Ted is my truck drivin' father in law. Long haul.

Ted collects stuff that will never be valuable or useful (remember the Ostrich Egg?)
But he keeps collecting, and unfortunately the absolute worst stuff in his collection gets passed on to me, or at the very least ends up in storage... lost forever in my garage. Somewhere amongst my "post-fire posessions is a punctured rubber raft, antique sewing machine, 2 sewing tables, 1950's external frame backpack (with the canvas rotting away) and a large desk. None of which I ever asked for.

The most recent addition to our houshold is a Western Box Turtle (Terrapene Ornata Ornata). Why did Ted remove the small reptile from it's natural habitat?
- "Because it would be educational for the kids."

According to the Book I bought, Western Box Turtles kept in captivity are usually dead within 6 months. I don't want to just let the poor terrapin go, because I'm not entirely sure that it's indiginious to this area (and I'm not sure that it makes a difference.)

Even more frustrating is the Hyundai that I never asked for.
A few weeks ago, Ted was home after many weeks on the road. Out of the blue he said, "I'm buying you a car.... a beater that will get you to work so Monica can use the station wagon during the day."
I begged him to not buy the car, true: it was only $200, but if he wanted to be generous, he could have used the money to revive my broken Escort. Before i knew it, the Piece o' crap, 1986 Hundai Excel, with the smashed passenger side doors, bald tires, and hornets nests in the rusted trunk appeared in my driveway.
I have driven it once to the grocery store. The squirrely steering nearly killed me, the only thing that saved me was the fact that I had to pull over to prevent the car from overheating.
At $200, Ted paid about $175 more than the junker is worth. But he gets the last laugh... because it's in my posession, and have to deal with getting rid of it.
I wonder if it would make a suitable habitat for a turtle...

"You can call me Fred G. Sanford."

By the way, I have a notification service now....
Sign up, and I'll send you an e-mail notifying you when I update the journal. Sign up here, and I'll add you to the mailing list.

And dont forget the guestbook Sign it!