The Week In Review

Oh, Internet. I'm so very tired. Hold me while I weep from exhaustion...

My job continues to suck the life force from my... um... wherever life force is stored. Liver? Dunno....
LT is similarly outta her mind because her entire staff has basically up and quit as a direct result of the director of nursing being the most giant bitch imaginable. People: you can not have a nursing home without nurses. It's not a Several Surly CNAs and a Disgruntled Housekeeper Home. So, when seven of your nurses resign within a 4-day time period, it's time to panic! Perhaps, even, to evaluate what responsibility you may have for this potentially catastrophic event. Telling your assistant DON she'll just have to "pick up the slack" while you continue to piss off and alienate nurses that have worked at the home for over 20 years is really not the best course of action. Also: it makes LT cry. And that makes me angry.

Meanwhile, there is a toddler at home with yet another upper respiratory bug. Kidlet enjoys expressing her extreme displeasure with being sick in the most frequent and annoying manner possible. Generally, there is whining involved. Also crying, and clinging and spreading misery throughout the land.

We spent last Saturday melting in my cousin's yard (94 degrees and 74% humidity!) for a family reunion. This is my mother's family, and there is currently a big ugliness with my Mom and her surviving siblings having to do with my grandparents' estate. There has been a lot of public mudslinging and crazy behavior by my mother's brother, including a blog where he has begun publishing Unabomber-like manifestos and threatening town officials and my mother by name. This has resulted in him being barred from town meetings and hearings. It has also resulted in him being removed as Executor of the estate. This has further pissed him off, so he and his douchebag son thought it would be okay to use the reunion to make nasty comments and loudly proclaim to the entire family that my mother is trying to "steal" from him, that I and LT are "degenerates" and that our child should be taken away from us. Fortunately, my mother's cousins physically removed the two of them from the property shortly after the crazy behavior started. Still, it was embarassing for me, LT and my mother. LT had never met many of the people at the reunion, and I hadn't seen some of my cousins for years, so it really sucked that I spent the day fighting back tears and that my family had to spend the day expressing their anger and disbelief at my uncle and cousin's behavior, rather than enjoying themselves.

The good news is that because of my uncle's very public, very bizarre behavior, my parents, my brother and I are one step closer to being able to take posession of our inheritance (16 acres of land and the proceeds from the sale of another 8 acres), which means that nearly eight years after my grandfather's death, his wishes may actually be carried out. Until very recently, I had given up on ever being able to build my home on land that has been in my mother's family for over 300 years as my grandparents had intended. Now that the town doesn't have to negotiate with the Crazy Man, they have made an offer to buy the 8 acres for a somewhat staggering amount of money. The land had been leased to the town for the last 50 years, and now that the lease is up, they want to buy it. It's all very complicated and I don't fully understand everything, but the bottom line is that the town will vote in April to approve the sale price, and the cash proceeds will be split between my brother, my parents and myself. The intention was that my brother and I use the cash to build on the land that we will inherit when the estate is totally settled, and my parents can take their money and do whatever they want with it. My 2 surviving aunts and the Douchebag have a similar deal, but my uncle is pissed because the parcel that my parents have been willed is more valuable and includes my grandparents' house. My uncle's contention is that my mother doesn't "deserve" the house that my grandfather built with his own hands, and that it should be sold. My mother was left the house and the 24 abutting acres because she and my father moved from their home in New Hampshire to live in my grandparents' home and help take care of my demented grandmother when none of her siblings were willing to. My grandfather amended his will to reflect the fact that my parents had made a major sacrifice in picking up and moving their lives to another state in order to help carry out my grandmother's wishes to not end up in a nursing home. My grandfather ended up dying unexpectedly four months after he made the change to the will, and my parents spent the next 5 years taking care of my grandmother in her home until her death in her own bed on Christmas day of 2001. The day after my grandmother's funeral, my uncle served eviction papers to my parents. And it all got ugly from there. The bottom line for me is that once all this is settled, I can completely cut ties with my uncle, and won't have to read or hear another word from him again.

LT's parents are finishing up their first week in Kauai, which means that LT and I are finishing our first week of dogsitting their 85 pound German shepard, Joy (Or "Auntie Joy", as kidlet calls her). She's very sweet and has a terrifying bark, but she's too big for our house. Fortunately, the weather has been really nice, and she and Daisy have spent most of their time outside wrestling and chasing bunnies in the back yard. The folks called from Poipu beach to give us the weather and surf report, and to maybe also gloat a little. They'll be back next Saturday, all tanned and refreshed, which will make it just that much harder for me to wait for next September when it will be their turn to dogsit for 10 days.

I'm too tired to type any more, so I'm going to lock my office door and take a little nap now. Nighty night...

Cheer up, Mum, it's Friday!