Maxwell 43: Divesting from the First Church of Stevehovah Reversalist

[smittykins]

On 10/2/2020 at 9:42 AM, Tangy Bee said:

OMG! Those things had a buffet on me last Christmas at a hotel in Orlando. I thought I was going to scratch to my bones! Took months for the bite scars to clear up. I have  had to deal with those little bastards twice and from 5 star places.

My apartment building had them in 2014, and I ended up losing my job because they accused me of bringing them into the workplace, although several group homes had them as well(it was an agency for people with disabilities).  It took months to eradicate the little bastards, because  at first they would treat individual apartments instead of the whole building at once(which they eventually did).

[Bluebirdbluebell]

In terms of how the Maxwells are dealing with the bed bugs, look at how they talk about the cushions. This line stands out to me:

Quote

 He sealed the decorative pillows in black plastic bags, which will be in the attic waiting for the blazing Kansas summer heat which kills them.

 I love my pillows, but I would get rid of any pillow with bed bugs in it. 

[mango_fandango]

Especially since it’s now October and there won’t be any blazing summer heat for months! What a bizarre way of dealing with the decorative pillows. Just throw them out and buy new ones...

[fundiefan]

1 hour ago, mango_fandango said:

Especially since it’s now October and there won’t be any blazing summer heat for months! What a bizarre way of dealing with the decorative pillows. Just throw them out and buy new ones...

Duh. That's my thought. A throw pillow has zero relevance to life. Throw it away. Be done with it. What is so special about throw pillows that you have to bag them up, store them in the attic, and wait for "summer sun"?

I could see attempting it with a piece of furniture, a quilt/blanket/pillow that has sentimental value; a beloved stuffed animal (although Maxwells should be well beyond that, although "should" is the key word because we know those girls are not mature women). But, a freaking throw pillow? I change mine when I get tired of the look. There is nothing in the world that is relevant about throw pillows - - again, outside of those with sentimental value. 

Also, taping up the door does nothing. They are really dramatic, and dare I say it, useless, when it comes to real facts of life. 

[Tatar-tot]

2 hours ago, Bluebirdbluebell said:

In terms of how the Maxwells are dealing with the bed bugs, look at how they talk about the cushions. This line stands out to me:

 I love my pillows, but I would get rid of any pillow with bed bugs in it. 

He is an idiot.  All he needs to do is toss them in the dryer on high for 20 minutes.  Steve certainly knows how to make a mountain out of a mole hill.  If he tried this crap on me he would be sleeping with bugs tonight.  Guy is a class  A moron. 

[MamaJunebug]

Bedbugs are terrible! I'd never downplay their capacity to make life awful, cause pain, loss of property (and jobs!), possibly even disease and infection.

Over on the Rodrigues threads, the current drift is about the herpes shingles virus and the misery it causes.  I'll never forget how the pain of shingles caused my mom, at age 45, to be out of her mind with pain from a "small" eruption.  For Teri to call bedbugs, which are indeed bad news, "very bad news," just shows - IMHO - how the Maxes' perspectives are ... well, not skewed like mine are skewed, anyway.

Anna Marie's widower friend eventually might be a match for Anna Original Version.  IIRC she's not yet 30, adores kids and could still produce a few.  And that could open up the floodgates for Mary to at least be on the late-age courting market, and for Sarah to get - I don't know what Sarah needs.

She's a bit of an enigma to me.  So to fill in the blanks, I like to think that she regrets having been prevented from marrying a little less as time goes by, since she and Nate and Chris apparently did a lot of the Reversal-raising while Teri was incapacitated or at least at an impaired level of capacity during her years of constant pregnancy and probable PPD on top of her chronic condition.

What I'm saying is, she had her fill of raising children.  Anna OV and Mary, OTOH, as the sixth and eighth of eight children, never had to mother any younger siblings, and they had each other as companions where Sarah's relationships, pre-reversal, with younger brothers Nate and Chris is probably different from the two-sisters bonding that went on between AOV and M.

To boot, when the first grandchild to survive infancy, Abigail, came along, AOV and M were somewhere between 8 and 11 years old.  Sorry I don't have actual dates in front of me.  Anyway, my personal memories are of being enchanted with babies at those ages, especially if I didn't have to give them bottles, clean up their stinky little bottoms and sit up with them all night.  Which the aunties almost certainly didn't have to do.

Sarah, meanwhile, in addition to being "over" babies, may have observed that marriage is sometimes "very bad news" and that answering to Headship Dad is preferable to having to transition over to a Headship Husband.  To be unpleasantly blunt about it, it may be a "better the devil you know than the one you don't know" kind of mental scenario for her at this point, for she travels around and observes lots of couples.

