MriyaMachine on 6/7/2022 at 01:18
Quote Posted by Gray
Arriving now in the town where I was born, some 50-odd years ago. Except it wasn't. The town I knew wasn't there anymore, it had moved.
In the most literal sense. The houses had physically moved. The train station I arrived at was not the one that was there last time. No, this is not the movie Dark City, this is a small town being slowly engulfed by the local mine, and the whole town has to move, house by house. Some parts of the town centre are still intact, but many houses empty. And there are lots of empty spaces where houses used to be, but have quite literally been lifted off the ground and carted down the road a few miles to a new location. Others will just be pulled down and destroyed, new ones built to replace them. It's a very eerie feeling walking around a town you SHOULD know so well, but is now... oddly empty. In the mid-stage of being moved elsewhere. It feels like you're in the first five minutes of a zombie movie, before everything kicks off.
You didn't happen to be born in Kiruna, did you?
Tocky on 6/7/2022 at 02:04
I have the large black ants but I don't mind them so much. They aren't numerous unless I've left a watermelon rind on the counter. They are like a tiny clean up crew. Besides, the wolf spiders keep their numbers down.
Gray on 8/7/2022 at 23:24
I can neither confirm nor deny any random guesses of my place of origin. I'm sure that there must be many, many, MANY locations that fit the very specific details I gave. And have given repeatedly over the last 20-odd years.
But as I aim to be at least 4.5 minutes ahead of any potential internet stalker assassin, I can verily and heartily claim to be in Auckland, New Zealand. In that yellow house down by the church on the corner. Go look.
:ahem:
What I initially intended to be a fairly basic four theme story, I may have to add fifth theme of family. I've had some recent revelations, I'll try to figure out if I can write them down in a vaguely relatable or potentially entertaining way. Well, not the latter, clearly. Or maybe I'm just trying to drag out this lengthy dull story even much for as much as I can milk it. I would suggest you don't stay tuned. I'd do it tonight if I hadn't been unexpectedly distracted by mere practical details, more on that later. It's not dramatic.
Gray on 21/11/2022 at 02:41
Right now, nothing is happening.
So why then, I hear you ask, are you bothering us with this non-news? Well, there's a reason. It's less exciting than you'd think, but hear me out.
Soonish, in about a month or so, this dull, boring tedious story will continue. I will convene with my younger brother at the house we grew up in, clearing out as much as we can. Decades of our personal history and nostalgia will have to be disposed of, we have to sell the house now. Our parents are still alive, if even just barely, in a care home. Surely, neither of them will have long left, so I'm packing my suit, just in case there will be a funeral or two while I'm there. That's the level we're at. Last time I saw them, I was very much aware it might be the last time I saw them.
But on the subject of what remains. This is not the first time I'm in this situation. When someone dies, there will be inevitable emotional upheaval. When my mother's mother died, she and her sisters got sour, old disagreements were rekindled, refuelled, and it tore them apart. They argued over petty nonsense dating back 30-40 years over who should have what. They remained bitter and estranged until they started dying off, and never made up. Same when my father's mother died, siblings quarrelled over pointless details. Me and my brothers have seen this. We have discussed this as much as we can, online, in text, thousands of miles apart, and I hope that we can agree to not repeat the mistakes of our parents. I want nothing. We argue over nothing. We're trying to be clever and aware, and yet, there is always the risk we'll go down the same sour route as our predecessors. But we're really trying hard not to.
While me and my brothers are having this very conversation, I'm reconnecting with an old friend from university. His situation is an exact mirror of what we are trying to avoid. His mother died recently, his father is in a retirement home, his estranged sister cleared out their house without telling him, throwing out stuff he wanted to keep, fuelling distrust and antagonism. Me and my brothers try our very best to communicate to avoid this.
Now, I'm a cold, emotionless bastard. I don't think I've ever used the word "love" in Swedish. It's not our way. It's barely in our vocabulary. I've never ever seen my parents say a kind word to each other, or hug, or kiss. Or even be closer than a metre apart. We're arctic, we're cold. But, I do love my brothers, they are both very nice, clever, lovable people, in very different ways, and I'd hate to lose them over something as pointless as this type of disagreement. I vaguely feel they might agree, so we all, I hope, aim to keep ourselves together.
Which brings me to the reason I'm posting this very post. Surely, we can not being the only people going through this right now, you might relate. Read the above, avoid the mistakes of our family, please be tolerant and relaxed with your kin, forgive their mistakes and try not to make your own. Once you lose your parents, you're IT now, you're the older generation, and you'll need the help of each other to make it through, so please try to avoid the pointless arguments. Or at least, be quick to forgive afterwards.
Once I'm back there, this thread might continue, if you're unlucky. I apologise in advance for the whiny crap I'll probably post in a few weeks or so.
