In Like a Lion...

Well, we kicked off March by penning Athennia's mother, sister, two uncles, and Taylor an eight-page letter that Athennia and I wrote to defend our position regarding some family matters that have persisted for years now but finally came to a head midway through last month.

What it all essentially boils down to is that, to absolutely no one's surprise, Athennia's mother's household and finances haven't exactly improved since she unilaterally decided to let two 20-year-olds and a 17-year-old move in rent-free last year along with upwards of a dozen pets (all into a two-bedroom trailer, mind you).

Compound the problem by factoring in that Taylor has technically been an "adult" since she turned 18 back in October; but, since she spent the 2021-2022 school year putzing around and missing enough days that she would've been held back for truancy alone, she's just now getting around to finishing 11^th grade and still has another entire year left—during which time she seems content to commit 100% to the fiction that the American high school curriculum is so mentally taxing that she couldn't possibly get a job working even a few measly hours a week.

Then ask yourself why two 20-year-olds who have been graciously welcomed into the home of someone who isn't even related to them would consider for even one second responding like the entitled shitsacks they've chosen to be: With high school long over and no available pretense of "focusing on their studies," Taylor's girlfriend Ahlina and their friend CJ are at least working in some capacity; yet, they've somehow justified living there without being on the hook for rent, utilities, groceries, or performing even minimal cleaning such as washing the dishes or taking out the trash.

Finally—and here's the clincher—go ahead and try to make the case that any of this has anything to do with Athennia, when it's a household of four grown-ass adults who have made each and every decision deliberately; fully of their own volition; and, more often than not, in open defiance of what we suggested they do; and who can't be bothered to maintain even a modicum of a civil relationship with us, except to put up a friendly facade when they want something from us.

For bonus points, please express your opinion at the top of your lungs; and please eschew logic, reason, and common sense for an approach that instead relies exclusively on a crock of preposterous, nonsensical, histrionic horseshit so astoundingly repugnant that even my compost pile would be like, "Yyyyeah; no thanks."

That was, of course, the route favored by Athennia's deadbeat sister and a pair of all-but-estranged uncles who—for being a couple of childless bachelors for life—sure have volumes to speak on how Athennia should parent her daughters and how she and I should conduct our relationship! They've straight-facedly tried to make the case that Athennia should be responsible—exclusively and essentially forever—for her mother's and Taylor's... woes. (Let's go with woes: I suppose that's more polite than imbecility.)

Her Uncle Kevin went as far as arguing that I should be handling all the expenses for our household so that Athennia can cover the expenses of her mother's household. (I'd be lying if I said we didn't get some decent laugh mileage out of that one over the subsequent days.) Then he made a bunch of disparaging remarks about us both until Athennia finally hung up on him.

At any rate, there has been no shortage of outbursts from the peanut gallery—each one shouted louder and dripping with more sanctimony than the last—and I daresay their third-grade math teachers would be repulsed...

NOT ONLY is your answer dead wrong, but you haven't even shown your work to convey exactly how you failed to arrive even at THAT answer.

"I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul."

But my policy has always been, if I don't respect you enough to solicit your advice, I sure as hell won't entertain your criticism either. And so, Athennia and I finally decided to push back...

And we did show our work...

And we laid out our position in pure logic, explaining once and for all—even to douchey overbearing uncles—why we in fact will not be held responsible (morally, legally, or in any other context) for a household of four grown-ass adults who are making a conscious choice, day after day, to wallow in a hell of their own design that they can easily transcend any time they finally decide to put on their pull-ups, remove heads from asses, clean up their living space, get their household finances in order, and grow the buck up (as in, maybe socking away some savings; you know?).

But, just to clarify in all seriousness for our readers not in the know... Even though Athennia's mother's health is not what it could be, her fixed income is more than enough to pay her lot rent and utilities (at least for herself). And Taylor, Ahlina, and CJ are all perfectly able-bodied young women who could be working as many hours as they wanted... IF they wanted.

It is truly ONLY their boneheaded decisions (and the compound effects of those decisions) that has kept them mired in what appears (from the inside) to be a "sinking ship" scenario. No one told the girls to procure themselves a menagerie of pets or smoke hundreds of dollars' worth of pot every month, just like no one told Athennia's mother to piss away $400 a month on a storage unit she can't afford (full of crap she doesn't need) for the last two decades. And perhaps more importantly, no one has a gun to their head preventing them from going out and earning the income to afford these luxuries if they want them that badly, just like no one has a gun to their heads preventing them from taking out the garbage, washing their dishes, and keeping their household in order.

So, we made one final plea for them to open their eyes and realize how easy they actually have it: The girls would never be able to afford to live anywhere on their own for the time being, and Athennia's mom won't find anyone else who lives with and assists her with the regularity that Taylor does! ...And, yes, we took linguistic liberty in spending eight pages telling certain other holier-than-thou family members in no uncertain terms just what we thought of their allegations—like the assertion that Athennia's familial obligations extend equally upward to her mother and downward to her daughter, while no equivalent lateral obligation from brother to sister apparently exists at all. (How convenient for a childless bachelor pushing 70, as he gazes down at us from up on his high horse!)

