Amethyst Hunter
05-20-2008, 04:25 AM
I have something of a dilemma that landed in my lap tonight and I'm curious to hear what y'all think of it.
As some of you may or may not know, I have a car that is quite the bone of contention between my family and a pair of Bitch Aunts from my dad's side. From time to time someone will mention The Car and arguments flare up over it; of late, it's been quiet which usually means that something's brewing again (as it inevitably does).
First, some background. The Car was a 'sort-of' inheritance from my late grandfather. He bought it used and had it for maybe a year, two years tops, before he suffered a stroke in 2005 that left him incapable of ever driving again (he later passed away in late 2005 from pneumonia/stroke complications). As far as I know, nothing was ever mentioned in the will about The Car, and my uncle - my dad's older brother - was/is the executor of my grandparents' estate. My dad talked to him about The Car when I expressed interest in it at one point (being that at the time, I had *no* vehicle whatsoever and needed one, especially since I'd just started a new job at that point in time), and my uncle basically gave The Car to us with little, if any, strings attached (that I know of, anyway - my family doesn't exactly have the best track record when it comes to keeping me in the loop on some things).
Fast-forward a few years and The Car is STILL causing problems, albeit indirectly. You see, Bitch Aunts, I suspect, wanted that car for themselves. Either that, or they're just hellbent on causing as much trouble as they can for the sheer spite of it. My grandmother is still living, but her mind is just about gone these days (she's into the stages of dementia now) and remains bed- and wheelchair-bound in the nursing home where she's been for at least the past 5 years. *Without fail*, almost every time my dad goes over there to visit her she will bring up The Car in a semi-accusatory tone: "How's my car doing, [father's name]?" Know why she's so hung up about The Car? I'll give you three guesses, and the first two don't count!
We know it's the Bitch Aunts causing trouble because otherwise my grandmother doesn't even seem to know anything else about The Car, and doesn't bring it up unless one/both of the Bitch Aunts have been by to see her recently. Grandma only brings up things of contention if someone puts her up to it, because doing so causes both her and the intended recipient a good deal of stress. And the Bitch Aunts, I know from hard longtime experience, are no strangers to needling people to sheer insanity (One of their favorite mean bits was to take someone - like me or my brother - aside, and then broadside them with something nasty that they had no way of ably defending themselves against. They're chickenshit like that, won't directly confront you unless they're sure they can get you by yourself). I cut them out of my life as soon as I was able to without it causing any major family drama. Even my *dad* freely admits that he can't stand them, so yeah, it's pretty bad.
The last major incident we had with them was several months ago, wherein a piece of equipment that my uncle had told my dad he could take out of the garage on the estate was promptly pounced upon by Bitch Aunt #1, who threatened to sic the cops on my dad for having taken it and who flat-out accused him of stealing it and ripping off his mother left and right (which boiled my blood and my mom's to no end, as we KNOW - but, sadly, can't prove without evidence - that BA1 and her tool of a husband have been over there stealing anything that wasn't nailed down!). Whether he's just getting tired of it all, or what, I don't know, but my dad is more or less inclined to 'go along to get along', which of course means that he put back the equipment (after having sunk a shitload of money into repairing it that BA1 SHOULD have paid him back for - I think she did send him a small check at one point, but I don't know how that played out).
My uncle is something of a contention as well, because he doesn't seem inclined to stand up to these backstabbers either. There IS something going on there (no, he's not in league with the BAs, I know that much), because I've heard limited snippets of conversation with my folks, but I don't quite understand what it all means, so for the purposes of this post consider it irrelevant.
But now I come to the point of this ramble:
Tonight my dad asked me to think about The Car. He asked me if I still wanted it, and whether or not I'd be interested in a New Car (not necessarily 'new' as in 'brand-spanking-never-driven-off-the-lot' new). I told him I would have to think about that. I smell trouble brewing on the horizon again...
I kind of would like a New Shiny, but it depends on a lot of things. I want to know who's paying what for it, and I want to pick it myself, no holds barred (with only exceptions for price ranges, which I'm perfectly fine with; if I ever were to get something else it's damn well going to be fuel-economical - right now Chicago has THE highest gas prices in the *country*, and although I live waaaaaaaaay away from there, we're still feeling the rundown at just barely under $4/gal).
As to The Car, I do like it, and I'm perfectly happy to keep driving that if I didn't get anything different. With a few exceptions (it has a tendency to stall out and die temporarily if started the wrong way; there's pretty much nothing we can do about this and everyone who's looked at it has told us so), it's an otherwise decent vehicle for being a 1999 model, and although I don't know what kind of mileage it gets, it's not exactly a pisser either.
I asked my dad what we'd do with The Car in the event I decided to go the New Car route, and he said most likely he'd probably dump it onto his relatives and let them deal with it. I then explicitly told my dad that I DO NOT, under any circumstances, want either of those Bitch Aunts getting their mitts on The Car ever again (to which my dad told me to 'get over it'). I am dead serious when I say I would rather set that fucker on fire and watch it burn to ashes than let either of those two :censored: touch it. I freely admit I'm in full-on vengeful Evil Bitch mode on that. The thought of them getting yet another one-up on us like that REALLY burns me. :pissed: Those two have done nothing but shit on us left and right for YEARS, and I am SICK AND TIRED of what amounts to nothing more than bullying.
I told my dad months ago, during the equipment fiasco, that if we didn't stand up to them now, they'd just keep right on gouging us for whatever they could get, and my mom agreed with me. I can understand not wanting to cause more trouble than necessary, but goddammit, this shit HAS to stop. Now.
