I’ve been in the process of divorce the last few weeks.  I had to get another attorney, because my wife filed in a different county and mine can’t represent me there.  So, after scrounging up a few thousand I’ve gotten one.  I certainly hope he can do me some good.

The thing that gets me is all this paperwork.  My attorney wanted all my answers to a response to her Civil Summons.  I did that.  Then there is the listing of assets.  I did that.  Then there’s the listing of all my debts, expenses etc.  Did that.  Ah.  Now I can sit back and watch him do his magic on 12 Dec.

Nope.  Friday I get email from him.  I now have to fill out a discovery for my wife’s attorney.  Damn.  Everything I have is under a microscope.  Please, no more this or that to fill out.  I’m still digging out invoices and stuff for my attorney’s paralegal, who I have surmised is either his daughter or daughter-in-law.  She runs the numbers.  It gave me some consolation that she is an MBA in Business.  She better know her numbers and accompanying laws. 

I promised my sons I would be fair and treat my wife with respect during this time, but it’s hard to do when she appears to not be.  So, I’m going to let my attorney kick her ass for me.  He doesn’t seem to mind. 

In all, I just want to keep the house.  I’ve lived here for 24 years and I’ve done almost all the work on keeping it up.  She never did more that clean it.  I don’t believe cleaning is a menial task.  It’s the painting, wallpapering, new laminate flooring, linoleum in the bathrooms, new siding, new heat pump, repairing a down water heater, new flooring where the kitchen faucet sprang a leak.  You get what I mean.  The heavy stuff.  I’ve labored in this house’s upkeep.  The yard has had my undivided attention for years.  It looks like a golf course a good portion of the time.  The bushes are trimmed to the bottoms of the front windows.  Nothing goes unattended. 

On top of all that I turned 61 this past October.  My physical age is creeping up on me and my mind is somewhere in my younger days.  There is so much more I want to do with the remaining years I have.  Libby is now a part of my life.  She is what keeps me alive.  She is so full of life it simply spills over on me. 

As for my wife though, she sucks the life out of me.  Now that people around me realize we’ve parted ways, I have been told she’s spiteful, condescending and outright unlikable.  I didn’t say these things.  These are things other people have told me.  I knew she was not for me as the years have worn on.  I began to realize that when I started writing my autobiography.  When I got to where I met her and we got married there were signs of it then and I was dumb as a board not to notice.  She was taking Valium before we got married because she wasn’t able to handle things.  As the years wore on she became a walking pharmacy.  She took this and that and some of the other.  I really don’t know what she was taking.  Even her cough medicine was custom blended at the pharmacy with codeine or something to open up her bronchial tubes. 

I’m not saying anything that isn’t so.  I don’t bash.  Never do.  It would come back on me.  But most of all, please, no more.  I want to get on with life.  All this “stuff” is like quicksand.  Just let me get back on solid ground.