Zoom Notary?

 So yesterday was a busy one at Villa Wifey. Our housekeeper was over with her assistant Isabel, doing the outside areas, which she does every three weeks. The lawn crew was there openly flouting Pinecrest's new law banning gas powered leaf blowers. No one has been jailed for that yet, as far as I know.

A tech from Dr. Drip, the best named pump repair company of all time, was over replacing my waterfall pump, which works off the sprinkler one, as we no longer use the sprinklers. I figure since we live essentially in a rain forest, whatever can't live without the natural rain doesn't need to be here, anyway.

D2 popped over with Betsy, on account of she is still getting over kennel cough, and couldn't go to doggie day care. She being the enormous puppy, not D2.

And, it was car day! My consuegro Ricardo really knows his business -- got it just about all done in a single day. First, an affable young fellow came over to appraise the girlie Lexus for an auction company who was going to buy it from Lexus Financial, and pay me any overage. He spent nearly an hour -- even using a meter to measure paint thickness. We chatted -- his father worked in the biz for many years, starting out with the Zinn family, whose son Robert is our neighbor -- the only brother NOT in the car business and therefore "flying commercial," as his wife Karen laments, instead of on the private jets his brothers own from decades of selling to South Florida.

When the young fellow saw the mileage on my nearly 3 year old car -- 17K -- he laughed. "Boy -- you sure didn't drive this much!" No -- my daily commutes to Brickell curtailed during the Plague and never really returned -- the longest I drove the car during the lease was to Delray for one dinner with friends.

As soon as he left, Willie arrived -- with my new MANLY vehicle -- a Cadillac XT6. He showed me some of the features, and D2 and Wifey got in for a ride around the block -- Wifey lamenting an inability to turn on the rear AC, until Willie showed her the way. I signed all the paperwork with Willie -- just a few documents. Ricardo had arranged e sign for most everything else -- except for a power of attorney for the girlie Lexus buyer, which would surprise me later.

We dropped off Wifey, and then I took D2 to Target -- there was still too much going on at the house to stay. We drove over as she attempted to link my phone to the new manly vehicle. I guess I should say OLD MANLY -- although plenty of Millennials seem to enjoy SUVs these days.

D2 was very happy with her Target shopping experience, since it turns out that even when you're a married 31 year old grown ass woman, when you shop with me, I pay the tab. "Wow -- this Target ROCKS," said D2.

She left with the puppy, and Wifey and I headed to the Gables to meet old friends Lew and Maria for dinner at Luca. They have the best pasta I ever ate, and we ran into D1's dear friend Chelsea with her boyfriend. I got great vibes from the young fellow, who splits his time between NYC and Miami. I hope he's the one, although a slight disappointment to Chelsea's Dad, who hoped for a Cuban son in law. This fellow is Jewish American. I figure since Cubans have been described as the Jews of the Carribbean, maybe Cecil will abide -- assuming they figure out the how to raise the kids thing.

We walked around, and in the car, Wifey was sneezing like a fraternity brother -- and not feeling well. Sure enough, she woke up this am with a full blown cold -- stuffy, sinus headache. We had plans to host a pregame before meeting Dr. Barry, Donna, and Barry's colleague for dinner tonight. We canceled the pregame, and I'll Covid test Wifey and me to clear me for being around others -- poor Wifey will stay home to recuperate. And worse -- probably no visit from the grandsons tomorrow. D1 had bought a covered wagon, and after Joey assembled it, was looking forward to a Grandpa and Daddy powered pull around the 'hood.

Meanwhile, Ricardo had called. He was hoping to get me $5-$7k profit for the girlie Lexus. Nope -- he said -- I got you $12K! I was shocked. I went back and checked my lease -- the adjusted cap cost of the car was $33 K -- after the discounts they were giving in that first year of the plague, when no one was leasing or buying new cars. Well -- turns out my Camry with the Lexus trim is in demand -- Ricardo found a buyer to pay $34.5K! He said it was truly a crap shoot -- he had a client with a Volvo that was worth barely more than the lease buyout. All I know is, I feel less guilty about the more expensive new vehicle now.

And then came the thing that blew me away. I needed to online sign a power of attorney so the auction company could deal with Lexus Financial. I went online -- it was about 10 pm, and was directed to a Zoom link where a very friendly actual live notary was waiting for me! After filling out the forms, and confirming my identity with the photo of the drivers license I sent, she had me raise my hand, on camera, and swear it was my signature! Wow! We really don't need to leave the house anymore.

Of course, I chatted with this nice Black lady -- she's a legal secretary in North Florida, and does this on call notary gig as a nice side hustle. It's sort of like driving for Uber, she said -- she just goes online if she feels like doing a few, and makes money. What a brave, new world.

So I should have the unexpected profit wired to my account Monday, and then someone will come to fetch the ES 350 -- turned out to be a better investment than many of my stock holdings over the past 3 years.

And hopefully Wifey and I test Covid negative -- so I can meet my boy tonight. If positive -- we hang in quarantine for several days. Damned virus -- I'm just glad it's tamed, compared to three and two years ago.

I assume next we'll be able to get jabs through a remote controlled drone. If you can get your signature notarized online -- why not?