AVR Weekly News ~ 488th Edition

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by 
Kimberly @ Caffeinated Reviewer. 
~ Recap the past week ~ 
~ Show what's upcoming ~ 
~ Share news ~ 
~ Display book hauls ~

• Sunday ~ Meme ~ AVR Weekly News ~ 487th Edition
• Wednesday ~ Tour Spotlight ~ The Time Trials by Jon and Dayna McConnell

 

• Monday ~ Review ~ The Prisoner of Fear by Chad Miller
• Wednesday ~ Tour Review ~ The Thirteenth Hour by Trudie Skies
• Friday ~ Meme ~ Friday Featured Spotlight ~ BBNYA Finalists 9 & 8
• Sunday ~ Meme ~ AVR Weekly News ~ 489th Edition

Hello and Happy Sunday!

On the Home Front: 

• Sunday - Talked with Irene's friend Gena in the afternoon.
• Monday - Did stuff.
• Tuesday - Trip had a dental appt in the morning. Finished Kyle's taxes.
• Wednesday - Finished our taxes. Just need to do Anna's now. Worked on the blog.
• Thursday - Heating and Cooling guy came out in the morning to do the Spring maintenance. All good until Fall. Made a quick run to Food Lion after getting our Pokestop.
• Friday - Took hubby's car in for an oil change (which meant breakfast at the little diner next door yum) then Trip and I did some errands and grocery shopping. Started the weekly and the 1st weekend of the month cleaning because rain is heading our way. Some day I will have a roof over the back deck and it won't matter.
  
• Saturday - Got the rest of the cleaning done. Then started on this post. My computer is running really s-l-o-w and pissing me off.
  
• Today - I need to write up a review and really a few more. I also need to finish a book and get that review done before the week of the 10th. I also want to do some blog visiting. I've been very slack about that and feel terrible.

• I'm still taking Kyle to work every morning since he is working 8 hrs but hubby is working 10.

**This week's episode of Irene's Place**

Wow. So stuff has been happening this week. Get comfy.

I researched online the lady who is paying the property taxes for Irene's place. I figured it had to be her friend from NJ, that our neighbor had told me about. Thank goodness her last name was uncommon! When I thought I had the correct person's email I sent out an inquiry. She got back to me and after a couple of emails she said she would call Sunday. So I talked with her for about an hour on Sunday afternoon, getting info on how she and Irene had become friends and then when Irene moved to NC in 1996 they kept in touch via phone and email. Anyway, she was paying the taxes so the state wouldn't get the property. And Irene had stated she wanted her property to go to Gena. But a will was needed. Back when Irene died, Gena hired a local attorney to get permission from the court to search for a will. Because Covid had backed the courts up in 2020, when Irene died in May 2021 and Gena hired the attorney it took over a year to make it's way through the court system. In the meantime, Gena paid the property taxes and tried to pay the electric bill but months had passed and the electric got shut off. However, about a month or so ago, there were lights on in the house. WTF I'll come back to that.

So, I sent Gena the obituary I had found for Irene's brother (who had a daughter and son). Gena said that Irene's whole family was estranged (I could tell by the fact she wasn't included in the obituary) and that Irene was an extreme recluse. She had two friends, Gena for over 3 decades, and a woman in Raleigh that Irene met at a Comic-Con. But even Gena didn't know much about Irene's family. So, I told her about all the happenings and she said she would relay everything to the attorney on Monday. I also suggested maybe she should ask for some kind of flag on Irene's SS# in case her identity had been stolen.

Gena called Tuesday and asked if we could report the lights being on since she couldn't do it as she was not there to witness it. I told her that when my husband went to work at 4am I'd have him call me if they were still on and I'd report them.

