Kevin,

We have tried to make preliminary arrangements to deal with emergencies re: grandpa & grandma. Specifically, should grandma M. die or be hospitalized during our trip you guys will be the only legally competent ones available to make decisions. Dad cannot survive without mom to care for him. He will have to be coaxed or dragged into a respite program until we come back. There is a Primrose care program in Santa Rosa that will work and I would suggest starting there. Mom has made arrangements with the next door neighbor to check up on them, and given her your phone numbers.

Plane crashes and Sarin attacks: If we don’t return you are on your own. I have tried to educate you both on the implications of the estate tax and real estate operation over the years. We have a will -not a trust- and the probate will be drawn out and expensive. The estate taxes will be crushing (although mom does have pretty extensive life insurance coverage that will help). Analise at J.C. Armstrong is our accountant and should be retained to deal with the IRS. Cousin Leslie Hammond in Portland is executor of the estate.

Whatever happens: I suspect we are heading into economic and political times without precedent in the U.S.A. Although mom and I are well positioned to withstand any downward economic spiral there will be implications.

As you know, shelling out over $ 50,000 a year for your rather desultory stabs at a college education does present us with cash flow planning issues. A recession or depression could reduce cash flow from the properties by a considerable amount. Entering the job market (for white males with rather underwhelming academic credentials) promises to be a nightmare.

You had your chance to obtain a degree with some prestige behind it, and you chose instead to fritter away your Ivy acceptances by attending what should have been your safety school. Being in denial about drug dependence, and unwillingness to attempt to deal with it adds an additional strike.

You will either get it together or you won’t. Nothing we can do about that. But the parameters for each of you being able to stay in the status quo remain as we have outlined to each of you.

Whether enforced by ourselves or Cousin Leslie, the pressure to perform in your current "jobs" at the highest level of effort and commitment will not abate in the cash flow crunch of a recession/depression, or a 5 year probate during which Cousin Leslie will control distribution of every penny.

The foregoing having been said, you guys have done a lot right and we trust you completely to do the best for grandma and grandpa (either in the short or long run).

Grandma and grandpa think you both walk on water (further evidence of their inreasing lack of touch with reality), and will probably follow your guidance. I omit the Santa Cruz grandparents as they have legions of nearby or available children and relatives to deal with any emergency and make necessary decisions.

–Dad