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GhostOfTomJoad

Certifiably Surly
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Everything posted by GhostOfTomJoad

  1. My buddy's wife teaches at AISD. He's claiming per her that none of the teachers of Hispanic background showed showed up to teach today. Now, my buddy's a naturalized citizen from England and known to s-t-r-e-t-c-h a story for effect. I'm not quickly finding anything about this online. Anyone hearing about organized sick outs in AISD?
  2. There's gotta be a stream of Mavs fans burning their jerseys at this point. And deservedly so. The Mavs and the NBA fucked this six ways to Sunday. If it was known Luka was on the block half of the reporters heading to New Orleans for the SB would be looking into flight changes. They could have milked this for weeks. And the Mavs would have gotten more than a bucket of warm spit for Luka. Fuck the Lakers. This whole thing stinks of shady backroom dealings.
  3. Fuck this shit. Gimme at least another month of being able to wear a fleece pullover.
  4. You should have "accidentally" bladed a wedge from just off the green and into his nut sack the second time he tried baiting y'all. Or just gone with the obvious "I don't respect or trust anyone who cheats at golf the way that fat fuck does" and leave him be.
  5. Fabulous thread that I suspect will become one of the hallmarks of Surly going forward. This will give me the opportunity to do something I've been forbidden from doing: eulogize my dad. My father is very much alive and will be 80 in a few months. But my dad's been dead and gone for all intents and purposes for about 30 years or so. Dad knocked up the birthing device to my two sisters and me when he was 20 and she was 18. They were high school sweethearts. It was '66, and he was about to fail out of the University of Minnesota. Growing up, we all heard repeatedly how my oldest sis was an accident, our middle sis was planned, and me--the only boy--was also an 'oops.' Great way to start things off. But being the lone bread winner and supporter of 3 kids in the late '60s probably kept him from being drafted. Maybe those "accidents" weren't really left up to chance. Dad worked hard, got his associated degree at night school while working several jobs (including at a grocery store and as a clown at kids' birthday parties) to make ends meet. He got a job as a lab tech at one of the biggest R&D companies in MN. Meanwhile, his first wife's descent into alcoholism was dramatically hastened in '76 when her father reappeared after 20 years. He'd faked his own death for an insurance scam decades ago. By '77 she'd filed for divorce and he had to move out. I was 8 then, old enough to respect his heroism in continuing to work & provide while fighting the MN courts to gain custody of his 3 kids. Not an easy thing to do in the era where the mother was almost always considered to be the better option for rearing children. Thankfully for us kids, she eventually decided she wanted to run off w/ an alcoholic contractor and see the world. Or at least New Jersey for 9 months. She abandoned us, he moved back home, and tried to adjust to life as a single dad. Within 6 months of the divorce being finalized in '78, he was dating the woman who would become his 2nd wife, a CSR at the same company he worked for he'd met through a bowling league. She made Laverne Defazio look like a beauty queen, was also a drunk (but in the funny, life of the party way), but she could cook, had a decent job, and shoot, who else was going to teach his young teenage daughters what to do when they started menstruating? They married in '79. The best thing about wife #2 is that she believed in maintaining family bonds. She helped dad improve his relationship w/ his parents. These were the brief fun years for my sisters & me. Our paternal grandparents--who lived a whole six miles away in Saint Paul--were over frequently for weekend dinners & cookouts. Dad was climbing the corporate ladder, there were two incomes, and suddenly we were considered to be one of the "haves" in our small, very blue collar town. In '84, dad's job relocated to Austin. He was thrilled for the opportunity. Wife #2 almost put the kebash on it because she didn't want to leave her family behind. But she knew he was going to see a significant raise which would allow her to do one of her favorite things which was to run up his credit cards. By '86, a month after my oldest sister's wedding, wife #2 moved out to continue the affair she was having with a fellow colleague of theirs. She did her best to take him to the cleaners in that divorce. I was 17 and now saw my father as a hurt man who didn't have the strength to fight back for what was his. He would rather just write the big check and hope it would be over soon. I harangued him until he finally went to see a therapist to deal with his burgeoning depression. He made a game effort of it for almost 6 months, but ever the co-dependent, he was soon dating the younger sister of our next door neighbor who was visiting from Ohio. Six months after divorce #2 was finalized, I was his attendant at the Travis County courthouse on the Friday after Thanksgiving-the day before my 19th birthday-when he married wife #3, who may be the worst of all of his wives. Wife #3 looks like Yoko Ono's uglier sister. She's eight years younger than dad, had never been married and had a really good job as a QA manager at Abbot Labs in Ohio. She left that career behind at 35 and never reentered the workforce, "offended" by the low salary offers in Austin in the late '80s. My sisters were both married and beginning their families. I was a sophomore at UT, commuting to school and working part-time. Wife #3's spent her days doing her favorite thing--bargain hunting--and her evenings making it clear I needed to move out ASAP. She was taking control of every aspect of my dad's life, and it was clear that their world would consist of the two of them exclusively. By my junior year I was sharing a shitty apartment with a couple of friends and watching my dad become a recluse, all of his bonds with his former friends & golfing buddies having been severed. In '01, dad was bought out into early retirement with the kind of handsome packages career company men dream about. They moved to Fort Collins. My wife and I have visited them a half dozen times over the years, never for more than 2 nights. Wife #3 has a plaque hanging in their guest room which reads "Guests are like fish: after 48 hours they begin to smell." Point taken. Her redeeming quality is that, unlike his first two wives, #3 is excellent at managing finances. Even though she never worked during their marriage, she brought her own funds to their union and did a first-rate job with his salary to allow them to retire in a very comfortable arrangement. My sisters and I will never be burdened by them as they age. In spite of all of the