We had a family yard sale today at my mother’s house. She was trying to get rid of as much stuff as she could before she moves on Tuesday. It was a decent success. She made almost $800. I got up at the crack of dawn and met my brothers and sisters at my mom’s house and by 6:30 am we had everything out on her front lawn and in her driveway. With the hum of the cicadas in the background and the sun beating down on us, we sold junk at rock bottom prices. We sold all of the furniture and most of the smaller items. All the grandkids were there and it was fun watching them run around and play. We finished up at 3:00 and put all the unsold items in boxes for Good Will. All the out of towners packed up their cars and went on home. I didn’t get home until about 5:00 this afternoon. It was a long day. I was very tired and stinky. It was great to see all my brothers and sisters and catch up with them. Seeing my father was also great. I haven’t seen him for several months. I will probably drive down to Charlottesville and visit him sometime over the summer.

I come from a large family. There are 7 children in my family. All my brothers and sisters are married and 4 of them have children. When we are all together there are 23 of us. It’s quite a large gathering anytime we are all together. Unfortunately my twin brother who lives in Columbus, Ohio was unable to make the trip after all. So that brought the total for this event down to 19. My mother’s house was quite a busy place all day today. After the initial setting up of the yard sale, we had plenty of time to stand around and talk and catch up with each other while waiting for customers. Now, I haven’t spent a significant amount of time with my brothers and sisters for quite awhile. Spending time with them today revealed several aspects of some of their personalities that I find I don’t care for.

1. Most of my siblings are Republican Idiots. I was standing around bullshitting with my two older brothers at one point when my sister and her husband pulled up in their HUGE suv. As they drive by to park I noticed a sickening bumper sticker on their car. It was a Bush Cheney ’04 sticker. As their car drove past and I took notice of the sticker things began to move in slow motion. I was shocked to see that on their car. My eyes followed it as they drove around the corner and parked. My oldest brother pointed out the sticker as they parked. I don’t know the political persuasion of any of my brothers or sisters. I must have silently in my mind assumed they were all Democrats since my father is. Not a good assumption to make. So anyway, after my brother made the observation, I asked if they were Democrats or Republicans. Both my brothers said they were Republicans. However, they both also said they were not happy with Bush. And younger of the two said he wouldn’t be voting in this next election because he didn’t care for either man. I told him that if was going to waste his vote, waste it on Kerry. Then my brother in law walks up with a Kerry bashing t-shirt on. I was instantly disgusted. This guy is basically an uneducated asshole who got lucky with a job at AOL. He tells racists jokes and won’t let his son play with dolls. He’s an absolute idiot. When my brothers see the t-shirt they start laughing. I knew at that point I could not discuss politics with my family. I quietly exited myself from that family grouping.

2. You shouldn’t discuss religion with your family. Later in the day I was standing around bullshitting again with the same two brothers and the topic of religion came up. A different brother in law asked us if any of us goes to church. Of course I said no, that I’m agnostic. My older brother, who was married in the catholic church and said he would raise his children catholic, said he has changed over the years and believes he is agnostic as well. My other brother and his wife, who were also married catholic (even though our family is NOT catholic) said they still go to church from time to time and still believe. The brother in law who started the conversation got a nasty look on his face and said he and his wife (my sister) go to church all the time and intend on raising their son with religion (some southern religion I believe). Without saying it, he implied with looks that my older brother and I were going to hell because we didn’t believe. I didn’t ignore him the rest of the day even though I wanted to. I actually talked to him about his loosing weight and how is job was going, etc. However, we did avoid the topic of religion the rest of the day.

3. If you miss a family gathering, you will be talked about. The only brother who did not attend the family yard sale today was talked about. Speculation as to why he didn’t come, how fat he’s gotten, etc. Jokes were made at his expense. Nothing too cruel, though. Then again, he’s always the one talked about at family gatherings. I’m sure this happens in other large families.

4. My father is deaf. I’m not saying this because he actually is deaf. He’s got two hearing aides but it seems that he selectively hears what he wants to hear. When we went out to dinner last night it was a bit embarrassing because we all had to basically yell at him to get him to hear what we were saying. Then all day today we were yelling at him again. He really needs to get some new hearing aides.

5. We care about each other. Even though we have different views on politics, we can’t discuss religion, we talk about each other, we still do care about each other. All my brothers and sisters at some point during the day asked me how things were going, wished me well with things in my life, appreciate all I do for my mother, and offered support should I ever need anything. My brother who is married but doesn’t have any children said the those of us who have no children need to be nice to all the nieces and nephews because they will end up taking care of us when we are too old and frail to take care of ourselves. Let’s hope I never get to that point but it’s nice to know I’ll have family around to do just that if it’s ever needed.