The tyrant is in the building

So, the tyrant has returned to the country, bombs exploding around him, but he is a man of great valor, with that impectible alfred e. newman smile....

We are all tyrants, that is what he says and says he believes, as long as he is el tyrant grande, or the grand poba of tyrants.

And a nameless tyrant has returned here, too. one who is shameless about demanding money. one who constantly complains about everything and yet is motivated to do absolutely nothing, except this.

But he is good at spilling his food.

the early morning phone calls the familial visits....

The early morning phone calls--no they aren't from creditors; they are from her family, pretty much every morning.

And they are without fail...and then there are the visits: oh, and that is because I am on the Internet, so they cannot call (even though they already left messages by the time I got up). They knock on the door. And who do you think answers?

My wife and baby are still asleep, but it does not matter now. Goodbye sleep, hello family: and the baby will cry because at least she is sensible and hates being awaken before her time.

Then there are the questions: "where is soand so? where are the car keys? where did you put them?" I built a special place for the car keys since she already lost them a few times in one day (and who do you suppose had to find them?...they were in the crib by the way; must be baby's fault, right, even though she hardly sleeps in there??) Then I am accused of hiding the keys.

They come in and leave the door partly open and please do let the flies in as well, and the mosquitos are great for the baby's health,a little west nile to go around.

the coming months...

I will make a decision about whether this situation is going to work out or not in the next two months.

Of course, little tyrants out of parental control do not want it to work out, but I'm not putting up with any nonsense until then.

"They" just cannot accept, let alone accept, another point of view, and want the money to flow freely as a kind of hush money.

Then there are the other tyrants--those in the white house, who have the power to ask the librarian what books I have been checking out. Unbelievable but instructive: does this prerogative not suggest some connection between books and terrorism, or what? How weird.

Well, the VP Dickie told a prominent senator "F@#! you" in the senate chambers while everyone was around. His excuse: he was angry; he had to express his feelings. And which feelings were those? That Haliburton is honest?

The president of the senate can speak like that? Why should he be pres or vp of anything?

who is the tyrant now?

Well, methinks my child bride is crazy. We got in a huge argument about beef bacon, which is the only kind of bacon i will eat, and all this turned into an argument when she ate all the beef bacon, when there was both pork and turkey bacon in the freezer that she had purchased...but she had to eat the beef kind, even thought it is rather tough when cooked.

Then when I joked about it all in my mock serious fashion, she got more angry--mad.

when i went into "our" room, the little fat tyrant had his head in her lap; a fourteen year old kid acting like a baby--and i'm in the middle of it all.

wont work, wont study, wont do much of anything except moap around and come in and out of the house.

but the real problem is she, because she is not communicating with me: my suggestions, send him to summer school, since he needs to learn english; take him to the library so he can be introduced to reading, and there are books in spanish there too.

what kind of example is this little tyrant being?

tyrants on the domestic front...

I should call this, my life as a step dad. What if, the notorious step- child, and I think "step" is a strange word however appropriate as in step on perhaps, tried nothing else but to destroy your marriage and wreck any domestic tranquility, would he fit the definition of a domestic tyrant?

what is your problem, she asks but does not mean to ask.

Perhaps he is a bad example: is slouching in front of the TV and watching cartoons most of the time fit for a 14 year old kid? Since he is the oldest, that is the standard?

That will not be the standard.

I suggested summer school since he does not know English. Yes, we will get him signed up. that was 2 days ago.

Could it be he is spoiled and immature for his age?

oh, and I forgot to say, that the rest of the time he plays video games--all day when he is not watching cartoons or adult movies, since mommy is not paying attention....

And then there is the exclusion: leaving my son behind, trying to boss him around, trying to control him...that gets ugly and it is getting ugly again.

then there was our trip to Michigan. he could not stand being out of his pueblito and away from his nana. he caused problems in the school there, and who did the teacher call for it?

we tried having rules and then they just ignored them; are they lawless people or what? one hour of TV is a rule meant to be broken?

we tried to bribe him with toys every month--but it did not work. Then he wanted something new every time we went to the store.

Then there were the annoying interruptions while I was trying to study.

over all, I think this: here instead of treating the whole move as an adventure, seeing new things instead of seeing the same old low desert heat and dust, try something different for a finite period of time, but no impossible for a closed mind.

and then his mom continues to spoil him. Go pick him up hours away, it's too far on the bus. have someone take him all the way to get his braces adjusted.

Under Tyrant

Gabo moved to Spain to live under the tyrant. But I have lived here in the USA all my life, and now we are living under a tyrant. I will describe how my life has changed in the last three years, how the whole mood of the country has changed just because of the fascistic ideas, policies, and procedures of one man.