Wow.
Just… wow.
Karma is a Queen B; and sadly, the fallout of stupid does enormous peripheral damage to the innocent.
No photos tonight, despite a photo run today.
It’s Relative: #1
For those of you who also follow me on Facebook, you know my brother-in-law was in a serious motorcycle crash a week ago. His fourth surgery was yesterday, this one to repair his shoulder. Thanks to more complications, they had to do a tracheotomy and put him on a ventilator. He’s in a medically-induced coma until further notice. If/when he does get discharged from the hospital, he’ll be put in a rehab center. He won’t be home for who knows how long, if ever.
The doctors are still unsure if they can save his leg. I’ll be surprised if they do.
What I DIDN’T say on Facebook is that he robbed meager savings for a down payment on said motorcycle; money coming from my sister’s back disability payments. He didn’t tell her he was cleaning out the account until after the fact.
They already have two decent vehicles, both receive Social Security disability, and they need a new roof on their house.
My sister was understadably livid. She hadn’t spoken to him for days before the accident. I deal with him because my sister loves him, and thankfully I don’t have to live with him. But I’m furious because due to his his greed and stupidity, my sister is (again) left to clean up the mess he made. And she’s more significantly disabled than I am, following the aftermath of brain surgery and long COVID. Even after brain surgery, she knows better than to do something so irresponsible.
My brother-in-law also had a kidney transplant a little over two years ago, and shot himself in the hand a few months ago. Obviously the kidney issues weren’t his fault, but the gunshot…
Let’s just say recklessness is the man’s brightest and shiniest personality trait.
It’s Relative: #2
Then this afternoon my youngest daughter let us know one of her exes died. He took a nap this afternoon and never woke up.
He was in his early forties.
For this person, I wouldn’t care if it weren’t for our grandson, other than a general “Aww, it’s too bad a human died.” But my grandson was living with his dad. Which means he’s currently several time zones away and we have no idea what’s going to happen next. The grandson needs to live in cooler weather due to Cystic Fibrosis and other serious health issues, but his mom — my daughter — lives here and can’t move cross-country, for more reasons than I can count. Grandson (age 12) doesn’t want to move back to Arizona, but we don’t know if his stepmom is willing or even CAN keep him.
I hadn’t mentioned it before, but this is a significant factor behind our plans of moving to the Midwest. We knew the ex was in poor health (putting it mildly) and unlikely to live until the grandson was an adult. We’re still hoping to move to the Midwest if and when possible, but it’s sadly not in time to step up now.
I was trying to find a previous entry about the grandson’s dad. Pretty sure I posted it here. Several years ago, he got into a fight with a neighbor and the neighbor shot him. The only thing anyone asked was, “So did he finally die?” As you’ve probably gathered, he was almost universally loathed. As his health failed he gulped down some large helpings of humble pie, but he’d done so much in the past that it would’ve taken a lot more before anyone truly liked him. His only saving grace was he genuinely loved his kids.
It’s Relative: #3
Idiocy comes in sets of three.
A couple of weeks ago my brother phoned my sister. Since his ex-wife drop-kicked him to the curb several years back (for cheating with an underage girl), he’s developed a habit of showing up on my sister’s doorstep, expecting them to take him in. They’ve refused, repeatedly. Since they’ve moved since his last attempt, when he asked where they were living, they laughed and hung up.
My brother is an engineer. He was at one point in his life making six figures. Buuuut he was fired for doing porn at work. (I assume he was watching it, though I wouldn’t swear to anything when it comes to my brother.) He got another, comparable job, and was fired for stealing other employees’ lunches. Regularly. Because I guess even six figures couldn’t keep him fed. He stayed with us a couple of months and wiped out a week’s worth of groceries for FOUR PEOPLE, by himself, in a couple of days. I kicked him to the curb too.
He got another job, eventually. Not six figures this time, but not chump change, either. He still tried mooching off his family members until we all slammed the door in his face. He announced on FB he’d gotten into a swanky apartment. He was thanking God and talking about how living a good life would eventually pay off.
Given he was attempting another unannounced barge-in, I’m going to assume payback, like Karma, had other ideas.
I might feel sorry for him, because the housing market legitimately is brutal these days. Except he was the one who insisted he was too good to take the more rational approach.
G and I had urged him to do the same thing we did: buy a crappy trailer in a senior park and get on his feet financially, then work his way up, if and when he could. He said, paraphrased, he wouldn’t lower himself to live in a trailer. I shrugged and went on with my life. No skin off my nose.
I don’t know if he got fired again, got priced out of the market, or what. What’s more, I don’t care.
Baaa
For decades, I was the black sheep of the family, if I was considered family at all.
I was never good enough for my brother and his hoity-toity wife. I wasn’t in their tax bracket, despite working my ass off virtually nonstop.
My parents… well, I’ve addressed them before so I won’t go into depth on the subject. They were convinced I was running moonshine with the Devil, or something along those lines. (Though you’d think the Devil would’ve paid more up front. He’s usually known for screwing you over in the end, isn’t he?)
It’s almost sad how at this stage of life, I’m the most stable one of us, despite my challenges. (Almost.) And I’m convinced the reason I AM, is because I learned years ago how to take the crap life gave me and turn it into fertilizer, because I had no choice.
You have helped yourself have a life in spite of your background. Kudos to you. I am sorry about all the crapular crap going on in the family. Sure makes it more difficult for everyone. I hope YOUR plans can work out for the better in the long run.
All true, and thank you. Hubby and I are far from rich – but because we bought our little house before housing exploded, and in an attempt to help our daughter, we’re sitting pretty as compared to… most people I know, frankly. If I was forced to retire tomorrow, it would be tough, but we’d find a way to survive.
I mean, crappy things happen to good people, too. There are far too many examples. It’s just tough to feel sorry for someone who repeatedly asks for trouble, until it eventually crashes down on top of them. In some situations, repeatedly. And they still don’t change.