House Delivery

My stepsister's house was delivered today :D It's a long time coming, they've been living in this teensy house for years. Decided to buy some land, and build a modular home. All sorts of problems and two years later (sound familiar? Yeah, we're "racing" haha, to get into our houses) they delivered it today. She invited the whole family, it was a cool event. It was supposed to come at 7, and it got as far as the corner, but the road was so tight, they couldn't swing the trailers, with two modules each. They had to find a guy with an articulator, and have him back the trailers around the corner. The old Russian woman on the corner was the real problem, they asked her nicely if they could roll back a section of her chainlink, and move one tiny tree (it wasn't landscaped or anything), and she freaked out and refused. They offered her $1,000.00 for any potential damages. She wouldn't hear of it. So, then they had to find the articulator guy.

Alden and I showed up while they were waiting on the guy. The whole family showed up to watch, pretty much. My folks, Tom's (her husband) parents, my stepbrother Lou, who I haven't seen in 8 years, and his girlfriend. They swung this boom crane, and lifted each quarter-section of the house, and placed it on the foundation, like huuge legos. It was enormously cool. There's me, ooogling and ooing and ahhing like a big 5 year old, heh. Good sized place, too. It'll be great when it's finally done.

Lou, he's an interesting story, that one. He hates my mother, his stepmom. I don't know why, though. I mean, sure she's a force of nature, and sort of a basket case, but he never had to live with her. She and Earl (his dad, my stepdad) have bailed his ass out of so much shit, it's amazing. Their house was being foreclosed, my folks took over the mortgage. His car was being repoed, my mom paid it off. He owed 2 grand to a shark...my mom "loaned" it to him (hah, she never saw a penny of that). She got the money out of him for the car, though, because she had to strongarm half of it from him, and half from his psycho ex wife. Y'see, he had a little coke problem, she threatened to turn him in, if he didn't come up with at least the 3500 to pay for half the car. She got the rest by going to his psycho ex wife's family, and shaming it out of her.

Anyhoo, allll water under the bridge. Last time my mother saw the guy, was 5 years ago, when he came knocking on her door looking for a loan (again) this time for 700. He said "I'll pay you back tomorrow, I just need this TONIGHT, I'll come back here, and you can have my whole paycheck" . "Good thing" my mom replied, "because tomorrow your father is going in the hospital for chemo, you can stop in and see him, he'd love to see you" (Earl has cancer). She doesn't expect the money back, she never really did. She just wanted him to stop being a fuckup, and make nice with his dad.

That was the last they saw of him, entirely. Till today. He laid low for about 3 years, we thought he'd totally dissappeared. He started getting back in touch with Debbie, slowly, and they sorta got back close again. That's cool. Apparently he's all shaped up now. Whatever. No one wanted to see the bum, anyway, we were just sorta glad to hear he didn't turn up in a gutter somewhere. But, today, we hung out. He's got a longterm girlfriend, of about 6 years, two INCREDIBLE kids, I mean seriously, nicest kids I've been around. His daughter Sammy is about a month younger than Alden, and his son is a year old. Happiest, best mannered kids. His girl is so cool, she was a preschool teacher, now a stay-at-home mom, has her shit totally together. I kept thinking, NO WAY this is Lou's girl, haha, what DOES she see in him? Alden and Sammy played so well together, it was amazing. She has a lot of the same ideas about parenting that I do. It's totally refreshing to see someone as into teaching respect and courtesy as I am. Lou makes a great dad, who woulda thunkit.

Heh. He's a good guy, though, ran into some problems with drugs, fucked up, hit rock bottom, and now he's got his life on track. I'm totally happy for him. We've made amends, between us. His problem with our folks is his own thing, has nothing to do with me. He's mostly alright to me, we were close, there for awhile, before he started the drug shit. (His psycho ex, however is a whoooole nother story. The big bitch. 6'2 320 lbs. Yes. You think I'm kidding, right? I'm not. She used to kick the shit out of me REGULARLY, for no reason, but to show that she could, the big bully bitch, and I don't mean a little roughhousing. I mean like throwing me into walls. She was a skank too. Big smelly bully bitch.)

I don't get, though, the animosity toward my mother. He should be groveling, and thanking the gods that she bailed him out so many times, I know I would be. I seriously don't get it. Debbie and I are close, Debbie and my mom are close. Lou, he can't stand her (and I think he hated me for awhile, too). The guy visibly winced when he saw their car coming down the road, and Chris nudged him and said "be pleasant". I don't think knew I caught that.

The race is still on, heh, her house got delivered today, so she's 2 months away from moving in, approx. My cabinets are shipping June 1, I'm about a month away from moving in. We made a pact, the first one in the house gives the losers $50 as a sympathy fee, haha. Nice little housewarming thing. Interesting day, all around. Fun, something totally different.