I was gone for most of the day. Got a few things but I didn't make much of a dent in the Christmas list.
Dede arrived just before I left. As she drove in she said, "I'm here out of my love for you. I'm not here for him." I guess he was pretty mean to her on the phone last night. It must have been really bad for her to say something like that. Dede is always so good at letting the Dad crap just float by. It takes a lot to push her buttons.
David got here at around 8:30. They took Dad out for dessert. I think David is going to tell him about the offer on the land. Maybe if David can get him to understand that soon he's going to get a big pile of money he'll be able to stop being such a jerk about the nickel and dime stuff he's been freaking out about.
One more week of tree sales. One more week. Hey, I know! Let's get drunk on New Year's Eve and bulldoze those @#$&%*!!!!!!!! trees! Maybe Drew can get the backhoe back from Louie! We have Dave the junk man's forklift! We could do some major damage with that. WHEEEE-HOOOOO!!!!
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It's all starting to blend into a pine scented blur. We counting down the days. Tonight I had another blow up with Dad.
Same ol' crap but now we're stupid, dumb, have no common sense, we have nothing invested so we don't care about giving away the profits, blah, blah, effing BLAH. Same rant, just meaner. Drew walked by and Dad called him over. He said, "I'm trying to talk to this POST. (then to me) Yeah, you're a POST!" I yelled "Fuck you!" and threw down the saw and flashlight I had in my hand and walked away. The flashlight was killed instantly, the saw was unharmed.
Drew handled the rest. He basically told Dad the same thing I did. He also asked Dad if it was worth the $100 he might be losing to treat us so badly. He told Dad that he owed me an apology and sent him up to the house. We're not sure but he might have called Dede when he got up there.
After closing Lindsay, Paige, Kyle, Jim and I went to BJ's for dinner. After we got back there was a message from Dad apologizing for upsetting me. I'll talk to him in the morning.
But the rest of the day was fun! Kyle is working for us this week. His cartoon work has hit a lull and he's flying to New York for Christmas. The boy is short on cash and Lindsay asked if he could work for us. I asked Drew about it and he thought it would be ok. Anyway, today was his first day. I don't think Christmas tree work is his cup of tea but he jumped right in. I really enjoyed spending the day with him. I was laughing all day.
I'm blasted. We worked hard today. I'm also emotionally askew. Once this week is over things will settle down with Dad. I will not be ready for Christmas. No getting around it. Everything will be late.
We do have a tree. Just set it up yesterday. It has lights but no ornaments. I'll throw some on there today. Last night I decorated that revolving tree you gave me. I love that thing!
My house is wrecked. I told the girls I'd like for all of us to be in constant putter mode. If we can't devote a few hours to getting the place cleaned up maybe we can improve things by little pick-ups here and there. I either don't have time to really clean or I'm just too tired at the end of the day. A messy house is bad but a messy house halfway decorated for Christmas is majorly pathetic.
Things with Dad are better this morning. We hugged and apologized. Man, if we could just get through the rest of the week without any more "events" I wouldn't be quite so stressed about being so far behind.
Post Holiday Happy Time is just around the corner.
These new saws are really good; sharp, durable. A few people have been disappointed when handed one, but after I explain how happy we are with them and offer them one of the old ones, they all take the new one. No complaints after cutting, either.
The flashlights, on the other hand, are mostly those 99 cent Eveready cheapy plastic ones, unreliable to begin with. Oh well, they're cheap, I suppose.
I was especially disturbed by yesterday's incident mainly because Stan was just apprised of the money situation the day before (and seems to remember it, but it's hard to tell), which is better than his previous years and is looking good, so I had been hoping that he would be able to relax and not fret so much. Yet he immediately chose to silently watch me do my cashiering (I was accurately implementing the pricing policies we'd all decided upon earlier, and which has been discussed widely and frequently), and then use what he saw as ammo against Doni. He said some intentionally pretty disturbing things to her. I felt disappointed and used, even though I knew I had to forgive him, because if he could think clearly then he wouldn't behave that way... so much.
Doni's dad's pattern this month seems to be like this: He'll make up his mind to fix some problem he identifies as immediate and urgent, get into some abusive bullying fight with one of his kids (but not the spouses, thankfully) in front of customers, relatives, friends, and employees, make a big mess, get lectured by some of us, apologize, and then behave himself for a few days while his memory probably fades and his internal tension and paranoia builds. Then, like Old Faithful, he'll let forth a new expulsion of smelly vitriol.
My walk-away advice from this experience: Learn how to be and practice being a basically trusting, centered person while you are still able to learn.
A reporter from the Press-Enterprise (local major newspaper) is coming out to interview Stan today. When Stan was told about that, he asked that they not be told about Stan's health, or that this might be our last year, but Drew told him that he'd already told them the last year part earlier in the week.
Could be a dramatic day.
