Wills and Mortgages

Kent and I signed our wills yesterday. Actually, it was more than that. It was power of attorney, life and death decisions for hospital visitation, etc. In all, there were about ten documents we had to sign.

I asked our attorney if it would be beneficial for us to do a civil union in October. In Connecticut, gay couples will be able to get “civil unions” after October 1st. It’s not marriage, and yes, it dissolves once we cross the state line, but it does give most of the rights and privileges of marriage, at the state level. Of course, it’s not recognized by the federal government.

She said, “Who knows? The law has not been tested so there is no case law based on it. I knew of a gay couple who traveled to Kansas, and one had to go into the hospital. They presented their civil union papers to the hospital, and were able to have visitation, but legally, the hospital was under no obligation to honor the civil union because Kansas doesn’t not allow civil unions.”

We have decided not to get a civil union because it’s too demeaning. We haven’t stayed with each other for thirty years to have the State of Connecticut tell us that we just aren’t quite good enough for marriage. So, we will take our chances with these documents. As long as we are in Connecticut, we think we will be ok. If we travel outside the state of Connecticut, our lawyer said that we should take the papers with us to show that, at least in Connecticut, we have legal papers trying to protect what we have as a relationship. In other words, the documents are trying to say that, in the absence of marriage, that we are not “legal strangers”. Kind of depressing, if you think about it enough. So, I’m not going to think about it. I’ve done all I can do. The rest, when it happens, will depend on the compassion of strangers, I suppose. Legally, they can probably tell us to screw off.

Other things.....

We have decided that it does indeed make us feel better to SPEND MONEY (it’s like a drug). So, instead of spending it on organizations that seem to only care about money, we decided to spend some money on us. We are going to Europe next year, but in the here and now, we have decided to put down hardwood floors in our home. I’m sure the cats will not be pleased. But hopefully, they will like the end results. Hopefully, we will too.

The banks are all excited about the buzz around “Maxwell Manor” (our home) and what improvements we plan. Of course, I’m looking for .00053% interest rate. Think I’ll find that? Hummm??