THE WEISS CHRONICLES

Atlanta Day 3 May 27)

K and I went to the Fulton County Courthouse Annex in the am. We were driving northbound on Roswell Road looking for some flags which would tell us it was the courthouse annex. It turns out the annex has some flags (the US and Georgia - the flag on the left is Geogia) but a number of apartment complexes, etc. have flags that are much bigger and higher than the flags at the courthouse. The confusion of flags led us to pass the place and have to double back. The annex was, at least, not at all crowded and we signed the document we needed quickly. We also went by K's bank and deposited some documents (from John's house) in her safe deposit box.

Atlanta Day 2 (May 26)

We started with a bang. Ann overcooked an egg in the microwave (two weeks ago, G had tried to toast something in the microwave the previous time he was in Atlanta (in a room on the 8th floor - we were in room 712 at the Lenbrook). G had also blown apart an egg in a microwave back in 1995 or 96.

Later in the day we met with the people across the street from John (on Wimbledon Road) and went through all the rooms and picked off about two suitcases full of clothes and memorabilia and papers. Then we went to the cemetary where John and his father are buried. Then we went back to the Lenbrook and I waded through the papers getting the most recent billings, bank statements, security statements, etc. Then we met Beryl and Margie Diamond for coffee.

Big day.

We've had a lot of rain lately - almost 8" in the first half of May. The office of one of my collegues has been leaking and building management has a fan going full time (somewhat noisy) to try to dry it out. Fortunately, our household sump pumps and other drainage management measures have worked and I've seen no mega pavement failures in the general neighborhood.

The chart shows that the Potomac River not too far from the house has been flowing at far above the normal rate. In fact, according to the USGS point-site information, the discharge on May 13, 2008 was a record for the past 78 years which is somewhat misleading because in March 1936 (just over 78 years ago) there was a flood about over four times the 2008 'record'. I'm presuming the 1936 flood moved a lot of material and changed the streambed structure so that comparisons between current and pre-1936 hydrological events aren't very meaningful.

The Search for a Notary Public

Last week, on Friday, I received a document from the law firm in Atlanta that is handling the probate of the John Byers Lindsey will.

I proposed to bring it in to work today and get the notary at the credit union to do the notary work but George wanted it done Sunday so we could expedite it (also we had some other tasks Sunday and G may have wanted to visit with the roomate of one of his friends who is a notary public). So Saturday night we called G's friend (Al) who is a notary public. Al said he would be in Kemp Mill Sunday picking up his son for a visit (Al is divorced). G and Al agreed that they would meet in Kemp Mill at 100 pm at the home of Al's ex-wife (Cheryl). We called Al as we were nearing Kemp Mill. He was on the way but would be delayed, however, he said that Cheryl was also a notary public and could do the job and he would alert Cheryl.

When we arrived Cheryl greeted us at the door (the house had trim the color of this post) but in her last call from Al (about 2 minutes before we arrived), Al hadn't mentioned us. We introduced ourselves. She agreed to do the Notary work at no charge and served us tea and pastries (how about that for a nice notary public - I wonder if we wrote the Notary Public society would they commend her or reprimand her?). When we started she realized that she had left her Maryland seal at work so we ended up waiting for Al anyway (he arrived at about 145pm).

G Back from Atlanta

I drove out to Dulles to pick up George who had finished some administrative work expediting management of the estate of John Lindsey.

Based on a cell phone exchange, I expected to meet him at one of the exits. He wasn't there. I drove to cell phone holding area. United Airlines baggage wasn't getting to the baggage claim area because it is a long way from the gate areas to the baggage claim and, apparently, the conveyor belt or whatever the airport has to move baggage to the claim area wasn't working well. After a long time they said he said he had been told that the baggage had been scanned and placed on the conveyor belt. G reasoned that he would have it in a few minutes and communicated this to me by cell phone (I was still waiting at the cell phone holding area) but this turned out to be wrong. I then waited at the airport Marriot hotel which was more pleasant than the cell phone holding area. After about 40 minutes from the time I first drove by the terminal exit, G told me he had submitted a baggage claim and I went and picked him up and we went home without the baggage. Because of the delay we were caught in pm peak traffic. The baggage handler agent finally called about 1100 pm and said they were outside our house (the United Airline baggage people had told G at about 630pm that it would be there in two hours). I got out to look and no one was in front of our house. I looked up the street and saw something that looked like baggage 3 doors away and called out to them. Yup. That worked.

The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, who is the force behind some of these errors is the group that is lauded as supremely qualified to construct the $4 billion Orange line extension of the metrorail from Vienna to the Dulles airport.

uh oh

Nationals Game

I went with Richard Weinstein, courtesy of tickets from Stanley Cohen.

It was a rare day game win with Tim Redding (shown left) the winning pitcher. Among the highlights were that Ryan Zimmerman didn't play (at his own request, he wanted a day off because he is in a slump). This broke his streak of consecutive games played at 205 (at the time it was the 2nd highest streak of an active player in MLB). Redding retired the first 9 batters he faced. The 10th, Nate McLouth got a hit to right but was thrown out at second - there was a hit later in the inning.

I had discussed Jon Rauch with Rich. Jon is, a National's relief pitcher and the tallest player to ever play in the MLB (at 6'11"). He is also the tallest player to ever hit a home run (Aug 13, 2004 vs. Clemens). I told Rich it was likely that Jon would pitch since in 2007, Jon had appeared in over 50% of all Nationals games (88 game appearance and led the team in wins with 8). However, Rauch didn't appear in this game the 3 relievers they did use performed well).