Weird Week

This week was rough in a lot of ways - some of it mine/Erich's, but also with friends of mine. 2008 just doesn't seem to be off to a good start, and I'm already in that "do I need to keep my head down?!?" mode.

The me/Erich stuff is the final real battle in dealing with his mom's estate. As part of it, Erich inherited half of his grandparents' house in the town where he grew up in Massachusetts. Apparently his grandmother's name was the only one on the title, and she willed half to each of her daughters, and with Debbie passing, one half has passed to Erich. His aunt lives in the house, but does want to get out of it because it's too much for her to take care of, both size-wise and financially. And this house is NOT in good shape, nor has she even managed to maintain it.

So last week, Erich finds out that back taxes are owed. Next day, he finds out that it's two YEARS of back taxes owed. I can't fathom how his aunt lets TWO YEARS OF HOUSE TAXES slip. I really can't. Seriously... W.T.F?!?

Mind you - we've already dropped a decent amount of money to bail the aunt out here - a sizeable amount of our wedding gift money went towards this. Once I find out about the tax bills? I flip a gasket. Because now I see our tax refund immediately going to this thing - the tax refund that was going to be a sizeable amount of our financing toward the trip to England. And with the house now in that limbo between ownership and foreclosure because of this, I'm even more upset - because the house COULD be lost over this, and said money just disappears.

So Erich and I had a decent row over it. A "go to bed angry" sort of row.

Thankfully, he's pushed forward to get things going on this house. Met with a real estate agent, talked to the town tax board. Got all of his documents regarding the house from the worthless lawyer his aunt had hired up in Massachusetts so he could transfer them to our family lawyer here in RI.

Just a mess. BUT... the house is going on the market next week. Price lowered to be sold "as is." And hopefully there's a buyer out there looking for a project. *shrug* It's in a good town, and the lot itself is lovely (wooded 1/2 acre with wild grapes and such growing on it) in a nice neighborhood. It's just the *house* that needs serious work.

So we'll see.

The other thing this week is that one of our friends, Rob, who I went to college with (and was a roomate with just after college), is very ill and in the hospital. He went in with viral pneumonia last weekend. Took a downturn early this week, and the doctors were forced to intubate him. His heart is enlarged and working at 25% capacity. It's just a nasty situation. Since then, it's been one of those "he's showing some signs of improvement... but..." situations. His heart now is the big focus. They're not sure whether it's due to the pneumonia or due to a pre-existing condition (or a secondary infection), but it's being considered Congestive Heart Failure at the moment. He's going in for a CAT scan and a biopsy in the next couple days, but it's scary, scary stuff. And a lot of it just involves having to be patient, rest, and leave himself up to the doctors who are caring for him.

Mind you - he's 31.

Dealing with one of those "so... how exactly do I recover from this?" situations. The doctors can't say exactly what the long-term damage will be.

Erich and some of the guys went down to New Haven to visit him in the hospital today - they're on their way back at the moment. Hopefully some friends visiting will cheer him up again. He's not so far away that we can't pop down there for a few hours as needed. And thankfully Rob's brother is a nurse at the hospital where he's staying... so at least he has family with him, too.

But it's just so terrifying, these reminders of mortality.

It makes all sorts of stresses pale so much in comparison.