I'm taking the day off (first day this season), because we already have enough help and I just need an emotional break. So I'm probably going to take a nap this afternoon, and possibly do a little shopping. Ahh...
pctgrgir - Percentage ratio of anger returned by one's daughter to one's anger directed at her. May be greater than 100% in some cases.
Today went well until the reporter showed up and we had to call Dad to come down. She chatted with him for a while, then the photographer arrived. I was hoping Drew would show up so I wouldn't be the only one being photographed with Dad. It just didn't feel right. Of course I was dressed in my best crappy t-shirt so I would look gorgeous in the photos.
After the PE people left I was hoping that Dad would just go back to the house but of course he didn't. At first he was just hanging around but then he started getting more involved. Things were pretty dead for a while and I was getting nervous about having the kids on the clock with nothing to do. I didn't want Dad to start bossing them around. Today it was me, Lindsay, Kyle, Paige and Rory. I really didn't want Dad going off on my girls and their boyfriends. After a while I sent Rory home just so Dad wouldn't start squawking. Dad had already grumbled about having the lights on when it wasn't totally pitch black outside.
Of course, later things picked up and I was wishing I hadn't sent Rory home. Since it was busy Dad felt he needed to stay. But he's no help at all. One woman came up and said she couldn't afford to pay more than $30 for a tree. Dad said he'd help her and off they went. She came back later and said he kept showing her $40 trees. She was kind of upset. I told her that no matter which tree she picked we'd make it work for her. But damn it, I had to sneak around when it came time for her to pay for her tree because Dad was right there all the time.
Just before we closed both Lindsay and Paige couldn't stand it any more and checked out early. Dad was going to try to make us stay open until 9. After I signed the girls and Kyle out we just started shutting it all down. I think Dad was overwhelmed because he didn't try to stop us.
Jim and I closed up and went to move the dumpster outside the gate. Dad came driving down and said he saw someone parked on Central up the street from the farm. Sometimes people steal trees after hours so Dad is always suspicious of people parked on the street at closing time. We told him we'd go take a look and call him if we saw anyone. We drove out the driveway and went down Central a ways. No one was there so we turned around and went back. Hey, here comes Dad in his car driving up Central to see if that car was still there! Like we needed backup? Man, I was pissed! But I didn't say anything to him. I'm so tired of fighting.
I'll bet he's done that more than once. He's so hot to catch someone stealing trees that he probably thinks going out on Central in his car to check the back field is somehow justified.
He was on the edge tonight. We had to really dance around to keep from pissing him off. He was mean and manic and barely in control. And this was AFTER dinner.
On a more positive note, this morning Lindsay told us she broke up with Jon. We are relieved. And now she and Kyle are an item. Oh yeah, like we couldn't see that one coming a mile away. This is a good thing. We like the Kyle, oh yes we do.
paoplaid- Really loud tartan
We really missed Drew today, he's such a big help with both tree-handling and Stan-handling. I understand that he called Stan several times and asked him to tell us he couldn't be here, but Stan failed to deliver any of the messages. Donita finally called Drew and got the info.
Stan ordered Paige to leave the tree shed and carry a weed sprayer nozzle to his house, and she declined.
He replied "You'll never get anywhere in life with that attitude." I told her to just ignore her crazy grandfather, but I know he's getting to her.
I am really tired of feeling like we're under siege of Angry Old Man. Sometimes it's hard not to take it personally.
We're only trying to help.
Today was mostly uneventful. Jon and Kyle worked today, which was a little strange. Lindsay isn't feeling well but she came down to keep an eye on the boys and make sure Jon didn't mess with Kyle.
There were no cutter t-shirts in the shed. Dad had taken them up to the house because (he said) Dede was going to do a project with them. (?) Make a quilt, I guess. I went up there to get them and Dad said he hadn't taken them. I said, "The kids told me that you took the t-shirts. We need them because we still have cutters for 4 more days." He said, "Those kids are full of it!" We went back to his office where he had the XX Large shirts hidden under a sweater on his chair. He said these were for the little kids for Christmas presents. I said maybe the other shirts were in his car. He said he hasn't been in his car for a few weeks. I told him he was in it last night when he drove down Central looking for tree thieves. I went to look in his car and he yelled, "Don't take the keys!" The shirts were on the front seat.
When we got the shirts out he wouldn't let me take them down to the shed. We had to unfold all of them to see which ones were stained. I managed to wrestle about 5 shirts from him and take them down to the shed.
Sales were pretty dead. About an hour before we closed Dad came down with an old book that had belonged to my grandfather, Big Herbie. The book is in very bad condition and the pages are very fragile. It's some kind of world almanac picture book that was probably published in the 1920s. We looked through it with Dad and we could tell he enjoyed sharing it with us. He stayed a little longer and then went back to the house.
Whew! You just can never tell with him. Tomorrow the newspaper story on the farm comes out. I have no idea how he'll react to it. It may cause a spike in sales for the 3 remaining days.
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