I do hope she's mentally okay.  There is a sadness in her face that I never see in her younger sisters'.

Edited October 4, 2020 by MamaJunebug

[Bluebirdbluebell]

Anna was 15 and Mary was 11 when Abby was born.

I'm not convinced that Anna Marie's friend's husband could be a match for anyone. I never even considered that until someone here suggested it. I have no idea how Christian her friend was. There are lots of fundie-lite or mainstream conservatives who could bond with Anna Marie in the hospital. Maybe even liberal evangelicals? The point is I'm not sure this guy is fundie enough for the family and Steve might not approve. I think Anna Marie won't continue the friendship for a long time. She was friends with his wife, and now he's single and she's a married lady. I have no idea the rules of that.  Also it doesn't sound like a close friendship if he told her his wife was dead via text. I feel old saying this, but I'm surprised people break news like that via text message. 

Since his wife passed away recently, he's probably in no condition to find a new wife. Unless he really needs help with his children, he probably will want to wait a while before moving on. I know people process loss differently, but I'd be surprised if he was ready to move on so fast. 

[thoughtful]

In the last thread, @Black Aliss said:

Quote

Oh, they'd be retro, all right. Maybe they could rework the teenage death song subgenre of that era to include some lyrics about needing salvation. paging @thoughtful

Ask, and ye shall. It's a girl band song, but, really, what else could I choose? I went to a subject a bit more specific than salvation (although, that's included!).

The groomsmen at Jesse’s wedding sing back up for Sarah:

Did he really move so far away?
Well, there’s his sister, let’s ask her.
Sarah, did Joseph move away from Maxhell?
Mmm-hmm.
Gee, it must be sad missing him.
Do you think he might send his kids to school someday?
Mmm-mm
By the way, how’d you lose him?

We lost him when the realtor said
“You’ll like this house in Olathe”
You get the picture?
Yes, we see.
That’s when we all lost The Boy Who Won’t Come Back!

(sounds of a moving van with muffler issues pulling up to Maxwell compound)

My folks were always holding him down
They said “You stay here on our side of town!”
They tell me he was bad, but I know he was sad
That's why we all lost The Boy Who Won’t Come Back!

(sounds of moving van revving it’s engine)

Each day my dad says he’ll have regrets
And even worse, might carry some debts!
He says that when it’s time to die, poor Joseph is bound to fry,
I’m sorry he guilt-trips The Boy Who Won’t Come Back!

(sounds of moving van doors and hatches closing)

He broadly smiled and kissed me good bye,
His joy was just turning to glee,
As he drove away on that sunny day,
I begged him to take me.
Whether he heard, I'll never know.
He’s out! He’s out! He’s out! He’s out!

(sounds of moving van driving safely to Olathe)

I feel so helpless, what can I do
Will he come Sundays and join the crew?
While writing I stop and stare
I wasted some time, but I don’t care!
I'll never forget him, The Boy Who Won’t Come Back!

Ooh, The Boy Who Won’t Come Back! now he's gone . . .

(fade-out to sounds of moving van pulling away from the house in Olathe)

 

[PennySycamore]

@Melissa1977,  you are right about bedbugs seeming to have not been a problem for 50 years or so.  DDT use quashed the bedbug population and then, for good reason, we stopped using DDT.  It took a while, but eventually the bedbugs returned.

i am reminded of an old joke: What’s the difference between Raid and mother’s milk?  Raid doesn’t contain DDT.

[Black Aliss]

1 hour ago, thoughtful said:

Ask, and ye shall. It's a girl band song, but, really, what else could I choose? I went to a subject a bit more specific than salvation (although, that's included!).

 

That is too perfect. Somewhere I believe The Detergents are smiting their chests and crying, "We are not even worthy to transcribe Thoughtful's lyrics!'

[Bethy]

5 hours ago, Bluebirdbluebell said:

She was friends with his wife, and now he's single and she's a married lady. I have no idea the rules of that.  

I do. It's absolutely forbidden. She got an impersonal text letting her know her friend had passed, as a courtesy so she wouldn't wonder why the friend's correspondence stopped. If she responded to the text at all, it would've likely been the type of ordinary sentiments you'd say as you shook hands down the line at a viewing (so sorry for your loss, praying for your family at this time.) And that's the end of that. I would put money on the fact that she's not going to be staying in contact with him and I don't see this being a potential match for any of the mothership sisters even if this widower is every bit as fundie as Steve.

