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kyburgI've had enough surreal for one day. No, really.
Remember that software bug that ate my job? We got the fix and applied it yesterday. This morning, I found a bug related to XP and fixed it myself. I'm a damn good detective - and between this company and Microsoft, there is some damn lame programming loose in the world. Bah. I fixed it and reported it fer nuthin'!
The surreal part? The accounting department at the software company called me to alert me to the invoice coming for next year's maintenance contract. Anno...I could help chuckling a bit, real soft and low. And then said - "You don't know what my last month has been like, do you? Here, check this ticket number..."
She gasped. Honest. And by the time I got off the phone with her, I had a promise to do something "warm and fuzzy" with the cost of our contract next year.
Boss said to tell them that our bill would be in the mail too.
Good enough? No, I mean it.
We got an update on the Chicago situation, as I will choose to call it. I'm going to ask Jim to update his own journal, but the crap level is rising -
Monday, Jim's older brother entered a plea in his case brought by the state on behalf of his daughter for domestic violence.
This idiot now thinks he's innocent and everything is now the fault of this 15 year old kid. Now, now - you can't hit him. That's how everyone got into this mess.
It's going from a little like their father to just like their father. But the stakes couldn't be higher.
A business could fail. He could bankrupt his family. He could lose both his children - forever.
He didn't do anything wrong. But he's not allowed any contact with the kids. He's living with his in-laws and the kids are at home with their step-mother. DCFS has already decided that both parents are guilty of both abuse and neglect. Another two weeks and another court date.
I've decided we can do our job and be willing to do whatever the family asks us to do or we can do a good job and contact the authorities handling this case and come forward to them. I'm no longer comfortable taking it all the information filtered by family members alone. I want to talk to the kids myself - which we haven't done. I want to know what can be done for them. I'm also certain we are not likely the best people to help them - California is very jealous about its social services - you have to live here for a year to be eligible for most of them. I could do a good job with one of them. Both of them will sink us, guaranteed. Maybe.
And the shame. Ghads. Jim adores, adored this older brother. The betrayal, the shame...and he listens to me use the harshest language, be as cold and hard as I must be and say no, no we can't save them - and this is why - and doesn't flinch or blink. I need to find him a brother who deserves him. He deserves a family that appreciates him. I motion to him to get off the phone when he ends up calling his brother to offer support and ends up getting yelled at.
A train wreck? More like seeing a bonfire being built off in the distance, just waiting for the gasoline and the match.
Enough of the surreal.
Yeah, right. Matrix Reloaded and now FLCL. Who am I trying to kid?
Remember that software bug that ate my job? We got the fix and applied it yesterday. This morning, I found a bug related to XP and fixed it myself. I'm a damn good detective - and between this company and Microsoft, there is some damn lame programming loose in the world. Bah. I fixed it and reported it fer nuthin'!
The surreal part? The accounting department at the software company called me to alert me to the invoice coming for next year's maintenance contract. Anno...I could help chuckling a bit, real soft and low. And then said - "You don't know what my last month has been like, do you? Here, check this ticket number..."
She gasped. Honest. And by the time I got off the phone with her, I had a promise to do something "warm and fuzzy" with the cost of our contract next year.
Boss said to tell them that our bill would be in the mail too.
Good enough? No, I mean it.
We got an update on the Chicago situation, as I will choose to call it. I'm going to ask Jim to update his own journal, but the crap level is rising -
Monday, Jim's older brother entered a plea in his case brought by the state on behalf of his daughter for domestic violence.
This idiot now thinks he's innocent and everything is now the fault of this 15 year old kid. Now, now - you can't hit him. That's how everyone got into this mess.
It's going from a little like their father to just like their father. But the stakes couldn't be higher.
A business could fail. He could bankrupt his family. He could lose both his children - forever.
He didn't do anything wrong. But he's not allowed any contact with the kids. He's living with his in-laws and the kids are at home with their step-mother. DCFS has already decided that both parents are guilty of both abuse and neglect. Another two weeks and another court date.
I've decided we can do our job and be willing to do whatever the family asks us to do or we can do a good job and contact the authorities handling this case and come forward to them. I'm no longer comfortable taking it all the information filtered by family members alone. I want to talk to the kids myself - which we haven't done. I want to know what can be done for them. I'm also certain we are not likely the best people to help them - California is very jealous about its social services - you have to live here for a year to be eligible for most of them. I could do a good job with one of them. Both of them will sink us, guaranteed. Maybe.
And the shame. Ghads. Jim adores, adored this older brother. The betrayal, the shame...and he listens to me use the harshest language, be as cold and hard as I must be and say no, no we can't save them - and this is why - and doesn't flinch or blink. I need to find him a brother who deserves him. He deserves a family that appreciates him. I motion to him to get off the phone when he ends up calling his brother to offer support and ends up getting yelled at.
A train wreck? More like seeing a bonfire being built off in the distance, just waiting for the gasoline and the match.
Enough of the surreal.
Yeah, right. Matrix Reloaded and now FLCL. Who am I trying to kid?
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no subject
Date: 2003-10-23 06:35 am (UTC)If I could...
Date: 2003-10-23 12:14 pm (UTC)I love my brothers, even the one who never calls/writes/avoids pretty much all contact with the kids of the step-mother (my mom), and the oldest brother who's a complete mental case who needs a bitchslapping with the The-World-Doesn't-Revolve-Around-YOU stick. Painfully intelligent, but zero common sense. Oy.
I'm very sorry for Jim and his family. I really hope that it goes to court, and I'm very sorry if the business fails because of the brother's actions. And I truly hope that one day, preferably sooner rather than later, the brother's eyes might open to the situation he's repeating upon his own kids.