Like sands through the hourglass....

This last week has been full of drama, arguments, tears, and lots of wine (at least on my part).  Mr. D and I are great, by the way.  However, my in-laws are....well, in a word...nuts.  They've always have their personality issues.  They didn't want Mr. D to marry me.  Then again, no one would have been right for them, so I didn't take it personally.  His father is a rough, former Army sergeant who is jealous, insecure and paranoid.  Add old age to that....let's just say it's a bad combination.  And sadly, his Mother's short-term memory lapses have quickly moved into full-blown Alzheimer's.  And the crap hit the fan several days ago, prompting supervised care and some tough decisions.  He and his sister have had a rough time this past week.   I have tried to help but sometimes it's hard to know what to do. 

All that to explain why no "cocktail" post last Thursday.  I was helping to "baby-sit" my mother-in-law.  It was originally supposed to be a fun DINKS-centric long weekend, watching baseball and going to an art festival with a friend flying in from across the country.  But family is more important, so we cut short our fun, but we were able to squeeze in some fun and baseball Sat. afternoon. 

One argument that people love to throw at child free couples is, "Who will take care of you when you get older?"  Well, that's what nieces and nephews wanting a little inheritance are for!  Seriously, there's no guarantee that your kids will take care of you.  We have bought lots of insurance, tried to save as much of our "pennies" as we can for retirement.   So hopefully, we'll be that old couple kicking it at some swanky retirement community, getting tan and leathery, and still flirting shamelessly with one another.  I would be lying if I said Mr. D and myself aren't concerned about his family history of mental dysfunction, but as I told him, he is not his father or mother & we are not his parents.  We are social (they hated going out and were generally distrustful of others), spiritual (his mother is wonderful in this regard but his dad rarely went to church), and work hard at being a part of the world around us.  I think we'll be just fine.  Besides, what can we do about it, except make good decisions for ourselves.  And line up which niece or nephew I think will smuggle me wine in the home!

Look for my cocktail of the week tomorrow!