Sunday, October 14, 2012

In which Sly and Doris find something else to complain about, part 2

Now the problem is that Stephanie, who has been coming over to help - taking out the trash, scooping the cat box, cleaning the cat poop off the wall and floor near the cat box (because the one cat has a problem), does not have the right attitude.

A quick refresher: Stephanie is my sister in law. Technically, my ex-sister in law, because she and Primo's half brother divorced several years ago.

Stephanie has no legal or moral or ethical obligation whatsoever to help Sly and Doris. She is busy with her own life, her children, her job. Sly and Doris have been very mean to her and have said vicious things about her ever since I met them. She is a far, far better person than I with her continued efforts to be nice to them.

So Sly and Doris are incapacitated. They can't cook. They can't clean. They can't scoop the box. They can do very little.

Their neighbors have brought food - that they didn't like. And complained about to Primo.

Although to be honest, if someone brought me food that was dry and tasteless, I might mention it to someone I trusted not to talk to the giver. HOWEVER, I cannot imagine Sly and Doris have any tastebuds left - doesn't heavy drinking kill your sense of taste? Or is it just smoking that does that?

Primo's other half brother, Ted, has volunteered to go stay with Sly and Doris to help.

No, no, no, they have told him. It's too much trouble for you.

Stephanie, who lives ten minutes away, has been coming over to help.

As in, they are getting help they would not otherwise get. Help that they would have to pay for if they didn't get it from Stephanie. Help that they don't want to pay for. I don't know if they don't want to admit they are helpless  or what the deal is. I can imagine it would be very hard to admit that you have reached a point in your life where you can't take care of yourself. I am not looking forward to that time in my life. Primo and I won't even have kids to help us. I guess we better be really nice to our neighbors - especially the ones who are good cooks.

Stephanie has been helping them. She has been doing the - literally - crap work.

But Sly is not happy. "She doesn't seem very enthusiastic about it," he grumbled to Primo. "She acts like it's just some kind of obligation. She doesn't seem happy."

Because the result matters not at all - just the intention. And if Stephanie's intentions aren't pure, then it doesn't matter that she is cleaning the cat poop off the floor.

7 comments:

  1. Stephanie is surely a very nice person, but honestly, one gets treated like a doormat when one allows it. She needs to move on and let the chips fall. S and D are not her responsibility at all! People like S and D get away with being jerks their whole lives because they have enablers. Like their children and Stephanie. Why be nice when you can get away with being an asshole and Stephanie will still come over and clean the cat poo? Insane.

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    1. I know! I don't get it. I've asked her why she puts up with them. She feels sorry for Doris because she remembers when Doris was nice.

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  2. They sound like truly miserable people. Thank goodness you dont live closer...

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  3. S and D are truly the most miserable people I've ever heard of. I wonder why Stephanie bothers, other than she must have an incredibly kind and generous heart.

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    1. Stephanie is an amazingly generous person. They do not deserve her.

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  4. So Doris used to be nice? Really? What happened? I don't buy it. That brand of asshole doesn't not just pop out of thin air.

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