I drove over to his office near California avenue. He had some news from the two showings yesterday but nothing firm yet. The Canadian Lawyer lady has been shopping, it seems, since 2016, and greatly regrets having missed out on some small cottage on Webster street nearby. Chuck knew that house and said mine is much better. Also the C.L.L. had brought her daughter and also a friend who is a decorator. This decorator friend, Chuck says, went on at length about how handsome the house is. She was still verbally pointing out its highlights when the next party arrived at 5:30, and Chuck says he was delighted because “she couldn’t have given a better sales pitch” for that party.

The second party is a single woman, 30-something Chuck estimated, who works at Apple. She came with her realtor and her mother, who is apparently ready to finance, or help finance, a purchase. They also went on at length about how charming the house is.

So the odds seem good that we should get an offer or even two this week.

I also talked to him about the IRS Form 706 that the Lawyer and the Advisors want me to file. The point of it is to preserve half of Marian’s Estate Tax Exemption so I, or more properly my heirs, can use it to shelter more of my estate. The tax accountants have quoted $3500 to prepare this form and I kind of choked on it. But with Chuck we penciled some numbers, trying to forecast what my estate will be if I live another 20 years. Would it be big enough to exceed my own exemption? Yeah, under some assumptions, as much as a third of it could be exposed to Estate Tax, which would represent a considerable tax bite on the final value of the Trust.

Home for a very casual supper (I’m getting pretty lazy about feeding myself) and some TV.

Day 157, will signed, FOPAL

Wednesday, 5/8/2019

Went for a run. The sat down to do a couple of things. Changed my address with my health insurance. Then checked something because I woke up fussed about it at 4:30am. I’m developing this bad pattern of waking up around 4am and, even though I get up and pee, I don’t go back to sleep but instead fuss and fret about something. Today it was wondering if I had the documentation I needed in order to set up my T-Mobile micro-cell at CH. What?

I’ve been using T-Mobile phone service for years, but the service was always feeble around our house, two bars and sometimes only one. Last year I heard you could do this, and I went to the T-Mobile office and said, I want one of these things. They said, “sure” and gave me a box. It’s a box that acts as a local cell tower, using your internet. Once I installed it, I had four solid bars all around the house and out to the sidewalk.

But at 4am I was all fussed because I couldn’t remember how I set it up. How did it know the local wi-fi? Did I hook a laptop to it? I didn’t remember doing that. Shut up and go to sleep! So now at 11am I just go directly to the pend-a-flex folder where I stored the user manual for the device and look, and it’s a wired connection. It needs to plug in a cable to your router or modem or whatever. That’s why I didn’t remember connecting it to the wi-fi; because I didn’t have to. Just hook up its cable and that’s it.

Will that work at CH? Probably, but I will let that wait until I get there, get moved in, and can call on the local tech committee.

Next I emailed neighbors Thane and Gloria. I didn’t mention, on Monday, day 155, I had walked across the street and asked Thane if they would witness me signing my new will. (I did mention the new will on day 150.) Monday Thane said Gloria was away, but would be back Tuesday night. So now, Wednesday morning, I emailed to ask when would be convenient for this. Instead of replying, the two of them showed up at the door ten minutes later.

We chatted for a while; I told them about progress in selling the house; I signed the will and they signed as witnesses; and they left.

I put the will into the Lawyer’s prepaid envelope and took it to the actual post office to mail it. Then I continued on down to FOPAL and spent four hours sorting. It’s the days just before the biweekly sale and the sorting room is overflowing with books.

Then I bought some groceries, spending about twice what I spent the last two times. The reason is I bought a bottle of wine, a wedge of Brie, and some crackers. Why? Because on Monday, when Chuck texted that the potential buyer wanted to come back with her daughter and a friend (that hasn’t been scheduled yet; hope she hasn’t changed her mind), I texted back “great, I’ll set out cheese and crackers and wine” and a smiley-face emoji. Humor. Or not? Because Chuck texted back, “great idea”. Well… ok… So I bought some wine and cheese and crackers. Along with a pound of coffee. And my grocery supplies: a rotisserie chicken, which will supply meat for several meals, and some fruit, and a loaf of bread.

Got home at 5 planning to sit and chill. But looked at my email.

One, the invoice for taxes from the tax accountant. OK, print invoice and put on desk, will handle it tomorrow.

