ITS OVER. . .
Not anything you might think is over, but something near and dear to my hear. The people who bought my parents quaint 1950's style rabler have chosen to level the house. I went by the house and the place I knew as home for over 20 years is now gone. A very large, muddy crater is all that's left. As I drove by, my heart sank and it wa hard not to ball my eyes out. I feel like these rich assholes are coming into Edina everywhere, leveling these houses, and putting up these obscene 8 million dollar homes. They don't fit into the area, and stand out like sore thumbs.
In the old neighborhood, within a block of my parents house, I counted 4 places this has already happened, count my parents house and another one around the corner and it's 6 total.
Awful, just awful. Usually people say, "There goes the neighborhood." when some white trash people or folks from the inner city move in, but its very fitting in this case.
I drove home, letting all the memories flood my brain and allowed me to shut everything out till I was aware I was parked in my garage for who knows how long. I can't call my Mom and tell her because of her frail state right now - she'd probably have a fricking heart attack. We all knew this was going to happen, but to stand there, looking into a place I spent so many happy times, was devastating for me. So much, and nwo its all gone.
I don't have anything else to say, other than to feel the sorrow and try to move on. I have no pics to post, I just want to keep those happy memories - happy.
R.I.P.
6320 Westwood Court
1985-2007
OUT
TOO MUCH GOING ON. . .
Wow, where do I start? So much has happened since the last post about a month ago. My parents renovation has turned into a disaster, my Mom is having a nervous breakdown because of how slow the guys working on the house are going, my Dad is ready to fire them all and finish it himself, my son attacked his Mom and is now in line for Juvi court, and I'm still here, half awake (soccer game last night at 10:00pm) and trying to keep my eyes open.
Yeah, the remodeling job is not going well. My Mom has decided to just flip the house and move on. The contractor is an asshole (friend of the family)and continues to drag his feet, much to the dismay of my parents. Their project is one the largest he's had and on top of this, he continues to take on more work. I went over and spoke with them on Monday and my mom said he now has 8 projects he's working on - 8!! The guy is spread so thin, and they're only about halfway through my parents deal, which should be DONE this month. I feel for them, this has been an awful experience for my parents. I'm sure the house is going to turn out nice, but theys till have to knock out two walls, redo the kitchen, the living room and put on siding. This is in addition to the rest of the stuff they only have half done. I'm thinking maybe they'll be done by May or June. My mom wants to get this house on the market as fast as she can, even in lieu of the poor market. I could be wrong about the market though, her real estate agent told her she's closed 8 deals in the last two months, and says the market is fine. Well, yeah for a millionaire it probably is.
The nice thing was at least Moms got to take a week off and go to Florida with my gif. They both had a great time, got some sun and relaxed quite a bit. I got a sweatshirt outa the deal and a t-shirt which was cool. While they were away, my Dad and I got to chill and spend some time together. We took in a few high school hockey games (poor Edina, they lost to Grand Rapids in the semi's of the State Championship) and got dinner on two of the nights. It was an exceptionally cool time for me because I learned more in those few days than the last 30 years I've know my father. I found out he had a fricking Q Clearance which I never knew about. He told me some funny stories about being in the military, how he joined, and what he did. All these stories were great because I always thought he was just a telecom guy and had a mathematics degree. He told me about how even his CO in his reserve unit couldn't ask him about what he did because of his clearance - funny stuff. He also shared some more college stories about him and his frat buddies and some of the crazy stunts they pulled. He told me a story about how they somehow got a hold of a mine sweeping boat and they had planned to take out for a summer and just drift up and down the coast of California with his frat brothers. the crazy thing is this was back in the 70's when there was no internet, they did all this stuff with just their brains and some crafty engineers and some basic knowhow - insane. In any case, I hope to make out trek to the pizza joint a weekly or monthly trip, I really feel much closer to him now.
For the past two weeks I've been trying to get a hold of my son, and it seems I didn't get to him in time. A few days ago, things a bit out of hand with his Mom and he had quite the meltdown. Throwing things and really going off. He called his Mom a few choice things, then threw a drumstick at her, then threw two D batteries and hit her arm (she was holding her baby daughter Kate at the time) so she called the cops. Cops filled out the form, and told her they would be in contact with her. I guess the cops asked her if she wanted him removed from the house and she said "no". The cop went over to my son and told him the only reason he wasn't going to jail was because of his mother and he should feel lucky and thank her.
I have no idea where this is going, but it doesn't sound good. I could've told this has been a long time coming. His mom said they think it's his meds, but I disagree. She's going to try and get him into to see a psychiatrist so they can prescribe more drugs for him - fucking brilliant. What a great way to take care of a problem, medicate him and forget about him. I asked where all this anger is coming from and she just mumbled something and then said she thinks its his meds. Whatever. You're oppressing the poor child. sooner or later, all this anger has to manifest itself. she grounds him for weeks on end, takes away all of his stuff and trys to control his life WAY too much. His stepdad could give a shit about him, and she's wrapped up in her new baby, leaving him on the outside looking in. What a brutal way to live. I surprised it hasn't happened sooner. Like I've always said, I feel for him. His mother is a control freak and he's a teenager trying to find his way and get some form of independence from her. I'm thinking he'll be up here within the next year or so at the latest, which I'm looking forward to. Her family has always been so dysfunctional, and now this. Soemthing has to change, and no amount of drugs or therapy I feel is going to do the trick. I just hope he can hold on long enough. . .
On to bigger and better things - sort of. My first divison soccer team has been taking the gaspipe as of late. We wrapped up the championship in the rec league over at Augsburg, but then moved up the open division which was a great big eye opener. We won two games and we have our last game next week. The two games we won came against the same team - funny huh? After this session we're moving over to another league in Plymouth. I have no idea how hard this league is going to be, but it will be good prep for this usummer, which is another story. I guess there was so much discrepencies between the teams coming up from the 2nd division to the 1st division, many teams didn't want to go up for fear of getting smoked on a weekly basis. On team quickly came to mind - my old nemesis Manchester. They won the league two years in a row and still wouldn't go up - pussies. The irony here is they had no problem getting smoked on a weekly basis in the comp indoor league, but for some reason didn't want to move up with their outdoor team. I don't think I'll ever figure those A-holes out. I won't have to now anyways.
My other team, Northland Wolves FC is really ramping up. I think we're going to smoke the Broze divison. We have two more scrimmages on a larger field, so the next couple of weeks, I'm really going to try and relax and work on my individual skills. I still need to find a couple of decent one-v-one moves to break guys down. I've lost enough weight where I'm much quicker, but I just need a move to creat enough space for me to blast into and get by a guy. I've playing a LOT on the right side on both Sundays (rec indoor league) and on Tuesdays (Augsburg open league). I'm just not comfortable on the right side. I had some good stuff last night, but I'm just not satisfied yet. Once we start practicing more, I'll be able to hone those skills more. Oh well, practice, practice, practice - right? More downstairs sessions I guess.
I have a lot more I could scribble here about music, my upcoming trip to Portland, old girlfriends and current events (Anna Nicols saga, Richard Jeni killing himself) but I'll let it go till next time. I thinking I'll bust out another post tomorrow when I get bored.
Oh yeah - almost forgot. . . 
Rammstein. They kick MAJOR ass. I've been listening and watching their stuff on youtube quite a bit lately. Its made me want to start taking german classes again. Fun stuff.
