"How old is that thing?" - If I had a dime for every time I heard that one!
I thought I would do some more remembering. This is about another relative I got to know as a kid - Uncle Rufus.
Uncle Rufus was a strange man, even by the standards of my other slightly strange relatives. He hated almost everything and everyone. He was the only man I know that would join a protest march and then join the counter-protest half way through. Luckily, Rufus did not have to deal with people a whole lot. Even in his job - see Rufus was a chinchilla farmer. He raised a herd, skinned them, and sold the pelts once a year at a furrier's market.
In case you don't know, chinchillas are basically a cross between a squirrel and a hamster. From the face end they look quite a bit like a very large hamster. From the tail end they look like a squirrel with a bit less fluff in the tail. They are, however, blessed (or cursed, from their standpoint) with a fur that is about a soft as fur can get. For that reason for over 400 years, these little rodents have been sought and bought for their pelts.
As I said, Uncle Rufus was a "hater". He hated everyone. I use to tell him (when I was out of range of those massive hams he called hands - see Rufus was about 7 feet tall and over 350 pounds)"Uncle Rufus - you are an equal opportunity hater." Yessir, Rufus hated some because of what they were and others because of what they weren't. He hated special days and days with nothing going on. He basically hated.
Now this was many years ago, and the civil rights movement was getting a solid start in really making some changes. Rufus would hear someone like Martin Luther King and start screaming at him on the TV. The very next minute he might hear George Wallace and start screaming at his image as well. The thing is, he didn't agree with anyone -he just disagreed with everyone.
Uncle Rufus started doing some checking on his background and heritage. See, he was adopted. My grandfather always said Rufus' mother let him go because he was arguing with her about child care as an infant. He did not know his natural father or mother. So, he went to looking around. Turned out he was one-quarter Japanese, one-quarter black, one-quarter native American, and one-quarter Caucasian. He killed himself - hate crime.
You may get this more if you read (or re-read) these older posts: "A Serious One" from 4/6/08 "Alphabet diseases" from 11/13/07 and "Questions" from 1/20/08 I am still trying to get answers to the Questions asked in the post above. I have not found any that are worthy of printing. I have come up with more questions: How does one handle seeing the continual decline of their spouse and not being able to do a thing about it? How do you take the inability of your 53 year old wife to get out of bed, or in and out of the shower unaided? How do you answer questions that beg not to be asked, like: will I see Bailey (our daughter, a rising senior)graduate; will Hannah (our granddaughter - almost 3) remember me; or will I see Landon (or grandson - 6 months) walk? How do you comfort your bride of 35+ years when she looks at you with tears streaming down her face? Most of all, how do you offer support and help when you are so damn mad at the world and the situa...
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