Two, quote from Angela at CH on my upgraded closet doors. I must sign and give back before she can order, with a 2-3 week lead-time. Print and set aside to take to CH… when?

Three, email from health insurance, two EOBs. I print them to file in the medical expense folder.

Four, email from Angela, the stainless steel sink I’m paying extra for, she only just noticed, is “tiny” at 14 inches wide. Is that ok? If not, she can look into alternatives. Why is this now an issue? I can’t get over there to look before tomorrow night. What size is the not-extra-cost sink?

Now it’s 5:30. Enjoying your time of chilling? Said “bleep it” and drove to CH to hand in the signed quote for closet doors, and to measure the existing sink. Came home and wrote to Angela about that.

I could have stayed over there to eat, but came home for a chicken leg, orange, and protein shake instead.

Day 152, shopping, fitness, paperwork

Friday, 5/3/2019

First thing, I called Angela’s number at CH and to my surprise, got her live. Arranged for her to leave the upgrade estimates at the desk for me to sign. Then went on a a run. Then headed out on a shopping expedition.

First stop was Stanford Federal Credit Union. Back story: in April I used the SFCU website bill-pay system to pay a medical bill, $504 to Palo Alto Medical Foundation. Early in May I got a note in the PAMF messaging system asking if I’d please pay my $504 bill. So I replied that I had, $504 on 4/9. They replied, we don’t see it, but send us some proof, email to blah blah include account number, etc., and we’ll try to find it. Grump grump grump, off I go to SFCU. Nice guy opens up the account and prints off a couple pages showing indeed, $504 went out from my account to PAMF’s account on 4/9.

So later in the day I scan this and start to append it to an email to the given address when I have a thought. The SFCU bill-pay app was set up by Marian, with a menu of known recipients; for each one, an account number etc. Looking at the summary of recent payments I see that in fact that payment of 4/9 went to the recipient named “PAMF-M”.

Uh-oh.

Yup, in the menu of recipients is another named “PAMF-D”. Looking at the details, the one I paid to had Marian’s PAMF account number, not my PAMF account number.

So that led to a considerable change in the tone and content of the email to Sutter Health billing department. From “Look how wrong you are,” to “Can you straighten out my stupid goof?”

From SFCU I drove to Wegman’s Nursery, and then more or less on a whim, to another nursery on Ralston Ave. in Belmont. Neither had anything like hanging plant post I need.

Now on to Stanford shopping center, Macy’s Men’s store. I had various clothes that need upgrading or replacing. One, my Jockey shorts are wearing out, not surprising they’d have holes being at least ten years old. Easy enough to buy a dozen of those. Two, I need a couple of pairs of jeans. I tried on a bunch and finally didn’t choose any. I did confirm that despite having lost over 10 pounds in the past year, my correct size is still 36W30L exactly as it has been for ever. But I couldn’t find the right combination of color and fit, and decided to go home, check what I had, and order exact replacements online.

Three, polo shirts. My standard summer shirt is a Lands End Supima cotton polo. Sadly Land’s End isn’t selling the one of their colors that I like and looks good on me, a deep brown. Maybe I could find a nice polo shirt at Macy’s? I looked at a bunch and didn’t like any. Not even actual Polo ones, the kind with a little polo player embroidered on them. Or the ones with an alligator. No good colors and all felt crude to the hand. Back to the internet.

So I zipped home with my bundle of tighty-whiteys and quickly changed to shorts and a t-shirt and drove back to CH for my Fitness Evaluation with Clark. Clark (his last name is not Kent, despite his definite mild manner) had me do six or seven things while he timed me. How many times can I stand up and sit down again in 30 seconds, and so on. He promises in a few days a consultation and a fitness program.

Signed Angela’s forms so work can start on my unit, then back home again to start the laundry, send that email to PAMF Billing, order the wax plant poles from Amazon, order two pairs of jeans from Levi’s, order one black and one dark gray polo from Land’s End. Also waiting at home, the statement for my next six month’s of car insurance. I note that I am protected at $1M for bodily injury, but $100K for property damage. Catherine the insurance agent had suggested upping it to $1M for property damage also, but on consideration, I don’t see it. I wrote to her saying I would leave it as-is.

Throughout the day I’d been hoping for a call-back from Poppy, the tour organizer at CHM, and it never came. That’s very disappointing and I am going to take myself off that tour… done.

