Cheating escheats, birthdays and 2 new countries

This is Steve's cousin I happier times. He has stopped eating and talking. Steve's brother has been visiting him daily

A rare photo of Steve dancing. This was at Naomi's wedding years ago. The wedding didn't last long

Every night at 6 a herd of 8 deer slowly walk through our yard

Hannah and birthday cake

Oliver and Steve with their birthday cake and pie

Twenty years ago a man buys a few shares of stock in a new promising company. Following advice to just leave the stock alone without constantly checking and reacting to market fluctuations, he lets it sit in his account. He is aware that his initial few thousand investment now is probably worth a thousand fold more and will help him in retirement. One day he decides to cash in and to his dismay, the account is empty!! Has he been robbed? Yes but legally. The brokerage firm by law has to turn idle accounts over to the state. Theoretically the firm is supposed to notify you by mail but if you don't respond , they assume you don't exist. The state then converts stock shares into what it is worth at that time and it is up to you to reclaim it. So he got his original investment back plus it had gone up a bit but not the fortune he was expecting. How long is an account considered abandoned. Varies but in some states as little as a year. Many of these escheated accounts go unclaimed, a boom to the states that hold them. Free money! What is unclear to me which state gets the money, where you live or the state that the brokerage firm is located. I do know that I get a few forms per year asking if I am still alive because I didn't initiate  any activity in the account. I have not retitled certain accounts of mine into a trust as their retitling requirements are so onerous (like requesting of the original trust document) Steve is always checking to make sure our investments are still there.

It is still winter, which I hate. So far, excepting its early start in November it has been relatedly mild though the dirt roads have been sheets of ice that school buses refuse to go down. I continue to run and yesterday as it was slightly above freeing (brakes don't work below freezing). Still haven't planned to escape out of here in the winter. We were expecting Steve's brother to stay with us for a while but until his cousin dies, which will be soon, he doesn't have concrete plans. We do have a trip in late spring back to Europe. This time, everything is planned for us and no more hectic transfers though last time everything went smoothly and I did most of the planning so it wasn't  hard for him.

Steve and Oliver both have birthdays on the same day so that was celebrated.

A fun morning was spent in the hospital so Steve could have an endoscopy for his funky digestive system. No damage that they can tell. A friend visited me while I waited.

I made an online enemy by trashing Trump and his followers in response to Trump saying he is considering cutting 'entitlement' programs such as Medicare and Social Security. Technically they are entitled programs as I paid into them for years so I am entitled to get out at least what I paid but that's not the sense the Government uses as is its through their largesse we get these benefits and as such they can take it back at any time to fund a wall or whatever. How dare I criticize Our Commander in Chief!!!! How much respect now the rest of the world has for us! (not any country that I visited, the Dutch in particular can't get over his windmills cause cancer comment)Look how well our stock market is doing!!!
Nothing to address cutting social security which from the looks of things, he is much more dependent on than I am along with the rest of the orange followers. And how many of his followers actually invest in the market. Not the base. It was on a friend of a friend's Facebook. Lesson learned: don't engage.