And, Why Did She Call This Time?

Often the posts on the support board lead me to remember things that I have forgotten. One was the text message game.

I remember something about my JB and text messages on her cell phone. Something about she was getting ones that weren't nice, but Hubbie's sister BG had to get them off for her. I asked Hubie, "Well, what was in the messages?" He said that BG only said "you wouldn't want to know."

It was quite a while back and I don't remember now why he told me the messages. He didn't usually tell me anything. I think he was trying to find out if I knew the number that they were coming from, but it was a number in MIL's city and I don't even know anybody in that area. (Yes, I know anyone can get a cell phone in any area, but nobody I knew did that either.) He had tried to trace the online number but I don't know that he found who it belonged to, only what city it belonged in.


After reading this you probably think what I think. MIL gets SIL to read her text messages for her, claiming she can't do it. Hubbie who lives in a different city from either receiver or alleged sender's number gets involved. Messages are supposedly not very nice. Uhhh huhhhhh....

It seemsed like an attention getting ploy to me. It seems staged to me. Why else would she get my hubbie involved? This is so teenage-- just like her other phone games.

Another Phone Game I Remembered

One evening, hubbie and I were working in the garden. While out there, she called his cell phone wanting to know what I wanted, claiming I had just called her and gotten disconnected. I guess I had been going in or out of the house, but we were both in the yard when she called.

But now, I as I think back... (Often everything didn't occur to me at the time it happened) If she really thought I had called, why did she return the call to his cell phone? Isn't it more like she wanted attention from him and couldn't think of anything, huh?

So 15 years old!

JB/EJ's Sense of Entitlement

In one of my early posts and in my header, I wrote of MIL JB and FIL EJ believing that they were entitled to a portion of what their son has. The words "our son" and "have" are words I often heard.

This story is about just how far they felt entitlement -- it went beyond my own hubbie.

Their youngest granddaughter took a job at KFC after she dropped out of high school and got pregnant. She got a bonus award at work for pleasing the secret shopper. I don't remember the amount, but it was at most $100. This was before EJ died since I was there to hear the story and he died after I quit going there. When MIL told us about it she ended it with "You had better believe that she is going to keep that all for herself. Nobody else will see a dime of it." My thoughts -- why would anybody think anything different. It's her money isn't it? She has a baby to take care of doesn't she?

Thing 1 and Thing 2

In my other blog, I talked a little about strange gifts from EJ, my not-so-dearly departed father in law. He thought it was amazing that you could get figurines for only a dollar at the dollar store. So he bought those to give as gifts. Not just one per person, but many many of them. He knew lots of people. For Christmas gifts, he would take blocks of wood, paint them, then glue the cheap figurines onto them. He spent hundreds of dollars doing this, due to sheer quantity. He knew lots of people. He thought somehow that people treasured these creations. I don't even see that you could classify them as redneck. They didn't really make scenes. They were just however many figurines he could glue onto the piece of wood he had.

When he died, there were already a bunch ready for the following Christmas. His family was saying how he already had his Christmas presents ready, that 'he knew he was going to die.' I don't really think so. Because this was not the first time he had done this. He did this every year.

I threw mine in the garbage. But to hubbie, anything, no matter what it was, that passed from his parents hands to his hands was instant treasure, and instant heirloom, so he kept hold of his. I took pictures of a couple of them. I don't know what to call them other than 'thing 1' and 'thing 2'.


Thing 1:



Thing 2:

More About the House

I wrote a new description of the house itself for the bulletin board I go to. This one is not (so much) its condition that included some things not in the previous house postings, so I thought I'd add that here.

JB and her hubbie EJ built it themselves, they weren't builders or contractors. He had help from his Brothers/BIL's/friends who had worked in electricity, plumbing, or whatever.
It has a stupid layout (which has been made more stupid over the years), shag carpet (originally orange, now orange with dirt holding it together), filing cabinets used as furniture and lots of clutter. Also, a bunch of gray metal shelves with useless junk piled on them.

It's a square house. The only room on the ground floor that you can tell what it's for is the kitchen -- sort of -- that would be the room with the sink, stove, refrigerator, washer, dryer, and shower stall, right? The "kitchen" has a shower stall with a moldy curtain in it! There is a working toilet under the stairs (right off the kitchen) but you could hardly get in there for the clutter. All four rooms have exterior exits. (The shower and toilet are what I refer to as stupid add-ons -- but I suppose that at some point you want more than one bath in a house and want one downstairs.) But every kitchen has a shower stall, doesn't it?

As for the stupid layout, with no original downstairs bath, it's not like it's because of age. It was built in the late 60's or early 70's -- from colors in the house, I'd guess the 70's and never upgraded. The house that they moved there from did NOT have an indoor bath, so maybe they did not think they needed more than one and upstairs they put it near where they slept or more likely, where they had room for it. Upstairs is also in quadrants -- three are bedrooms and the fourth is the former bathroom The sink and toilet have for some reason been removed. The tub along with it's glass shower doors is soldered in with mold. There are still pipes in there and part of a sink cabinet, but it's in a different place from where the sink actually was. Hubbie once tried to improve the bathroom. He removed the shower doors and threw them out because they were in such bad conditoin. He replaced it with a curtain rod and a new shower curtain. FIL retrieved the doors and superglued them back in. ( I would almost bet the old mold and soapscum were included int he glue-back-in. But, that's just a guess based on how I knew him, I don't state that they were replaced dirty as a fact.)

The ceilings are 7 feet high. The stairs are shorter than standard stairs then the top step is about a half-height of the rest of them. I never went up them enough times that I ever got up it without tripping on that! There is a bedroom that has orange walls and a yellow ceiling (or vice-versa).

The house was also not heated or air conditioned. It has strip heaters screwed to the moldings. They cut holes in the sides of the house and inserted window unit air conditoiners into them. But of course they cut the holes too big and stuffed the rest of the opening with insulation. They put the air condioners in the wall because they did not want to block the windows. Doesn't sound like such a bad idea, but I don't remember the curtains ever being opened!


The land is in a place that it would not be worth anything in a good economy. I think I described that before. It's between run down commercial property and a railroad track. It's also off the end of a runway, but it's a small town airport with only a couple small planes a day, so the runway isn't that big a deal. {Well, more than I thought, I just looked. It looks like about 15 airline arrivals and 15 departures a day all puddle jumpers. There are 2 airlines going in and out. More of a hopping place than I thought! Plus general aviation and some cargo flights. }


Hubbie says that if it had new windows, exterior siding and heating/ac added it would be a good house! How many times did I say that I am glad we did not inherit it?

Where did the Money Go?

Last Thursday, I was telling my boss about the condition of "the haunted house". He is into building, renovations, and such. As I described it to him, the thought occurred to me...

Just where did all of that money go? JB and EJ (JB's hubbie) called my hubbie whenever they wanted anything or perceived a need, and he usually complied. (Only one exception that I know about**)

He spent tens of thousands on their house. And the place is a dump (reference the posting on my other blog about the Haunted House.) With the exception of the purchase price, we have spent far less money on our house. And ours in a lot better condition. I can just imagine what a nice place our house would be if the money that had gone to JB and EJ's haunted house had been put into our house. We'd have those hardwoods, that redone family room..... things that I just think about but haven't spent the money on.... Our place would be parade of homes quality with all of the money spent on it that was sunk into the Haunted House -- the Haunted House isn't even good enough for a slum house.

*** The only exception was that she was that she wanted him to either install a stair life/elevator or build on a downstairs master suite. He didn't have the money for that without coming to me and he knew better.