Inheritance etiquette PSA

rwellner98 said:
I have a coffee table that I got in Mexico that I absolutely love. It's made from railroad ties and rails, and is about the same weight as your piano.
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If a friend asks me to help them move, and I know they purposely own the heaviest crap imaginable, like this, I'm turning them down. We're getting old, best pay someone to load your heavy crap. Better yet, pay someone to move it all.
 
Fiveslide said:
If a friend asks me to help them move, and I know they purposely own the heaviest crap imaginable, like this, I'm turning them down. We're getting old, best pay someone to load your heavy crap. Better yet, pay someone to move it all.
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My answer for the last 30 years has been "I'll help you pack/load your unique stuff, but that's where it stops." Unique stuff being airplane projects, car projects, workshop, tools, stuff like that. Pots, pans, sofas, dressers, and beds? Let your fingers do the walking...
 
Fiveslide said:
If a friend asks me to help them move...
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Years ago, a friend asked for help moving, would provide pizza, and it would be quick if enough showed up. I was the only one who showed up! Her fiancé had a bad back! I ****ing moved her! It was the last time I ever helped someone move.
 
Pugs said:
Unlike old church instruments. That’s an organ transplant. :D
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I know one contractor was soooo helpful in removing a church organ. During renovations the contractor kept piling up oily rags. Eventually, flash, smoke, flames, and poof, the new organ was dissappeared in a cloud of fire and smoke. :mad:

(the contractor's insurance paid for the new pipe organ since the one he destroyed was less than 10 years old)
 
Mahneuvers said:
Years ago, a friend asked for help moving, would provide pizza, and it would be quick if enough showed up. I was the only one who showed up! Her fiancé had a bad back! I ****ing moved her! It was the last time I ever helped someone move.
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This exact scenario has happened to me.
 
Zeldman said:
Hire somebody that knows how.?? :lol:
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My brother-in-law hired a piano mover online in Madison, Wisconsin. They required a down payment. He paid the money, and they never showed up. Lost the down payment.

My sister is moving into a duplex and selling her house, and she has a grand piano to move. When I told her the story about the scam, she said the mover was a farmer who was recommended by her piano tuner. I think she'll be ok.
 
Fiveslide said:
Better yet, pay someone to move it all.
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That can come with its own problems. Our inventory of broken items from last year's professional cross-country move ran 4 pages. Two weeks ago, a restoration shop picked up 14 pieces of damaged furniture for repair/refinishing. NorthAmerican is footing the bill for most of it, but still...
 
GaryM said:
That can come with its own problems. Our inventory of broken items from last year's professional cross-country move ran 4 pages. Two weeks ago, a restoration shop picked up 14 pieces of damaged furniture for repair/refinishing. NorthAmerican is footing the bill for most of it, but still...
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Around 1980, I sold an unrestored player grand piano to a guy in CA (I'm on the east coast). At the time, in CA, such a piano would sell for about $15,000 unrestored, $50,000 when restored, and remember that is in 1980 dollars. On the east coast it wasn't worth anywhere near that. I think he paid $2000 or so. He hired a moving company to bring it to CA. And you guessed it, the mover didn't know what they were doing. The piano wasn't properly secured and arrived as a pile of kindling... a very expensive pile. For a coast to coast move, I didn't have any recommendations wrt who to hire. He was bummed but didn't blame me since he was the one that arranged for the move. It was sad to hear that the piano was destroyed, it would have been a very nice player grand.
 
I was offered the family piano (a non-descript console). My sister was the one who took tons of piano lessons and she took it primarily for her daughters. I already had a Fender Rhodes (bought used about the time I graduated from college) and a few other keyboards. I ended up buying an Yamana DC5A grand piano. When my sister bought her mansion, she put in a DC3M4. I had to point out that mine was bigger. I don't know where the old console went. There was also a Lowery (Holiday TLOK) organ that played all through high school, but it died in my parents basement after they moved.
Bob Noel said:
It's actually pretty easy to move even the old clunky upright pianos... the key is to know how.
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Grands are actually easier than any upright (if you know how). The problem with these old uprights is that they nearly always have ZERO value and you can't even given them away. It's right up there with the square grands. Nobody wants them. Just because it's old doesn't make it good.
 
Pugs said:
Unlike old church instruments. That’s an organ transplant. :D
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I've moved pipe organs. The two heaviest parts are the console and the blower. Pipe chests aren't too bad and the pipes themselves individually come out.
 