Fundies (and even a lot of less-strict evangelicals) truly believe it's sinful to have any friendships with the opposite sex after you're married, and will even go so far as to discourage platonic opposite-gender friendships in high school and college, dismissing them as a waste of time. Many of these people truly believe you'll "fall" into an adulterous relationship if you are even talking to anyone of the opposite sex once you're married. This is where you get the rules followed by Billy Graham, Mike Pence, etc. where they won't be alone in any room or vehicle ever with a woman, Nancy Leigh DeMoss and her email rule (if she has to email a man, even for business purposes, she always copies his wife - and, I'm assuming now that she's married, also her own husband - on the email, which sounds like an annoying way to spam up your recipient's spouse's inbox) On one hand I see where some of that could provide protection down the road (no woman could ever accuse Billy Graham of groping her in an elevator, for example) but the email thing...sheesh. The thousands of emails and texts that go back and forth in our online world and these people gotta stop and copy everybody's spouse on it.

12 hours ago, ClareDeLune said:

Joseph and Elissa will be especially pissed if the Maxparents have sent bedbugs into their new luxury home! 

Especially since I think bedbug treatments are based on the square footage of the house! It would be way cheaper to take care of the problem in the split-foyer than this new place.

[FreeKaylee]

18 hours ago, Bethy said:

Making your own stuff is great and saving money is cool but bedbugs are a huge deal to get rid of (leave one female alive and you've got an infestation in the works) and can actually cause mental illness from the anxiety, wondering if they're gone, feeling "itchy" feelings that aren't even there, etc.

Oh wait, they don't believe in mental health either. Never mind.

But I wouldn't wish bedbugs on anybody.

The anxiety is the worst part.  I wasn’t even sure I had a problem, and it turned out to be a relatively mild problem in the end, but I was wreck thinking it was a big infestation and I had just somehow missed it.  Also I don’t have a lot of money so I was afraid it would snowball and turn into a huge expense to get it treated.  And then you read so many horror stories about bedbugs on the internet...

Not only that but for weeks afterwards if I felt the slightest itch or weird sensation I’d panic and think they’d come back.  I don’t know how people survive major infestations.  Just a whole lot of stress and misery, I wouldn’t wish it on anyone either and I kind of understand the Maxwells reaction.  (I think this is the first time I’ve ever related to them, lol)

[Lady Grass Lake]

17 hours ago, Hane said:

I was at that same venue on a business trip about ten years ago! Fortunately, I encountered no bedbugs.

They did get back to me and said that they had had a lot of foreign guests recently, and thanked me for letting them know.   We were there for a conference for my husband's work, we don't normally stay in fancier hotels.  

[LilMissMetaphor]

Very Bad News (TM) sounds like a Lemony Snicket chapter title.

"If you are interested in stories with happy endings, you would be better off reading some other book. In this book, not only is there no happy ending, there is no happy beginning and very few happy things in the middle."

Just fill in blog for book and you have the Maxwell family's life!

[PennySycamore]

1 hour ago, Lady Grass Lake said:

They did get back to me and said that they had had a lot of foreign guests recently, and thanked me for letting them know.   We were there for a conference for my husband's work, we don't normally stay in fancier hotels.  

Something I thought about adding to my previous post to @Melissa1977 but did not out of concern that it would seem xenophobic, is that the renewed appearance of bedbugs was believed to be related to increased foreign travel.

[Melissa1977]

1 hour ago, PennySycamore said:

Something I thought about adding to my previous post to @Melissa1977 but did not out of concern that it would seem xenophobic, is that the renewed appearance of bedbugs was believed to be related to increased foreign travel.

In Barcelona, bedbugs comeback seem to be related to tourism, because have been detected basically in tourist appartments. It's not still a plague, fortunately. I don't think it's xenophobic to say that (I see begbugs as headlice... a broad problem, not tied to some countries or some social statements). 

I read an article that says hotels are safer than touristic appartments, due to better hygiene (very hot laundry, bedsheets are ironed, industrial vacuum cleaners etc). Don't know if it's true, though. 

[JoyfulSel]

5 hours ago, FreeKaylee said:

The anxiety is the worst part.  I wasn’t even sure I had a problem, and it turned out to be a relatively mild problem in the end, but I was wreck thinking it was a big infestation and I had just somehow missed it.  Also I don’t have a lot of money so I was afraid it would snowball and turn into a huge expense to get it treated.  And then you read so many horror stories about bedbugs on the internet...

