Just mow the frickin' lawn, please!!!

On Tuesday of this week, I had mentioned to my friend at work, DD, that if my nephew had not mowed the lawn when I got home I was going to have a fit.

Guess what? Nope, the lawn wasn't mowed. E was asleep on the couch when I got home. So I kicked my shoes off and changed clothes and counted to 10... a couple of times and then I woke him up.

Me: How come the lawn isn't mowed?
E: I don't feel good. I have a headache.

That's it? You have a headache???

At first we thought the headaches were from his body trying to re-adjust to his medication. But no, turns out he just hadn't had any caffeine in over a week. But of course I didn't know that on Tuesday night.

Now you have to understand that this wasn't the first time I'd asked him to mow. We'd been going round and round over this for over a week at this point. His main objection? He didn't like my trimmer. Tough. Get over it.

The next night... well, something happened that's beyond the scope of this post. I was very upset about it at first, but I'm about ready to type about it. Maybe that will be my next post.

Then the next night I come in and he's downstairs. So I take my lunch box to the kitchen and notice that he's done lots of work in there. But... yep, you guessed it. The lawn still wasn't mowed.

So I counted to 10. And I counted to 10 again. One more time. By now, he was in the living room watching TV. So I went over and sat next to him and calmly said, "I can tell you did some work on the kitchen today. I just want you to know that I see that you're putting in an effort around here and I appreciate all the work you've done. Thank you."

That baffled him. He looked slightly bewildered and just said, "Ok," like he was waiting for the other shoe to drop. And then about an hour later I strongly suggested he get the mowing done.

I ordered some of his furniture last night. Here's the link to his desk. And here's the link to his bed. No mattress yet, tho. As far as I'm concerned he can sleep on the floor til the stupid lawn is mowed. (Well, not actually on the floor... he has an air mattress.)

Bonus for me: I'm fairly certain the desk is too big for the room as it's arranged now. His dad gave him this big-ass stereo cabinet that is just oozing bad karma. It's like a shrine, I tell ya. I'm betting the stereo cabinet gets much less prominent billing once the desk arrives.

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In other news, little d's birthday was this week. The night before his bday I told E to remember that he had to call his brother the next day. Then, I called him later in the day to remind him. And he hung up on me! Oh, no he didn't!

That night, after supper, I [calmly] asked him why he hung up on me. He said, getting angry, "I just didn't want to deal with it. I'd try to call twice and nobody answered and I just didn't want to hear about it anymore."

"Well, I don't appreciate it when you do that. It's disrespectful to me. And I believe I've been more than respectful of you by doing lots of nice things for you." He just said, "ok." So I had no idea if he heard me or not. I mean, heard me.

So, today, he called during the day to ask a question. After I'd answered it, I asked the dreaded question, "did you mow?"

E:	No.
Me:	Why?
E:	It was raining.
Me:	Is it still raining?
E:	No. Yes. I don't know!
Me:	Well...
E:	Bye
Me:	Huh?
E:	BYE
Me:	Wha...
E:	BYE!!!

Finally I got it. He was trying to end the conversation without hanging up on me.

Ok, it needs work, I'll give you that. But it's a step in the right direction!