At 7:30 there is a concert at Dinkelspiel I want to attend. Time for a quick supper and a nap first.

Day 150, documents and delays

Wednesday, 5/1/2019

Started with a run. Then killed time, basically, until noon. Well, I did do the a few remaining change-of-address entries online. After all, it’s only a couple of weeks now to move-in. (Hah! see below!) Then ran out to get the antibiotics that I ordered at the pharmacy back on day 142, and then forgot about.

At 1pm I drove up to San Mateo, an office park just off highway 92 and 101, to meet with my

lawyer.

She was recommended several years ago by the financial advisor to handle routine paperwork, but that time we only corresponded by email and real mail. This time we met so she could notarize everything I needed to sign: a revised family trust, a new durable power of attorney, new living will, and a number of other documents needed to document to the State of California and the County of Santa Clara that I was now the sole trustee owning this property.

She also advised having my tax persons file a form 760 or 706 or something so that I could continue to claim Marian’s half of the estate tax exclusion. I don’t know. I guess.

Also I have a new will, which I need to sign in the presence of two witnesses. Unfortunately she couldn’t procure a second witness from the rent-an-office space, so I had to take the will home and need to get two witnesses together to sign saying they saw me sign it.

Chuck called to say that the forms I gave him are unreadable. Wut? Also, that

Nancy, the divorcee

that he mentioned in passing a few weeks ago, was the person to whom he showed the house yesterday, and she liked it, and did not audibly snicker when he said “three million”. However, her financial situation isn’t clear. The divorce court has ordered that her house — not many blocks from mine, it would appear — must be sold as part of the settlement. However, Chuck thinks she and her ex have inflated ideas of its value, so it may take some time to sell. In the meantime, would I be interested in “carrying back” some part of the purchase price, in the event she wanted to buy now and finish paying when that deal went through. Hmmmmm.

Shortly after I got home, Andrew, Chuck’s son and office manager, dropped off the packet of forms I’d filled out and handed in. Indeed, all my signatures and other marks (checkboxes, explanations) were almost invisible! Immediately I deduced what had happened. I had filled out these complicated forms with my favorite

erasable pen

because I did keep going back and changing stuff. Very, very bad idea. I know that the pen is erased by heat, you rub its hard little eraser nub rapidly and the friction heat makes it disappear. Well, I am guessing that Chuck tossed the envelope of forms on the seat of his car, or a desk by a window, and they got cooked by the sun, bleaching all the marks.

I quickly sat down with the copy I’d made of the forms (my copy is perfectly legible) and re-did all the marks and signatures with a real ballpoint. So that’s ready when Chuck comes by later.

Next thing was an email from

Angela the move-in manager,

with the news that, owing the delays getting cabinetry made and blah blah blah, my new target move-in at Channing House is… June 16th. Shit. I have serious hopes of getting this house sold by then. If necessary, I will move out to a motel. I put a higher priority on selling the house. The moving company I am trying to contact does storage as well. I can have my goods moved out on one day, and moved in many days later, if necessary.

I texted Deborah the estate sale person with this news. And will tell Chuck when he appears. But my message to him is still, full speed ahead.

Here, have a wax plant:

Day 130, Shustek and taxes and legal

Thursday, 4/11/2019

My tax return is ready at the accountant’s in south San Jose. Their office is open at 8, and I need to be at the Shustek center in Milpitas at 10. OK. At 8:15 I leave for the first stop. I pick up my tax form, which includes addressed envelopes and forms for,

Federal tax return
State tax return
Federal estimated tax returns for four quarterly payments
State estimated tax returns for three (I get to skip September) quarters

The amount I need to pay immediately is rather large. Unfortunately my financial advisors, or rather the brokers they rely on, realized a lot of gains this year. Due to this misfortune of making a lot of money, I need to pay a bunch of tax. I put the papers in the car and proceed to Shustek, arriving just before ten.

The usual gang, Toni, Don, Steve, Dave, and Greta work on cataloging a bunch of stuff and chatting. I leave for home at 4.

At home I sit down for serious check signing. Marian established the tradition of writing tax checks against our unmanaged Schwab account. I log in and check; oops, there isn’t enough cash in it to cover all the taxes. Well, this is the account whose mutual-fund assets I intend to liquidate to pay the C.H. entry fee. So I place an order to sell one of the mutual funds. Good practice for selling the others next week.

