Stress Comes in Many Forms

Music is one of those things that is a real stress reliever for me. Just a side note there. Ever take one of those stress tests where you have to do a questionnaire?

I think everyone has to take one of those at one point in life. I last took one when I was about 25. I think it was because of the migraines. Or it was part of pre-separation counseling, or something.

 The Senior Chief took one around the same time as I did. Our results at that time were off the charts. We had had every major stressor there was and quite a few of the minor ones, as well. Good and bad.

 That's one of those things that this particular evaluation teaches you...that stress comes in many forms. It's just as stressful to start a new job as it is to lose one, for example. Great.

Another thing I learned is that no matter what you are doing, there is ALWAYS some kind of stress. It exists. If you just got married, that's considered a major stressor. And then, the whole step-family thing, it gives it more value. Etc., etc....

 There comes a point in time where on many things you can just put it off to stress. Screw it, it's just stress. Then when the REALLY major stressors come along, then you have some reserve energy to deal with it.

That's the theory anyway. Truth is, you do become a little neurotic under prolonged periods of stress. The brain gets in the damn way, somehow.

Starts making these extra chemicals that make you fat and depressed. And then there's hidden stress. You don't even know it's bothering you until it's taken care off.

Then, sometimes everything is stressful. I'm thinking as you get older, you get over a lot of it, as well. You get all like...Fukkit, I've been there or somewhere really similar before. Whatever.

You also learn to appreciate the folks in your life who help take the stress away. Someone who will do something to help or make you laugh your ass off so hard, that you nearly pee yourself. That was the revelation I had while in the head today.

Some People Should Be Shot

A while ago, I wrote a post about one of our adopted kids.

It's been 6 years since I wrote that post and that guy is still very much a part of our lives. In that post I related a situation with his fucked up Momma.

He has gone on to make something of himself. He's had the same job for all this time and he's known around these parts as THE parts guy. If you need a part for your car, this guy can get it for you. I'm real proud of him.

He comes over every so often and always always helps The Senior Chief work on his cars and whatnot.

He also has been taking care of his fucked up Momma.

Recently, she bought a house, as I understand it. He also has a steady girlfriend and is Dad to her kids. Those kids adore him and vice versa. I am so proud of him, I could burst.

They were all living with his Momma in this house she bought that she can't afford. He gave her money for living there, as well.

So, he and his family were saving up money to get their own place, as is natural. Then his fucked up Momma drops the ball on him and says she's going to lose the house.

He gives her every last penny to keep this from happening, gives her money to keep the lights on and all that. He gave her every last dime he had...which was a significant amount, from what I understand. And she apparently spent it all on something else.

Her response? She called the cops on him, had them pick him up and tell him he has 24 hours to get out. The cop told her she couldn't do that, that she had to give him 14 days.

GI Joe went over there yesterday to help him load up some stuff to store over here. I love my son, he's a good man.

I want to know..how in the hell do you do that to your only son? To any of your children?

I've always had bad feelings towards that chick since that one day. But this...this is just mean. And fucked up like nothing I've ever seen before.

I don't know how she can sleep at night or live with herself treating her own flesh and blood that way. Looks to me like she just used him.

And with all the trouble he's got, he still is finding time to help us. He's going to haul ToughJake's truck off for us on Monday.

He is crushed that his own mother would do this to him, and I don't blame him. He is holding up well, though.

He came over last night to drop a couple of cars off that he is working on, and I hugged him at least 10 times. The boys took him out to eat and have a couple of beers with them to cheer him up also.

In my humble opinion, she should be shot. The bitch.

Always An Asshole

GI Joe is here for a visit and that is always tiring as we try and make up for him having not been here every second that he is here.

We are celebrating the fact that he made it back from another tour in a hostile environment. Can I get a hell yeah? Hell yeah!

As usual there are a ton of people over, but they are all much older now than in past years. So, I don't think sitting around the bonfire listening to music and shooting the shit even counts as a party anymore. It's quiet and mellow, which is how I like it.

As well, since a couple of them live a couple of blocks over, they go over there to get loud and whatnot.