So...what do you think are my best options? Should I hang on to and fight for The Car, or should I swallow a heaping huge bitter chunk of humble-crow-pie and go for a New Car?
As some of you may or may not know, I have a car that is quite the bone of contention between my family and a pair of Bitch Aunts from my dad's side. From time to time someone will mention The Car and arguments flare up over it; of late, it's been quiet which usually means that something's brewing again (as it inevitably does).
First, some background. The Car was a 'sort-of' inheritance from my late grandfather. He bought it used and had it for maybe a year, two years tops, before he suffered a stroke in 2005 that left him incapable of ever driving again (he later passed away in late 2005 from pneumonia/stroke complications). As far as I know, nothing was ever mentioned in the will about The Car, and my uncle - my dad's older brother - was/is the executor of my grandparents' estate. My dad talked to him about The Car when I expressed interest in it at one point (being that at the time, I had *no* vehicle whatsoever and needed one, especially since I'd just started a new job at that point in time), and my uncle basically gave The Car to us with little, if any, strings attached (that I know of, anyway - my family doesn't exactly have the best track record when it comes to keeping me in the loop on some things).
Fast-forward a few years and The Car is STILL causing problems, albeit indirectly. You see, Bitch Aunts, I suspect, wanted that car for themselves. Either that, or they're just hellbent on causing as much trouble as they can for the sheer spite of it. My grandmother is still living, but her mind is just about gone these days (she's into the stages of dementia now) and remains bed- and wheelchair-bound in the nursing home where she's been for at least the past 5 years. *Without fail*, almost every time my dad goes over there to visit her she will bring up The Car in a semi-accusatory tone: "How's my car doing, [father's name]?" Know why she's so hung up about The Car? I'll give you three guesses, and the first two don't count!
We know it's the Bitch Aunts causing trouble because otherwise my grandmother doesn't even seem to know anything else about The Car, and doesn't bring it up unless one/both of the Bitch Aunts have been by to see her recently. Grandma only brings up things of contention if someone puts her up to it, because doing so causes both her and the intended recipient a good deal of stress. And the Bitch Aunts, I know from hard longtime experience, are no strangers to needling people to sheer insanity (One of their favorite mean bits was to take someone - like me or my brother - aside, and then broadside them with something nasty that they had no way of ably defending themselves against. They're chickenshit like that, won't directly confront you unless they're sure they can get you by yourself). I cut them out of my life as soon as I was able to without it causing any major family drama. Even my *dad* freely admits that he can't stand them, so yeah, it's pretty bad.
The last major incident we had with them was several months ago, wherein a piece of equipment that my uncle had told my dad he could take out of the garage on the estate was promptly pounced upon by Bitch Aunt #1, who threatened to sic the cops on my dad for having taken it and who flat-out accused him of stealing it and ripping off his mother left and right (which boiled my blood and my mom's to no end, as we KNOW - but, sadly, can't prove without evidence - that BA1 and her tool of a husband have been over there stealing anything that wasn't nailed down!). Whether he's just getting tired of it all, or what, I don't know, but my dad is more or less inclined to 'go along to get along', which of course means that he put back the equipment (after having sunk a shitload of money into repairing it that BA1 SHOULD have paid him back for - I think she did send him a small check at one point, but I don't know how that played out).
My uncle is something of a contention as well, because he doesn't seem inclined to stand up to these backstabbers either. There IS something going on there (no, he's not in league with the BAs, I know that much), because I've heard limited snippets of conversation with my folks, but I don't quite understand what it all means, so for the purposes of this post consider it irrelevant.
But now I come to the point of this ramble:
Tonight my dad asked me to think about The Car. He asked me if I still wanted it, and whether or not I'd be interested in a New Car (not necessarily 'new' as in 'brand-spanking-never-driven-off-the-lot' new). I told him I would have to think about that. I smell trouble brewing on the horizon again...
I kind of would like a New Shiny, but it depends on a lot of things. I want to know who's paying what for it, and I want to pick it myself, no holds barred (with only exceptions for price ranges, which I'm perfectly fine with; if I ever were to get something else it's damn well going to be fuel-economical - right now Chicago has THE highest gas prices in the *country*, and although I live waaaaaaaaay away from there, we're still feeling the rundown at just barely under $4/gal).
As to The Car, I do like it, and I'm perfectly happy to keep driving that if I didn't get anything different. With a few exceptions (it has a tendency to stall out and die temporarily if started the wrong way; there's pretty much nothing we can do about this and everyone who's looked at it has told us so), it's an otherwise decent vehicle for being a 1999 model, and although I don't know what kind of mileage it gets, it's not exactly a pisser either.
I asked my dad what we'd do with The Car in the event I decided to go the New Car route, and he said most likely he'd probably dump it onto his relatives and let them deal with it. I then explicitly told my dad that I DO NOT, under any circumstances, want either of those Bitch Aunts getting their mitts on The Car ever again (to which my dad told me to 'get over it'). I am dead serious when I say I would rather set that fucker on fire and watch it burn to ashes than let either of those two :censored: touch it. I freely admit I'm in full-on vengeful Evil Bitch mode on that. The thought of them getting yet another one-up on us like that REALLY burns me. :pissed: Those two have done nothing but shit on us left and right for YEARS, and I am SICK AND TIRED of what amounts to nothing more than bullying.
I told my dad months ago, during the equipment fiasco, that if we didn't stand up to them now, they'd just keep right on gouging us for whatever they could get, and my mom agreed with me. I can understand not wanting to cause more trouble than necessary, but goddammit, this shit HAS to stop. Now.
So...what do you think are my best options? Should I hang on to and fight for The Car, or should I swallow a heaping huge bitter chunk of humble-crow-pie and go for a New Car?