In which Primo is stuck in Florida again

I think you guys have figured out that Primo is gone again. Poor guy. How many trips is this? His dad died in July. We went on vacation - hey - Primo deserved a break - and then we both went to Florida for the funeral in early August. I came home, Primo stayed another week.

He came home for a week, left again. Then home for two weeks. Back to FL early Sept for a week. Home for two weeks, then gone again. He gets home this week after being gone for nine days and will go back to FL end of October for another week.

This after spending almost all of his time in Florida since mid April.

The times he has been home have not been relaxing. He has still had to deal with Ted. You guys know that's no picnic. He has also had a backlog of home chores to do. Not the everyday stuff we had planned that he would do with his year off - I am doing those things because I want his time at home to be as restful as possible, but other things that he is in charge of and does not want to yield (because he is an engineer and a total control freak), like getting the car inspected and cutting the grass and changing the air filter, etc.

He is at the house in Florida, trying to get rid of stuff so he can put it up for sale. He called me this morning to tell me that Stephanie and the girls had come over to help him with some stuff.

"We went through the cupboards and the fridge and got rid of everything. They took a lot of food home and I threw away the rest. Then I had them go through my mom's jewelry and take whatever they want," he said. "I am going to mail what's left to Ted'sWife."

"She will complain that you are hiding the Good Bracelet from her," I said.

"I don't care. I am tired of dealing with her. And with Ted. You know how facebook does that timehop thing? Two years ago this weekend was when Ted and I came to Florida for my dad's 80th birthday. I am seeing all the things that Ted posted. He is such a jerk."

Timehop tells me about texts from the same date in previous years. It has reminded me of past text messages with Ted both yesterday and today. He has always been insufferable.

Yes. He should be nice to you, not because you have power over him, but because it is the right thing to do!

2 hours ago

"Like what?"

"Oh, stuff about how I needed to relax - it was time for the professionals to take over."

"To take over - celebrating your father's birthday?"

He sighed. "I know. It's just what he does. He always has to be the big shot. I want to ask him, 'If you are so connected and know so many important people in Washington, why don't you have a job?' Maybe someone could hire him to be a professional asshole."

"He's qualified, for sure," I said.

"I talked to the accountant on Friday. He said not to even set the trusts up until after the new year. Otherwise, I will have to do tax returns on them for 2015."

"That's good advice."

"Ted is going to hate it."

"Ted is going to blow a gasket. He already thinks you are taking too long to give him all the money."

"Whatever. I don't care any more. The trust is not about him, anyhow. It's supposed to be for Ted'sSon."

Then we decided he would not bring Doris' silver home - that we would just keep his grandparents' silver plate - which we have never used once in seven years of marriage because I am not going to polish silver - and that the cat would stay with the neighbor.

Good decisions.

And then we had to hang up because the guy who said he wanted to buy the car - Primo was giving him 25% under blue book just to sell the darn thing before Monday, when the registration expired - finally showed up. Primo was really annoyed because the guy was late. I had to remind Primo that he thinks it's OK for him to be late.

And then I took Doris' t-shirt - the one Primo brought for me because he thought I might like to wear his dead mother's t-shirt - out of the dresser in our bedroom and hid it in the dresser upstairs in the guest room. My hope is that Primo will forget he ever gave it to me.