Then I write four tax checks (return plus first-quarter estimate, federal and state) and triple check that the right check is with the right form in the correct envelope. Then look for stamps, and oh dear, only one stamp left in the desk. Well, I wanted to get this properly posted anyway. I drive to the California Ave. P.O., buy stamps, re-re-check that every check and form is properly addressed, seal the envelopes, stamp them, and post them.

Back at the house, I work my way through nine (9!) pages of realtor disclosure forms, signing and initialing. So that’s ready for Chuck when he next stops by. Next up, the forms needed by my attorney. Yesterday I got a statement from her listing what documents she needs to properly handle the details of Marian’s death, and oh yes, how much it will cost. So I assemble the documents and write that check.

One of the documents she needs is a copy of a recent property-tax bill. I’ve been fretting about that all day, where would that be? Finally realize it will, or should, be part of the wad of supporting documents in the 2018 tax return folder. Out to the garage where the box of tax forms went yesterday. Yup, there it is!

Then I try to fit the documents into the attorney’s post-paid return envelope and they don’t fit. So I supply my own return envelope and two stamps.

I call Darlene to confirm I’m joining them for lunch tomorrow. Somehow one or the other of us gets the call into FaceTime mode (except I can only see my face) and then neither of us can figure out how to end the call. I think I’m tired. A little TV and bed.

Day 124, finances, docent, cleanup

Friday, 4/6/2019

Began with a run, which makes this the first week in a long time when I’ve actually run three times, M-W-F, which is my nominal goal. I cut the route a little short because of impending rain, but still, over 30 minutes of jogging.

Spent a little more time going through the box of old notes and files from my career as a free-lancer in the 1980s. Most significant were the notes and other items from my attendance at Clarion West, a six-week residential science fiction writer’s workshop. I took some very nice pictures of my classmates, who I now barely remember. I had saved notes from talks by several visiting lecturers, established authors like Norman Spinrad and Suzy McKee Charnas. The primary thing I now remember from that intense six-week immersion in writing and critiquing is that it ruined me for reading for enjoyment for a long time. It was more than a decade before I could pick up a science fiction book, or any fiction book really, and just read it. Well, it also taught me that I didn’t have what it takes to write fiction, although that didn’t stop me trying (and hasn’t yet).

Next up, I sat down with my laptop and updated the Portfolio spreadsheet I created on Day 31. This meant opening the Schwab month-end statements for the four remaining accounts (two accounts for Marian’s IRA now having been merged into mine), and copying figures from them into the spreadsheet.

This was the final thing that I had been using Marian’s iMac for. I have demonstrated that I can use Godot to open all financial websites and update the portfolio info, so the machine on Marian’s desk is now superfluous. The obvious next steps are to format its disk, and put it into the nice Apple return box that’s waiting on the floor by the desk. I stuck the Mac OS boot USB stick into a USB port on the back of it and then stopped. I was starting to cry, and damn it I have to go and do a Docent tour in an hour.

This shit is not getting easier with time and practice. Bleagh.

I went to the museum and led the noon tour. Attendance was light and my tour group had just four people!

On return I spent some time reading more of my writing from that mid-80s period when I tried to be a science fiction writer. I did some good thinking then, and came up with some interesting ideas. What I didn’t produce was any good characters or plots. Nor do I like the prose style I was using to describe my ideas, stuffy, pseudo-academic.

Driving to and from the museum I was recalling how Marian would have felt about my sentimental regard for her computer. I believe she would have said, “That’s pretty silly.” So, channeling her pragmatic personality, I booted the iMac from an install USB stick and formatted its drive. Then I packed it up. The Apple return program provides very nicely designed packaging with a clear instruction sheet. It took five minutes to have the machine securely boxed up and ready to go.

I got an email from Channing House: my walk-through and meeting with Angela, the manager for upgrades, will happen at 10am Tuesday. After that I should know for sure when I can start moving in.

I planned to go to a Stanford Baseball game starting at 6pm, leaving at 5:15. To pass the time I read the first three chapters of On the Road and for fun, read it aloud, which suits Kerouac’s prose. Then I left, stopping at the FedEx office to drop off the iMac.

