UGH!! My father-in-law came here to Ohio for a 2-3 week *visit* back in June....and he's still here!!!
He used to live up here and after a hurricane destroyed his Mom and sister's house he went down there to help rebuild. He'd been down there 5 years. All of his worldly possession had been packed in a storage unit. Not just the contents of his apartment but all of the junk he peddled at flea markets. He came back here with the intention of clearing out the unit to have enough money to move to Nashville to open up a recording studio (don't get me started on that nonsense).
Now when I say junk, I really do mean junk. He has "some guy" tell him that old school reel-to-reel recorders were gonna be worth something since the world was switching to digital...so he bought up every one he could get his hands on. Problem is, they are worthless since everyone uses digital but he won't believe us!! The same applies to pottery. He had one nice piece that was worth a few thousand bucks so he began buying pottery...but it's all junk!! We've looked over several pieces and the one has a "potters mark" written in permanent marker!!! He's also got tons of tape players and film cameras!!
This man is a horrible pack rat and refuses to throw anything out. He's even begun sneaking things in our garage so that it is now full. We don't have a truck or the keys to his storage unit to take it back. He tried to take things to a local flea market but since it's in the worst area of town, he didn't sell much. I suggested that he load it all up in a truck and bring it to our house to have a yard sale. He fought me saying that people in the country don't go to yard sales.
I think he knew that I'd send the things that didn't sell to the trash heap!!
Once the weather turned he couldn't even hit the flea market since it's an outdoor area. He quickly ran out of money and began selling Kirby vacuums. For those unfamiliar, they are nice, powerful machines but priced at $2500!! Who, in their right mind, in this economy would finance a vacuum. You could buy a nice used car for that!! Needless to say, sales are down, he's out of money and now stuck here!!!
Now, 8 months later...my son is still displaced from his bedroom...sleeping on an air mattress in his sisters' tiny bedroom. I'm neurotic dealing with a man who drives 8 miles to the freeway and truck stop to poop (he won't use the bathroom here) and who wastes what little money he has by driving his gas hogging van 30 miles to a laundromat in the hood to wash his clothes!!
Hallelujah, Holy Crap...where's the Tylenol!!!
