Too True, Unfortunately…

 

Looking back at it, my father in law was not a happy man. He drank heavily (as did I)… and I handled him poorly in his last years. 

I won the wife lottery. If I needed time away it was never any problem for my wife. When I was out hunting or fishing I was out there to catch fish or get meat. By contrast… my father in law seldom got away, and when he did… he was out there to drink, relax, and just decompress and catch a break from the constant bitching, hectoring and badgering of his wife. On our last trip out i remember him lamenting that he should have divorced his wife decades ago (and I knew he was serious). He talked fondly about other women in his life he might have started again with, he told me things about his wife I’d rather not have known…and it was a TMI overload. I dunno what he wanted from me. All I could do was listen, but I had no answers for his gripes. A smarter man may have, I suppose.

In his later days he began to drink even more heavily and I was starting to do less. I wanted to avoid him as he was becoming a real bummer to be around. But he had nowhere else to go. He did some volunteer jobs and had a membership at the gym but when he was at home he either hid in the basement or out in the shed to sneak a few drinks. The family expected me to do something for or about him too… Can a guy get too old to drink? I know eventually I  did - but he had twenty years and change on me, and lord…he could pack it away. I didn’t want to be around him anymore. We were at different parts of our different lives. I see and handle things far differently than he did.

He was old and bitter and unhappy and I had no idea how to handle it. There was too much other drama going on in my family and I didn’t know how to handle any a that either. I started going fishing and hunting just to get away like he did. With the other baggage in my life I started thinking like him too. 

I know precisely two things about the world: SFA and nothing! God knows I am the last guy ya wanna talk to about problems with women and family… but if you are out there because of womenfolk… you are out there for the wrong reasons. If you’re drinking too much because of them… you’re drinking for the wrong reasons. And in time… you’ll probably come to regret both.

But whadda I know?