That was the plan anyway.

Sunday night changed everything. They went over to the other house and The Senior Chief and I were just chilling watching some tube before we went to bed. At about 11:30, there was a knock on the door. It was some young man looking for one of the girls that hangs with my son. I said she wasn't here and he said..."Are you sure."

That tripped a red flag for me, a little, but I closed the door, locked it and went back to my show.

That bastard never left. He stayed and hung around out in my front yard waiting for the chick to come over. We saw headlights and went outside to see what was going on and he was still here, the chick he was looking for wasn't happy with him, and another of the chicks that came with the first one to make sure she was ok.

He threatened them both, ....then threatened The Senior Chief. Right as The Senior Chief and he were having a discussion...the posse rolls up.

Let me just say, it's good to have a posse, although in the telling, I get counted as being part of it. He didn't want to leave plain and simple and I don't know about any of my dear readers, but if 5 guys all over 6 feet tall were up in my face telling me to leave, then I woulda beat feet out of there. This guy was stupid, though.

He finally left as my son pushed the last number one in 911. Then we had a couple of beers ..talked about it..and they all went back to what they were doing before the disturbance. An hour later we got a call that he said he was coming back to fuck my son up. So, back over they came and we chilled in the garage and stayed up until 3 am. This was before the first day of school and I had to get up and get my younger ones off to school.

The next day was ok..nice and quiet.

Last night..this idiot shows up at the workplace of one of the gals and is threatening her and my son again. She called the cops and again we stayed up late. The Senior Chief filed two complaints against him and for the time being, they are sending extra patrols out our way.

I do not know what this kid is thinking. Or if he is thinking at all. He really shouldn't be messing with us. GI Joe did just come out of a combat zone, and this really isn't helpful to his state of mind. He needs to be able to relax and feel safe within the confines of our home and we have this guy here that has him all worked up and tense, and it's really pissing me off.

The original girl in question will not file a restraining order. She seems to think that if she does then the threats will escalate. I can get that, and she couldn't defend herself if it did, and a piece of paper won't stop a bullet. But, she could make it a lot clearer that she doesn't want to talk to him.

All I know is that now I am completely exhausted and just a little bitchy. I need to get on a schedule and this just is not helping. Not to mention there's a wrecked truck out there that has not been worked on due to all this drama. This is the first time in all these years that there's been real drama. I hate drama, I really do.

And Some More Stress

When I say that life has been full of constant stress for a very long time, believe me.

This one turned out alright, all things considered. If you can believe it, he walked away.

He was driving on a road that has a nasty curve at the bottom of a real steep hill, when his throttle stuck. He managed to make it through the curve, almost. There's a flat spot and a second part of the curve. At that point he fell off the road and over-corrected, which might have saved his life. At that point, it dug in and he barrel rolled at least 3 times. No time to turn the engine off, unfortunately. Going down that hill in neutral, you can hit 80+mph by the bottom. You have to be on the brakes the entire time.

Luckily, he rolled into the middle of the road instead of into the 60 foot ravine on the other side of the road. That would have been bad.

He's a very lucky boy and we are very thankful that it wasn't worse. He was able to walk away and only had minor scrapes and bumps to show for it. He wasn't decapitated by the axe floating around in the back of it, nor was he hit by the spare battery he had in it. He managed to recover most of his gear, including his Tough Book, which true to it's advertising is fully rugged.

Looks like the engine and tranny survived, as well, so he'll be able to pull those and put them into the truck that's sitting right behind his truck.

There's a lot of blessings from this tragedy, the biggest of which was that he walked away. I am, however, just bone weary and numb. They say God doesn't give ya more than you can bear, but a lot of days, I'm feeling a lot like Job. I don't know how much more I can take. I'm ready for some fun instead of all this crap.

Comments About The Next Presidential Candidate

I believe the American People are getting wiser. I hope so anyway, and I'm sure that there are those that would beg to differ, and that's ok, too.

Here's the thing. Any candidate for the Presidency must raise a shitload of money in order to get the job. That's just a fact.

