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Home > Feeling better about the job, and cousin troubles

Feeling better about the job, and cousin troubles

October 4th, 2017 at 01:46 am

I'm feeling better about the job since fine-tuning my commute coming and going. I've got it down to about 35 minutes heading in on back roads and 40 minutes coming home via the highway. The highway drive is still very stressful due to other drivers.

I'm finding the job itself is fairly easy to do. I may have said it was "boring" before, but as long as I have something to do, I'm okay. The people are also pretty nice and no one rushes you to do things very quickly as they often do at other jobs.

But I can't just "relax" into the job since I have no health insurance and just 3.5 months left with COBRA. There hasn't really been much relevant job activity. I can only hope they offer me a perm position toward year's end, but I certainly can't sit back and count on that.

So I hadn't spoken to my 70-year-old cousin for a few months and finally got around to calling him last weekend. The phone number was disconnected. I suspected it had something to do with the continuing trouble he's been having with his teenaged grandson, who he raised for the 1st 10 years of the kid's life. He invited the kid to live with him but the kid dropped out of high school, has no job, does drugs and is a slob. The parents don't provide a very good home environment according to my cousin and have thrown up their hands with him anyway.

Oh, yeah, and I forgot to mention my cousin is a gun collector fanatic with all sorts of semi-automatic weapons, etc in the house with this very troubled kid.

So when I couldn't reach my cousin, I acted on a hunch and searched his name online (which is also the name of his grandson). I found 5 or 6 online news accounts of a shocking incident where the grandson shot 3 times at my cousin: once on either side of his head and once near his kneecaps. Cousin called the cops and he was arrested and has been in jail ever since. Will probably get 8 or 9 months for what he did.

I made contact with cousin via email and offered my support. The newspaper account erroneously reported the kid was out on $5K bail and I was terribly worried for my cousin's safety, so in the email I told him if he wanted to get away from the situation for a while and just clear his head, he could come up here.

He called me last night and explained the kid's in jail and that he regretted calling the cops cus "I put him in jail." I corrected him immediately and said no, HIS ACTIONS put him in jail. He said he was 99% sure the kid wasn't trying to shoot him and this his aim is very good so he wasn't too worried (tho he called the cops all the same).

I had told him months ago he should kick the kid out of his house becus he otherwise had no incentive to do anything to improve his situation but cousin didn't do anything.

He said he might like to take me up on my offer to come up here toward the end of the month, and now I kind of regret making that offer, becus it was made only becus I thought his life was in imminent danger. I didn't intend for it to be a social visit since I'm working the new job and wouldn't want anyone staying over during the week when I was away unless it really was some kind of emergency situation.

Not only this, but learning some really unsavory stuff about cousin's romantic involvement with a much younger woman who was friends with his grand son who has a baby and also no job, no car, does drugs, etc. He said it was a "pay for play" arrangement and does not want a relationship or "dating."

She's also in jail now for sexting an underage person and having sex with that person. You can't make this stuff up.

Anyway, I'm beginning to see that my cousin, who I only recently discovered thru genealogy research a year ago, maybe creates unhealthy life situations himself and really doesn't need "rescuing" by me. I was beginning to realize I was maybe wasting my time feeling concerned about him.

Well, anyway, in other news, I continue to enjoy my half-hour lunchtime walks in the gorgeous Southport neighborhood. Here are some pix I've taken so far:

















My first paycheck is direct deposited this Thursday. I plan to adjust withholding so more money comes to me because I have a feeling too much will be deducted.

6 Responses to “Feeling better about the job, and cousin troubles”

  1. My English Castle Says:
    1507086654

    Glad to hear the job is going better. I can understand your reservations about your cousin--it sounds like a big mess.

  2. LuckyRobin Says:
    1507091286

    What a beautiful area.

  3. CB in the City Says:
    1507118726

    So sorry about your cousin's messes! I guess it is a risk any time you take a new person into your life, even if it is family. Be careful not to get drawn in too much.

  4. rob62521 Says:
    1507128287

    What lovely photos!

    You are a good person to be concerned about the cousin. Sorry there is such a mess in his life.

  5. Thrifty Ray Says:
    1507131062

    Given the circumstances, I would be 'busy' for anything more than meeting for lunch if/when he decides to visit. It sounds like very poor decisions and a can of worms!

    Beautiful pictures!!

  6. FrugalTexan75 Says:
    1507341428

    Beautiful pics!

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