Next

Last year we received a tax invoice from Rusk County, Texas, for $83 and change. It was property tax, our share, on an oil well there that had been passed down from the Zeppa family. Dana was insistent that we pay it so we did and then I never followed up. She's got various small interests (they call them splits) in oil wells all over and although it doesn't add up to much it does generate a little income. But no one has done the work to keep track of it. There is no list anywhere, no spreadsheet, no central accounting. Mark, Dana's brother, turns out to be a sloppy lawyer. Smart, a nice guy, but crap at book keeping and tracking stuff. And he was the executor of Mom's estate. And Dana isn't any good at such.

I've begun to have an inkling at how things went from a multi-million dollar oil conglomerate to a company that exists only in memory and a ball cap with the logo on it that was stapled on a restaurant wall before I stole it.

After spending about 20 hours of work on the project I finally have things nailed down for that one well. We're going to get our $83 and change back and they can keep this year's invoice. Works out to about $4/hour paid from money that was our in the first place.

Money saved is money earned. I guess. I think the other two brothers just ignored the tax notice. Sloppy but smarter than me.

Meanwhile there are 11 more oil interests that have never been claimed. No one (AKA, brother Mark) ever bothered to send the paper work in to direct the money towards the right accounts (AKA, ours).

I've got all the paperwork and now just need to find out what to send where. And then wait three months while they get around to processing it. Eventually we'll be getting monthly checks. For something like $20.

Not like I have anything better to do.

Other than ride my bike. Think I might do that.

I give up

We bought a Samsung refrigerator shortly after we bought the house. It has an ice maker. Ice makers are notorious for breaking. Ours did but I had an appliance warranty for the house. I executed it and for $75 a repairman came out and fixed it. Then it broke again and I did the same thing. Then it broke again and I fixed it. Since then it has broken maybe a dozen times. I've replaced components and kept it going. The biggest problem is that it freezes up and then does all kinds of wonky things. Poorly managed thawing cycle. It broke a couple of days ago and I've been unable to fix it. A new component tray system would be $80ish or more and I'm not sure it is worth it.

Just went out to Amazon and bought four ice trays. I think we'll do that for a while. It won't work with these ice cubes, I don't think, but I'm fairly sure I can find cubes that will work in the door so we can just freeze them, dump them in the bin, and dispense them as normal.

I've got to move on with my life.

Speaking of which. I did the monthly financial analysis today (a couple of days late but things haven't changed that much). The investments are returning. I don't look between months. The house is holding its value. But much better. Even with inflation stealing so much of our money I've calculated that at the decay rate of our money I'll be broke when I'm 95 or so. I'm OK with that. Just need maybe one more pair of bike shoes before then. Long as I can ride...