The Stress

So, I acquired this new job in St. Louis, Missouri building implements of destruction.  The money being offered was the best so far, not to mention the benefits to go with it.  However, the only way to maintain that job was to join the union.  Union.  I never appreciated unions.  I find them only to be good for those that are fat, lazy, and ignorant.  On the job, if they can't keep up for one reason or another and their supervisor comes over and has a chat with them trying to encourage them to excel at what they do, then the employee deems it as harassment because they want to continue working while they keep their elbows on the bench and their ass firmly planted on a stool.  Or maybe you walk into a fuel cell of an aircraft and find a bunch of the slugs just stretched out on some mats sleeping when they should be working.  And while this is going on you discover the president of the union has not only been laundering money, but he has also been spending the hard earned union dues on hookers.  This is what use I have found of unions in this day and age.  They were good in the 1920's and '30's when people really were being maltreated, but the lot of that has long since been gone and it is only for the weak minded who doesn't want to work, but they damn sure want the money.  But, I have digressed.  This new area that we moved to, the furthest north we had ever lived, was different.  Instead of having definite divisions in the city of races, they were mixed here.  Sometimes jobs were in the predominately black area.  So?  It's a freakin' job.  But, since the then wife had never experienced that kind of element before in her life, the stress of living there, the stress of traveling to those areas for work, the stress of having to start over again, the stress of moving there, the stress of....the stress, the stress, the stress.  And for the rest of the story of what happens you have to read The Train Runs No More.  After getting divorced, and having to pay court costs, attorney's fees, and child support, this now great salary has become, just barely.  So, I dealt with it.  I got in as many visits as possible with my children, but with one of them, I began to discover something was seriously wrong.  I tried discussing civilly with the ex,  but that only went so far until she also discovered on her own that something was seriously wrong.  As a couple, I guess we never paid attention and the situation just sort of snuck up on us.  It was discovered that my son had Attention Deficit Hypertension Disorder, ADHD.  What an ordeal to have.  Some children have it only mildly.  Others have the full force of it.  I got lucky.  My son had the full force of it.  Always busy, hard to get his attention focused, difficult for him to follow direction, obstinate, when focused, it was only on what he wanted and if he couldn't get it, the tantrums would fly.  As a couple, you have to work together.  As a single parent, it's difficult when you have to maintain a full time job and all you have surrounding you are people that "watch" children instead of baby sit them, yet they want to be paid the same.  If the job becomes too difficult, they tell you they don't want to do it anymore because it's not easy.  Good thing there is no union involved in baby sitting.  You have now, two divorced parents where one didn't get what she thought she deserved, both are at odds, and be damned with getting along.  It is always the children that suffer in divorce, especially when one child is afflicted with something.  Because it is so difficult for the mother to constantly correct the child at school while having to work, she took him out of school to home school him.  Home school.  What a farce!  Especially with a child afflicted with ADHD.  Her version of home schooling was to place the books and homework in front of him, expect him to have the work done by the time she returns home, and all is good.  How ridiculous for a child like that.  My son missed three months of school because of that stupid shit.  At his age, approximately nine or ten at the time, that was a lot.  I have to say that my son now has not grown to be the most brilliant kid of all.  He has done some pretty stupid shit because of his obstinateness, and our not being able to get along as divorced parents.  Not to mention that there is the weakness of the all knowing, overbearing, hateful sibling that can't stand me to start with.  Because he does, no matter how ill fated, he would rather aid someone that is against me than to aid the environment of the afflicted child.  So, now we are all on this railroad of stupidity like an out of control locomotive.  All the while, I am still contending with this dream that I have had every single night since being a child, with no way to counter act the dream  All of these stresses I have to deal with and I have to deal with it alone.