ffwd. he gets hurt at work on faulty equipment. nerve damage. someone says he will need to file WC claim and get a lawyer. he gets one. and the company he worked for 20 years fired him for getting a lawyer. when he was told he could sue for that he said "no, no. bill was wrong to do that to us, but we will be fine". etc. he ends his career as the trucking industry basically is decimated by NAFTA making 20/hr when in the 90s he made about 100k a year.

right about retirement, he came into an opportunity to buy a home in PR where he grew up. he had no money for a downpayment but SS could cover a mortgage if he got a downpayment. i emptied out my savings and bought him the house.

he now lives in the eternal sun on a beautiful plot of land with my mom, a stream that runs through it and a menagerie of animals and basically surrounded by friends and family in a town where he is a "don".

180 life. he just kept humble. never complained. and it worked out.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4564193&forum_id=2,#40445789)

he did run guns when he was very young for the russians.

edit: russian mafia of brooklyn.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4564193&forum_id=2,#40445909)

if he had pursued his valid claims he could have still had this retirement life AND made his own down payment, have money to spend (depending on his worker compensation)

your dad while humble made the wrong move. not sure being loyal/humble === giving up on what's due to you

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4564193&forum_id=2,#40445916)

it ultimately worked out for him.

regret is useless.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4564193&forum_id=2,#40445931)

i don't know that i agree with him on that.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4564193&forum_id=2,#40446053)

I sometimes wonder if he was a cheatmo like I am.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4564193&forum_id=2,#40445834)

i am his only mistake

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4564193&forum_id=2,#40445835)

must be 180. just imagine how bizarre this must be for him having grown up in an earlier era and so many fundamental aspects of american life/culture changing so drastically in 20 years

i would probably hit the bottle extra hard if i was a deeply conservative 60+ year old person

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4564193&forum_id=2,#40445958)

Speaking of which, my answer to op is definitely not maintaining close bonds with my family. But an objective proportioning of blame definitely puts some on both kid and parents for both of us, though, and probaby more parents than kids in both cases.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4564193&forum_id=2,#40452038)

i never noticed it b/c i was a kid

i guess it's my responsibility now to hide the truth from my kids in the same way a la life is beautiful

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4564193&forum_id=2,#40446027)

(Nestor Gaetz)

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4564193&forum_id=2,#40446050)

A lot of that's being lucky to be a very old gen x / very young boomer ('64 YOB), which allowed him to get into things like his insanely prestigious military career, that he probably couldn't do today. Some of it is a natural reckless gutsiness (that I also think stems indirectly from the heady times he lived in, surfing the crest of the AMERICA WAVE).

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4564193&forum_id=2,#40446112)

But he could never turn it off. His mind and his heart were always with the firm. He became, over the years, less an actual father than an abstraction of one, moving through the motions of the role while never being present for it, his mind drifting to the next brief, the next hearing, the next execution. I remember coming down the back stairs one night into the serving kitchen to get a glass of milk, startled to find him there, sitting alone at the table, bathed in the harsh light of the room, staring intensely at the intricate pattern in the tile floor, his body almost humming with tensed vibration. "What are you doing, dad?" 'Thinking of the morning to come with so much work to be done. It consumes me, Michael. I feel it in my sinews, in the very air I breathe. You'll feel it too.' I turned and rushed up the stairs back to my bedroom, burying my face full of hot tears in the pillow, vowing to never be like him.

But of course I joined the firm. What O'Shay wouldn't? Does the devil abandon hell? Think of the scandal. And I too am on the track of a storied career. Last month I was awarded the Palm Cross, for valorous conduct in rescue of a captured associate cohort. I'm set for equity in another year, two at the most; the youngest in my class. I'm becoming a known name in the Practitioner's Court and I hear the whispers of an eventual seat. The old man still lives and he tells me I'm doing an "acceptable" job.

At night, hours after my last colleague has abandoned the pursuit, I turn down my office lights and set for home to my young wife and children, all of them long into bed. Glancing the scene as I enter I see the leftovers on the counter, a little drawing from Tyler taped to the refrigerator "My Dad" in bold fingerpaint relief, Susan's doll forgotten in the corner of the kitchen, a remnant of her mother's last waged battle to bring them to the kingdom of sleep. I set my briefcase down and ignore all of this, passing along the hallway instead, settling into the comfort of my study's working desk to relish another hour, two, four of the brief. For I am the son of the man.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4564193&forum_id=2,#40446146)

I used to think this was a waste of ability but now understand it's the inevitable consequence of shared personality flaws.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4564193&forum_id=2,#40448394)

Being too much of a fag for the real world might just be a blessing in disguise for you

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4564193&forum_id=2,#40448498)

unrelenting stubbornness

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4564193&forum_id=2,#40450998)

2. focusing on females over male friends; see point 1

3. avoiding casual drinking as teenagers; see points 1 and 2

I missed out on a lot of fun from ages 13-21.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4564193&forum_id=2,#40452292)

random thought I had

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4564193&forum_id=2,#40461866)