Austin

Someone is here beating a ****ing drum.

My mother spent the last year or so preparing for death. If I've ever met anyone completely at peace with death, it is her.

And yet, she holds on. I'm not sure why.

She hasn't eaten in 5 days and hasn't swallowed a meaningful amount if water in 2 days.

We have been sure the time has come so many times now.

It is exhausting.

Day 7.....

She can still hear us and tries to talk, but I think she may not always be talking to us.

She has said "help me" several time sdcc and she said "where am I going " earlier.

Mom passed away yesterday. I have a lot to say, just not right now.

Sincere condolences.

Sorry and happy to hear that...the last while has sounded very rough for you. Hopefully there was some silver lining and more closure for you this way.

Sorry to hear that biggerbuddy. I'm glad for you and her that it didn't drag on for a super long time.

sorry i know she meant a lot to you. stay tough.

Thanks everyone.

I'm back home finally. It feels good to be here.

My mom's last curtain call came when the funeral home took her away. About 20 people stood in the driveway and cheered her.

Back to my business.

Nothing on the boat. Nothing. I believe I will have to hire a lawyer on this one.

I texted him and emailed him and have not received a reply.

In the mean time, I'm going after him via social media. I posted a not good review on his facebook page. Probably will do yelp as well.

Oh man. I think if I were you I'd delete that FB review if it's not too late and hold off on anymore bad reviews until I had my boat in hand.

Yeah, I don't know what else to do. Nothing has worked so far.

OK, he got back to me and I finally know the true story. I knew something wasn't right and that he wasn't telling me everything.

He told me he ordered the tanks mid-june. He sent me a copy of a text with the estimate so I pushed him for a copy of the actual order. He did indeed order the tanks when he said he did.

On the copy of the order was the phone number of the tank people. So, I called them.

He ordered tanks for a year model that they put two different sized tanks in. The tank people were reluctant to make the tanks knowing that they might not fit. So, they told him that he needed to pull the deck to get an accurate measurement. He didn't want to pull the deck before the tanks got there. This back and forth took 2 months. They are just now beginning to make the tanks today.

This has been the entire holdup. He keeps blaming covid and everything else on delays but the delay on this particular item, which is the biggest item, could have been avoided. Maybe not avoided, but it should not have taken 2 months to mitigate.

Justifiably not happy, it seems. From everything you've written, it seems as if he's a nice guy, and competent at the actual work, but doesn't have a high degree of ****-togetherness.

Pet peeve of mine is having to step in and manage a process I shouldn't even be involved in because the parties aren't communicating effectively or whatever.

Best of luck. I hope after finally getting the boat, you'll be pleased with the workmanship. Maybe then it's time to write a review, so you can put positive and negative aspects in it.

This is going to be difficult to express but I'll try.

My mother sort of saw herself as a queen. Not like she wanted to boss everyone around or anything. More like she saw herself as the wise one and all around her should recognize this and adore her.

Her friends did just that. Every single one of them idolized her. They loved that she saw herself as queen. She was more to them than that, but that aspect was prevalent. To them, she did no wrong.

So many people can't be wrong about a person. I respect that and I certainly see why she had so many friends. However, being a queen to those that want a queen is considerably different than being a queen to a child.

My mother and I never clicked. I guess I can say that we each did the best we could in the relationship but there is no doubt that she was never able to give me what I needed out of it, nor was I able to give her what she needed.

I don't begrudge her. If there is anything I've learned through my life is that people are who they are. They can't be anyone else.

I was afraid of how I would react when she finally passed. I didn't think it would affect me at all. But it did. I was truly and profoundly sad when she went.

The process of dealing with the estate has begun.

I am working with the lawyer that took care of mom's will and other estate paperwork. He ain't cheap.

The only good news in this is I don't have to physically show up in court like I did with Dad's. The bad news is they are backed up and we can't complete the probate until probably October.

The lawyer estimated the process would probably go on until the end of the year. Until then we won't be able to sell her condo or her car.

The car isn't a big deal. We are giving it away to a friend of mom's. Originally we were just going to give him the keys but I woke up in the middle of the night thinking about liability if he has an accident. He is a great guy but he has a batshit crazy family and I just don't want to risk anything. So, it will sit in her driveway for a while.

The condo is worth quite a bit. And, she has a substantial amount of money. Possibly enough for my wife to retire. Probably not quite, but it will definitely give her some options.

My mind is just all over the place. I already can't find some paperwork that I know I packed.

Re: Mom's car. Remember that it has value and is part of the estate.

We did the same thing when my mom died, her car was a nice enough around-town car, but neither my brother nor I wanted to drive it 1000 miles to Denver. We gave it to my uncle and aunt to say thanks, in some small way, for all they'd done.

One of my final trips, my uncle and I went down to the DMV, I signed the title over, and he got plates.

When going through the probate process, we were required to list it and put a value on it, so the county could get their cut. The attorney made us put a reasonable value on it, not the $0 which we actually received. kbb.com had it ~$7k (IIRC), so not a big deal in terms of $ for the county's fees.

Then, when the inventory of assets came around, we had $3500 to each of us listed for the car's value, and had to sign a document that we each got our fair cut of the probate assets.

Of course, TX and WI rules may be very different, so rely on the experts' advice.

Just make sure they know that's the plan, and that all heirs are on board with not receiving their cut of car's value.

Best of luck. I've been through this a few times (though never in Texas). If you feel I can be of some help, please let me know.

Thanks. I will.

So far I don't see any issues other than just spending time dealing with each little thing.

looks like monday late morning or afternoon you might catch the east side of the hurricane. keys will get blasted by it.

I'm sorry for your loss BB. Losing your mum is tough. I hope you get through everything ok.

Missed us so that's good. Looks like it will be over Louisiana when I'm flying from Atlanta to Austin. I'm guessing that is fine but will make the plane ride less calming.

Thanks Rexx. Much appreciated.

I texted the boat guy this morning since it has been a week without hearing from him. Although the tank people indicated to me that they wouldn't arrive until maybe this Friday, it would be nice to hear from him.

He told me that he is finishing up two projects to free up space for my boat. No indication of when. Based on his history, I'm very skeptical.

Then he sent me pictures of a boat he just finished. I guess he was trying to show how good his work is, or to show me that indeed he is finishing up current projects but it did nothing but upset me even more knowing this boat came in after ours and is now complete.

I asked if he had followed up with the tank people to get a firm date. He did not reply.

I sent him yet another email asking for a firmer time estimate and an answer to my tank question.

lol, poor boat guy. it's probably too late now, but I wonder if you could get him to give you a firm completion date with penalties for missing the target date? I guess that could be counterproductive though if he missed the deadline by a lot then he may never finish if the money becomes inconsequential.