February 6, 2013

Hope.  That’s my word for today.  And the word is notjust for me.  It’s for you too.  Hope, hope that you never have to make change of utilities calls to our area suppliers. Now don’t get me wrong.  They werenot all bad.  I would even venture to saythat everyone I spoke with was very pleasant. 

I had procrastinated on getting them switched fromJoe’s name to my name since the bills were still being paid.  However, some of them were being paidautomatically by being charged to his American Express so we could get thepoints.  The American Express is something that I need to deal with sooner rather than later, so I felt that today I needed to just bite the bullet and make some calls.  First came Duke Energy.  That was an easy one and within 5-10 minutes,it was all switched over to my name via a phone call.  I then called Time Warner Cable.  After pushing a multitude of buttons, I finally got a real human being and told him what I needed.  He informed me that I would have to dothat at  one of the offices.  Therefore I would need to make a drive.  Fortunately there is one here in Chapel Hill so I planned to go during lunch.  Next up was PSNC.  Again, it was a breeze.  10 minutes after the conversation began, it was switched to me and I had a new account number.  I then went ahead and filled out the two remaining sets of paperwork for Joe’s life insurance.  I had dreaded doing it, but it actually turned out to be rather easy and doing it at the office rather than home bymyself was  probably a very good thing.  So those two envelopes went out in today’s mail.

So that brought me to 1pm and my lunch time.  I hoped in the car and drove the few miles tothe TW Cable office.  Luckily, when I went in, there was no one in line so I immediately stepped up to the lady behind the counter.  First off, let me just say that she was very nice and expressed her sympathy for my loss.  Then in the next breathe she asked if I had a death certificate.  Fortunately for me, Igo nowhere without one these days and pulled one out of my pack of papers.  But I did stand there with what I’m sure was a bemused look on my face.  In order to have the cable switched to my name, even though I have identification that shows that I reside at the same address, I had to produce a death certificate….for cable television.  I can’t imagine that there is a big market out there for people who ask for cable television to be billed to them instead of the person living in a home.  I can see if I was asking for the service to be billed to someone else that it could easily be a case of fraud.  But I was saying “bill me, not Joe”.  Anyway, I filled out the appropriate forms, got the service switched to my name and in the process lowered the bill by $45 without losing any of the channels we already had.  Maybe it was the look on my face that did the trick.  Or maybe it was me saying, I need to lower this bill so I need you to find me some promotion going on.  Either way, I got it done.   So I feel a little proud of myself.  Two insurance papers completed and 3 utilities switched in one day without any drama. 

I still have details to take care of, but slowly the list is getting smaller.  Tomorrow is counseling at the Duke Cancer Center and maybe afterwards, I will get one more thing knocked off the list: DMV to have the titles & registrations for the 2 cars changed to just my name.  Mood after counseling and the line at DMV will be that deciding factor but I won’t think about that today.

I had a call last night from the chaplain at Duke that Joe and I made friends with and visited with us each time he was hospitalized.  She is a very dear woman and in a short time we had grown very fond of her.  She had planned on calling to see if Joe and I would be interested in being interviewed for a segment on “Good MorningAmerica” about the role that faith plays in the healing process for chronically and  terminally ill patients.  Duke was contacted about the segment and had chosen her and one other chaplain to do the interviews.  She had immediately thought of me and Joe and had looked up our number in his file.  It was then that she learned of his death.  We talked for about 30 minutes and it was very emotional for me.  She asked if I would be willing to let her know sometime when I am at the DCC so that she might be able to talk with me some more and of course I agreed.  I always enjoyed talking with her and can’timagine that it could do anything but help. So one day soon, on my own schedule, I will get up with her and have a talk in person.
So that’s been my last two days.  I had dinner with Matt, Carrie & Cleona Fry on Monday night (thank you for dinner but a bigger thank you for the sugarfrom Cleona) and tonight I’m having dinner with Tim, Anna & Emmie Clark.  Looking forward to getting to spend time with them and of course, more baby sugar!  Nothing puts a smile on your face or warms your heart more than a beautiful child!!!

Thank you to everyone for your prayers andconcern.  Please keep them coming.

P.S.  When I got home from work this evening my cable, internet service and phone were all not working.  Apparently they turned off Joe's account but forgot to turn mine on.  So far my cable and internet are back working, but the phone is still out.  Sigh...........