Monday, Monday

DH came home with some items from their parents house on Friday. He seemed pleased with the items he took (several of his mother's paintings, his parent's yearbooks, a few books, some of his father's momentos, the flag from his father's casket). His brother refused to give up the ring. I had suggested my husband bring it back home and we'd get a safety deposit box at the bank but my BIL would hear nothing of it. He plans to keep it on his person during his trek across country. Go figure.

I think my BIL is running away from Paris because of a couple of failed relationships. I do not understand how a 53 year old man cannot settle down in life but that's just him. He's had 3 failed marriages and a broken engagement that I know of. His two dips into the dating pool in Paris have been disastrous at best. The first woman stole from him and tried to steal his identity. The second he proposed to after only knowing a couple of months and the engagement ended as quickly as it began. He will not tell us why. Now he's selling the family home, selling all of his furniture (that he just bought in the last year) via auction the last of this month, packing up what is left and running off to NC to stay w/ his best friend for awhile. He's planning to help him fix up his house which should take about three months. After that, he's not sure what he will do but does not plan to come back to Paris.

His 30 year old son followed him to Paris and he's leaving him behind but helped him find a rent house first (instead of keeping the family house and letting him stay in it for now). His 15 yr old son currently visits often with the help of his big brother who picks him up and takes him back. How will he get from OK to NC when his dad is there? Or from OK to wherever his dad ends up next?

I guess I'm just grateful/thankful that I did not marry an impulsive man nor do I have an impulsive personality. My father and brother are also very impulsive and I just cannot handle their need to make every major decision in an instant. I want to a new car and DH agrees we should get one but we've been talking about it for 4 months w/o action (we did test drive a Murano but that was a nightmarish experience that we do not plan to relive anytime soon). If my father or brother in law got an inkling to get a new car - it would have been purchased the day the thought entered their brain. I have no problem with impulsiveness when it comes to romance or fun but a big decision should be thought out.

I worry that my BIL is running away from something short term and will regret this decision long term. He's a grown man though and there is nothing we can do to stop it now.

I just feel so much sorrow for my husband. The house he was born and raised in will be no more. He no longer has any reason to visit Paris, TX. That thought just about broke my heart on Friday. I had a nomadic childhood so a house is just a house to me but this was his home, every memory of his childhood took place in that house, yard or town. I know both of their parents are just besides themselves over all of this. My father in law was born in that house and lived there until he died. His father before him bought that house in the early 1900's and it has been in the family ever since. Now it will belong to a church who will probably tear it down and build a parking lot or something. My mother in law spent every morning and afternoon after her retirement working in the flowerbeds in that yard (and every weekend in them when she was still teaching). She's been gone over four years and the flowers still bloom all year. DH did dig a bunch up on Friday and planted them in my parents yard yesterday. Our yard was already full of flowers from his mother's beds from years past. At least, he'll always have a little piece of her when he's home or at my parent's house. I guess when you have an impulsive brother.....that's about all you can ask for.