Made contact with someone from the past and thought to yourself why the hell did I do this? I was thinking about one of my old buddies from high school the other night and my wife said "why don't you call his parents and get his number?". I should have known something was up when his mom had to look the number up. Anyways I called him and man o man has his life turned for the worse. He was telling me how he married a girl that had two kids and that they are out of control. He goes on to tell me how they have been punching holes in the walls at the house he has bought. Then he tells me that they tore the garage door opener down off the ceiling and they also kicked the garage door in. He is now working 14 hour days chipping slag and he has to wear wooden shoes in the pit for some reason. All he wanted to talk about was the cars we had in high school and how fast they were. After I hung up my wife asked me why I didn't invite his family over for a fire one night. After I got done telling her about this she said if I would have invited them she would have been gone. Gunflint

its crazy what people, myself included get our selves into ..

One of my favorite quotes use by my mother many times that still rings true in my ears..

"Except for the grace of god..there go I" My parents were my grace...I just actually thanked my dad on sunday in a conversation for the many ass beatings and tough love he gave me over the years. He never gave up on me no matter what..it paid off. Life if pretty da*n good!!

v

I look at life like a series of doors and we walk through one just to be faced with a wall with another 1000 doors. We must keep opening the right doors or be smart enough to go backwards until you get straightened out enough that you can proceed forward again. I think everyone has it in them to be great, but sometimes we all pick the wrong door. The difference is some people can't turn around - they for some reason keep going and it never gets better. It's nice that you are able to have a relationship with your parents. Mine live within 20 miles of me and I haven't talked to my mother in over 8 years and I haven't talked to my old man in over 2 years. Sometimes you have to make choices in life and choose the lesser of two evils. Where I'm lucky is that I met a fantastic women that has always stood by my side no matter how stupid my ideas were. I wouldn't be half the man I am today if I didn't have her in my life. I truly have a best friend and a partner for life with my wife and I thank the good lord everyday for that. Gunflint

Gun, damn you for making me write all this.

What a coincidence!! The same thing happened to me, back-to-back.

Went down to see a friend from school that looked me up. We attended a very prestigious college, impossible to screw up. Anyway, could not believe my eyes that people could live like that. I was too grossed out to even use their bathroom, to take a leak. (this guy was considered most like to succeed)

Heartbroken by the ordeal I decided to look up another old fraternity brother. Similar story but opposite end of the spectrum. Made real good money, but no life, a dead marriage, and a dead-end job. After a few cordial email exchanges and declining his offer to meet, I came to the realization that some things are best left to the imagination and that there is a good reason that I have the friends I have now.

A very lovely point gun. I concur that life’s twists, turns and trials are all intended for water to find its level and for us meet the wonderful people in our lives now.

p.s. she must be your Valkyrie….welcome to Valhalla.

Gun, the reason he wanted to talk about high school and the cars you had was most likely because those were the best of times for him.

Sad to say I have a few friends that still like to relive the glory of their past and don't see, or don't want to see, what they have in front of them.

I thank the Lord for the blessings I have.

Gunflintwoodshop

It's great you've found a woman whio's stuck by you, but please remember this. Women come and go. You'll only have one mother.

Try to mend fences before it's too late.

Said to say but with my mother it's to late. You would have to know her to understand. If I had her in my life I would be in counseling and living under a bridge somewhere. My family started the day my wife and I put our rings on and said I do. It's great that people have close family bonds, but not everyone is like that. I choose to disassociate myself with negative people and I have turned out pretty darn good for a guy that has never had a nickel given to him. Gunflint

thank god my mother thumped me in the head on a regular basis. LOL

This brings back a lot of memories. I always thought it would be cool to belong to a normal family. (mine is nuttttts.) Some of my childhood friends that came from these wonderful families, had every thing a kid could want. are now middle aged men on their second and third marriges and still living with their folks. I thank god every day for the nut cases that raised me.

We looked at a house one time with deadbolts on all the bedroom doors, maybe it was a similar situation to your ole buddy's with scary stepkids, the realtor wouldn't tell us.

If it weren't for my wife's mom, I'd tell gunflint the same thing as edwarderc2 about his folks. Sometimes it just will never work out.

To make a long stroy short, her folks were divorced, the mom got two kids, the dad got one (my wife) and the the mom blamed it all on my wife. When we were going to get married I talked her into going and seeing her mom, whom she hadn't seen in 8 years.

This is the way it went down:

Ring the doorbell

Ring the doorbell

Door opens

wife:"Hi mom, this is my fiance, we're getting married"

mom:"I suppose you're telling me that now just because you want a f*(ing wedding present"

We turn and walk away

me:"You were right, sorry."