The Accidental Mess! What a 'The Weekend' of accidental accusations!
This post seeks to respond to The Weekend's prompt, 'Accidental Accusation', I also wanted to share a bit about my Saturday - which will very much juxtapose the horrendous evening that followed! (That said, when I read the prompts earlier, I wasn't sure which one to go with, perhaps I should be thankful for a drunk uncle for providing content!)
Ah, this weekend was full of so much promise. My wife was away on work, and I had the house to myself - not that I had any intention to get up to mischief, but it meant I was going to eat chocolate before dinner, and be lazy with my food choices.
Saturday got off to a super start, I decided I didn't need to bother setting the alarm. Usually we get up at 5.15am - but I thought, 'Meh' - my body clock actually woke me up at 5.34am, but I rolled over - and the next time my eyes opened it was 7.08am! I was stoked, I havn't slept past 7 in many years. The day got underway, as it does - and I was able to knock off a couple of chores. This meant a bit of time in the yard doing the lawns, and I had a couple of overgrown shrubs that needed a haircut. I dutifully filled up my 'Green' bin (the one for outdoor green waste). Coming back inside, I had to clean the bathrooms, and I knocked over that chore in a flying time. I got a couple of good blog posts completed and I even watched a 2 1/2 hour film, 'Into the Wild' - which I wanted to use in a CineTV blog post, and I felt the urge and need to see it again. It's a super film -
And then, there was the easy food. For lunch, I had some chunky slices of toast smeared in butter. I actually had many of these slices throughout the day. I just kept going back to the toaster whenever the urge took it's hold.
I thought I'd do the 'fooody' thing and take a happy snap. I didn't think to do it sooner, so you're getting a half eaten slice of toast! Now, I need to point out - that's a full size dinner plate, those pieces of toast are epic in proportion!
And then for dinner - I thought I'd go for the cheap carbs: Chinese food. I have this strategy of ordering a Special Fried Rice and Dim Sims. The Dim Sims are cheaper than a meal - and, because the rice is 'special' and has pork and chicken and prawns etc you really don't need a meal with it. For transparency though, if I did have something with it, I'd order the honey chicken.
Now, in my order I forgot to clarify. I wanted FRIED Dim Sims - I was a bit put off when I got home and found they were steamed. They looked gross and I'd never had a steamed dim sim in my life before - but I thought I'd give them a whirl, and they tasted exactly the same as the FRIED ones, but without the crispy crunch. All in all, they're not bad, despite appearances.
And then it was late enough to go to bed! (I'm talking like 9.30pm, which is actually rather late for me). And that's where the messy accusations started!
For context:
My dad passed away 7 weeks ago - it was quite sudden, he was given a timeframe of a couple of years with a lung cancer diagnosis (it was the fourth time he'd be given this) - but the cancer metastasized into his brain, and he was instead given two weeks, which he didn't quite make.
Before he passed, I was given a pair of cuff-links, which I believe have sentimental value, moreso than any great economic worth (despite the claims of an uncle). The family lore suggests that these belonged to my great-great grandfather and had been passed through the generations.
And so, not long after 9.30pm, I get a text message from my uncle about these cuff-links, it was just a picture of them - and every few minutes messaged popped up wanting to know if I had them - over and over, the messages took on quite a nasty tone - I made the assumption he was drunk, but I responded against my better judgement, letting him know I had them and I understood their history. I hoped that was enough, but he kept sending a message every couple of minutes, offering that they demanded respect, and that they were precious and so forth. He then begun to demand pictures of them to prove that I had them. I told him I had them, noted the time, and said good night and turned my phone off. I thought, honestly - what a mess over nothing.
Later that night, I got up to use the loo. It would have been around 12.30am - and I checked my phone and noticed another string of text messages from him, but more concerning, one from my mum which she sent about 11.20pm. She asked me to ring her when I got the message. Now, I'm not big on ringing people after midnight, but I sent her a text to ask if she was alright. This led to a phone call, apparently she had received a significant number of abusive messages all night over these cuff-links - and other abuse - the centre of it was an uncle who was feeling lonely and missing his brother - but it ended up in a mess of tears for Mum, who copped accusation after accusation over stealing the cuff-links and not respecting them.
What a mess - and a sleepless night for her, over an accusation of what?
I don't know, should I have responded to a demanding text message at 10.30pm wanting to see the precious cuff-links, a demand of a angsty drunk man - or was it better to ignore it and not participate in the games? Had I known Mum was copping it on her end, I would have sent the photo - but I don't like encouraging nonsense behaviour, or being in a position where demands are made with emotional blackmail - as he offered, 'Your dad wouldn't do this to me'.
I'll give Mum a ring later, but what a mess - all over a drunk accusation that his precious cuff-links, which were being passed to me, might not be treated right - whatever that means! I can tell you this, you can't pick your family, but you can certainly be sure I'll be putting those cufflinks in a box this week and sending them off to him. For the sake of a good night's rest, I don't see any value in keeping an heirloom which I don't have any particular connection to.
So as Sunday gets underway, I'm looking forward to a sunny walk on the beach, and a good night's sleep - and maybe a proper dinner. After a couple of days of junk, I could use a vegetable.
This post was in response to Galenpk's weekend engagement, you can get on board the original prompt post here:
@galenkp/we95-weekend-engagement-posting-topics