Busy For the Next Week

Back in January I referenced, but didn't explain, a family crisis that I was working with my mom to fix. I don't want to get deep into the details, but the short version is that my 82 year old father, who has Parkinson's Disease, has degenerated such that he is no longer capable of handling the family's finances. We found this out when, unable to hide it any longer, he admitted that we were deeply in debt, were losing more money than we were bringing in, and that the family's savings were gone. Needless to say, this caused a lot of anger and resentment, and both my mother and I have had to learn the intricacies of our family's financial situation and try to figure out what could be done about it.

We've considered filing for bankruptcy, and we've considered getting a reverse mortgage, and we rejected both for reasons which are good but I don't want to explain. We've settled on trying to get the house refinanced in such a way that it will reduce our monthly bills (both on the principle payment and by using the money to consolidate and pay off credit card dept), but that requires inspectors to get all up in our bidness, as the kids say, and that means mom and I are busy cleaning up the house in preparation for a bunch of people to tromp through it and invade our privacy. That's basically going to be my life for the next few days.

Then Wednesday I'll be packing for my speaking engagement in Fredericksburg, VA, which I know shouldn't take all day but you don't know my life. Then I leave on a jet plane Thursday, speak on Friday, and then see some folks in Virginia on Saturday before flying home Sunday morning.

So I'm going to be quite busy and may not be able to post anything here until I return. Hopefully Salem will have something tasty for us on Wednesday.