Log #58
The Unexpected of July
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30 July
Some Funeral Home Wicked This Way Comes
Stan's Experiences
As you're aware, my mother passed away in early July. The entire funeral home experience was so horrible I just needed to write about it and get it off my chest and to warn others who have made pre-arrangements, they may not be as well arranged as you think.
My mother, a widow, had already made arrangements with Chapel Hill Funeral Home. She was to be cremated; a plot was picked out, headstone was in place and she thought everything was paid for. Her comment was; all you have to do is go in and sign some papers. Well that is not entirely true. Everything I will discuss here I saw first hand or personally experienced, except for the initial visit, described in the next paragraph.
A few days before my mother passed away my sister and step-sister stopped by the funeral home just to ask about a certificate my mother had for a free grave opening. That question turned into a 2 – 3 hour sales session. Since they were there before the death the salesman could offer a discount on the services, but he “had to do it right away.” So they sat there and went through everything, which included about $1700 in legally-mandated fees/activities. Then they added flowers, service folders, and a few other things that took the price up to $2300. So much for prepaid. Over the course of this meeting the salesperson had to leave the room two or three times to clear things with his general manager. Just like a car salesman!
The above was all second-hand info, everything that follows I personally observed.
The next day the salesperson made a trip out to the hospice around 10:00 AM to get some additional information for the contract and to get a few more signatures. He claimed he had to have it all in the computer by noon in order to get the discounts. So, needless to say, we kind of rushed through things. I guess it was more from the shock of everything instead of the money because we certainly weren’t trying to keep the costs down. It was just that everything was so surreal.
After my mother passed away we stopped by the funeral home to sign a piece of paper. This stop turned into another two-and-a-half hour session where the salesperson tag teamed with the funeral director. They have some sort of delineation of tasks, which we never figured out. I just assumed that we would deal with one person, however quite often when we asked one person a question the response was, “You need to talk with the other person about that.” We found it quite confusing.
Anyway, after completing some more paperwork, including some that we had previously completed but the funeral home didn’t have in our file, but then found as we finished, we finally escaped. Another weird thing was the conference room we were sequestered in was a sales room with example headstones on the walls, maps of the cemetery and other similar objects…plus there was this obnoxious, sappy Muzak playing all of the time. It certainly wasn’t very soothing to us as we waited for whatever representative would show up next.
Sometime a short while later, we had to stop by the funeral home one more time to ask a question, and were shuttled into another room with the same sappy music. My sister and I sat there for about two minutes, getting more and more depressed with the music then we bailed. We ran into the icky (car-)salesperson in the hall and told him we would rather wait in the hall than listen to that awful music for one more second. He got the music turned off, so we returned to the room to await the funeral director. She popped in and out a couple of times, but after waiting for ten minutes, we wrote a note and said to call. Just as we stood up to leave she came in and we completed things in short order. It was just another hour spent there for ten minutes of paperwork/discussion.
The day of the graveside service the salesperson was ill so we had another person check in with us to ensure all was okay before the service, and told us to call when we were ready for the interment. There were a few plants around, the flowers we ordered, and a large spray of flowers on a stand with a card from some group we didn’t recognize. We held the service, which was fine, then called for the people to perform the interment.
I was about to receive another surprise - I had a mental image of some sort of dignified lowering device to lower the box containing the urn into the grave. Nope, we had two groundskeeper guys show up in a kind of golf cart wearing their work uniforms with embroidered names over the pockets. One of them lay down on the ground and then wrestled the box into the hole trying not to drop it to the bottom of the three-foot hole. Once he was successful with that, then they shoveled dirt in and replaced the sod on top. A little less dignified than I expected.
During the interment, we had a chance to study the card on the flower spray. The flowers were for a different service! So we passed that info on to the groundskeepers and they took them away.
Later in the day we realized that we hadn’t received the service folders, little pamphlets meant for handing out at the service. A couple of days later we stopped by the funeral home to pick up the folders. The receptionist told me that I had to wait as there was a note from the funeral director stating she wanted to talk to us. I told the receptionist that I wasn’t going to wait, even though she said it would only take a minute, that the funeral director was out to lunch but she would call her on her cell phone and have her return. I told her that the funeral director had our number and could call us, but we weren’t waiting and were taking the service folders with us. For the record the funeral director never called.
Five days after the funeral, over a weekend, I finally looked at the service folders and they had the date of birth as 2007 instead of 1936. I decided to call the funeral home and have the folders reprinted and taken off of the bill. To their credit the funeral home called on Tuesday to offer to take the cost off the bill. I explained the error and suggested they reprint them and still not charge us for them, they agreed.
The moral of the story is that if you think you have everything prepaid for your funeral I would suggest that you don’t; and, further, that there’s a fine line between a funeral home and a used car sales operation, except that the used car operation isn’t taking advantage of bereaved families.
26 July
Dalila Has Left the Area
Dalila behaving as expected, 250 miles SW of Cabo
(big blob of convection in the
Tehuantapec shows no circulation)
Increased swell and clouds - that's what Dalila left us. Hasn't rained in a couple of days, and yesterday the off-shore clouds cleared up. Dalila's moving north and off to the west, taking her lumpies with her. She's still only a tropical storm with winds at 45 knots, gusting to 50. The Hurricane Center is still predicting a left-hand track out into cooler waters, and death within the week.