turmoil & pain #3 has created, we tip our hat to her fiscal acumen. W#3 has spent the entirety of their marriage sowing family discord & undoing whatever goodwill W#2 created between dad & my grandparents. She was open about her hatred of her own mother and sister, and is fond of saying "you're not required to love your family." When grampa died in '13 he was non-supportive of his mother and the rest of the family at the funeral. After gramma passed in '16 he went through a brief moment of attempting to reconcile w/ my sisters and me. W#3 shot that down, and he crawled back into his hole. The last time I saw him was in '17 when he told me he was going to make changes to his will that would add to my responsibilities. I took that opportunity to visit him and try to understand those requirements better, but also to learn more about him and what he'd learned about life over the previous 5 years. During that span he'd lost both his parents and almost w#3 due to complications after a complex cancer surgery. She flatlined and was dead for over 3 minutes. As the adage goes, she's proven too mean to die and made a full recovery over 9 months. Remarkable, really, considering she's been living w/ MS for over 30 years. "What have you learned, dad" was answered by him giving a list of grievances and naming names of people who did him wrong over his work career. Colleagues who got credit or names on patents instead of him. Golfing buddies who used a questionable ball mark on a green to beat him in a two dollar Nassau. Cursing his dad not being there to see him set the Saint Paul HS record in the 100 meter dash at a meet in '62 (Gramps worked swing shifts at the power plant as a maintenance supervisor). I tried to steer the conversation back to what he was thankful for, hoping to find a glimmer of the hero from the '70s who busted his ass to keep his young family together. His response was to take me out to his garage and show me his new E-class. During that visit he told me that I was second in line behind his wife for medical POA. We went over his end of life wishes and scenarios. He told me they'd be updating their will in the near future to make some changes, most notably to write out entirely my oldest sister. My sis stood up to the two of them at her oldest daughter's college graduation. After ten plus years of dad & the evil one attempting to control the life of my sister, her husband and their two daughters, Sis told them "enough." They've now been excommunicated. Dad has never met any of the 5 great grandchildren he now has between 3 of his grandkids. He knows of them, but he knows he can't dare cross the will of his wife. Worse, he doesn't show any interest in them. The man who was exceptional at managing complex work dynamics and multi-million dollar product lines is powerless in his personal relationships. It was at the end of the visit he told me his final demands after his death: no memorial service of any kind. No obituary. Absolutely no mention of his passing on social media. "When the time comes, either you or your (middle) sister will be tasked w/ taking our cremains and spreading them in Hawaii. You'll learn the destination at that time and not before. We don't want anyone else knowing where our final resting place is." Dad & W#3 are in Hawaii right now, in fact. It's their annual 6-week getaway. I've selfishly thought for several years that it would be easier for me if they just peacefully passed there. As I stated long ago at the start of this diatribe, my dad stopped being many, many years ago. He's an 80 year old man, following some antiquated playbook of what he believes a parent should be. He's not a bad man. His emotional shortcomings and co-dependency issues have resulted in him being a sad, lonely man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing. He won't be missed.
  6. A friend of ours is a pilot w/ Parks and Wildlife. His wife works for Texas H&HS. They have over 60 years combined as state employees. They're Trumpkins to the core, including posting a video of themselves doing the YMCA dance during dotard's inauguration. Dotard's asinine response to the deadly crash in DC has made the wife VERY upset. In the most Karen of all moves, she wrote cheeto dick a sternly worded post on his presidential Facebook page, letting him know that even though they've voted for him every time and support everything he does, his blaming of the ATC is a bridge too far and he needs to do better. We don't really socialize with them anymore. We'll occasionally end up at the same restaurant or brewery by happenstance. It's been remarkably easy to cut these people out of our lives.
  7. In other words, "you've got a HCIW on your staff, Mike. Make sure he knows where the keys to the locker room are." Are we sure Gundy didn't get his freak on with some high up's wife or daughter? Shitty season aside, it sure looks like they're ready to cut bait from coach mullet.
  8. Abso-fucking-lutely. We're starting a primary bed/bath remodel next month. Interviewed 6 contractors. Hired the guy whose entire crew was employed by him, not subbed out. Had a couple contractors come through in Dec/Jan giving their pitch and promise us we didn't need to worry because they knew how to get the "good" workers. Wink, wink.
  9. Yeah, what could go wrong with a voluntary separation w/ pay that is activated by simply replying "resign" to an email? It's like they're casting their first net to the most gullible.
  10. Sorry for your loss. As one of 3 children of two people who likely never wanted kids, reading the story of your relationship with your father and his love for your mother really makes me realize how much damn beauty, love & hope there is in this world. RIP, Brisket Senior.
  11. Not a bad suggestion. But this is where I started.
  12. These raids and the ensuing cruelty is definitely giving the cremains of my dead FIL a hard on. I remember his broke ass lamenting not having the money to hire the "good w*tbacks" his neighbors could afford to work his ranch in Harper. A ranch he inherited and that his wife supported by working multiple jobs into her 60s while his lazy ass spent his days chain smoking & getting drunk on rot gut scotch. He's the poster child of MAGA. Pissed at the world because a white male boomer veteran w/ a degree from UT just couldn't get a fair shake because of the free money & benefits all the illegals were getting. I'm sure he's cackling from the depths of hell with what's going on today.
  13. Saw it yesterday w/ my wife. Similar to many couples it seems, I'm the Dylan fan & she's never been able to tolerate much of his work. She thoroughly enjoyed the film & came away w/ a deeper appreciation of his music, and was asking me to play specific songs when we got home. That's a successful movie in my book. Norton as Seeger was wild. Damn if he didn't nail Pete's melodic, poetic dialect.
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