I stayed at the game to the seventh-inning stretch, but the Candlestick-like chill had me shivering and yawning so I left with Stanford ahead 1-0, listening to the game on KZSU going home and at home. The rubberized drawer liner I ordered was on the porch, so I lined the drawers of the new toolbox while Stanford got ahead 2-0, and then UCLA tied the game in the top of the ninth. Now it’s after 9pm, and the bottom of the ninth, and I’m so glad I left early… ok, it’s a tie game, bottom of the ninth, two on, two out, full count. Here’s your live play by play: foul… ball four. Bases loaded, winning run at third. Ball. Ball. 2-0 count, hit into left, it drops! Stanford wins, 3-2.

Still glad I left.

Day 108, a room of one’s own

Wednesday, 3/20/2019

Morning rain precluded a run, so I drove to the Y, did 20 minutes on a treadmill and some exercises. Back home I fixed a problem with

my iPhone!

For weeks it has bugged me that the “lightning” plug doesn’t want to stay in the phone. I use a lightning-to-USB connection to listen to podcasts while driving, and a lightning-to-audio “dongle” to connect my earbuds to listen while exercising. And the damn little spade connector wouldn’t stay in. I supposed that I would have to get it repaired at one of the independent shops, or maybe I would have to trade the phone in at the T-Mobile store, such a pain.

But on a whim I picked up the computer and googled “iPhone lightning won’t stay in” and of course, the internet knows all about this and the second or third link was how to fix it. With a toothpick! It turns out that the little rectangular hole in the bottom edge of the phone likes to pick up pocket lint. And each time you cram the connector in to charge the phone, it just tamps the lint down to the bottom. Gradually you build up a springy little pad of fluff at the bottom of the hole. Two minutes carefully probing with a wooden toothpick popped out little wads of lint. A shot of canned air, and boom! The plug stays in!

So in a good mood I set off for Channing House where — not to bury the lede — I was

offered a unit!

Not just a unit, but a very attractive, corner unit that just glows with sunlight. I walked in and said, “oh, wow.” Here is a pair of snapshots to show the impression on walking in.

Looking left – bedroom and bath over there

Looking right, kitchenette and side window

Well, ok, beige room. But lots of light. The outside deck extends across both rooms, and can be accessed from both. And it is about 6 doors down from Craig, the ex-IBMer who first showed me around C.H. back on Day 50!

When talking about the cost of entering C.H. I had been talking about the fee for a large studio on a lower floor, which is what I had been shown at first, and was all I thought was available. This is a large 1BR on a higher floor, so the entry fee (and the monthly rent) is about 20% higher. I don’t think I’ll put the amount here. But I can afford it, and this is a really nice room, I think. I can make a life here.

There are a couple of drawbacks to it. One minor one is that I’ve put in a couple of hours moving bits of furniture-shaped paper around the floor plan for that large studio. That time, and the uncounted minutes of imagining life in that space, are out the window. All to be done again.

The one real drawback is the rolling renovation at C.H. Right now they are moving people back to the 8th floor and off the 7th. Around the end of August, they will finish with the 7th floor. They will move the 7th floor back and at that point, probably September, they will evacuate the 6th floor, and I’ll be moved to another unit. Sometime around a year from now, they will be moving the 6th floor back and the 5th, out.

Among the changes in the renovation are that they place all the HVAC in the ceilings. Notice the heating unit to the right in the picture? That disappears, as does a similar one in the bedroom. Right now some of the electrical wiring is in visible channels around the top of the walls; that also disappears.

Well, this was a surprise, I expected to be told it could be weeks or months. But it appears that, pending a couple of more bureaucratic steps, I could be signing for this unit in a couple of weeks. Which means that probably early next month I can begin moving stuff I mean to keep out of the house directly to there; and hopefully turn the house over to Chuck and Amy to “stage” and sell in April; hopefully to close in May.

From there I went directly to my haircut appointment with Chris. I told her about all this, and how I really feel I

need a designer

to help me choose which furniture items to bring from home, and what to buy to complete this much larger space and how to arrange it all. Chris said, heck, my niece is a good designer, let me put you in touch with her. So that contact may turn into something.

From there I went to spend 3 hours sorting books at FOPAL; and then home to write emails to the tax person, to the financial advisers, and to the realtor. And then to do this blog. Hmph. Such a day.

Day 107, money money

Tuesday, 3/19/2019

Had the annual talk with the

Financial Advisors.

The firm is Sullivan and Serwitz, and for several years, we’ve met with only Bob Sullivan, but today his partner Marshall Serwitz sat in as well.