A square grand can serve as an excellent workbench
 
GaryM said:
That can come with its own problems. Our inventory of broken items from last year's professional cross-country move ran 4 pages. Two weeks ago, a restoration shop picked up 14 pieces of damaged furniture for repair/refinishing. NorthAmerican is footing the bill for most of it, but still...
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While we're still unpacking, our experience so far has been the opposite. Moving between two ~3,500 sq ft houses, with a garage shop. Found very little broken. The spike for one of my German helmets (replica) was lost, somehow, but that might have gotten mixed in with the packing material that I discarded. Gotta fire up the 3-D printer.

We were totally lazy, we let the moving company pack everything up. Won't say I regretted it, but into the downside now. Boxes contain big clumps of packing paper...unwrap a piece, and you might find anything from a wall decoration to a ballpoint pen. We stuff the packing paper into tall paper leaf bags and leave them for the weekly recycling pickup.

Boxes? I list them on Facebook Marketplace, and they're usually gone in a couple of hours.

Federal law didn't let them move firearms, so I packed them up and drove them down myself, along with the various Quakers I bought/built. Used a golf bag hard-case container for the long guns and the swords. It'd already been adapted to carry swords.

Ron Wanttaja
 
I’m expecting nothing. I think it’s all going to go to the grandchildren anyway! Our plan is pay for our kids’s college. They don’t need to be burdened with student loans. It was a huge relief not having student loans so I want to do the same for them.
 
Bob Noel said:
careful. There are some that might not want to know about the, ahem, parentage (questionable parentage, red-headed child if you know what I mean)
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Oh, Ancestry and 23andMe are doing a nice job of that already!
 
wanttaja said:
Federal law didn't let them move firearms . . .
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Actually the movers decided that the rules the feds created were not cost-effective to ahere to. So, the movers declined to move them and blamed a non-extant regulation. You can mail long arms securely to yourself through the USPS. FedEx and UPS will also ship hard-cased handguns. You can ship to yourself, or to a FFL holder. And if it is not a sale (IE a repair) the FFL holder can return the firearm by the same means. Call or visit first without the item as there are a whole set of specific rules you must follow.
 
billsgs126 said:
Actually the movers decided that the rules the feds created were not cost-effective to ahere to. So, the movers declined to move them and blamed a non-extant regulation. You can mail long arms securely to yourself through the USPS. FedEx and UPS will also ship hard-cased handguns. You can ship to yourself, or to a FFL holder. And if it is not a sale (IE a repair) the FFL holder can return the firearm by the same means. Call or visit first without the item as there are a whole set of specific rules you must follow.
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You're right, I simplified their comments too much. They said they didn't want to handle the hassle of following the rules, not that they couldn't do it. Since the move was less than 200 miles, transporting them myself wasn't a problem.

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Case includes two swords (visible), a Karabiner 98k with bayonet, and three Quakers (nonfiring replicas). Drove it down to the new address in the back of my Honda, with a ~3' long practice bomb wrapped in plastic leaf bags. REALLY didn't want to get stopped by the cops on that trip...

On the subject of movers breaking things, I have to post this picture...this large model of a brig came through the move unscathed.
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Ron Wanttaja
 
wanttaja said:
We were totally lazy, we let the moving company pack everything up. Won't say I regretted it, but into the downside now. Boxes contain big clumps of packing paper...unwrap a piece, and you might find anything from a wall decoration to a ballpoint pen. We stuff the packing paper into tall paper leaf bags and leave them for the weekly recycling pickup.
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Our problem with the packers was that the labelling was bizarre. One marked "POTS" could have anything from kitchenware to flower pots.

We had more fun with ServPro. When they brought back all my stuff after removing it to repair some water damage, I found:
1. That they'd had a moving blanket dry cleaned.
2. One of the ladders that tagged as mine and put into storage was actually theirs (I still have it in the hangar)
3. Inside about 20 feet of bubble wrap I found the cage from the top of a champagne bottle carefully packed.
 
wanttaja said:
Case includes two swords (visible), a Karabiner 98k with bayonet, and three Quakers (nonfiring replicas).
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Lemme know if you ever get tired of that Mauser. I've got 3. Still fire my Chilean modelo 1895, using ammo produced in the 1920's.
 
flyingron said:
Our problem with the packers was that the labelling was bizarre. One marked "POTS" could have anything from kitchenware to flower pots.
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My senior year of high school we had a really nice guy for our band director. He loved jokes and practical jokes. Unfortunately, he was fired after just two years.

A few students helped our band director pack his stuff.

We knew he loved practical jokes.

Can you see where this is going?

Yup, we were packing things and labelling the boxes. Some of the labels were correct, others not so much. We used different markers, we varied our penmenship. He didn't have ANY hope of knowing which labels correct and which were fake.

He didn't complain too much (neither did his wife), he understond the practical joke nature of it. After discovering the nature of the labels, he had the movers bring the boxes into the living room so that they could figure out where the boxes were supposed to go.
 
