Family members can do the damnedest things to each other. I spent a portion of my day in Civil Court where a woman I have known for many years asked me to be a witness in her custody battle with the father of her daughter, and her sister. The circumstances of the birth of this child are irrelevant, though it is safe to say the father is a piece of human garbage who never acknowledged his financial responsibility to raise the child until the courts forced him to a year ago. He owes $18,000 in arrears, which that little girl will never see. The sister could have and should have supported my friend over the years, but instead had chosen to try and wrest the child from her mother to raise as her own. She used the human garbage to help her and yesterday in court succeeded in getting interim custody because the mother is underemployed and living with a friend after a recent eviction. The court views it as a risk for a parent to not be in a living situation with a lease as there is no legal protection from being without a home overnight. I guess that’s true, but how many people are taken in by friends and family in times of need? This would have gone unnoticed except for the sister taking advantage of the situation to put it in front of a judge.
The mom is a loving, caring, nurturing woman who always has the best interest of her daughter first and foremost in her life. She is also ridiculously bad at handling finances and making decisions that affect her ability to provide. Still, she soldiers on and has spent thousands fighting a legal battle she lost yesterday. It didn’t have to happen and the victim will be the 5-year old, but there it is. I suppose there is a special place in hell for people who act in this fashion. Though I imagine the sister thinks she is somehow doing the right thing, I know her and her warped sense of right and wrong as I understand the principle, and maybe her hell will be, like Paul in the Bible, when the scales fall from her eyes and she realizes how messed up she was and that there is nothing she can do to fix it.
I shudder at the thought of not being able to see any of my children except through a court-ordered visitation schedule. Like I said, families can to the damnedest things to each other.
I reached home depressed from the goings on of the day. There is a respite to be had though and so I took Dakota and headed for the park and a hike. I have been feeling the pain and effort of carrying the 50-pound pack in my hips and left foot and elected to give both a break and walk with nothing more than a leash. We hiked past Indigo Lake and on to Howe Meadow before discovering that it backed up to the grounds of the local school’s athletic fields and another the size of a football field covered in solar panels. Our walk brought us across a portion of the Buckeye trail, as well, before wrapping back around to the Towpath and the hike back home.
I felt my hips on every step. As is often the case, I try to do too much too soon and end up injuring myself. As the German saying goes, ‘too soon, old – too late, smart’. Ah well…soldier on – right Jack?
Hike: 75 minutes.
Training Heart Rate: 70-90 bpm.
Calories Burned: 625
Bonus: 16,000 steps for the day.
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