Sunday, September 05, 2010

I am at home

But not for long. Mostly, we have come home to pack and plan for our next trip.

I have just had the strangest dream. I had given up and moved back in with my mom. For a time, my sister had also spent some time at my mom's, but that was very temporary. So temporary that I'm not sure we were ever there at the same time in the dream, just that I was aware that she had been there.

And then there was someone at the door, some government agency there on official business, and people came in and started going through all of our stuff. (I've spent a week watching cable, where there is not only a show about hoarders, but also a few shows about animal hoarders, which I did not even know was a term now, or that it ever applied to anyone other than old ladies with cats.) In real life, my mother does not have a lot of stuff to go through, so I guess in the dream I had brought over a lot of my stuff, or maybe my mom was trying to empty the attic or something. But still, even in this dream, there was not as much stuff at my mom's house as there is at my house, and what stuff there was wasn't particularly bad stuff or trash or nasty smelling stuff. Not like the hoarders show or anything like that. But these people are just going through the stuff and saying how bad it is, and I'm like whatever and why is it any of your business. And then they do find something unpleasant, like a few plastic bags that have bad stuff in them. Like the stuff got wet and then started going moldy or something. And that is bad, but for me it was worrying how the stuff got wet and moldy to start with, like did my mom have a leak in the roof or some other problem with the house that we were not aware of. But the people didn't care about that, they just found something on their list of reasons to throw people out on the street.

And my mom just sort of nods, and she isn't happy but just doesn't seem to want to fight about it, and I'll have to find some other place to stay. I'm the one who seems to be angry, that people can't just come in and do stuff like that. And then it turns out that these people have something to do with child welfare, and they are quite used to doing stuff like that.

Except that I'm not a child, and my mother is not a child, and even my youngest sibling is not a child. And we were not children in this dream either. In real life, the only child is the one grandchild, who did not seem to be in the dream, and in real life has never spent the night at my mom's place. So it did not make sense that these people were going through our stuff with the intention of protecting some children. And at that point I start laughing at them, saying that they are probably at the wrong house, and that they have no business being here at all. But they don't listen and keep going through the stuff and taking pictures of the moldy stuff in the bags.

Well, that is what I get for spending a week watching cable TV.

6 comments:

dmarks said...

Did you watch hoarder shows during your week of cable TV or something?

At least you don't have to worry about bags with dirty diapers or cat litter.

laughing said...

Animal Planet had a whole afternoon of a show about animal hoarders, followed by another show called Dangerous Devotions, or something like that, which is also either about animal hoarders or people with exotic pets that just don't seem to get it that they're doing something dangerous. So I watched about four hours of that, plus I have seen the regular hoarders show before, but I didn't spend as much time watching it that week. The animal hoarding thing was new to me, and I did not realize it was such a problem.

My mother is not an animal hoarder either. She has the one dog now, and I don't think she really likes it that much, other than it is a small short-haired dog that is easy to take care of. The most pets that we ever had at the same time was two dogs and a cat, with maybe a couple of hamsters. Once we had a hamster give birth to thirteen babies, but we only had the babies for about a month, so I don't think that really counts.

dmarks said...

I would not count a bunch of tiny rodents that were not running loose as any sort of hoarding problem.

Reminds me of some friends from college. They lived in off-campus student housing. They were unconventional in many ways. In their bedroom they had STACKS of aquariums filled with pet rodents.

That might possibly not be too problematic.

But they also had pet rats running about, a pet pullet in the house, and a cute soft chinchilla that lived in the bookshelves, walking on the books. Oh, was it soft.They look liks something that is 90% rabbit and 10% squirrel.

All in all, too much.

Ananda girl said...

I have known people like that... hoarders of both kind. Neighbors below us had only a narrow aisle to walk between stacks of all manor of stuff. They were not clean people though, and I hope they were not the usual sort of hoarders.

My son's ex is an animal hoarder and it near drove him nuts because she wanted them but did not really take care of them... which meant it fell to him.

I do not like the government involvement in people's home life. I know sometimes it is needed when health issues become a problem.

I'm sure you don't have that trouble. But I can see how that kind of show would give you such a dream!

laughing said...

I have mixed feelings on the subject. Like, on the one hand, it is not anyone's business what my backyard looks like (or my front yard either), and it is not anyone's business what I grow in my garden or what that looks like (as long as it isn't pot or something like that) and it isn't anyone's business how many trash cans I have or if I have improperly stored my lawnmower.


On the other hand, my husband's sister had a child and did not make him go to school past fifth grade. People would stop by once in a while and say that he had to be in school, and they would come up with some story about him being homeschooled. I think that they did buy some books, but no one made him read them. I don't think he even finished the sixth grade. Clearly neglect, but nothing was ever done about it.


And you should see the long lines of people who claim that they didn't know they were supposed to get their kids shots before school started.

dmarks said...

That kind of thing gives homeschooling a bad name, and can be used as fodder for those who want to see homeschooling banned.

A visible lawnmower doesn't hurt anyone. This coming from someone known to leave the mower out.