Saving by Obfuscation

I finally made my annual contribution to my college. I found out my company does matching gifts. So, I thought I'd sign up for the matching gift.

HAH.

I checked with 3 people in HR as to why the system was insisting I was not an employee of the company. No clue. In fact, the people in HR were not able to get into the site either to fill out the form for a matching gift.

Best way to both get the kudos for having matching gifts but then not having to pony up the cash - prevent people by bureaucratic nonsense from being able to get the form to request the match.

No more to Topeka

My grandfather has been buried. The house has been cleaned out.

He received a military honor guard. I found out he had received a Bronze Star and a Silver Star while working on aircraft support for several battles - namely Battle of the Bulge and D-Day. For several of the battles, his plane was the only one in the squadron that made it back to base.

Other things I didn't know about my grandfather. He had to hunt to support his family (parents) during the depression. Their family was literally dirt poor. He and his sister were shuttled around to various relatives because their parents couldn't afford to feed them. So, he learned to hunt - it put food on the table and it could be sold. They moved from Nebraska to Kansas because there were supposedly more opportunities there.

After the war, he tried to get work as a mechanic (which is the skills he got in the Army, plus he was good at working with his hands). But there was no work available. Instead, possibly because he was wearing a suit, he was asked while in line at the unemployment bureau if he wanted a job interviewing people in the unemployment lines. He accepted, and eventually worked his way up to director of job services for the state.

I now have several photographs of my family on that side. A few of my grandparents, my great grandparents, one of my great or great-great grandmother (its labelled grandmother P. at age 17), although the dress she's wearing seems more 1890s than 1910s. But it could be the 1910s. It is dark, to the floor, bustle skirt, bowler-type hat (forget what the women's equivalent was called).. Actually. For a good idea of what it looks like, think of the woman in the Seurat's Sunder Afternoon on the Island of La Grand Jatte ("The Seurat" at the Art Institute of Chicago), which makes the dress style to be 1880ish, at least in Paris.

My grandmother had wanted to be buried near the ducks, and she was. However, in the 6 years since she passed, they filled in the duck pond with rocks.

My family was commenting to each other as we left, we will probably never go to Topeka again. There is nothing there. It is a depressed city. There are just two graves of my grandparents, next to what used to be the duck pond, and what is now just a river of rocks.

Just A Memory

My grandfather died this morning, at the age of 89. He had a DNR in place, and had stopped eating & drinking a few days ago.

I don't have many memories of him. I do have a couple, though.

Golf with my dad, and my grandfather. I was about 12. My grandfather was the only one who really knew what was going on. But, he was stubborn - always a stubborn man - and got stuck behind this one tree. He must have hit the tree 4 times in a row. He still played much better than my Dad and I. Although I had one of those shots that was unbelievable. My ball was sitting just off the green on a dogleg left par-4. In the patch of rough between the sand trap and the actual green. Fairly flat green, cup in the center. I chipped it and it went straight in.

My other memory is lots of games of Casino (or Cassino?). A fairly straight-forward card game.

The last time I saw him was when I went to a NAC in Kansas City in 2002 or 3. I drove over and had dinner with him. He took me out to the IHOP, I think. He was doing OK at that point. He had a walker in the house, and used a cane outside. He was still driving. We went back to his house and had pie after dinner. Then I drove back to KC.

I had nothing to talk to him about. He, understandably, didn't understand anything about what I do. He didn't understand my activities. He only seemed interested in watching golf. And once I exhausted my Tiger Woods knowledge, I was sunk.

All the same, I am sad that he's gone. Mostly sad for my dad, but a little bit for not making more of an effort to try to understand or know my grandfather.

Screaming time

I tried hiding this weekend. I played a really old RPG (Might and Magic Worlds of Xeen). I cleaned my closet. I cleaned my car. I cleaned the living room. I did laundry.

You know what that means? I feel completely out of control.

Issue #1 - Starting to switch realtors as I just don't like my current realtor. However, I have ZERO time to fly down to DC to deal with it.

Issue #2 - CEO and CIO are visiting my work site this week (starting tomorrow). CEO will be sitting in the office on my left. CIO will be sitting in the office on my right.

Issue #3 - One of the applications I tangentially support (I'm the backup support who has no clue what's going on) has become very high profile after some things went wrong last week.

Issue #4 - My extended family is carving up my grandfather's possessions. I was never close to those grandparents. My grandmother died around 2000. She had divided up all the possessions mostly equally between the various relatives. That's being pretty much reworked by everyone else. I don't have the time or energy to fight it.

I was supposed to receive a set of Hummel figurine musicians, and 2(?) silver plated serving trays engraved with my great-grandmother's name (whom I am named for). I declined all of it (wtf do you do with a serving tray?) But now I'm having second thoughts. I really want the pictures from them. I would have liked some of the fantastic furniture my grandfather made by hand, but, that's all spoken for by people much higher on the chain than me. I met my great-grandmother I think once. I barely remember it. I kinda remember her house, I think.

Issue #4 - Photographer *still* hasn't finished my pictures.

Issue #5 - Need to find a house up here

Issue #6 - one of my indirect reports and I are having serious communication issues.

*sigh*

I want a full-time assistant to deal with as many of these issues as possible. The rest is just draining.

God was Silent

A good read:

Richard Cohen's Op Ed

More Realtor Love

So, I get back from a wonderful trip to Florida, and I discover an email from the realtor selling my condo.

"Rather than try to explain the market I have sent an e-mail showing what
your competition is for the sale of your condo. The other condo on your
floor has gone under contract at a much lower price and had a fireplace,
2 garage spaces and the square footage was more by about 75 square feet.
Althou you would think they are the same floor plan, the second bedroom
is substantially larger and the kitchen area is also a few feet larger. This raises a serious issues for appraisal purposes since the comps will
now be lower than when we started with the listing. Also, the West View
apartments across the street are offering 3% towrds closing, a $25,000
reduction in sales price, and can manage the numbers for a deal for -0-
down and -0- cash to close. While some what older, the lobby is larger
with a lounge and a Internet room, and they are very aggressive in
negotiating the price down. I will leave it to you, but the numbers call
for a price reduction. Traffic has been OK but no second visits and no
phone calls frm agents to start discussions for offers. Let me know what
you think. "

Now, from what I know.

Condo unit across the hall only has one parking space. It was also bought as an investment with an ARM and now the owners can't afford it. I used to live in the high rise apartment turned condo building, and there are very few 2 bedroom units there. An "internet room"? What kind of selling point is that for a condo? I stopped going to computer labs when I graduated college. Now, included internet to the unit might be something, but that's not what it says. Parking spaces are horrible, there are fewer of them, and no guest parking.

So, I did some research on the neighborhood. I'm priced around the 40th percentile (1 being lowest) for 2 BR/2 BA condos. I'm a bit high by square footage, but not obscenely so. Since units not on the ground floor can count their alcove in square footage, but I cannot, I calculated my patio value at 1/3 the cost per square foot and added it in. I'm priced 1% above that. Well within normal offer range.

Of course, compared to where I'm looking now, the price per square foot is insane. In NoVA its around $400-$500. In Mass its $150-200.