Bob Noel said:
My senior year of high school we had a really nice guy for our band director. He loved jokes and practical jokes. Unfortunately, he was fired after just two years.

A few students helped our band director pack his stuff.

We knew he loved practical jokes.

Can you see where this is going?

Yup, we were packing things and labelling the boxes. Some of the labels were correct, others not so much. We used different markers, we varied our penmenship. He didn't have ANY hope of knowing which labels correct and which were fake.

He didn't complain too much (neither did his wife), he understond the practical joke nature of it. After discovering the nature of the labels, he had the movers bring the boxes into the living room so that they could figure out where the boxes were supposed to go.
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A family member experienced an office move. Management, being *cost efficient*, rented the boxes and had the movers apply "Post-it-notes" on each as to the contents . . ..

Yup, 1,000 boxes at destination . . . 163 with notes still attached.
 
I worked for a PC peripherals manufacturer that grew like crazy. We moved offices multiple times. We were given labels to tag what new office things were to go in. We had a few things that had asset tags and couldn’t be just pitched out but were useless. (IBM PC Junior for example). So the game was who got stuck with it after the move.
 
jsstevens said:
I worked for a PC peripherals manufacturer that grew like crazy. We moved offices multiple times. We were given labels to tag what new office things were to go in. We had a few things that had asset tags and couldn’t be just pitched out but were useless. (IBM PC Junior for example). So the game was who got stuck with it after the move.
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I worked for the US Army and if we wanted to get rid of stuff, we put a "turn in tag" on it and eventually it would be carried off by the surplus guys who would make it available to anybody official who wanted it and if no takers would sell it on the open market. I had a few run-ins with that.

First, they called me to come identify the $65,000 worth of equipment I'd turn in? What would that be, I ask. One PDP-11/40 with accessories. Well maybe it cost the government $65,000 when it was new, but it was now pushing 20 years old. Do you know how much computer stuff depreciates? In fact, I'd stripped it of the racks and just about anything of any residual value.

The second time was when they finally decided to schedule the decommissioning of the last Cyber 7600 ever built. The thing took up the bulk of the machine room. I went over and hung a turn-in tag on it right below the CDC nameplate. The guys who were responsible for that machine didn't find that was funny.

Two of my jobs (one at the Army and one at Rutgers) were to get rid of all the card processing equipment.

When Textron finally booted me to the curb (while I was on vacation), I was woried I wouldn't get some of the stuff that was in my office (notably my business card file). I needn't have worried. The woman who packed up my office put anything that didn't say "Property of Textron" on it in my pile. When I picked up my stuff from the dock, not only did it have the entire contents of my desk (including the card file), but a computer monitor, and my desk chair among other stuff.
 
Ed Haywood said:
Lemme know if you ever get tired of that Mauser. I've got 3. Still fire my Chilean modelo 1895, using ammo produced in the 1920's.
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War trophy, brought home by my wife's great-uncle. He'd apparently done some hunting with it.

All the proof marks on the rifle are tiny swastikas. Came with a belt carrying the bayonet scabbard. Wasn't until last year I looked closely at the belt. Remembered it having an eagle-and-swastika logo, but didn't pick up that it was the LUFTWAFFE eagle and swastika...
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Could have been from a Fallschirmjager (paratrooper, some of their most effective soldiers), but I'm guessing it was some hapless gate guard.

Ron Wanttaja
 
wanttaja said:
War trophy, brought home by my wife's great-uncle. He'd apparently done some hunting with it.

All the proof marks on the rifle are tiny swastikas. Came with a belt carrying the bayonet scabbard. Wasn't until last year I looked closely at the belt. Remembered it having an eagle-and-swastika logo, but didn't pick up that it was the LUFTWAFFE eagle and swastika...
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Could have been from a Fallschirmjager (paratrooper, some of their most effective soldiers), but I'm guessing it was some hapless gate guard.

Ron Wanttaja
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Wife's grandfather brought home a full size Nazi flag. I'd post pics but don't want to violate anyone's TOS.

My son wanted to display it in his dorm. I told him that was not a good idea. I did let him show pictures. I said if anyone is offended, tell them we're not promoting the Nazis, we're celebrating kicking their sorry asses.
 
Ed Haywood said:
Wife's grandfather brought home a full size Nazi flag. I'd post pics but don't want to violate anyone's TOS.

My son wanted to display it in his dorm. I told him that was not a good idea. I did let him show pictures. I said if anyone is offended, tell them we're not promoting the Nazis, we're celebrating kicking their sorry asses.
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When I was in high school, I was on a educational trip to the Soviet Union (interestingly it was during the Soyuz-Apollo joint mission). I came back with a bunch of posters and a map of the world written in Russian.