Bottom line, I’m financially fine. According to their conservative model, I can spend money at a generous annual rate (almost surely more than I’ll actually spend) and I still won’t be able to keep up with my principal’s growth, even at a conservative projected growth rate. So I will almost unavoidably die richer than I am now. Yay me; or rather, yay us, because it was the money we earned as DINKs, conserved by our naturally modest desires, that was the foundation.

As for what I had seen as a vexed question: In the event that C.H. offers a unit before the house is sold, how to finance the entry fee without incurring big capital gains and/or paying high interest? Not an issue at all! First, thanks to my being a recent widower, all of our investments have a new “basis” — not just the house, which is a huge benefit, but even the mutual funds that we bought into back in the 80s. So I can sell any amount of those shares, should I want to, and pay no capital gains. But, they pointed out, it would be equally simple to get a standard home loan through e.g. Quicken Loans, secured by the house. Almost surely at a lower rate than the 10% annual that C.H. offered.

Or, the advisors’ suggestion was to ignore C.H.’s timing; go ahead and sell the house as quickly as possible so as to have the liquid cash in hand whenever C.H. is ready to offer a unit. Well, that means moving twice, say I, like moving into another ILF with a monthly rate.

Not necessarily, they said. Look, you don’t want to keep much of your furniture anyway, right? True, I agree, about 5 or 6 pieces all told, and a few boxes worth of other stuff. OK, you put those in storage. Storage units are cheap. You pack your clothes and move into a long-stay hotel, or a vacation home rental. It would be cheaper than moving into any ILF.

This turns out to be true. They referred me to “Vacation Rentals by Owner”, VRBO.com (the link is a search for Palo Alto at under $150/night) and there are lots of cottages and apartments I can rent for extended periods around $100/night, which comes to $3000/month, which is substantially less than any local month-to-month ILF; the difference being, no food service. OK, given a kitchen I can feed myself for not much, just as I do now.

So the picture they proposed is that I (1) move out to a rental, (2) take my time saving whatever possessions I want to keep into a storage unit, (3) sell the house, (4) wait comfortably for the unit I want. The local housing market is showing signs of turning down, they said, so the sooner you sell, the better.

I took all this under advisement. A critical time will come tomorrow at 11 when I sit down with Kim Krebs at C.H. and find out what the actual prospects are. If she says, you can have X unit next month, that’s one thing. If she waffles, indicates it may be weeks to months, then I may implement the advisors’ plan.

There were other points. The house and everything else is part of a family trust. With the death of one of the joint trustees, the trust documents need to be revised. They will set up an appointment with the attorney who drew up the trust, probably for May. So there will be that to do. Also I had to sign and notarize several documents related to changing the ownership of the various Schwab accounts to me as sole trustee.

From there I did some

errands:

Got the car washed, first time since it was waxed, poor thing. Bought some groceries (like, $30 worth, see above). Got some cash from the ATM. Then home to

throw out more

… I want to say shit, but that’s not fair. I cleaned up a couple of shelves of things, and most of the things on the shelves went into the black landfill box. There were collected CD-ROMs and manuals for software. Photoshop CS2? Really? (Current version is 7 or so.) Also two or three versions of Windows, which I ran (still can run) in a virtual machine on the Mac. I used to do that when I was maintaining an app that a few other people used, and I had to test new versions on Windows as well as Mac.

Then more serious stuff: a fat binder which has all the historical receipts for house maintenance. This has been often used. When the hot water heater goes out, as it did a month ago, it’s handy to be able to look back and see who installed it. That’s where I could look up how much we paid to fumigate in 2005, but I disdain to do that. Anyway that has some value going forward, if only for the curiosity of a buyer.

Next to it was a fat binder that set me sniffling for the next half hour: Marian’s medical records. She kept every test result, every procedure, going back forever. Organized, with tabs for easy lookup. Anytime a doctor wanted to know, when did you have this or that, she could tell them, oh that was in ’93, or ’07 or whenever. So I looked at it and debated with myself. Under what possible circumstance could I ever imagine me or anyone else wanting to refer to this? None! For any reason? Certainly not for nostalgia’s sake; illnesses and medical procedures are not what I want to remember her by. And yet… it really hurt to put that in the trash. Another shard, falling away.

It’s 5:30; I’m going to feed myself and then watch something stupid on TV. Naked and Afraid should do it.