AND STILL SHE LIVES

Peg rang to tell me that "Floradora" was coming over at two o'clock yesterday (no mention of me hanging up on her and no communication for over a week).

ME: Who?
PEG: You know. The Floradora woman.
ME: Do you mean Ann Spadafora, the realtor?
PEG: Yes. Shall I get her to call you when she gets here?
ME: Mama, I set the whole thing up. She and I are in touch.
PEG: So I should't have her call you?
ME: No. To say what?
PEG: So you can tell her what to do.
ME: She knows what to do! She's there to look at the house! 

So then afterwards Bonnie, with Peg on the extension (her new thing, unfortunately) rang to say the real estate lady came, with someone named Gerry to look at foundations and other butch stuff, and they both had a zillion questions about insulation, septic systems, flooring, the slate on the roof, none of which Peg knew the answers to, nor did I, precisely, but at least recalled stuff my father had told me over the years or I had processed by osmosis. The septic system will cost about $35,000 to update. Good luck, there.

No value on the house as yet, because there are no comps, there is nothing similar for sale in the area, at all, or even in the area period, so I imagine the bank will see what's sold in the past year on that street and assess it accordingly, meaning whatever the $4 trailer from Walmart down the road sold for, right?

Re the 2 land parcels:  they valued them at $48, 000 and $54,000, which just about tallies with what property guy told me--put it on the market for more, but accept the above. We either include in house sale or hold off and sell separately--in the unlikely event anyone thesedays wants land to build on, land being very "low" thesedays (of course!). A house on the same road as these plots has been on the market for three years, the realtors cite "traffic noise" as the issue. This is a dirt road, we're talking, not quite I-95 or the M11, but seems the Kushi Insititute at the dead end, a macrobiotic centre for "well being" or some rubbish (the Japanese owners used to hang out at the Becket General Store for doughnuts and coffee..) generates a lot of trucks and "students". And God forbid students pass your house, who'd want any of these, yuk.

Berkshire Bank is totally unhelpful regarding loans or advice. They offer neither. 

I have an appointment to ring Elder Services of Berkshire County tomorrow at 10 their time.

Peg, meanwhile, is doing sweet F.A to get anything in the house sorted, not going through letters, not going through clothes, leaving it all to me. No changes there. An email just came in on her account from her friend Steve entitled "Here's the information you wanted about fleas", which I deleted, after reading about flea larvae from a Wikipedia entry he'd cut and pasted for Peg, for reasons that escape me. Am pretty sure however that if I find the place full of fleas when I arrive, I'm turning right around and heading back to Logan.

Am now waking up in the middle of the night being angry with my mother and fretting about what to do with everything in her house. It's bad enough when I do this in the daytime.