At the end of the entry before last, I mentioned that since I was now here in Pennsylvania, the entries here might start to get kind of dull. Well, every time I write something like that, I always wind up eating my words.
This morning, after going to bed quite early, I woke up and left my room before eight, where I heard my uncle telling my aunt something. The only words I heard were "Eric" and "bad." I went to the door and found my car with the hood and grille crumpled.
I had pulled my car into the driveway behind my uncles SUV, and left him the car keys so he could move it out of the way before he pulled his car out of the garage. Instead of bringing it out to the street, he only pulled it back enough to swing around, and wasn't paying attention, and failed to swing. So he backed right into the front of my car.
I saw this, and just stood there with my eyes big as dinner plates and my jaw on the floor. I wanted to do some running around today (to have a little "me time"), so I wound up taking my aunt to work and doing my running in her car. I was fighting every single impulse I had to go on the "junk food tour;" basically, I know every place in this town where one can get cookies, donuts, and stuff that I am better off not eating. I went to what passes for a mall in this town (basically, it is a Boscov's, an abandoned JCPenney, an abandoned Ames, and a few rinky-dink stores), and slummed around a little bit until my uncle called me so he could get my information so he could call his insurance company.
I did this, and then we had lunch. My car is still, fortunately, drivable. I picked my aunt up from work and we went to Dan's garage, where we come to Part Two of why I shouldn't talk about how dull things are. As I have mentioned in this blog before, he had been with Rachel for about thirty years, yet he never (as Beyoncé would say) put a ring on it. My aunt had me start cleaning out this box of DVDs, and I noticed how many of these were from TLA Releasing and other companies that specialize in gay movies.
Yes, folks, Dan was a closet homo. Some of his mechanic buddies were still at the shop, and I could tell that they were gay as well. On Sunday, Rachel talked about how he and his buddies would have "cracker time" where they would eat Lance Cracker sandwiches. And, from the looks of things, each other as well.
I asked my aunt if I could have some of the videos. I don't have to hide anything with these, and I told Justin about them. I have picked some out, and I will pass them to Justin to pick some out, and then Cleo and I can take a trip to a used DVD store to sell the rest.
But how does this make me feel? I am mixed.
I feel badly for Rachel; if she never knew about Dan's other life (there were some receipts from TLA in a drawer; he had them sent to the garage), this is why they never got married. I am not telling her anything; that's not my place. And if she knew about it, why did she stay with him all these years?
I feel badly for Dan as well; He was not being true to himself, and around here (especially in his generation), homosexuality was barely mentioned, let alone tolerated. So he had to stick himself deeply in the closet for his entire life, only exposed after his death. And seeing me being open about it couldn't have been easy for him. I wonder if he ever wanted to go somewhere and open up to me (just talk, nothing else).
My uncle is having a lot of issues dealing with this. He is glad to just have these DVDs out of his sight. What I do with them is up to me. She told me that there are a lot in the dumpster as well; we might go get them as well. We will see.
But for now, it is time for me to go snag half an hour on the bicycle. Let's hope for a calmer day tomorrow, shall we?
Eric Out.
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