What a weekend!!!

What a weekend, and I don't mean that in a good way. To explain, I might want to mention that I am married, but I married relatively late in life and I robbed the cradle. My wife is 13 years younger than me. My wife and I are in most ways opposites. I grew up in a small town in Tennessee.I only left the state a handful of times. I am quite, a fairly private person, even this blog is a stretch for me. I like my privacy and my alone time. I have 1 sister. My favorite pasttimes are solo or done in very small groups. I have a lot of aquaintances, but only a few really good friends. My wife's family travelled a lot and she has lived all over the US. She has 3 sisters and 2 brothers, and a friend that her parents raised as a daughter. She is noisy and the life of the party. She hates being alone and loves large groups. She has tons of friends, but none are what I would consider a true friend.

Anyway, my wife's mother was a professional jockey. Her father trained thoroughbred racehorses. They moved from track to track most of her life, although they settled in various areas periodically then moved on. It was the sort of situation where the horses got fed whether the kids did or not. Her childhood sounds horrible and alien to me, but it's what she's known. Anyway her father lost his trainer's license over some business deal and they had to quit the track. They eventually all ended up down here with jobs as contract parts inspectors for factories. The hours are killer, but the pay is very good. They rent a 20+ acre farm and have a few horses, goats, chickens, cats and dogs. They followed their oldest daughter here. My wife refers to this woman as the cow. She is 2 years older than my wife. She has an excellent work ethic, but the morals of a psycho alley cat. More later when I astound the world with As The Trailer Park Turns. Anyway they brought my wife's two younger sisters and younger brother. The eldest child is a boy, he just turned 30. Then the cow, then wifeypoo, then a brother, 20, a sister, 18, and lastly a sister, 13. It gets really weird on birthdays. I will relate more later.

My wife followed them here a little later and a few months more and we met.

My wife's father is in charge of the family. My wife has spent her entire life trying to gain his attention and respect. She has always felt that she was less loved than her older siblings. As a result, she has always jumped when he said frog. She has always placed his wishes above all else, including me. This of course, has led to a few fights. It has also caused her to lose at least 1 job. Her father has no concern for anyone else's needs or feelings and doens't even seem to notice what he is doing to here. I tolerate a lot and try to be supportive, because someone has to be there to pick up the pieces when his unreasonable expectations and lack of appreciation take their inevitable toal. She will tear herself appart to try to get approval. Incidentally, there is no competition here. None, I repeat, none of the other kids are this way. They are the polar opposites and won't do anything except sponge off the parents. The two boys are out of the state with good jobs and mostly stay away. The youngest girl still lives at home, however the other 2 sisters both have families, sort of. My wife is actually the only dependable person in the group. As a result, her father loads her down with all sorts of junk to do. He even hired her for a few months, although he way underpaid her and they ended up fighting.
She way undercharged him for the hours also. If I bring home a folder to work on at night I get griped at. "Why are you doing that? You aren't getting paid for it!" But if her father called and she spent 2 hours on the phone and internet tracking stuff down, it was different.

Anyway, my father-in-law started worrying because his landlord wanted to sel l the farm. He tried to get the financing to buy it, but couldn't. I hooked him up with a mortgage broker who came up with a sweet deal. Low interest, low downpayment, and working the overtime they work working, they could afford double payment. They could have owned the place in under 10 years. They never followed through.

My wife spent countless hours on the phone and internet, and she tracked down and fixed the problem with my father-in-laws trainer's license. Now he had hooked up with some breeders and had been breaking and training some thoroughbreds for them. He was also housing some paso finos for almost enough money to pay the rent. Without his license, he could not take the horses to a track or enter them in a race. Now the excretment strikes the rotary cooling device.

We are in Tennessee, with no gambling allowed. Kentucky isn't really that far from here. A four hour drive will put you close to three horse racing tracks. They made several week-end track trips last summer and spent their vacation at a track. Last winter a run of bad luck strikes. My mother-in-law flies to Washington state to spend her birthday with her mother and brother, the three rarely get to spend time together. This costs $$$. Then she comes back and takes the youngest girl to Washington D.C. for a karate tournament. More $$$$. Then she gets thrown off a horse and hurts her leg. She can't work for 2 weeks. Then he gets sick and misses a week or more of work. They save no money. But suddenly this summer, they pack up 10 horses, the youngest girl, quit the job and go to the track. It was only supposed to be for 30 days. It has been almost 90. They left my wife with the farm to keep up. She was working a full-time 3rd shift job. I work a full-time 1st shift job. Now we have to drive all the way across the county everyday and work for a few hours. To make a long story less long, they have little money coming in, they are not home, they have little money saved.

My wife ended up quitting her job. We have had to buy food for the animals out of our pockets. We have to travel over there every day. He is behind in all his bills. We have managed to keep the power and water on, but for how long I don't know. The landlord has lost his job, so he wants to sell the place fast. Now he has raised the price. My mother-in-law was kicked by one of the horses and broke her arm. My wife is stressed to the gills. She can't believe they have gotten in this position and she blames herself. She sees them loosing everything. And they still won't come home. To make matters worse, my father-in-law just told my wife he might need her to come out to the track to help him since her mother was hurt. I had to hide the guns. She was running around screaming "His is trying to kill us all!!!!!"

I also tried to wear disposable contacts too long and got a nasty eye infection in my right eye.