So, Weds morning he called and said the lights were still on. I called the sheriff's dept, explained the situation, and a deputy was dispatched. The deputy called me and said the doors were locked, there was a light on upstairs and one down, but it didn't appear that anyone was inside. I told him about the electricity situation and he said he did not hear a generator so that wasn't it. He told me he was one of the ones out there on the 17th when the guy with 7 arrest warrants was arrested. He said the sooner someone moves into the place the better because even though they would do periodic checks, it's better to have the place occupied. I said we wished. In any case, having new neighbors directly across the street was now fortuitous. They literally can see everything about the place. So, I called Gena and told her about my morning. lol She then told me that she had talked with the attorney and said on the 23rd a contractor was sent out there and searched Irene's house and there was no purse, no computer, and other stuff had been stolen. He did not find a will in her files. If she had a lockbox, he didn't find it. A big nothingburger. If you remember I encountered a deputy on the 23rd who must have thought the guy was representing the inheritors. But since no one had inherited the place yet, he was actually from the attorney's office. So finding a will was a bust. Now it was a matter of finding her niece and nephew.

After getting off the phone with Gena I decided to give Duke Energy a try. After explaining the situation I was transferred to another dept and explained everything again then the lady I talked with said she would put in a work order for a crew to investigate. Because no one was paying a bill for that address. In otherwords, if there was electricity, it was being stolen. She said if they discovered the house was live then they would cut it at the pole and remove the meter. Which they did that afternoon. But hang on, here's the big news...

I got an email from Gena Weds afternoon. She was inspired by my internet sleuthing and decided to see if she could go further. She discovered Irene's nephew lived only about 15 minutes from her, found his phone number, and called him! Then he said she needed to talk with his uncle in Texas. Wut?! We thought Irene only had 2 brothers and both were dead, one long ago and one in 2014. But she had 2 more brothers! Both alive! Wow. Mind blown. After talking with the brother in Texas Gena was convinced he was truly related to Irene, so she let me and my neighbor know. The brother called me later that afternoon and I talked with him for quite awhile. He's furious the house was broken into and gobsmacked that Irene never contacted them that she had cancer and surgery (really that she cut all contact with everyone), but all he really cares about now are recovering any family photos and heirlooms that Irene inherited when their mother died. Honestly, when they provide their proof of identity to the court and it goes through probate they may as well sell it as is. The house is either going to need a ton of money dumped into it or just tear it down. Which is a shame because it was built in 1865. But it's clear Irene didn't have the money to keep it up and it's only gotten worse since it's been unoccupied. But she did have 12 acres with a pond and a nice-sized barn, so we'd actually love to buy it. And I know the neighbor does, too. So it's going to be interesting. LOL

To sum it up, the brothers were contacted over a month ago by an investigator and told their sister had died. They hired an attorney in NC to look into things then Gena contacted them out of the blue. They are going to go with the attorney she hired and provide all the necessary paperwork. The brother in Texas really wants to head to NC and after making sure it's ok with the attorney he said he will. I told him to make sure to call and let us know so we don't call the police on him and I told him I would help him clean the house up. The neighbor and I had intended to do that way back in 2021, but it seemed like there was never time. Now it's been nearly 2 years and I'm sure the perishable food and dog poop/pee and everything else is really nasty. Ugh. I updated the new neighbors across the street about this new development, too.

An exciting week but finally some decent progress.

Mom's week: Doing well. Had a 2nd immunotherapy infusion and no side effects so far. Her weight is also back up to 121. Yay! She's figuring out what is good puréed and what is not. Swiss cheese is so not, btw and green beans need to be strained because of those pesky strings. lol But cheddar does well in soup. She said the chef at the Inn is lovely about providing her special diet and they are learning together. He made her some ice cream with strawberries and said he would strain the strawberries too in case there were still seeds. You gotta love an assisted living place that goes out of their way for your loved one.

Touching Nature: It's Spring. What can I say?

Book News: I have nothing to report here. Except frustration and tears. I also have not spent my birthday money on books yet. Grrrr

Don't Touch That Dial!:  Murdoch Mysteries season 5.

At the Flicks: Nope

Cyberspace Playground: Wordle, Zen Match, jigsaw puzzles

Randomness:  

Carol's Nuggets of Wisdom:  Do up a will. Tell someone (or several someones) where it is. Do not leave a mess behind for other people to deal with.

That's it for me. AVR News Update signing off. May all your books enthrall you.

From the library

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Where They Lie

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Gaze twice, click once.

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