A few years later when my office was in a SCIF at Martin-Marietta, I hung up the map. There was a post-it note arrow that said "You are here, comrade" pointing at Denver. Since our project had a geospatial component to it, people would come in from time to time to reference the map. I had to put a Cyrillic to Roman transliteration table up next to it for people to use.

Then one day the security officer came by and stuck her head into my office.

"Where did you get that map?"
"Moscow."
"Seriously. Where did you get it?"
"I bought it in the house of books in Moscow."
"If I call up and tell you to take it down, it better be gone by the time we get up here." (the security office was downstairs).

It stayed until I left the project.

My coffee maker also seemed to have accumulated a "No classified material is to processed on this machine" sticker over the course of its six month residency there.
 
flyingron said:
When I was in high school, I was on a educational trip to the Soviet Union (interestingly it was during the Soyuz-Apollo joint mission). I came back with a bunch of posters and a map of the world written in Russian.

A few years later when my office was in a SCIF at Martin-Marietta, I hung up the map. There was a post-it note arrow that said "You are here, comrade" pointing at Denver. Since our project had a geospatial component to it, people would come in from time to time to reference the map. I had to put a Cyrillic to Roman transliteration table up next to it for people to use.

Then one day the security officer came by and stuck her head into my office.

"Where did you get that map?"
"Moscow."
"Seriously. Where did you get it?"
"I bought it in the house of books in Moscow."
"If I call up and tell you to take it down, it better be gone by the time we get up here." (the security office was downstairs).

It stayed until I left the project.

My coffee maker also seemed to have accumulated a "No classified material is to processed on this machine" sticker over the course of its six month residency there.
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I still have the Soyuz-Apollo poster and copies of the Washinton Post and Pravda with headlines from the mission.
 
flyingron said:
My coffee maker also seemed to have accumulated a "No classified material is to processed on this machine" sticker over the course of its six month residency there.
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So, no Gayo or Mandheling during the reign of Suharto?
 
Ed Haywood said:
Wife's grandfather brought home a full size Nazi flag. I'd post pics but don't want to violate anyone's TOS.

My son wanted to display it in his dorm. I told him that was not a good idea. I did let him show pictures. I said if anyone is offended, tell them we're not promoting the Nazis, we're celebrating kicking their sorry asses.
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I went on a tour of Normandy about ten years ago. The tour was sponsored by the historical association for the 116th Infantry, the unit that was one of the first to hit Omaha Beach. Most of the other attendees were retired field- or flag-rank officers and their wives.

There's a famous photo out of the invasion of two paratroopers in a farmyard, holding a Nazi flag. We visited the same farmyard, and had the opportunity to have our photos taken standing in the same location, holding a Nazi flag.
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The flag on the right was the actual one flying over the German unit based there in June 1944. It was explained to us that small one the paratroopers were holding was a vehicle flag (something they'd put over the hood of a vehicle to indicate to aircraft what side they were on).

I blurred out the face of my friend on the other side of the flag. He's retired now, but may be going into politics. YOU know it was to celebrate kicking the Nazi's [beasts of burden], and *I* know it was to celebrate kicking the Nazi's [beasts of burden] but you never know how someone else would spin it.

Ron Wanttaja
 
wanttaja said:
...View attachment 143620
.... YOU know it was to celebrate kicking the Nazi's [beasts of burden], and *I* know it was to celebrate kicking the Nazi's [beasts of burden] but you never know how someone else would spin it.

Ron Wanttaja
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uh, I'm sorry but no, I don't understand how having a photo taken with a nazi flag "celebrates" kicking their ass. well, I can understand that left photo but you wouldn't catch me dead holding a nazi flag. unless I was lighting it on fire.
 
eman1200 said:
uh, I'm sorry but no, I don't understand how having a photo taken with a nazi flag "celebrates" kicking their ass.
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Even AI knows that one:

"In military contexts, loss of colors refers to the capture or loss of a unit's flag, banner, or standard, which historically served as a rallying point and symbol of the unit's identity and honor. While no longer carried in modern combat, the loss of colors remains a significant symbolic event, often associated with defeat or disgrace."
 
Ed Haywood said:
Even AI knows that one:

"In military contexts, loss of colors refers to the capture or loss of a unit's flag, banner, or standard, which historically served as a rallying point and symbol of the unit's identity and honor. While no longer carried in modern combat, the loss of colors remains a significant symbolic event, often associated with defeat or disgrace."
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ya, as I clearly said, I understand the 1st photo and would never partake in the 2nd, no matter what quote you can come up with. so groan away *******.
 
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