So you have to be able to laugh at yourself, right?
I haven't shared it openly, but I needed to make a trip to Pennsylvania this past weekend so I could open up an Estate account for the Estate of my uncle, who passed away in mid-June.
He and my aunt, who passed just a few days before Christmas last year, had named me the executor of their will about nine years ago.
It is an honor to be entrusted with such a responsibility - one that I put close to on par of putting together the memorial service for my sister six and a half years ago.
After I left the Altoona, Pennsylvania area two months ago, when we met with and started to work with the attorney that is handling the legal affairs of the Estate, Texas became one of many COVID-19 hot spots -- and made it such that anybody traveling to the Commonwealth from the Lone Star state had to self-quarantine for 14 days.
Couldn't afford nor did I have the time to be able to do that.
So flying into Pennsylvania from Texas was out!
Since the procedure to get sworn in as the executor of the will with Blair County in Pennsylvania was remote, via FaceTime, I elected to stay in Texas and then tried to get the Estate account setup without having to go there.
I spoke with the bank - Investment Savings Bank - that my aunt and uncle did their banking with about what needed to be done to open it, and they said I had to be there in person.
My only other option - at the time - was to open an account here in Texas and with a letter with the appropriate documentation, they could close the checking and savings accounts, cut a check and mail it to me for deposit.
I visited Chase Bank, where I've been doing my banking since they acquired Texas Commerce Bank, early last week and they came back and told me that there was a Commonwealth law that Estate accounts for wills in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania must be at Pennsylvania banks.
The rationale of using Chase was that since they have branches in Pennsylvania, any check presented on the Estate to a Pennsylvania business wouldn't be an out-of-state check. But, to no avail.
Like Willie Nelson, I was "On The Road Again".
When I went to leave the hotel Sunday morning in Lexington, Kentucky, the indicator on the back right tire was that it was low on pressure, but it wasn't flat. I went and aired it up, and then proceeded to head in the direction of the airport in Lexington to exchange it out.
While waiting on hold on the phone en route, I noticed that the psi number went up from 48 to 49 and that it was holding.
Exercising a great deal of faith, I decided to press on to Pennsylvania. Much to my relief - and surprise, it basically held all the way and it was at 40 psi this morning.
(Oh, I had called the Budget office in State College and they didn't have a car in my class to swap out. They also said that they would just put air in it as any patching had to be sent out from Roadside Assistance.)
I surmised that the tire was slowly leaking the entire time since the car was put into service. When I got the car on Friday, it had about 7,600 miles on it. (Not anymore!)
That gets you caught up to today, Tuesday.
On Monday, the good folks at Investment Savings Bank (ISB) were super helpful in helping me get the Estate account set up and monies transferred over from my aunt and uncle's checking, savings and Christmas Club accounts.
The first order of business was to go to another local bank to get the payoff amount for a loan where the house was noted as collateral.
That's what I did Tuesday morning.
It took about 10-15 minutes to handle everything when I realized I forgot one thing: I wanted to get $5 worth of quarters in case I needed to air the tire up on the way home. I didn't want to have to ask every convenience store in the south to make change to do so -- especially in a national coin shortage!
So I hadn't even left the building, waited my turn behind another customer and then spoke to the same young lady who worked with me to accept a large check to pay off a loan and she said, "I can't do that since you're no longer a customer of the bank."
I was stunned. I got it, but it was one of those "Really?" moments.
I said, "Well, since I'm a customer of ISB, I'll just go right down the road" and left.
Needless to say, when I went to ISB, the folks there were more than a little surprised, but since I was a customer there, they gladly did it for me.
One of the many benefits of a smaller business.
However, that's not the best of it.
So I stopped at Sheetz and went to the machine to put air in my tire -- and their machine was free. Hashtag that as #thankful. Even though I had $5 worth of quarters.
I went inside, grabbed some items for a late breakfast / early lunch and headed back up Plank Road and got on 99 and started to head south - to head to Texas.
About two or three exits down, specifically exit 32 for Roaring Spring and Portage, I realized that I forgot to get the contents on my hotel room -- other than my laptop bag, which I always carry with me!
I was in such a good mood - for many reasons - that I almost came to Tennessee, where I stopped tonight, without my clothes and other belongings!
Google says I logged 713 miles from Altoona, Pennsylvania to Dickson, Tennessee tonight.
Very thankful I made it here with everything and all in once piece!
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