An afternoon from Hell brought me home, through 40 minutes of cut-throat traffic, to a glass of wine, a wooden rolling chair in front of an uncomfortable desk, and — when I went to sign in to FaM’s dashboard — a frantic warning that Funny’s website has been phished and it was unsafe for me to proceed.
Sumbiche!
Well, here we are anyway, and honi soit qui mal y pense.
What.
A.
Day.
Started out with my son, who has arrogated communications with the Mayo Clinic unto himself, surfacing to emcee an online appointment with my doctor out there. That was actually fairly benign — much more so than I feared. So we chatted with the lovely, brilliant lady doc, mulled over how we can get some legal hoop-jumps done (a task made far more difficult by the recent demise of my beloved lawyer), and generally wasted time.
Speaking of wasting time, a few days ago I was talked into driving way to Hell-and-gone out to the Mayo’s Scottsdale clinic to join a hand-holding group of patients who are coping with the vicissitudes of senility.
Yes. I spent FORTY MINUTES on the road EACH WAY for the privilege of listening to a bunch of duffers reporting that they can’t remember things.
Right.
And yes. That is EIGHTY minutes round-trip, plus an hour of hot-air time. Jayzuz!
***
Meanwhile, my beloved laptop crashed. A service contract with Best Buy, then, landed the contraption in that fine store’s precincts.
This morning, in comes a call from Best Buy telling me the computer is fixed and ready to pick up. So…this afternoon, after some of the other dust has settled, I jump in my car and fight my way through Phoenix’s lovely surface-street traffic, over to Best Buy.
Get parked. Bound into the Store. Get in line. Stand in line stand in line stand in line stand…. Finally get up to the repair desk.
“You called to say my laptop is ready.”
“Huh?“
The guy denied having any clue that the computer was fixed and ready to pick up.
No…kidding.
So I was only slightly furious. Trudge back out to the car. By that point it’s after 4 p.m. Rush hour is in full, rabid swing.
And now here we are: I’m perched at (horrors!) an actual desk typing on an actual desktop computer and…and…grrrrrrrr…and I’m so tired I can hardly think. As you no doubt can guess from the quality of this copy…
Mean-meanwhile: seeking a lawyer for a lawsuit I may have to pursue. More about that later… It doesn’t look promising.
Here’s a fine drawback to gettin’ old: All the professionals and all the business people you’re used to working with have either RETIRED or DIED. Yes. All of them Sooooo… Now you have to try to find new lawyers, new doctors, new car repairmen, new computer techs, new…god help us all, dammit!
Most companies should have succession plans so that another professional seamlessly takes over. Of course, this assumes there was more than one person in said company!
I hope your son is not comandeering your life… my own surviving parent is a bit older than you and I would never get too involved in their business! Assist if asked, of course! Suggest you read a tad about elder abuse…
I have been having that same problem with a lot of the people my husband and I knew from our business. We sold it in 2005 almost twenty years ago. So most of those people are retired or dead.
Luckily a few were younger and are still working. Others referred us to new people.
Whenever we have to get something done, I ask them for referrals, like for an electrician.
But I haven’t had much luck getting a referral for a new lawyer. I was unable to locate our old lawyer when I realized our copies were just copies not the original signed and witnessed ones. They need updated anyway because they were written in 1978.
{sigh} Try calling the local Bar Association. The result won’t be a personal recommendation from someone who knows you and knows a given lawyer, but they can tell you who specializes in what area of law.
The local chapter of AARP may be able to refer you to lawyers who specialize in wills, too. Nothing ventured…
If push comes to the proverbial shove, call your county bar association and ask for several referrals to lawyers with specialties relevant to what you need. For example, estate planning, small business, real estate, whatever.