March teaches us the beauty of patience

The meteorologist insists it was 50 degrees today. 
I strongly disagree.
Badger and I took a little walk, just to get out of the house and away from the TV.
The wind was blowing, and it was downright cold.

By the time I came home, my ears were numb.
I grabbed Skunk-Ape off of my desk and held him up to my ears until they warmed up.

Skunk-Ape didn't mind, he just thought he was being cuddled, not used as a furry heater.
If he hadn't wanted to be nabbed, he shouldn't have jumped up on my desk yowling. 

We must have slept through a pretty good storm Sunday night into early Monday morning.
One of the old trees at the cemetery was down.
I don't think it was lightning.
 I think it was the wind.
We have a cedar in the backyard that Cowboy has been putting off cutting down for years even though it keeps leaning more and more every year.
He might want to consider cutting it this year. 
I'd hate to have it fall on either ours or the neighbor’s house.

We were sitting here watching TV when we heard this weird noise coming from the laundry room.
We went back, and the water heater is making a noise. 
Well, the video says it better than I can.

Cowboy says it's fine. It's fine.
I'm still not running any hot water tonight, so washing dishes or Badger's three-hour shower.
We'll do that in the morning, when Cowboy is at home.
It's probably fine; it's a new water heater, but it did this until 10 p.m.
That was roughly three hours of hearing it.

The weekend is coming up, and Badger is getting pretty cranky.
With her autism, OCD, depression, and ADHD, she doesn't do well with the noise and the mess Raven's kids bring.
There's not a thing I can do.
The simple truth is that Raven can't afford to move out, and I really think he lacks the motivation to move out.
Rent is crazy expensive, and he pays child support on four kids. 
That cuts down on what money he has available.

I think we all could deal with Raven's kids better if they didn’t have so many behavioral challenges.
But they are all four neurodiverse, and each brings a different set of issues to the table.
In addition to that, they've never been taught how to behave, and they don’t have any boundaries or routines to follow.
They scream, holler, fight, and make messes that other children their age know better than to make.
And they do it all weekend.
It’s a lot for Badger to handle, especially since she’s neurodiverse herself.

It is Badger and me cleaning up after the kids go home. 
Over the years, we’ve been left with messes that are not just messy but genuinely unsanitary, the kind of thing no one should ever walk into, much less be expected to clean up.
That's just the simple truth.
We've tried talking, we've tried signs, we've tried everything, and nothing changes.
She and I have done it for nearly three years, and I understand why she gets so cranky on the weekend.
I understand totally where she's coming from.
I don't like being angry because I know grandchildren are coming for the weekend.
I want to look forward to seeing my grandchildren.
But I don't, because I know what an entire weekend with them is like.
That's not how being a grandparent should be.
It's not.

But there is no workable solution in sight.
And I know I'm not the only person living in a multigenerational home.
The kids aren't here all the time, just from Friday to Sunday.
That still doesn't make what we live with any easier or any better.

This isn't where I was going tonight.
What can I say?
 It's Wednesday, and tomorrow is Thursday.
Thursday has become a day to dread because I know Badger and I will need to start cleaning and hiding things away for the weekend.
And it's work, it is.
Now we've added another room that we have to basically strip down because the kids have well, no, they've always prowled and made a huge mess in that bathroom.
It's just getting more dangerous, and we can no longer lock a few cabinets up and call it good.

OK, we'll stop here before I start really ranting and venting and making the post totally unpleasant.
I'll go back to “The X-Files” and keep my fingers crossed the water heater doesn't explode.
What?
Cowboy said they do explode.