The
advantage to nightmares over real life is that you can
wake up from a
nightmare.
The Background:
A couple of years ago, my brother-in-law came to live with us for a few months. He had drunk himself into a stupor on too many occassions and his wife was divorcing him. As he hadn't contributed anything to the payment of bills for such a long time, the judge decided that he should not be allowed to live in the house.
He called my wife (his sister) and asked if he could come and stay with us, while he went through a drug treatment course, so he could regain his driver's license. My wife, being the sweet woman she is, said yes and the living nightmare began.
Ronny, my brother-in-law, moved in and I immediately set some ground rules. NO DRINKING was rule #1 - it had ruined his marriage, his career, and most of the relationships in his life. I told him he could drink all he wanted, just not and live with us. I also told him that he would have to find a job. Not an unreasonable request, I thought.
Over the next five months, we went through a number of conflicts. He drank. He argued. He made a general nuisance of himself. Finally, I had to physically move him to the apartment of one of his co-workers, before one of us ended up in the hospital, either me from stress or him from me beating him.
The Nightmare Returns: My brother-in-law is back. His live-in accused him Tuesday morning of beating her, and the police picked him up. Neither of them is the most stable person in the world. We bailed him out of jail yesterday, and because of the judge's decision, he can't go back to his apartment, so he is sleeping on my couch.
The stress and general feeling that all is not right with the world is back. I didn't sleep well. I am back to playing father to a 38 year old. And I can't seem to wake up.
Oh, bother!