My Dear Cousin - Never Come Back

14^th May 2021

My Dear Cousin,

So, where was I? The whole family and I had fought over that car the old man had given me. In exchange for that car I had been asked to leave and never come back never getting my part of my mother’s estate which had been an issue for the last sixteen years.

I did have it out with the old man. He called and asked me if I wanted his car after (Pony Girl) gave it back to him. He said I was unreasonable and he said I was a slob.  I am a slob, but I feel he was unreasonable. I would generally think that risking your son’s life by letting him drive his car with badly worn tires is unreasonable.

I guess he felt that not paying for the upkeep of a car you were asked to pay for over and over again as long as you owned it is unreasonable. Then, the old man was one to laugh at my problems when he didn’t want to deal with them, scream at them when they wouldn’t go away, and keep screaming because they stuck around.

When I quoted our conversation on the subject he said “Well I lied.” I had been saying “We had an agreement” for months. Then he said I had tried to hit my sister, and I informed him that I hadn’t even gotten within five feet of her. I then told him that her boyfriend had left a bruise on my arm and he said “well, that’s hard to prove, a bruise.” He knew I didn’t try to hit anyone.

 

It’s hard to say how deep that cut me. He didn’t care about the truth or me or my well being. My family thought of me as something to be exploited. If I wasn’t going to profit them then I wasn’t worth having around. 

I reminded the old man that he told me I couldn’t call the police on my brother unless he hit me with an ax.

“Was I smiling when I said that?” he asked.

“No, you were screaming,” I said, and I had to come to grips at that point with the idea that the man didn’t care about me. I hung up the phone and pushed it from my mine.

Well, what do you expect from my old man? He was unfit to keep a dog. That is quite literal, at some point we wound up with a dog that had been his that he could no longer care for because it hurt someone. The poor thing came to me being eaten alive by a fungus that caused his skin to bleed. 

It’s an ugly world I come from.

Best,

 

Richard Leland Neal

 

 

Cotswold Way - Painwick

The trip from Birdlip to Painswick was reasonably short. Less than 10mi (16km) and most of it was through beautiful beech woodland.

One of my stops was Cooper’s Hill. If you recall, I mentioned the Gloucester cheese back in Winchcombe. Well, this very popular cheese makes an even bigger appearance each spring when a collection of brave or maybe a little crazy individuals engage in a 200-yard race down the extremely steep Cooper’s Hill chasing a roll of Double Gloucester cheese. As you might imagine, First Aid officers and plenty of ambulances are on standby. But the winner gets to keep the cheese. 

Painswick is a picturesque town that originally grew from wool trading. It is also the midpoint of the Cotswold Way. Located on a hill overlooking Painswick Valley, the town has narrow streets and typical Cotswold stone architecture. The local parish churchyard is known for its ancient and beautifully manicured yew trees. A pyramidal tomb stands out amongst the trees and the local post office occupies a 15th century half-timbered building.
 

Northeast of town is the 18th century Rococo Garden. Originally established during the Rococo period, when palatial homes and gardens were built and decorated with flamboyance and extravagance, this grand garden was a playground for entertainment and partying. As fashions changed, so did the garden until it was abandoned in the 1950s and over the succeeding decades it was left to overgrow. Restoration began in the late 20th century bringing it back to its original layout. A 1748 painting of the original garden was used as the basis of the restoration. Today, the garden is the only surviving Rococo Garden open to the public complete with a maze, a hidden valley and surrounded by woodland.

 

PS. Experience our virtual challenges in real life - The Conqueror Adventures

 

The team at The Conqueror Challenges
https://www.theconqueror.events

My Dear Cousin - I Drove

13^th May 2021

My Dear Cousin,

In my last letter I had called the police over my (Pony Girl) and her boyfriend heckling me about getting my old man’s ‘gift’ car fixed. The old man paid for two tires on his car. He wouldn’t pay for the other two, and he wouldn’t give me the college money he promised.

I stopped talking to my (Pony Girl) at that point. I was angry, and I was frustrated. I was also working at a new post where I was getting a lot of overtime and not seeing much of the house let alone the family. This came to something of a head on the fourth of July.

I came home from work to find the family and my (Pony Girl)’s boyfriend on the lawn. I was driving that gift car that I had fought with them over. I jumped out of it and into my old car and drove.  I drove through the freeway watching the smoke and fireworks in the sky. I drove thinking of how my life had been a hard mess and it wasn’t getting any better.

It was about this time my (Pony Girl) decided that she wanted the old man to buy her out or rather she convinced him to buy her out. After years of fighting with me and keeping me from my education that selfish woman had scored a major victory.

I suggested that instead they buy me out, and let me go my own way since everyone felt that I was the problem. This is when one of the cousins, the old man’s sister’s child, told me I should just leave and never expect to get my part of the house. She was the daughter of the executor of my mother’s estate and the real estate agent to handle the sale.

Again, the house was what was left of my mother’s estate now having drug on for sixteen years. I hadn’t gotten money for college like my two siblings and now I was supposed to just leave and get nothing.

When I asked why I would do such a thing the answer was “he gave you that car.” I returned the car after that and the old man was pissed.

Best,

 

Richard Leland Neal

 

My Dear Cousin - We’re Trying to Help You

                                12^th May 2021

My Dear Cousin,

In my last letter I think we got up to two thousand and five or there about. More than fifteen years to go to get you up to date in the story of my family. Well, to be honest nothing of note happened this year, but we still have a ways to go.

In any case, I had the car I had owned for the eight years and the car owned by my old man. Neither car was in all that great shape, but the old man’s car was a lot newer. (Pony Girl) wanted the old man’s car to be her car that I paid for, and that didn’t go well with me so I got nothing but flack over having two cars.

The old man had begged me to take his car. He said he wanted me to drive his car. Then I drove his car, and in a day (Pony Girl) was pressing me over it. In a week the old man called and made me a deal, if my car wasn’t working in six months I was to get rid of it. Two weeks later he was screaming at me to get rid of my second car.

Mind you now that I was having money problems, because I hadn’t gotten the college funds given to my siblings and this was exactly why I didn’t want the old man’s car in the first place. I had even told him to trade it in and give me half the money he saved. He offered me two thousand dollars to get rid of my old car. I said no. I said no because I knew that the harder they tried to get me to do what they wanted giving in would only make it worse.

It was at that point I stopped paying for repairs to the old man’s car. He gave it to me with four bald tires and so I started having to pump up flats as the old things wore down. I had paid for two tires already, but the second two I was just done with.

The whole family pounded on me to get those tires replaced. They said, “You’re gonno’ kill yourself.” My older car had a bad sensor that made the car stop when it got too hot. It was three hundred dollars that I didn’t have to get it fixed.

One night I was working on my old car and (Pony Girl) and her boyfriend where just heckling me and heckling me. At one point my (Pony Girl)’s boyfriend even pinned me against the cabinets in the kitchen trying to convince me to get the old man’s car fixed. “We’re trying to help you,” he said, but was he?

Then (Pony Girl) came in with three nails, three nails just like for a crucifixion, and screamed that I was letting nails roll into the driveway. I screamed “hay” and went after her.

Her boyfriend grabbed me and started screaming “Don’t you touch her, Richard!”

My intention was to give her a piece of my mind, but that man putting his hands on me was the last straw. I fought him off and called the police. (Pony Girl) made her boyfriend wait outside and came in and apologized, but she had pushed me too far.

The police told her she had to leave the house for three days. The old man finally paid for his tires, but it wasn’t over.

Best,

 

Richard Leland Neal