Let’s start with some adorable kitties, having breakfast!

They’re just a great way to start the day! 😀

As for the rest of the day, things were just… tiring.

I got a phone call early in the day. Well, any phone call at all is unusual for us. ;-D

It was my older brother, letting me know he got a phone call from our vandal. My brother was at his work office, so he didn’t answer, but once he heard the message, he wanted to let me know about it, right away.

Amazingly, after making some nasty digs about not being allowed in the property anymore, he had the nerve to request written permission to come on the property.

There are some 2x4s in the barn, and he’s building a shed, so he wants them.

Unbelievable!

My brother was able to send me the file and I got it transcribed before I had to head out. So that was helpful, though ultimately, I never made use of it.

My first stop was at the garage to get the broken shield on my mother’s car fixed.

The tip of it was broken off. The shield had been held in place with a plastic clip that was still holding the tip in place. Since the length was changed, he ended up having to drill and screw into a new hole.

The whole thing, including the time to drive the car in, use the lift, fix it, then drive it out again, took 5 minutes.

I offered to pay, but he wouldn’t bill me anything for it.

What an awesome guy!

Since it took so little time, I was able to drive to the nearer small city and go to the court office to apply for a restraining order and involuntary mental health assessment for our vandal.

The municipality the court is in is under a mask mandate, so I had to go through the usual questioning about my not wearing one, but there were no issues when I said I was medically exempt. I explained why I was there and got the two forms explained to me, but I had to leave the space to fill them out, since the area around the counter was small, and they could only serve one person at a time. I ended up standing at a garbage/recycling station to have a flat surface to work on. Which was fine by me.

I wasn’t able to pass on any of the printouts I brought, but I was glad to have them, since as I filled out the forms, I could use them to get exact dates and remember key details. Not that there was room for much.

After passing the completed forms back, answering a few questions, swearing on the Bible (which was in a clear plastic bag, and got sprayed with sanitizer first) and getting my signatures witnessed, it was back out the door to sit and wait.

Surprisingly, it was the mental health order that was dealt with faster.

Someone came out to talk to me and, in a nutshell, she could not grant the mental health order. She did, however, tell me exactly why and what I needed, then gave me a new form to take home, so I could reapply. The biggest question was whether or not he’d been told to get help, and refused it, very recently – as in, within the last 24 hours or so. I’ve certainly told him to get help before, but I haven’t had direct contact with him in ages for a reason! All in all, she was very helpful. I think, even with how little I could fit into the form, she could tell that this was a real issue.

Then I had to wait about the restraining order. When I got called in for that, I was given the sheet that would go to the police to go over; after some details were corrected, I signed it.

I now have a court date in November.

He will be served by the police some time soon. Which means we will have to double down on keeping an eye on things, because this is likely to trigger him.

The whole time I was there was very stressful. I’ve actually had to go through some of this before we moved, but it’s very different when the person is not someone you used to be close to. My body was so tense, I had to go to the bathroom three times, just because of how much my abdomen was cramping up. My hands were shaking so bad, I could hardly write, and I felt like throwing up, all from being so physically tense. And yet, I was actually pretty calm about the whole thing, mentally. There is still that physiological response to stress, and I just had to push my way through it.

I am glad to have at least been able to get the process started. I have steps to take, and can try again with the mental health order once I get those ducks in a row.

The next while is going to require being on high alert. I thought I knew this person very well, but now, I have no idea how he will react once he’s served with the court date.

It has to stop. The process, however, is so very slow.

This is no way to live.

The Re-Farmer