Where There’s A Will, There’s A Way

Woke up this morning to no internet, and for that reason was going to give the blog a pass.

But I was awake, had already done my nocturnal tree hugging and grounding, and hated sitting around unable to even cruise the internet, check my email or my social media, so I figured I’d jot something down in Word while I waited.

This is that jotting.

Yesterday was an interesting day for me.  Since our respective retirements, Lisa has been pushing me to do our wills. Like Mary pushed Jesus at the Wedding of Cana for one more glass of wine. The superstitious Celt in me has always resisted doing a will when I was younger, while I was raising a family and probably needed it most, because I believed that by putting down in writing anything that suggests my expectation of mortality was opening the door to the Universe to test that hypothesis.

Luckily, Lisa and I have been so busy in our lives until now that she was distracted enough by more pressing issues of day-to-day living that a will fell way down on her torturous “honey do” list.

But, with us now both being retired, and regularly swimming past each other inside the Casa Claire fishbowl, Lisa now just has “us” to focus on, so I had no choice but to capitulate to her demands for peace of mind or kill myself to get away from the constant, indeed daily reminder of how irresponsible it was at our age not to have one.

Back in NY, during my earlier years of legal practice, I drafted and supervised the execution of wills for a lot of people.  Some for famous artists and celebrities.  Some for friends and some for colleagues.  Not rocket science.  This is what I have, and this is who I want to have it after I’m gone. 

Lisa and my wills are mirrors of each other.  Most of our big-ticket items pass outside our respective estates.  But our personal property and my copyright interests had to be seen to.  I sure hope that the literary and film big money doesn’t wait to arrive posthumously. Like JRRT. But however it arrives, we now have seen to that.  Hopefully, it will be significant enough for the kids to fight over. We have also seen to the care of our fur family should they outlive us.  The kids are going to be pissed.

So, if I should suddenly pass through accidental impalement on a pitchfork in the barn, take a good look at Honey.  Who am I kidding?  Claire would never let that happen.  

I needed a Notary Public, and luckily my ever-resourceful accountant, Bob K, volunteered, with his lovely wife, Renee and his brilliant assistant Charlotte J, acting as witnesses.

Since he would not accept any money for his trouble, I shared a printed out, inscribed copy of Free Radical with Bob, as he has always been a huge fan of my writing. Coincidentally, Free Radical also involves an interesting will. Maybe he can sell it on e-bay after I’m dead.    

We had a lot of fun during the execution of the wills, with me drawing laughter through sharing a lot of New York back stories, as I’ve always believed that one should make light of life’s more serious moments. Laughing at the Devil.  Hence the fun the members of my Celtic tribe always have at our Irish Wakes.  

Afterwards, we safely secured our wills and their copies and went off to lunch at the Sky-Bear Café in Loveland. Yesterday evening was to be that establishment’s first Tuesday of the month meeting of their regular customer’s book club.  I will be the guest of honor at their second on February 3rd.  Assuming I live that long. 

Lisa and I shared a wonderful multi cheese pizza on a thick crust.  Delicious.  I washed it down with the local’s home brewed non-alcohol beer – also delicious.   

Then it was back to Casa Claire to relax doing chores that Lisa had lined up involving high wobbly ladders, sharpened tools and live electrical currents.  Lisa loves a challenge.

Well, Wednesday is upon us, and I have my morning rounds and chores to get after.

You fine, five readers attack the work week hump and make sure you wave at Friday, just there standing behind Thursday’s shoulder.  The weekend awaits.  

And no matter what else we get up to, let us make today a great one.