Jerry et al, thanks more than I can convey for all of the support and understanding. The outpouring from all of you is beyond words. No time to quote each person who replied, but chose Jerry's response for a reason: we got home early afternoon yesterday. Was a brutal trip and I pushed that dilapidated old U-Haul van harder than it's probably ever been pushed. Total elapsed travel time was just a couple hours over 2 days. Pretty good time considering I was travelling with a semi-infirm 83 year old mother who suffered a massive stroke a few years ago. She still has some fight left in her though because she hung in there like a trooper and said to just keep pushing the drive so we could get to the end of the trip.
Long story short, there are three of us left: myself, mom, and a sibling who will remain unnamed. Said sibling has just kinda been hanging out for the past few years waiting for mom to die thinking her death would secure his retirement. He is 3 years older than I am, owns absolutely nothing, does not have a dime to his name, and worked under the table most of his life and has not paid anything into Social Security. In the meantime he has managed to "procure" (read into that what you will) almost everything mom has. All of her money and everything of value (except the house) are gone. Unknown to me until a week ago, she has been living in squalor with no food, no phone (until I paid the bill for her recently) and no AC all Summer. She's been getting one leftover meal a day from one of her neighbors and that's it. Another neighbor and close friend discovered this early last week and went to the store and bought mom a ton of food so she at least had some stuff to eat for the last few days before loading her up and heading to TX. It's been a crazy week but the pieces are in place for mom to start a new life here, and she is happy as a clam. Was so cool to see her reaction yesterday seeing the house then out to the patio. Very happy proclamations from her then a seat at one of the patio tables where she just sat there all afternoon and into the evening soaking up the surroundings. Still a TON of work for Tracy and I getting all of her affairs in order in VA and transferring it all to TX, selling the house, the car, and liquidating everything else to offset some of the expenses of the assisted living facility she will be moving into. Thanks once again to my huge extended family here in SMF. you all are awesome!! Got some stuff to deal with this morning and when things calm down, I'll try to get the voting poll posted when mom lays down for a nap later. As somebody once told me a long time ago: be nice to your kids because they will be the ones picking your retirement facility

Of course, the reality of that really hit home with this ordeal.
Well y'all take care and I'll try to do some catching up later. Some great food threads and just happy stuff in the forum I'd like to jump in on.
Retired Spook
, not trying to single you out, but LOVE the movie thread

So many great movies being noted that I need to go back and revisit.
Robert