The first week of the last month of the year

The first week of December arrived today and I have been trying to get December off to a rolling start. Of course, the usual people calling in to complain and other folks wanting this or that right now have been calling me. Nevertheless, I have been pushing on and trying to try to get things in their proper orbit. Something like the guy who used to appear on the Ed Sullivan show to spin plates on sticks over his head. You get them all working, then work further to keep them up there. You know how that is.

Tomorrow will be a busy day. Tomorrow is foreclosure day, as you probably already know by now. I am scheduled to perform cryouts in Athens, Toccoa, Hiawasee, Dawsonville, Cartersville, Rome and LaFayette. Those are just the ones I will perform. I have also arranged for others to be cried out in Perry, Columbus, Barnesville, Griffin, Newnan and Carrollton. It should be a busy day. No doubt.

Preparing for my cryouts these days is becoming like a general preparing for battle on numerous fronts. This month, the law firm in Decatur sent us twenty separate foreclosure sales, all spread from Columbus to Perry and northeast to Toccoa and northwest to LaFayette. Patti and I sat down in the conference room and tried to determine which counties were feasible for one person. I usually take the ones to the far north and east, since I have more expertise in that part of the state. Based on the counties involved, it would be prudent to start in Monroe, then to Winder, Athens and Toccoa on the South Carolina line. Then I will travel westward to Gainesville and Dawsonville. If I have the time to travel, perform the cryouts and travel again, I should be able to finish in Cartersville and drive home in the afternoon. I might even be able to eat lunch somewhere. Looking at the map, I decided to send Patti to Newnan, Carrollton and then north to Rome and LaFayette. That would provide a straight shot west and then north to the Tennessee border. Lisa will do the Spalding County cryouts first, travel to Barnesville, then Perry, and finish up in Columbus on the Alabama line. With that we should be able to complete all of our tasks and get home at a reasonable hour. That is a lot of driving, talking and shivering in the cold. Just the price we pay for the small amount of money they pay.

Today has been a day of handling little matters and trying to keep the balls rolling.
Sometimes the day becomes such a struggle for no other reason than the people who call you are calling about matters which are more trouble than they are worth. For instance, I received a call from someone with the tax commissioner's office in which they had received a check from us for payment of a tax lien. They informed us that the liens were not for real property tax liens but were for personal property liens on a business fir which the tax person did not have any information. The tax person did not know whether the business was a going concern, for which taxes might be payable. The tax person did not have any information about the business. The tax person wanted to apply the check we sent to the oldest tax payments, but really didn't know whether or not the taxes were due. This is a situation in which the candor of the person calling creates a problem.

I asked the tax person whether or not she wanted to send the check back to us. "Oh no!" she said, "I just want to apply it to the correct lien."

"But if you don't know if the tax is due, why don't you send it back to me?" I queried.

"Well, we want to apply the funds to the liens. We just want to talk to the taxpayer to see if she is still in business."

"Now you are telling me that these taxes are for personal property taxes and not real property taxes, correct?"

"That's true."

"Well then it sounds like these liens were not against the property and we should get the money back to give to the taxpayer."

"Well, I don't know. We want to apply the funds to the oldest tax liens."

"But you don't know if the taxes are even due at this point."

"That's true. But we just want to apply the funds to the oldest liens."

"Well, that is fine. Why don't I call the taxpayer and have her call you?"

"That's not necessary. I just want to find out if her business is still operating."

"But if I don't contact her, how will we know if her business is still operating?"

"Well, it is our policy to apply the money to the oldest lien."

"If you apply the funds to the oldest lien, then the chances are better that the business will have closed before the latest liens went of record, right?"

"Well, that's true."

"So, why don't I get my secretary to pull our file and find her telephone number and then have her contact you?"

"That will be fine."

So, after more than a little confusion, I finally got her to agree to do what I asked her to do in the first place.

Tomorrow is another day of travel and reading on chilly courthouse steps. I anticipate that it will be quite cold tomorrow. Today is rather cold. I don't think we will get any respite overnight.