Sabotage

Last night I saw evidence of what she had been up to during the day... My file cabinet was open with house mortgage papers pulled out. A few other things were out of place, too. But the last straw was when I noticed that the "Oscar" trophy that I had given to my mother 20 years ago was now missing. The trophy was for her birthday in 1987. It sat on a little shelf of honor in my finished basement.

She took it because she noticed that the baby memory box was gone. I put that into safe keeping and now she was getting even. The baby box was half mine, but the Oscar was all mine. She has no claim to it at all.

So the new tally is:

She has my Oscar, scanner antenna, web camera, xbox 360 cable, dinner bell, and lamps. Three of these were my mother's.

I have our baby box.

She seems to be ahead with the hostages.

Angered by the disappearance of this Oscar, I found her watching TV in her room and asked about it. She dramatically pretended not to know about it, but it was obvious that she was using it as collateral for the baby box. I asked again. Nothing. She said she didn't have it, but would not answer when asked about what happened to it.

Fine.

I left and returned with a pair of big-ass wire cutters. I marched past her and into the walk-in attic where there are lots of wires. Ten seconds later her TV show turned to static. I could hear Dateline NBC switch to white noise.

"Let me know if you find my Oscar," I told her as I went back downstairs to cook my dinner.

Minutes later she came down to watch the living room TV. Oh no. That has static too. I could see her start to boil over as I cooked my soup.

She marched down to the basement; my sanctuary. That could only mean one thing. She was getting even somehow.

I followed her and found her pulling wires out of my entertainment center. "If I can't watch it, you can't either," she said as she grabbed a tangle of cables from behind the stereo.

I blocked her from doing more damage and we started arguing. She told me how I have been torturing her for weeks. I told her how she is living here for free while living it up on weekends. I demanded she return my stuff. She told me that I return her stuff. She isn't sure what stuff I have, but she wants it back just the same.

The confrontation changed into a quiet argument. We vented our anger and professed our dislike for each other for almost an hour. During that "conversation" she confessed that she is not clear why her lawyer doesn't like the reference to "shared parenting." She says it limits her rights.

I told her that I am not backing down on this one. I gave in on all other issues, but this one is important to me. I will pursue it in court if necessary. And if we go to court, I won't be so generous with the financial settlement.

I don't think I changed her mind, but she did seem to think more about the settlement and perhaps we are closer now to understanding each other. We'll see. My lawyer will call her lawyer and see how much money they can generate by chatting on the phone.

Meanwhile, I spliced the cables in the attic and my scanner antenna and Oscar appeared on the kitchen counter. The other stuff is probably gone for good. I know the lamps are. She threw them out.

But the next time she is angry, I could lose more stuff that is important to me. There are things throughout the house that she could take or trash. Things that are valuable to me. I really need to pack them all and move them to higher ground.

This weekend- Operation: Noah's Ark