Not gonna cry.....

My mom always said that when children are little they step on your toes and when they get bigger, they step on your heart. My son certainly has made that little statement come true many times. He has finally moved out and I should be doing the Happy Dance but he left on bad terms. He said a lot of things that hurt and it will take me some time to recover from his verbal attacks. And that's all I'm going to say about that.

I'll dig around and find my smile that ran away. I'll put it on and be back in a couple days. In the meantime, I'm visiting all of you, but not really commenting often. I'll be fine as frog hair in a few days....life is too short to dwell on things that are upsetting. I just have to stifle the urge I have of wanting to smack him right in the face as hard as I can. Oops....did I say that out loud?

Not that I love saying it.......but

You know in some cultures, babies are born and the mothers take to the fields to work and the grandmothers raise the young. Grandmothers are seen as sage residents of the village and are respected as such. What has happened? Not that I'd like to trek my hefty self to the fields to do some serious work, but what about this SAGE business. And no, I'm not talkin' seasoning here. My son thinks I talk just to hear myself, I guess. But, I have found, in all my years of clean living, that if one is patient enough, one gets the LAST LAUGH.

I said, "son, don't let her (meaning his 3.5 yr old daughter) play with your cell phone. she's liable to break it". He just lets my words travel in one ear and out the other, never taking a few seconds to let any of them absorb into brain matter. Sigh. After so many times of saying this to him, I finally gave up and didn't say anything anymore.

Then, there was, "son, you shouldn't be letting her play around your vehicle like that...going in and out of it, she's liable to slam her fingers in the door or pull your radio knobs off or something like that". Again, this fell on deaf ears.

So.......one day last week as he is driving down a five-lane highway in heavy traffic he hears something hit the side of his car, he glances in the rear view mirror in time to see something get run over by another car and then he glances back at his daughter who is now crying and saying that she has thrown his cell phone out the window. Lesson #1

A couple days ago, said granddaughter is in her father's car and he's right there in the yard and she not only pushes the back door window down, she puts all her weight on it and pushes it down even further into the door. Oh yes, we need to say here that the crank to roll the window UP no longer works and now she's pushed it so far down, you can't get ahold of it. He attempts to grasp it with needle nose pliers and the window SHATTERS into millions of pieces inside the door. Need I mention that we've had a lot of rain lately. Lesson #2

You know sometimes things just work out for the best all by themselves. Do I sound a tad bitter? Maybe I'm still holding a grudge from when he parked right behind me and disappeared for 6 hours. Shhhhh....don't tell anyone. Grandmas aren't supposed to behave that way. LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL

One more thing to tick me off.....

My driveway is wide enough for two cars to sit side by side. My son likes to park his vehicle directly in front of the garage door which houses MY car, leaving me no way to get out unless I ask him to move his car. I've told him about this on at least THREE other occasions and since he has done it again today....it leaves me with no other option but to think he's doing this ON PURPOSE.

To add insult to injury....he has not only parked his vehicle there, making me a prisoner in my own home....but he has left the premises. Whereabouts unknown. He did not say he was leaving...no goodbye, no nothin'. Someone had to come here and pick him up but I was told not a thing. This is beyond being inconsiderate. This is being just plain uncaring and STUPID. I swear, I did not raise him to be like this.

When he comes back I'm going to tell him that I had a phone call and was invited to meet Sean Connery at the local restaurant for a light supper but had to decline because I could not get out and I hope he's proud of himself that he made me miss this. Furthermore, I'm starving and there isn't anything here to cook and in addition to that I also had a chance to work this afternoon helping my boss with his election for TRIPLE time and had to decline all that too for the same reason. Mention martyr and I'm the queen of the hop.....nobody does it better when I put my mind to it.

Its supposed to thunder storm and his window is down. Ask me if I'm going to go out there and put it up. HA.

In the continuing tales of my son.....

As most of you know by now, my son and granddaughter moved in with me TEN months ago. It was only supposed to be for a very few short months....like maybe three.....four, tops. Needless to say, we have surpassed that and my patience is frog hair thin. My main goal is for them to get their own place. Of course a few things have to happen before THAT can happen. He has to find and hold a job so that a landlord will approve him. He has to save money for the security deposit. He has to find a place that he can afford. He's found the job and its one he likes. He's experienced in that type of work and good at it. Hopefully hurdle ONE was cleared. Ahhhh..not so fast. The company he works for wants him to drive the "service" truck and for that he has to be insured by their company insurance. Before the insurance will cover him, they send for his driving record. He has told them that he has one offense on there....a drunk driving from 10 years ago. He holds a valid driver's license with no restrictions.

Life is never easy in our household. Things always have to have that extra little twist thrown in. Its like LIFE wants to make sure that you're paying attention. His driving record is requested and it comes back. It not only has the drunk driving from 10 years ago, but it also has a "Open intoxicants in vehicle/driver" from 2006 on it, and that's worth 2 points. Yes, he remembers the ticket. He was with his friend, in his friend's vehicle. It was a hot summer's night and his friend was feeling his oats and squealed his tires, attracting the attention of the local police. Not smart. Both his friend, who was driving, and my son, the passenger, had open beer in the vehicle. Double not smart.

The friend was arrested for drunk driving, had his vehicle impounded and the police were kind enough to transport my son home. He did NOT live with me at the time. My son paid the ticket and was told it was a misdemeanor and would go on his criminal record...not his driving record because he wasn't driving. He didn't think any more about it ..... until now. It has reared its ugly head. Maybe we now know the reason why it took him so long to secure employment....were these places where he applied checking his driving record and then dismissing him as a bad risk?

His employer has stated that if he can't drive the service truck, then he can't be employed by them. So...if, indeed, there is a mistake, then it must be fixed and pronto. I have a friend who is an attorney and we call to ask him what to do. He tells us that this is fixable and how to do it. If we run up against a dead end and no one will cooperate...then call him back. He will handle it (for a fee of course). My son does what he says. He is, at first, refused the copy of the other guy's arrest report and he has to request it under FOIA. (Freedom of Information Act) After a week of waiting and paying out $14. for the copy, it does show that he was telling the truth. Now...to get it fixed. The court clerks argue why he didn't protest this 2 years ago. SIMPLE. He never knew it. You know getting your own driving record is not that easy. And he took the judge's word for it. It would not be on his driving record. The judge did not account for human error.

After talking with the prosecutor for the Township, he was assured that all would be well and his driving record would be repaired. So we are waiting. I told him to wait for five business days and then go see the prosecutor again and ask for a copy of his driving record. I know they are available to law enforcement online....I used to do that stuff. I also know that we could never give them out. But this guy is the head honcho. Hopefully he's authorized to give it out, especially under the circumstances.

Tune in next week...same time...same place to find out if the driving record has been repaired or if he was just told "what he wanted to hear". Find out if more funds will be requested to fix an error that wasn't his fault. Will the precious JOB survive all this chaos and foolishness? Find out if I will get rid of my boarders before we pass the ONE YEAR mark. Lesson learned....don't have open intox in a vehicle or even BE AROUND anyone who does. Second lesson learned....don't offer to have someone come live with you for "just a little while, until they get on their feet". HA.