We haven't had any contact with them since, but I hope everyone who thought they were going to comfortably sit back and shamelessly delegate the perceived responsibilities to us (while having no skin in the game themselves) got a rude awakening when they realized that we decided to borrow a play from their book and divorce ourselves from the situation entirely.

But, hey... Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.

I've ever seen the universe operate any other way. <shrug>

Later that evening, we sat Riley down and did our best to explain everything to her: Athennia told her that we're basically quitting the family for awhile—and, while we certainly hope it won't be forever, there's no telling if or when any of us will ever again have any semblance of a meaningful relationship with Taylor or Athennia's mom.

Of course, the part that affected Riley the strongest was her inability to understand why we were forbidding her from going over to see her sister and the girls for the foreseeable future. She felt that she was the one being punished, even though none of this has had anything to do with her—which we conceded was an accurate assessment, and one we felt badly about, albeit maintaining that the involved parties and their conduct as of late are simply too toxic for us to risk Riley falling prey to any poison they might try to put in her head.

That did little to appease her (as expected); so, I suggested we go out to Applebees for a late dinner,just to get out of the house and take our minds off of everything for a couple hours.

It wasn't exactly the kind of night when anyone was in the mood for pictures, so I only snapped this one (on some 1980s-era Nokia device, by the looks of it)...

After dinner, we hadn't been home 20 minutes when the ever-lovely downstairs neighbors decided to try their luck, starting up... a party?

...A bickering match?

I didn't care what the hell it was; I just knew it was directly below Riley's bedroom, Athennia had just finished tucking her in, it was late enough that the noise ordinance was in effect, and it was going to stop right now.

So, I grabbed a 30-pound dumbbell, slammed it against the floor half a dozen times, and screamed "SHUT UP!!!" the loudest I've ever shouted in my life.

What a way to kick off the first of the month, eh?

The next day, my mom was kinda sorta in the neighborhood; so, we went out to grab some brunch from McDonald's and brought back some pancakes for Riley to eat during her short break between morning classes.

I probably hadn't been to a McDonald's in close to a decade... and, between the experience of having to order and pay at a stupid kiosk (while countless human employees stood around watching me), and then only getting McDonald's-quality food in exchange, I'm quite content not to go back for at least another decade :)

Later that afternoon, Riley asked if she could go to her friend Kassie's, which left me and Athennia with a rare evening to ourselves. So, we made taco bowls for dinner and watched The Crow...

We had long-standing plans to go to my parents' Saturday and celebrate my mom's birthday. But then Riley asked if she could have Kassie over for a few hours earlier in the day. (And, given the turmoil of the week so far, we agreed.)

The girls asked if we could take them to the Oxford Valley Mall (just 10 minutes down the road); so, we spent a half hour or so there until they were bored and ready to leave. Athennia and I spent most of that time browsing in the Hallmark store, and then we all grabbed some Auntie Anne's pretzels on our way out :)

Eventually 3:30 rolled around, and it was time to drop Kassie off and head over to my parents'...

I finally got proof that my family are demons, when my camera managed to catch them flickering at varying frequencies...

Riley is an exceptionally shy demon though: She'll do anything to avoid letting me take a decent picture of her...

...But, let her borrow your phone for a second, and she's more than happy to leave a couple of these in your camera roll...

At some point she asked me if I would come outside and play soccer with her. As with last time, it was as much a game of Minesweeper as it was a game of soccer.

"Pics or it didn't happen"; right?

I got a couple decent action shots, too...

Then it was time for pizza and cake!

...followed by... whatever this was...

...and we managed to convince Riley to hold Hannah for the first time...

I think the quality time spent with family did us all some good...

Kelly and my mom also surprised me and Athennia with some cute mugs they had found a couple weeks back. (Ironically, Athennia and I had just seen the same mugs in the Hallmark store a few hours earlier and liked them but decided not to buy them!)

So, when we arrived back home later that evening, we gave them a test run...

Then Riley retreated to her room to do her own thing, and Athennia and I finished up Season 2 of The Tudors.

Sunday was a relaxing day of mostly doing nothing. But, the quietude was to be short-lived, since Athennia and I were up at 5:30 A.M. Monday morning to have breakfast together before she headed off to work.

I forget exactly what time this assclown showed up to park his crappy jeep next to his crappy truck and spend two hours working on his very loud, very crappy engine...

The jeep honestly sounds like a jet. And, the pickup literally has not moved at all since I got here just after Thanksgiving!

I put my photoshop GIMP skills to use and sent Athennia my vision for some updated street verbiage...

The rest of the afternoon and evening were relatively uneventful, save for an outing to Arby's for dinner for the first time in forever.

And, God, is Arby's better than McDonald's in every possible way :)

As I'm sitting here drafting this post on Tuesday morning, there's a handyman across the street (in the right-most garage bay in the photo above, actually) making all kinds of noise. Hammering things. Slamming things. Whirring all his power tools.

Some lady in the apartment above the garage bay opened her window a couple minutes ago and yelled down, "What the fuck?! I've got a newborn!"

And, dear diary, I think I've just identified a potential ally in the perpetual war against noisy assholery :)