Another fact is that the candidate owes these people for contributing enough to get him or her elected.

What I would like is a list of donors from each candidate. I think that would actually be a better way to tell who to vote for.

Those are the people that the potential President is going to be working for. You cannot accumulate that much money and not owe somebody. I'd just like to know who they owe.

Seriously, this whole shindig is getting damned ridiculous.

None of the potential candidates out there has a clue about you or me. None of them has had to worry about money in their lives. Not once. None of them has ever had to decide between food or electricity.

These people don't even think twice about spending taking your money and then spending it on something else entirely. It matters not to them how you are going to come up with the money for this free health care. It matters not to them that the price of food has doubled in the last year.

These people that we are about to elect..no matter who they are...are so out of touch with the American People, that they might as well be in another galaxy altogether.

Somebody in the chain is greedy, that much I know, as well. Why does it cost so much for the candidates to have their debates on television. In this day and age, that stuff should be way cheaper. But it's not.

That's not to say you shouldn't vote. You should, by all means. I just don't expect it to make a real difference for a few more years. We have to keep voting for new folks during the mid term elections, and eventually we'll weed out all the old faces.

Clueless People

Clueless idiots, I mean, people, just piss me off sometimes.

Mostly because the words I would use to give them a clue would hurt their feelings worse than what they did to hurt mine.

Everybody knows that you never, ever, ever openly talk to the ex-wife in public hearing of the new wife, right? Especially not the Senior Chief's ex-wife.

We have one particular relative who just for some reason wants to be all disgustingly nice to the ex-wife...on Facebook.

So, Army boy just got back to the states and managed to make it to Texas for a family reunion, which was cool.

But here's this relative posting that he looks good, and he needs to improve his communication skills. AND that he can't wait to visit her (the ex-wife).

What? Get the hell out. First of all, I take extreme offense at the fact that she insulted him trying to be nice to someone who, from all accounts that I've heard, wasn't very nice to her.

Second of all, who is she to volunteer him to visit anyone? Ok, so we did kind of promise he might be able to go down to Pensacola to hang with his best friend...but that's way different.

Seriously though, couldn't she have wrote all that stuff in a private communication? And who the hell is she to say he needs to communicate better? I don't have too much of a problem with his communications skills and I RAISED HIM..not the one who was getting her ass kissed.

I just don't get it. The ex-wife doesn't have any claim to him as far as I'm concerned.

Not only was she a shitty mother...she never did anything to help raise them in any kind of way. All she did was make things harder and let me tell ya, if she'd have been a man, she'd have been in jail for not paying child support. It kind of tells ya what a shitty mother is that the Senior Chief got custody in that day and age.

I am excited to see him at the end of the month, though. He looks thin and could use some fattening up. God knows he won't get that at the ex-wife's ...not only can't she cook, but she flat out refused to cook.

Like I said, ignorant people just piss me off and I totally don't understand why the attempt is even being made to speak to her, let alone nice and promising her stuff that probably won't happen. Well, he might visit...for a day. Two weeks he'll be HOME though.

So there.

Couple Of Things On My Mind

First of all, I am OH so glad to have busted my ass putting a garden in for the deer and caterpillars to eat. Thrilled to death.

Second of all, I am oh so thrilled with the judge who blocked enforcement of the new illegal immigration bill that is supposed to go into effect on Friday.

I am sick to death of people saying that we don't want immigrants here. All of us, with very few exceptions are descended from immigrants. This is a nation of immigrants.

LEGAL immigrants, that is.

You know, the ones who learn English and pay taxes.

I see all these "solutions" that crack me up. Like, "Just make them pay taxes. Problem solved."

Um, really? And, Mr. Knowitall, how on earth do you propose we do that?

What really kicks my ass is that a bunch of people voted for this and ONE person stopped it in its tracks. There is something very wrong with the system when one person can have that much power either way.

The illegals have 2 choices...get legal or leave. Plain and simple in my mind.

I'm sick of a bunch of folks coming in to our country and trying to change the rules to suit them while real Americans can't find jobs and are paying taxes so these people can have a free ride.