The day started with a bang.

Actually, a phone call.

This morning at 7:15 Dad called. He was yelling. He demanded to know where his keys were. He accused me of taking them. At first he was accusing me of taking all of his keys. Then he said he found his house keys in the front door lock, which is where he had left them when he got home last night. But he was yelling at me like I had taken his keys and then stuck them in his lock and left them there.

So then he's yelling about his car keys. Over and over I explained that I didn't take them, that David was the last person to drive his car. Dad's yelling that he doesn't want anyone, not even his kids to have copies of his keys. Not to his car, not to his door, NOTHING. I said, too late, we already have copies. I told him to call David.

Later when I went over there for morning meds he was all nice and normal. He said David had taped them to the back of his bedroom mirror. I'm thinking, why the hell would he do that and not tell anybody? Later I found out that David had told him and everyone else (except us) and that the last thing Drew said to Dad last night was, "Your keys are taped to the mirror".

AAAAIIIEEEEE!!!!!!!!

Later today Drew came over and I went over to see what was up. Drew was down at the sales shed checking on the bees. Yes, bees. A swarm of bees have taken up residence in the big, hollow pepper tree right next to the sales shed. There are 3 holes that the bees are using as doorways and the lowest one is about 4 feet up. The bees must go. Yesterday Drew sprayed them trying to get the queen upset enough to take the swarm and leave. Today he came back and sprayed them again. We decided to fill the tree holes with expando foam to either chase them out or seal them up. Just as it was getting dark we went down to check on them.

Dad decided he was going to slap a ladder against the tree and climb up and get a good look. We kept telling him not to do that but he was determined. We kept telling him to put the ladder down but he wouldn't do it. I said, "How big a ball of bees do you want attacking your head?" We finally got him to listen to what we were trying to tell him. It was getting dark so it was hard to see that at the top of one branch was a baseball sized clump of bees. Drew and I figured the queen was in the middle of that ball and they were going to spend the night there and then leave in the morning. Dad couldn't see the ball so he wouldn't believe us. It took a while but he finally saw it. Fine, don't believe your kids. Grrrr....

Earlier we had another fight. He'd been acting like a complete ass to me, barking orders. He was like that a few times this weekend when Dede and David were here and we were all working to get the place ready for tree season. I managed to talk him into giving me the keys to the sales shed, the front gate and his car so I could go get copies made. He wanted to go with me to Home Depot but he was being such a jerk I didn't want to be around him. He yelled, "Don't you turn your back and walk away from me! You shut your mouth and listen..." I cut him off. I said, "You've been acting like a jerk all day, you woke me up this morning with a bogus complaint and I'm not going to stay here and take this!" I turned and left. It felt good.

I know he's not at all teachable. I know that. But the days where he can bully me are over. We're all working to try to help him. We're all going to be here for tree season TO HELP HIM. Jim and I are putting our lives on hold TO HELP HIM. There is no way in hell that I'm going to put up with his abuse. So, even though there's no way he'll ever change and he won't even remember what happened it still feels good to be able to turn away from him when he's being abusive. I couldn't do that when I was a kid. I had to take it.

The Agavero is in the freezer. Later, I'm going to sit on the front porch, play some solitaire, drink some chilled tequila and enjoy the view. It's very clear tonight.