Bill's Bills

I reread the will the other day. Hmm....the things I miss when I read something for the first time. In it, I saw I would have received $5,000 if I had taken Matt back and another $500 for Steve. I took Steve. I didn't remember the kids telling me I would have gotten $5,000 for Matt; I thought they had told me $1,000. Hmmmm....did they monkey with the numbers? I don't know. I honestly don't know. When I heard $1,000, I said no. I also read that I was his beneficiary. I hadn't remembered that either. Was it his intent to leave everything to me? No. I know better. That would be breaking his father's family tradition. His intent was to keep Laura's hands off his money because he believed she couldn't manage money. In a way he was right; she got herself in serious debt three years ago, and it haunts her still. It dogs her, the letters, the phone calls. I thought I had taught her better. Bill knew I was good with money. As Dave Ramsey would say, I was the nerd to his free spirit when it came to money. If opposites attract, this is one area where we were opposites. With my first husband, we were both savers. We had no credit card debt, a very low mortgage, and a very high savings account. When I paid off the loan on Bill's car, I was told the pink slip would be sent to the address on it. Oops! I hadn't put in a change of address at the post office. Another hoop to jump. Now I get his mail, and it is abundantly clear that the free spirit was living fast and easy with money. There are daily bills: the motorcycle, the cable TV, the cell phone, the former attorney (the one who had to quit his practice because he was old already and got rear-ended on the freeway), auto registration (delinquent, no less), the credit cards, the IRS. The IRS??? Yes, he wasn't going to give away any money until it was demanded of him. And to add insult to injury, the lender on the motorcycle sent a nasty letter as if they had repossessed the bike and were now going to sell it because 'a promise had not been kept'. I called to politely give them a piece of my mind. They were closed for the weekend. The internet, cable TV, and cell phone providers will all erase outstanding balances past September 2 if I send them copies of the death certificate. The former attorney's letter had said he was planning to sue for the unpaid balance. After a phone call, he agreed to accept 50 cents on the dollar. I smogged the car and took it to AAA, but I can't do anything with it until tomorrow because title can't be transferred until he has been dead for forty-one days. Forty one days is tomorrow. Tomorrow is Saturday. Laura has already gotten a citation for driving a car with delinquent registration. I am now driving it and keeping the paperwork in the front seat. I will do the deed on my way out to the desert tomorrow morning. When I called the IRS, I spent over an hour on hold only to find out there was a form I needed to fill out. Gee, I'd already done that one.