EASTER OF MY LIFE
It’s tough to figure out people these days. I’m 63, divorced, live alone, have four lovely caring daughters, an ex-wife, my daughters’ mother, who is a Martha Stewart type, has a lovely house whose rooms are mostly off-limits to anyone who lives there or visits -- a large show-house to be seen and admired for its decouture, but most rooms not to be inhabited or enjoyed. My house, on the other hand, is modest, well-furnished, nice artwork, all my book and record collections over 50 years, and furniture my mother and father left me from England. I have no complaints. But it's well-lived-in and comfortable. Except the ladies in my life are complicated. My sister wants to force me out of the house and sell it to get her half-share, which would make me seek other shelter. I’m paying for all the needed repair of the house without her help, and the housing market is now very down -- worst time to put an old house on the market that still needs a lot of refurbishing. Sister doesn’t understand the market situation. She wants cash now. So guess who’s supposed to be the loser in that equation? She’s hired a feisty attorney and they’re going at me hammer-and-tongs. But our father and mother brought me up properly. I will not be bullied or forced into homelessness. I own this house fifty-fifty until my sister buys me out. She’s got a $100,000-a-year job and needs to get off her bottom and stop whining and with her attorney setting me up for incarceration on trumped-up charges. So in the Easter of my life, I’m facing a war brought upon me by a greedy sister and her equally greedy attorney, Joan K. Fine. Sister Valerie had serious health problems over the past decade, and I sympathize. But I will not be shoved around e by her and her attorney, who have no interest in my rights. I have a lady friend who is a very clever jewelery designer, who has done marvelous work, but out of sorts with me for some unexplained reason. She’s married to a nice man, has three lovely children, and we tried unsuccessfully to acquire a property in Middleburg for a restaurant/tavern that she pushed me into. My friend's landlady, a beast of a woman, filed a “no-trespassing” order against me with the Middleburg Town Police, for reasons unexplained. Ironically, the police know I’m a good guy, but their hands are tied. The Middleburg office property owner who filed the unexplained “no trespassing” complaint against me is adamant that I cannot visit the property to do business with my jewelry provider, who in turn refused to stand up for herself or me as one of her best clients, so I have to file a lawsuit against the landlord to reclaim my civil rights and be able to continue do business with my jeweler, with whom I have done fully-paid business for more than a year -- even fronted her a loan and did unpaid work to get her business started, yet totally spurned. It’s a complete circus. I’m getting together with my second-oldest daughter, Ali, who has kindly arranged to take me for a medical exam at a nearby veterans hospital. I haven't had a medical exam or needed to go to a doctor for about five years. It will be a 90-minute trip to the VA medical center in West Virginia and back, so Ali and I will have lots of time to reconnouter. Ali is very savvy, a hairdresser, and very loving to her dad. I’m blessed to have such a lovely and caring daughter and hope to get her usual well thought-out views on how to handle all these assaults against me in the Easter of my life. People are so selfish and ungrateful these days, and we are all victimized by such people. We just have to persevere and beat the slobs and sleaze-artists who want to rip us off. I'm fortunate to have four loving daughters and a nice, caring son-in-law, my grand-daughter's daddy, who are very loving. I'll have to figure out how to counter the selfish bastards who are trying to rip us off. I believe I know how. The rip-off artists won't know what hits them when it hits. It will, to be sure.
