Another Day in Paradise

[trickykitty]

I arrived at my parents' house at about 3pm with plans to definitely visit my sister and possibly visit my ailing grandfather. As I've mentioned before, she's in jail, still at the county level but scheduled to be moved to state at some point in the future. My grandfather broke his hip shortly before my grandmother passed away and isn't doing too well as a result. Gangrene has set in up to the calf as well as a staph infection. He may loose his leg if he doesn't pass away from the staph, and his chances of survival from the leg operation are still highly slim. It's just a sad waiting game which is unfortunately causing unnecessary pain on his part. Why the hell we as intelligent human beings can't implement self-made plans for euthanasia I will never understand. I know he would rather die than to have to live like this and waste everyone else's time and effort. His wife just passed away and his body is giving him every excuse to let nature speed up the process. It just saddens me to no end.

As I pulled up to my parents' I noticed an old beat up car that was either for sale or, most likely, recently purchased for $500 or less and resembled any one of the many trash heaps my sister's "friends" drive. I walked in expecting to see either the baby-daddy or some other one of her friends/his family that wanted to hitch a ride to visit her. Nope. It was my schizophrenic uncle having somehow managed to find his way back to the DFW area from his trip to Shreveport. He was sitting on the couch and the older nephew walked up saying, "Look, Aunt Nikki, we have a robber in the house." o_O After a brief look, I noticed Uncle wearing a full-faced black knit ski mask. Going into auto mode, I walked straight back into one of the bedrooms to hide my purse and belongings. This is an auto feature that has been built in my brain since childhood whenever he's around, not because he wears ski masks, but because he will in fact go through a purse and steal money out of it. Then again, so will my sister, but I've never had money go missing out of my own purse from her, as she only stole hard cash from my parents. I made sure to tell my mom to beware of him trying to stay here. She made sure to tell him that this wasn't a hotel or gas station to just stop by whenever he needed a shower (almost verbatim). He left after finishing shaving, replacing the ski mask and asking for my assistance with the shiny radio face plate he had in that piece of shit crap he was driving. I know better than to bother asking questions when it comes to either my sister or my uncle and their possessions.

The nephew started up playing Hitman, and of course I had to read everything to him and teach him how NOT to hit 'X' during a cut scene so that he won't have ten million questions later. He's just now learning the basics of simultaneously using one knob to walk, another to look, and pressing a button to run. Of course he manages to run in circles and get himself lost, so I also had to teach him how to read the damn in-game map. I love games, but I forgot how boring as hell it is trying to teach someone else how to use the controller. Also, he's only just learning how to read, and very slowly at that, so I had to read all of the on-screen instructions for him. I really wanted him to go back to either the Lego Batman or Katamari Damacy. I told mom that the games dad picked out for himself were not age appropriate for the boys. The reading and puzzles are too advanced for him. Hell, I'd even give him Star Wars Battlefront if all he wants is to shoot things. Oh well. She'll just have to sit and watch/play with him and learn for herself that what I speak is truth.

Plans to visit my sister went like clockwork. We got the boys ready at 5pm. An hour later we arrived at the county jail just in time to only have to wait for <10min. As the names were being called and people were being told, "Yes, [he's] back there," my mother started to realize the awful truth. [She] had her visiting hours from 5-6 and it was now the male inmates' turn. My parents thought her visiting time was at 6pm, and as such the drive was made for naught, although mom still managed to leave a money order to increase my sister's commissary account (of course they're still paying for her, even while she's in jail). The boys were, well, undeterred that the McDonald's we passed on the way in looked highly tempting, and they cared more about that than visiting their mother. Instead, we gave ourselves a just reward of driving back into town and eating at Mexican Inn.

After we got back home, Lo and Behold, Hitman the movie was on the TV. To my surprise, dad actually really likes it and watches it every time it comes on cable, which is quite often at the moment. I was a bit curious why he bought the PS2 game for himself, but now it makes more sense. Heehee - I chaperoned my mom when we picked out the PS2 and the two other games, but mom and dad went on their own and dad managed to pick out 4 games for himself: Hitman, GTA:Vice City, Gun, and one other game that I can't remember off the top of my head that involves shooting zombies that the boys like. Hell, at this rate I might as well get them Carmageddon.

So, all-in-all, a strange day.