The titilation of storms abated for now, we're moving on to domestic excitement. Our temporary permit to own the house is back from the state, the fideicomiso (land trust) has been set up with the bank and all that's left to do is ensure that the seller has paid his bills for July, and that he's written his letters of permission to the water/sewer co. and the telephone co. to expedite our transfer of services. The realtors are facilitating the details, all we've had to do so far is dig deep into our pockets.
Our appointment for closing is this coming Wednesday, the 1st. My accountant has already transferred the funds, surprisingly simple with just one phone call to our TX credit union. The credit union even converted and sent pesos. All that's left is to exchange a big pile of cash for a couple of keys. Then the real work begins. Watch the house space on the homepage for updates on the fixer-upper front.
24 July
Dalila
Today's Eye of the Storm map with Dalila's path
As expected, TD7E was named and continued to organize. As far as tropical storms go, though, Dalila isn't forecast to build up to much, the predictions are that she won't reach hurricane strength. Upper level sheer is preventing full-blown buildup.
The rain and PM gray we've been receiving the past couple of days is either from Dalila or just the normal summertime convection that builds over the land. Dalila's carrying alot of moisture, so I vote for giving her credit. She's projected to continue on her NW path, although overnight she leaned towards the north, somewhat. All well-behaved storms should ease off to the west and cause no harm to the mainland or to the Baja.
Storm activity on the east coast has been squashed by a sandy Sahara wind. The dry air has prevented cloud buildup, Florida relatives enjoying a respite from Storm Watch 2007.
22 July
It's All about the Weather
Tropical Depression 7E organizing south of Manzanillo
Now that Tropical Storm Cosme has been downgraded to a tropical depression (TD6E), another system is cranking up for your storm-watching pleasure. Tropical Depression 7E (7 for our seventh storm system this season, E for Eastern Pacific point-of-origin). 6E is cruising eastward just southwest of Hawaii, 7E is starting its Dirvish dance 445 miles SSW of us and heading WNW at 11kts, with 25 knot winds gusting to 35 kts. The National Hurricane Center is predicting that 7E will grow into a good size storm in the next couple of days.
Regardless of weather, Stan's off to dip ticks, today. PATA, the group I categorize as the action animal group, has organized a flea and tick purge in the bario with a two-fold purpose; one, to get rid of pests; two, to educate about disease and pet care. PATA is the same group that organized the spay/neuter clinic we helped with this winter.
The other group, ARA de Manzanillo, is just getting off the ground and is not organized enough, yet, to perform any real services (that I've seen). Even though I'm putting together a website for ARA, I feel no allegiance to one group or the other, and will gladly help out both. I'm still confused why the two groups can't combine their resources and energies to work together...but not so curious that I'll waste any energy on a peeing contest, so will stay out of the petty bickering and concentrate on helping out, like dipping dogs.
21 July
I Can Haz Cheezburger
Stan brought a couple of English language magazines home with him - news no good - but it was fun to catch up on novelties in US culture. Here's one that's got me hooked. So far I've perused twenty of I Can Haz Cheezburger's nearly 100 pages of oh-so-cute kitty pictures. Not to bore you with them here, 'specially since I don't want to irritate the copyright gods, but I did snitch a couple T-shirt slogans....
Bucky taunting Clipper
The SolCasita just finished a stint as home for wayward Schipperkes. Clipper the Schipperke from the sailing vessel Caravan inserted herself into our quiet little routine for a couple of weeks; very low-key 5-year-old who fit right in.
Neither Bucky nor Clipper understood how to play with each other, but there was no lack of trying, especially on Bucky's part. She'd scamper into Clipper's face with bowed back and fluffed tail, then dance away before Clipper could react.
Our first stab at pup-sitting was so successful that we're going to give it another go, but our next guest is going to be a bit more challenging. Rosie is a rescued pup who got smacked by a car and left for dead. Her new parents picked her up off the beach where she was dragging her bent-up hind end along the sand, looking scrawny, scared and pathetic. She has since been fed, wormed and coddled; x-rayed, vaccinated and put on a regimen of pain meds.
While Stan deals with this needy little pup, who will fill up every corner of the casita with puppy energy - albeit semi-drugged - I will have moved one or more of our own kitty brood to a condo where I'll be kitty-sitting for another couple who are also going traveling. Although Bucky will probably be able to deal with puppy action, I'm pretty sure Gale will appreciate the change of scenery, and the sedate company of Georgina, another Maine Coon Cat like himself, plump and fluffy. So the SolMaters will be staying in the steamy jungle while folks smarter than us are bailing for the coolth of Seattle.
19 July
Rain, Rain, and More Rain
A more benign radar picture for Santiago as the clouds slide north
Solid downpour in Santiago for the past couple of days. Thank goodness the Caravaners returned and picked up Clipper the Schipperke - didn't relish tromping with the dog under a waterfall. As it was, I bundled up in Stan's Gortex to splash to an ARA meeting that didn't happen. Too many drivers decided they couldn't muscle their mighty SUVs through the arroyos.
