I have a lot of shame with regard to my extended family. It has a few good, adult members and most of them are dying. I think it boils down to both Grandmothers, named Linda, Charles Bly, Charles Senior, and Geoff. Of that headcount, three are essentially dying.
Charles Senior, once keen on fishing and firing rifles despite his plagued memories of being shot in the Gulf War and witnessing a grenade kill children in Vietnam, is now essentially home-ridden after a quadruple-bypass heart surgery that clinically killed him three times. He said he had witnessed "Heaven, Hell, and a place that was Neither".
Linda Shannon is due to get her diabetes-deadened legs amputated. Her immediate family is so addicted to Lortab brand Hydrocodone that she actually has been prescribed them, but hides them and goes without them despite the immense pain of her dying body for fear of them being stolen from her and for fear of being portrayed as an addict.
Geoff's the newest addition. Let me tell you about Geoff. Geoff, which is pronounced "Jeff" and not "Gee-off", is kind of an odd person. He's essentially my ex-uncle. Geoff married my aunt, Temperlynn. My aunt's an odd person, though - she lives for the thrill of chasing married men, and Geoff was the first man she'd had affections for that -wasn't- married. After a brief stint with Geoff, my Aunt abandoned him shortly after the death of his mother to begin an affair with a married police officer named John.
John's very controlling. Essentially for fear of my Aunt being seen as anything more than an affair. She goes out of her way to raid Linda Shannon's home for food and money to try and out-do John's wife by being a better care-taker to his kids, who are quite simply spoiled.
Geoff was on hard times. He worked at a Gas Station that would later part ways with him when the economy got rough. My Aunt worked, but she quickly lost interest in him and that left him living on his dwindling savings. His mother loved him very much though, and left her furniture, savings, and dishware to Geoff after her passing. Geoff gave the dishware to me when I explained to him my intentions of escaping home, and it resides packed away with my dishcloths, knife-set, and a few appliances that I'd purchased on Christmas.
In an odd way, in her passing Geoff's mother kept him alive.
You already know a lot about Charles Junior. Charles Junior is my other uncle. Charles didn't exactly have a good life, and was in and out of police scrutiny and foster care with my mother, who looked out for him when he was small. In a similar situation to Geoff about a decade ago, he called my mother, desperate for a place to live when we were still on the Canadian Border. He came up for us on a train and lived in our basement. He was a brilliant handyman and enjoyed grilling chicken. He made many friends and held many jobs, all of which seemed promising, and all of which payed far more than my parents' did. He would work hard, get comfortable, get drunk, and then lose each of them.
Thankfully, he had a very good girl named Kayla who nursed him back up and got him on the right track. She was a little homely, but with very fair, wispy hair, a medical education, and dark, romantic eyes. She would laugh at his antics, like throwing snowballs at her, and even return them. She was very fun and kind to me as a child, and they shared an apartment that we sometimes visited.
He would later get drunk and wreck her house after breaking the door to get in. I don't think he ever payed off his damages to her belongings, but they did bar him from the area, and the police guarded Kayla after he threatened to cut her brake-cables, which he could've done as he worked part time as a mechanic before his drinking would ultimately kill that, too.
He sank into bitterness. He drank heavily, and finally he called us fuck-up children, and said that my parents' only claim to fame was raising us, which they did poorly. Prior to that, there had been mild excursion in the house, but they were always resolved with Charles apologizing and quietly going to bed. My parents would not stand to have their integrity as people questioned, and they ultimately told him to leave.
They were very good to him about it. They payed his ticket. They packed his bags for him. He left smiling, and he used the last of his savings to buy a laptop, from which he kept us posted about his budding new life.
Things were initially promising. He wrote from a bar and told us that he was ashamed for having bought a laptop, and planned to sell it. He said he had a job lined up for him, and we replied by telling him to get out of the bar. He did. He had a fairly good job at an auto-body shop, and he claimed to have quickly risen through the ranks there. He got into a relationship with a girl not even worth mentioning - he had a lot of those. Kayla, and another woman named Sammy, are the only ones who were legitimately kind and good people - and she later kicked him out of her house for getting into a drunken fight with her boyfriend, I believe.
Charles had stabbed her boyfriend, who had drawn a knife first. He was so scared after sticking him in the shoulder that he hid the knife and waited for the police to show. When he was certain he wasn't in trouble, he quietly gave the police the knife and apologized.
Charles was homeless. Geoff took him in.
Things were good for a bit, as they tend to be with Charles. Charles was comfortable and complacent, drinking heavily and stealing Geoff's Lortabs. Charles held a job. Soon, Geoff held one too, and everything was evermore promising.
Charles got drunk and fucked it up like most things in his life. He got into a drunken argument in the apartment lobby and they barred him from the area. A good person, Geoff refused to let Charles brave the oncoming winter homeless and essentially smuggled Charles into his home. After a bit, Geoff was laid-off and he quickly was running out of money caring for Charles too. Charles has always been a frivolous spender. I just mailed Geoff shoes recently. They were a hard buy because he needs support for his bad feet, and he's a size-fourteen. He said he needed them though, and he couldn't really afford to spring for them.
Charles came into Geoff's apartment while Geoff was purchasing groceries. He was drunken and thoroughly drugged and tried to start a fire in the fireplace without opening the flue. A few pieces of furniture caught fire. Charles put them out, but the damage in fire and smoke was done, and he'd essentially ruined the memento furniture that Geoff's mother had left him.
Geoff came home to a smoked-out house full of ruined memories, and was livid. He confronted Charles about it, who answered by stabbing Geoff four times with a serrated steak-knife.
He didn't have remorse. He was so violent when the cops responded that it took four officers and three deployed Tazers to subdue him. Even in the car, Charles kicked the passenger window out, to which the Officer is said to have quietly said, "Boy. You don't even know how much trouble you're in."
Geoff was rushed to the emergency room where he is right now.
He doesn't even know shoes are on the way.
Charles was ushered out in cuffs, screaming threats that he'd murder the officers.
Linda Shannon stands by Charles asserting that it was self-defense despite Charles stabbing Geoff in the back. She just wants to see her son in a positive light, but it's starting to grate a bit.
This is the kind of stuff that makes me want to amputate myself from my extended family.
I wasn't feeling so hot to trot today for obvious reasons.
I know I still have Emily, so the day can't be as bad as it seems, but a stabbing makes for a real shame of a day-after, and nobody's an island.
I didn't eat much, but I did prepare a potato.
Emily's a very meat and potatoes kind of girl, so I'd been looking for an exciting way to prepare them for her. This way is called "
Fanning" a potato:
I won't get into it. I don't feel like it. I'll just tell you that you should put two chopsticks on either side of the potato to make sure you don't cut all the way through it. Cook it in foil with parsley and butter.
