We Have It To Ourselves Again

Brother-in-law takes tours around the globe fulfilling - as he says - his duty as a privileged senior; it's what he's supposed to do. Back from Budapest via New Zealand, he stayed with a friend in L.A. for awhile then came to our place. A list of chores kept him occupied for a few days but as time went on his things began appearing in odd places: his toothbrush and water glass took up residence behind the toaster next to the kitchen sink; an array of powders - whey & protein plus oatmeal and Smooth Move - appeared atop the kitchen cupboards where they offended the sensibilities of the ceramic wine bottles & German beer steins. A week earlier I'd begun wondering when he was gonna leave.

The man has a golden heart and is generous. He gifted us with both the 2008 and 2015 Honda FITS...new. But this is a 900 sq ft bungalow. The 3rd bedroom, Michelle's former studio is the "storage locker." I snore so "the office," the smaller bedroom, hardly more than a walk-in closet, is now my lair. The Smirket Room, where Steve sleeps, is our "maker's space." 

I put the bed on craigslist. We bought him a take-down camp cot that suffices.

Even gold-hearted & generous still casts an inhibitory pall on my proclivity for clothes-lessness. I did my best, but even eine Churminz best ist evidently not very güt as he interpreted my attempt at tact as: GET THE EF OUT! 

Bless his heart, he went off to stay with a high-school buddy in god-for-saken Portales (east New Mexico), a mere hop annuh skip from Muleshoe, Texas. (People go for the notoriety of saying they've been.)

A former girlfriend sometimes lets him stay in her parent's home in Phoenix. They're in assisted-living and she's hiking in Patagonia and other relatives use it too so he had to find somewhere else until he could get the "all clear." Even though he can afford lengthy excursions anywhere on the globe, he's thrifty and prefers couch surfing to an Airbnb. He has an apartment in Denver, but it's cold up there.