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My Profile
She blinded him with whiteness - 2008-07-25
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12:38 p.m. - 2008-04-15
Saturday morning I was here at my machine digging the view through the freshly washed and opened windows when I heard a car roll into and park in the lower part of the driveway. I waited for the doorbell to ring but instead I saw some guy going up the hill towards Mike's part of the yard. I was ticked. The ex and I had just had a big tussle about this. Mr Generosity had been giving permission to every redneck and scuzzbucket toothless hillbilly in the world to come on over and help themselves to his vast collection of broken worthless shit*. *At least to normal people it's broken worthless shit, to rednecks I guess it's the stuff dreams (and moonshine stills) are made of. "Whoa nelly there, Clem! Lookee here! Rusted leaf springs and a busted up transaxle from a 1977 Maverick! Won't that look purdy in mah parlor?" The other day I came back from Wolf's school to find a whole herd of those bozos galumphing around the yard. They weren't just scavenging through Mike's shit piles, they were trying the locked doors of the tool sheds and messing around with my hot rod too. I went ballistic. Not even bothering to call the police I stomped out back and told them in no uncertain terms to get the fuck off the property…NOW. One of them tried to stutter out something about Mike saying they could help themselves to some old barn beams, but I ordered him to shut his mouth and get gone. I didn't give a rat's ass what Mike had said, they were trespassing on MY property. They left at approximately the speed of sound. When I'm that angry it's fricken scary. Even Chuck Norris wouldn't take me on when I'm in full battle mode. Came back in and left a scathing message on the ex's voice mail and made it clear to even Der Dumkopf that this shit stops immediately. No more wandering rednecks. Not one more hillbilly was to set foot on MY property. Comply or die. He came crawling up to the back door later that day and sniveled out an apology and a (probably worthless) promise that there'd be no more 'visitors'. So you can imagine how ticked off I was to see some guy hot-footing it up the backyard on Saturday morning. Didn't look like one of Mike's usual buddies, but I didn't care. Nor did I care that Mike was home and had just passed by himself so was around to ride herd on this new scavenger. I'd said no more people in the yard and I'd meant it. Furious I was just about to leap up from my chair and start bellowing when the guy turned around. No way. I rubbed my eyes and looked again. It was. Holy shit! The guy was Jan. My first and dearest exchange student 'son'. Jan had seen Mike too and had run out back to catch him. Instead I got there first. Once I saw who it was I let out a gleeful shriek and booked it out the back door. Delighted his surprise had worked so well Jan threw his arms around me and laughed while I exclaimed and cried and hugged him half to death. Took a while to sort everything out. One just doesn't expect a guy from Berlin to pop up in the backyard on a Saturday morning. Jan had wanted to surprise us and he did. My little Jan is all grown up now and was in the States on business. Kenosha via Chicago actually, but once here in the US he wasn't about to let an opportunity to see his American family go by. So he'd tacked a few days onto his trip and flew to JFK from Chicago late Friday night. Rented a Mustang and boomed up from the city, crashed for a couple hours at the local Holiday Inn and then somehow found his way to the Hobbit House which he'd only visited once a long, long time ago when we hadn't even moved in yet and were still renovating the place. All so he could surprise his old 'Mum' with a big bag of her favorite sour apple gummis and his own unexpected self. Jan was in for a few surprises too. A divorced Mike and LA. A ridiculously tall Wolf. Alex's impending wedding. And of course, Mick. Jan handled it well and admitted the biggest thing to swallow was Wolf turning into a stranger. In his mind Wolf was still a wee little guy Jan could carry on his hip. As for the divorce and the odd living arrangement, he wasn't really shocked. Jan knew from his last visit that things were bad with Mike and me, and while he and his folks were doing okay, economic concessions like us sharing a property neither of us could carry on our own wasn't unheard amongst his East German neighbors. Reunification had been good for his family, but a lot of their former comrades hadn't faired as well in the free market economy. You do what you gotta to hang onto what you've got. Anyhow, it took about 3 seconds for the weird to wear off. With a few breaks for Jan to visit some other local friends he and I talked for the next two days. We gossiped and caught up and talked about plans for the future. I got to see pics from his travels and his university years and the more recent ones of his apartment and his lovely girlfriend. He's still friends with a lot of the same guys from before his exchange student year and it was cool for me to catch up with them too. I remember his pals quite well though I never got to meet them in person. Funnily they know about me too and sent greetings, as did Jan's folks. Hard to believe my Jan is 26, he looks the same. Maybe a bit more polished and comfortable in his own skin, but the same sweet nature and goofy sense of humor. He and Mick got on okay, a shared love of Audis, Porsches and VWs definitely gave them plenty to talk about. Wolf knew Jan from the pictures I have of him amongst the others on the dining room sideboard, but 5 years a long time when you're only 10. And that was just from Jan's last visit, the year Jan lived with us Wolf was still practically a babe in arms and could hardly be expected to remember anyone from back then. It was all good between me and Jan though. He's still my tall skinny son with the infectious laugh and big squeezy hugs. And to him I was still his nutty American 'other mother' who tries to fatten him up and assures him he's doing well and that I'm so very proud of him. Hopefully it won't be another 5 years before I can hug my boy again. I don't think so, but even if it is I know that when I do it will be all kinds of fine.
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