Messy Martha...the return

No, she hasn't returned from the great beyond, but I did finally get a response from Social Security about the payment they took back. Actually, Social Security "assures" me they did not ask for the payment back and that the bank must have done it on their own accord. Whatever… there is an underpayment that I covered with funds from my personal savings account to the tune of $1700 and I want my money back.

Social Security is sorry to tell me that they do not recognize her will, nor the power of attorney information I provided and that I need to submit a document from the court stating my "appointment" to have the overpayment paid to me. In real people speak it means that I would have to send her estate to probate to get the appointment.

The attorney I spoke with told me that it would cost well over $1700 in attorney fees and notices to creditors to go the probate route. SWEET! He then advised me to call SS back and ask them to pay the overpayment to Martha directly. Her checking account is still open and any payments there will go to "her". Honestly, that's what I was trying to do in the first place. I didn't want a check cut to TPgal…I wanted the monies to go back to her checking account (where I would promptly cut a check to myself and close the account but that's neither here nor there.)

I've got a call into the Bellevue Social Security Office to see if talking to a real person will help. If that fails, I'll evoke the friend network and ping Janie's cousin for assistance. I hate to rely on the 'network' to get the Federal f*cking Government to do what is right, but I will!

At the end of the day I'm tired of dealing with the Martha stuff. The storage unit is hanging around my neck - but J said he would go with me Saturday to try to resolve it. It's going to be a long day. We'll have to take a bunch of stuff to GoodWill and then dispose of the stuff they won't take. The problem is that to sort the items we'll have to unpack the unit and make a decision about every single box. ICK.

Oh man… I'm not looking forward to it. For some reason the storage unit seems more daunting than dealing with the house, that was (if you read back) knee to waist deep in garbage, old clothes, stinky open food containers, dishes, adult diapers, poop, flies and "art supplies". J and I were talking a few weeks ago about the house and I explained that I had to deal with stuff there that was so gross that I couldn't really even think about. I said that I picked up poop off the floor and he asked…

J: "Oh, did she have pets?"
TP: "Nope..."
J: "eeeewwww"

Eeewww is right my friend…eeeww is right.

So, the storage unit shouldn't be that daunting. Everything is clean, boxed and neatly stacked. As a bonus, I'm not emotionally invested in any of it. Barb, the type A friend wants some of the art which she can gladly come pick up. I feel a little guilty about not wanting to bring the "art" back to my place, but I don't want it. Dad doesn't want it and it seems cruel to send it to brother dear and his family.

There are boxes and boxes of journals that she wrote over the years. On one hand it might be fun to go through them to read her "interesting" view of the world, but she was so unhappy that the ones I did look at made me bitter. Yes, there are letters written from my grandparents sprinkled throughout the journals, but the ones I found were followed by angry dissections about why her parents were bad people. Gosh, I'm so very thankful that I have the ability to see the happy side of life.

Anyway, of all the stuff the bed is really the thing that is bothering me, it is a monster queen sized wood platform with drawers. I was too chickensh*t to get rid of it when we were packing the house - stupid me. I was worried that we would have to throw it away, however, a quick check of the "can I donate it" section on www.SeattleGoodwill.org eases my mind. They will take it, now if J and I can lift it we'll be golden.

Sadly, there is a whole list of stuff they won't take that includes animals, auto parts and fire arms. ANIMALS! How stupid are people that they have to be told this???? "Uh, here's this horse we no longer need, can I have a tax receipt?"

Cross your fingers that we'll be done with this mess Saturday. It would be nice to apply the $89 per month storage fee to something else like my shoe collection or savings for a big once in a lifetime social event. I'm pretty sure that my attempt to get SS to pay Martha her final check will go nowhere, but I will try. If I can't get the money back, I wonder if it would be legal for me to deduct the $1700 I paid to cover her bills from my taxes? Who knows… if she could deduct the Hurricane Katrina victim allowance in 2005 (as a resident of Washington) who knows what you can do.

(here's a photo looking into the living room. See how she pulled out the vacuum cleaner, I'm sure it would have been a huge help!)