Sunday, February 16, 2014

Eric "Caught Red Handed" Holder


Four Generations - One Roof

Actually if you count the RV there were two roofs. Every morning I woke up I brought mom her expresso. Then I’d get her some breakfast before Tiree left for work leaving me to look after Kylie. So I’m not working but I’m busier than ever. Mom was approaching ninety-two and couldn’t do much for herself and Kylie couldn’t do anything for herself. For example mom couldn’t lift her hands above her head. This didn’t present a problem in the winter as much. I put a couple of space heaters in the RV that would come on automatically when the temperature dropped. But as the weather turned warmer I discovered mom could not work the roof top A/C controls. She couldn’t reach her hands that high. So this meant in the cool early morning hours she was fine but as the temperature climbed I had to remember to turn the air conditioner on so mom wouldn’t get too hot. Then in the evening I’d need to turn it down or off depending of the weather. This wasn’t going to work and with all the other things I had to do I was afraid I’d get busy and lose track of mom. I got a couple of air conditioners that had electronic controls that mom could work herself if she needed to turn up the A/C or shut it down when she got cold.

It was strange having mom living with us and I’d never expected it in a thousand years. Mom’s hard to live with because there has only been one way thing could be done - her way. We had our falling out during the years. So I’d never contemplated mom living with me. But here she was. Strangely enough this wasn’t mom that I’d grown up with. She was much more subdued and agreeable. When I was younger and living with her there was nothing I could ever do right in her eyes. Now mom’s world had shrunk down to the RV at my house. She spent her days watching her shows on TV. I’d run a cable from my house into the RV to make that happen. Then around noon or so I’d bring mom her lunch. She didn’t eat dinner and usually went to bed around six in the evening. Time was giving mom fits. She would get confused whether it was morning or evening and the days of the week were trying as well to her. She had her calendar which she attempted to mark off each day. The TV was hard for mom to master too. There was a thousand channels but all mom wanted was to watch the Price is Right or a soap opera. The technology and the number of choices were too much for her and she’d complain, “This damn TV. There’s nothing on.” That was mostly due to her short term memory. I’d try to explain how to work the TV remote control and the on-screen guide. She could recall experiences from her childhood or when she worked at the Justice Department in DC fifty years ago. Bobby Kennedy use to come down to her office to chat with her and joke around until the CIA killed him too. But anything new went in one ear then right out the other. That meant I would become the remote control.

So now I had this big ass RV taking up two thirds of my driveway. Then of course my son Matt’s Eclipse spun a bearing. He’d been staying over his girlfriend’s house and I had not seen him or his car for a while. Then he come over and tells me his car doesn’t sound right. I came outside and told him to fire it up. The thing had a scary knock and I yelled for him to shut it off immediately. I was hoping it was something in the top of the engine and I removed the valve cover. Everything looked normal so I crawled under the car and had a look. The number one piston rod bearing was shot. Plus it was obvious my son had been running the car like this for days increasing the damage. We began pulling the engine apart so we could rebuild it.

Almost immediately my son Matt disappeared to his girlfriend’s house leaving me to deal with his car. However, I was so busy with mom, Kylie and other chores around the house that the car would sit there almost two years before I had time to fix it. Rebuilding a car in like doing a multi-dimentional puzzle so it’s hard enough to do it right. Having to wait two years to reassemble a car doesn’t make things any easier. Fortunately, the car was tagged so I didn’t get any hassles from the government. In the meantime Matt use my car. He used it until it jumped time on him. He led me to think the car was in the lot at his work broken down. After a couple days when I found the time my wife and I rode around to his work for me to see what was wrong with the car. However, when we got there my car was nowhere to be found. I figured it must have been towed by mistake. We heading back home to get Matt to see if his work had had the car towed. Then on the side of the road we stumbled upon my car abandoned there several days earlier by my knuckle headed son. Man I was PISSED! I waited by the car so it wouldn’t be impounded while Deni left to get a tow truck. The tow truck driver led me to believe my Celica was an interference engine that would be ruined if the car jumped time. However, he loved my car and I think he wanted it and told me wrongly about the timing belt situation. I got the car home rather down about the demise of my car. Then I thought I’d check on the Internet. Sure enough my car wasn’t an interference engine which meant a hundred and fifty dollars in parts along with several hours of work and my car was back on the road again.

Around this time most mornings real early Tiree would come upstairs with Kylie in her arms for me to watch while she went back to bed. I was in bed by seven or eight every night and up by three or four in the morning ready to go. Kylie would lay there on the bed while I was on the Internet surfing. After a little bit she’d drift back off to sleep. She was so helpless and I suppose her being sick those times after the vaccines left me very worried. She looked up at me with her sick eyes that asked me if she would be okay. I talked to her while walking the floor with her worrying terribly. The baby couldn’t tell you how she felt leaving me to fret until she got better. There is so many dangers in the world now started with my own government. They put fluoride in the tap water and aspartame in other food and drinks meant for children. Vaccines are filled with deadly poisons like mercury then jabbed into a baby’s arm. If I ever have my way the scumbags responsible for poisoning children to boast corporate profits and control the population will never get out of prison while the top filth will hang.