Two trees outside the west window that we thought were dead have sprouted shade overnight due to the drenchings - surrounding hills also softening with green.
Hurricane activity has been light so far this summer. By this time last year we'd had nine named storms, already, Ileana cranked up on the 21st of July. Cosme, who's dying out in the mid-Pacific, is only our third - no complaints, you understand.... And we're afraid the season is simply getting a slow start, but once it cranks up, it'll be a very active one. I'm wishing the deal on the house would finalize so we could move to a more substantial building when the winds wind themselves up.
This little system that's been dumping on us the past couple of days wants to wind itself up, but its proximity to land keeps foiling its efforts, it can't quite sustain a rotation. Plenty of moisture in them thar clouds, though.
July Friday the 13th
Tagging in Lake Chapala
Tagging, according to www.guadalajarareporter.com
The Guadalajara Reporter warns, "Be on the lookout for these markings on your properties. Their meaning: Row 1 (L-R): comes back quick; open with bolt cutter; uninhabited house; careful-police; house already robbed; Row 2: will be welcomed if you speak about God; can be robbed; useless to persist; charitable house; on vacation; Row 3: woman alone; nothing of interest; very good; don’t rob; nothing here; Row 4: beware of dog; use crow bar; only women live here; ready to be robbed."
Gives a whole new perspective to cave paintings....
July Friday the 13th
Chopping Trees
First the tree is lassoed and hog-tied so it can't get away.
Then it's beaten into submission with a machete. After the parts are distributed around the
aging yard, they're left to dry.....
a few weeks later, and they're still aging, except the
stems and pieces, which flew away in a
tempest.
July 12th
Philosophies to Live By
if you can't think or your own, scroll over each
picture....
Pictures courtesy http://www.funpic.hu/en.index.php
July 8th
Las Hormigas
The casita plays reluctant host to three distinctly different ants, sugar, grease, and carry away your shoes. Thankfully, none of them seem to crave human (nor feline) flesh.
The sugar ants are the most tenacious and the least affected by ant motels, those resorts set out with lights burning by our buddy, Tom Bodette. Sugar ants are the smallest, only picked up by the naked eye when on the move. They don't march in straight lines, they dance and swirl. Best defense, an iron fist - they're so small one can't feel the squash, nothing much to clean up afterwards.
Insidious sugar ants are everywhere, mostly in the kitchen. Each morning's coffee-making ritual includes smooshing a dozen or so with the fist of death - each ant requires at least three thunks of the fist, they're that good at hunkering down between nubs in the grout. Raid and Diazanon have the same null effect as the motels; bring on the magnifying glass and you'd see them thumbing their impervious little noses.
Mexican grease ants are the same as everywhere else in the world, leaderless, but tromping after each other for miles. I watched a group of them actually move a bee ten feet up a bamboo pole on our deck, all the while shuttling his edible portions ahead. No ant remained at the body for more than a second, but so many chomping and chewing on him acted like little propellers and thrust him upwards, presumably towards their nest.
The grease ants don't come into the casita too often, I like to think it's because there's no grease for them.
Now the elephant of ants lives outdoors most of the time, too, but they only come out at night. That's a bit disconcerting to those of us slumbering next to open windows, because every once in awhile the red hoards pack up the wife and kids and move in with us. That's when the Raid comes out, when they swarm through the bedroom window...carrying eggs in their jaws, diaper bags packed, ready to stay.
Bucky will chase and eat the big guys, but only if they come bopping around the screen singly. If they swarm, she justs sits and watches, mesmerized.
The other day I made a very painful discovery about our defense methods. While digging out another of Tom Bodette's Motel 6es, I discovered some fly paper strips we had stocked for the boat. I hung one up on the curtain rod to see if any unsuspecting mosquitos would go for it. Returning from a long lunch with the girls I noticed that the strip was askew and thrown up over the curtain rod - damn cats, I just knew they'd been up on the counter where they don't belong, swatting at the gooey strip. But, no.... When I untangled the thing to inspect for casualties, there was one big one that broke my heart. Stuck fast and succumbing to the toxins was a full-grown gecko. One can only imagine what the struggle must have been like.
No more fly strips for this casita!
Bigger bugs need no more defense mechanism than a couple feline hunters. Our latest visitors were no match for the BuckyKat's ferocious attack.... These critters are a bit more scarey than the ants, and are said to have a very painful bite. We hope no man nor beast finds out.
July 4th
Kansas City
Lucy Kuhnhof Burnett Blessman 1926 - 2007
July 1st
Kansas City
Grandma Lucy in 2006 with her boys, Ricky, Stan, Chris, Ashley and Rylan
Stan's on his second trip to the US this summer, this one unexpected, and not a happy one. Mom Lucy's health is deteriorating and the family has gathered.
The tattoo
The family's gathering in 2006 was a much happier occasion with visits with grandkids, Ricky and Chris, and her greatgrandkid, Rylan. Lucy received a Tazmanian Devil tattoo from Chris.
