Meanwhile, a week later...

At this point, Ilmars has made a complete turnaround. I think he’s off alcohol. We’ll see how long it lasts.

The other house is completely rented out, the lease is signed, and I just have a handful of other things that need to be attended too. The A/C guy is coming this afternoon.

This morning, Ilmars got up, did the dishes, made coffee for grandma, put out the recycling, and from there kept on taking care of business. He put some moisturizing lotion on grandma’s face, which was sort of humorous. Ilmars was shaking, and grandma was giving him a face the whole time like a cat in a shower.

The main reason there hasn’t been much writing over the weekend is that I wasn’t here. I spent it in Detroit with Abby’s family. Two big events were happening there; her cousin Ethan was having an engagement party, and her grandmother is moving from there to California. Abby’s grandmother has developed some serious health problems and needs to get surgery. The prognosis isn’t particularly clear, but it’s not good for her. Sadly, I was surprised when we saw her and she knew exactly who I am. I’ve gotten too accustomed to Natalie’s near incoherence.

The only other thing I’m going to write about this weekend is that I’m shocked and aghast at how condescending Abby’s father is towards her brother, Sam. Sam did a really good job at getting into trouble during high school. He is a lot of fun, and also quite awkward. Not surprisingly, he fell into a crowd during high school that was accepting of him and appreciated his fun-loving qualities. What is surprising is how criminal this crowd was.

In any case, flash forward to now, and Sam is in college. He’s joined a fraternity with a dry house, and has dedicated his energies towards that. It’s working great for him. He even has a summer job on campus.

And Abby’s father basically treats him like a moron. Just about anything that comes up in conversation is followed with him questioning, “Do you know what that is, Sam?” The truth is, he’s really interested in the things he’s interested in and knows lots about them. He’s doing landscape work, and he spent a lot of time over the weekend pointing out various plants he knows. It doesn’t really matter that he isn’t up to date on current events; when the time comes that they’re important to them, he’ll master them. Let me master what he wants to. Don’t condescend at him because he has different interests.

It’s obnoxious.

Anyways, back to today.

I get home after a long day trying to get some details squared away at the other place, and Ilmars is having dinner with grandmother. He went grocery shopping, and I help put the food away. We exchange bad beats stories; his about trying to get his car’s brake lights fixed, and mine about trying to get the A/C working over at the other place.

Finally, the first time since last week, I see him get a beer to drink. I wonder if he just naturally does a switch up – one week on a bender, one week off? We hang out and watch the Yankees gang. I make grandma tea before she heads to bed, and we chill. Ilmars is joking and generally pleasant to be around.

Jason called long time family friend Mark Jones, and Mark is really concerned about what’s going on here. At the state Ilmars is right now, I think things would be alright with a little additional effort. We may just need a near-full time person there. Right now, Ilmars seems okay with that. I hope that this works out.