Five Months
The post-death adrenaline high has worn off. That’s the only way I can think to describe it. The last two weeks have been a comedy of mistakes due to communication failures on my part. Things I thought had been arranged turned out to have been interpreted differently by the people I was working with. I was mad at myself at first, but then, when more failures began revealing themselves, I could only laugh. I couldn’t change what I’d screwed up. I could only do the extra work that I didn’t have time for to fix it.
With the ranch sale completed, I distributed funds to the primary beneficiary. The other property I need to sell has gone to contract and should close soon. Everything has been moved out of what we called the store, and the building has been swept out. I’m ready to hand over the keys to the new owners. I have put together a price for my lantern buyer. Alan appears to have only been half done with his inventory and price list, so pricing has been a challenge.
I’m beginning to plan the next steps I need to take for the house. My plumber is working on getting plumbing working that has been capped off in the past. The downstairs bathroom is now fully functional (but requires a lot of cosmetic work, which is planned), and he will be working on getting an upstairs bathroom that has been plumbed since before we bought the house but has no fixtures completed. Some pipes need work and relocating. Once he does that work, my contractor should be able to do the rest.
At the shop, I’m still feeling my way. I’ll begin shifting items so like items are with like items soon. I am planning an electronics recycling run to Waco soon. It won’t clear out as much space as the bedrails, but it will remove clutter from my mind, the house, and the shop. I would like to get my Jeep running before I decide what to do with it. I need to get a good battery, replace the tires, and probably drain and refill the gas tank. I will probably sell it, but I may use it to run around town for a little while first.
I didn’t expect closing down Alan’s email account to be so stressful. I forwarded everything that looked like it should be saved to another account. I printed some threads. But still, it feels like I’m erasing another piece of him, and that’s hard.