dual personalities

I had a super quiet but weirdly topsy-turvy week. The DH and I had intended to take a little trip. We had to take the car to the dealer in Plattsburgh, which is 2 hours away, so we figured we could combine that with a visit to the Wild Center in Tupper Lake that we’d been planning to visit for a while. The Plattsburgh portion of the trip was necessary because for the past few months our barely-a–year-old car had been knocking, clanging and moaning like Marley’s ghost. It had become so alarming that I felt the need to take it to an actual Honda dealer rather than our local garage. Of course, as soon as I made the appointment the noise stopped and hasn’t come back since. Whatever rock, stick or scary monster had gotten stuck in the undercarriage evidently worked itself out. The car is at peace – or maybe just toying with us à la Christine, the demonic car.

Anyway, the appointment having been canceled, there was no longer any need to leave the comforts of home to “stay in some flea bitten hotel” as the DH so eloquently put it. Heat and a chance of scattered showers gave us the excuse to postpone the Tupper Lake part of the trip, so we stayed home and kept working.  

While we have been plodding along, our three sons have been busy, busy, busy. Our eldest, beating his deadline by a hair, will move into his new apartment this weekend; our middle son and his wife found a better house and will move in the next few weeks, and our youngest found a new job that he’ll start it in a week! I’ve been trying to remember a time when I had such energy but I cannot.

If anything exciting happens today or tomorrow, I’ll update the post – but don’t hold your breath. In the meantime, have a great weekend!

Last week, I didn’t blog because I was at the Unclaimed Property Auction in Kansas City. Unclaimed Property is one of the many things I’ve learned about as a state employee. Sadly, I have yet to discover $30,000 of long lost money (just $58 in the state of New York). But I digress.

The auction is an annual event (although this was the first since 2019) where the Treasurer’s Office auctions off items found in abandoned safe deposit boxes that have been turned over to the office. The earnings from the sale are kept in perpetuity for the owner.

I spent three full days with the Unclaimed Property staff, helping out where I could and creating some pretty great social content. It was a lot of work and long days–but also a fascinating event. I already knew about the random stuff you can find in a safe deposit box. I mean, you expect family heirlooms, documents, valuables like jewelry and coins. But you also find stuff that makes you scratch your head. A full clown costume–from the wig to the shoes. A DVD copy of The Notebook. A NASCAR hat signed by Richard Petty. And then there’s this:

“”You’re the department?”

She saluted. “Unclaimed property manager. I’m my own branch of the Wyoming State Treasury Department.”

“I have to ask. What kind of stuff do you find?”

She looked back out the windshield. “All kinds of things. We found an 1863 ambassadorial appointment signed by Abraham Lincoln, and just last week I found an old collection of Nazi campaign ribbons from World War II. Pocket watches, stocks, bonds…There was this one in Gillette that had a complete change of clothes, a ski mask, and a pistol.” I turned and looked at her. “Then there are the polaroids. We’ve got a stack of nude snapshots that is over a foot tall.””

Death Without Company, Craig Johnson

That’s right. Unclaimed Property even plays a (minor) role in one of the Longmire books. I sent a longer version of that passage to our Unclaimed Property Director and his response was “Hilarious. We could have wrote that.” He isn’t wrong. In fact, we have also found a ski mask, a change of clothes, and a handgun. A couple of months ago, we found a civil war-era journal kept by a soldier that contained a passage about President Lincoln reviewing the troops.

The auction draws serious collectors from around the country–yes, really–who mostly come for the coins and jewelry. Some of it will be melted down, other bits added to collections. I find it all interesting and sad at the same time–the heirloom jewelry that is kind of hideous, the fake Rolex watches they thought were real, the real Rolex they never wore because it was in a safe deposit box. Each item was important enough to someone that they wanted to keep in a bank and then it still ended up totally lost.

It’s a good reminder to always document if you have a safe deposit box so that it doesn’t get lost. And, of course, check ShowMeMoney.com (or unclaimed.org if you’re out of state) to see if you have any Unclaimed Property!

*Brooklyn 99, of course

Earlier this week I made meatloaf for dinner — or at least tried to. I got it ready ahead of time and put it in the fridge, and then became deeply engrossed in a writing project. At the appropriate time, I took a break to put the oven on. Eventually, the DH arrived home from the office and I went to prepare potatoes and veg. When I opened the oven door to check the meatloaf, I was surprised to discover… nothing. How could this be? Where was the meatloaf? I found it in the fridge, where I had left it. Oops. My husband, who remained unperturbed, calmly suggested that we have bacon and eggs and save the meatloaf for the next day. So, we did. It all worked out, and hey, at least I didn’t do this:

In other beef related news, I saw a good movie on Netflix called Operation Mincemeat. I’m not saying it stands among the greats but compared to 99% of other new movies it was wonderful. Anyway, I thought it struck all the right chords, and it’s a true story!

It’s 1943 and the Allies are getting ready to invade Sicily. Rear Admiral John Godfrey and Lieutenant Commander Ian Fleming (yes, the author who created James Bond) write a memo suggesting a way to hoodwink the Germans into believing that the attack will come in Greece rather than Sicily. Committee twenty (as in XX or double cross) is tasked with carrying out the deception, which involves finding an appropriate corpse, creating a backstory for it, putting Top Secret material in a briefcase attached to its wrist and then dumping it in the sea off Spain in such a way that the Nazis are certain to find it. Political problems, love triangles and plenty of nail-biting ensue. The movie has a good script, excellent cast (Colin Firth, Jason Isaacs, Penelope Wilton and Matthew MacFadyen), no violence to speak of and no sex. It was refreshingly normal. Back in 2020, my DP posted about an earlier version of the story that I have not seen, the 1956 film The Man Who Never Was starring Clifton Webb. If you are interested in Operation Mincemeat, you can watch this documentary to find out more.

It’s our anniversary today and also happens to be my turn to cook dinner. If you can recommend easy but delicious recipes that don’t involve long periods of inactivity during which I can get distracted and then forget to cook the rest, I’d be delighted if you’d put them in the comments.

Have a great weekend and stay cool!