Not only that but for weeks afterwards if I felt the slightest itch or weird sensation I’d panic and think they’d come back.  I don’t know how people survive major infestations.  Just a whole lot of stress and misery, I wouldn’t wish it on anyone either and I kind of understand the Maxwells reaction.  (I think this is the first time I’ve ever related to them, lol)

Completely agree with this; I live in an apartment building and we noticed them after we got back from a vacation. Long story short, it turned out they came from an upstairs apartment and the person never reported them to our landlord, we all thought they were coming from our next door neighbor because he was the first to notice and report them. Of course, he waited until they infested his apartment too! It was all just a nightmare, I was paranoid for months while we went through the multiple treatments. Our landlord was a complete jerk about it too, I'll never forget how we got treated because other people brought these things in. Even at work I would jump at the sight of any ant on the floor, ugh, horrible time!

The Maxwells need to take this seriously and run everything through hot water and hot dryers, keep their stuff sealed up, and get a professional to come in because these things can be the most stubborn thing ever. My family had many long nights from these stupid bugs.

[kpmom]

9 hours ago, Bethy said:

 

Fundies (and even a lot of less-strict evangelicals) truly believe it's sinful to have any friendships with the opposite sex after you're married, and will even go so far as to discourage platonic opposite-gender friendships in high school and college, dismissing them as a waste of time. Many of these people truly believe you'll "fall" into an adulterous relationship if you are even talking to anyone of the opposite sex once you're married. This is where you get the rules followed by Billy Graham, Mike Pence, etc. where they won't be alone in any room or vehicle ever with a woman,

 

Forget Graham and Pence.  You don't have to go any further than the Maxwells themselves for examples of this.

Steve (in)famously wrote a Dad's Corner about this very thing.  He refused to have lunch with a female salesperson back in the 1990's when he was working in corporate America.  The salesperson even offered to have another male employee accompany them, and still the answer was no.

So, no, NR-Anna would never have a text (or otherwise) relationship with an unmarried man.

[Bethy]

2 hours ago, PennySycamore said:

Something I thought about adding to my previous post to @Melissa1977 but did not out of concern that it would seem xenophobic, is that the renewed appearance of bedbugs was believed to be related to increased foreign travel.

When I first read about the resurgence of bedbugs (probably 15+ years ago) soldiers returning from the Middle East seemed to be a point of concern, at least in the particular article I read. That makes sense - they could come from literally anywhere (not pointing fingers at any one culture) and a military unit in the Sandbox isn't probably going to have the means to wash/dry/bag everything, call in exterminators, etc. Then you pack the people on planes to come back stateside - of course they'll spread. Then, as @PennySycamore mentioned, DDT wasn't available to quickly quash the problem as it had in previous generations.

 

1 hour ago, Melissa1977 said:

(I see begbugs as headlice... a broad problem, not tied to some countries or some social statements). 

Agreed. Also, while you're on the subject of lice...remember how the Maxes dealt with them? Didn't C&AM (how silly of me, I just mean AM) resign themselves to spending hours and hours and hours combing the girls' hair until the evidence was gone?

If that's their idea of pest mitigation...yikes.

[ophelia]

My roommate and I had bedbugs when we were still living together in our apartment a few years back and it was one of the worst times ever. I had serious mental issues at the same time and then losing my home for weeks made it nearly unbearable for me. Gladly my stepdad was a HUGE help and we somehow made it through it.

[CyborgKin]

I too saw the blog title and thought it meant someone was dying or in poor health.

Okay this isn't good or neutral news but there's far more appropriate, descriptive, and interesting ways to title a post about bedbugs than 'very bad news'.

[FreeKaylee]

18 hours ago, JoyfulSel said:

Completely agree with this; I live in an apartment building and we noticed them after we got back from a vacation. Long story short, it turned out they came from an upstairs apartment and the person never reported them to our landlord, we all thought they were coming from our next door neighbor because he was the first to notice and report them. Of course, he waited until they infested his apartment too! It was all just a nightmare, I was paranoid for months while we went through the multiple treatments. Our landlord was a complete jerk about it too, I'll never forget how we got treated because other people brought these things in. Even at work I would jump at the sight of any ant on the floor, ugh, horrible time!

The Maxwells need to take this seriously and run everything through hot water and hot dryers, keep their stuff sealed up, and get a professional to come in because these things can be the most stubborn thing ever. My family had many long nights from these stupid bugs.

Ugh, I’m sorry you and your family went through that!  

I live in an apartment too.  It’s more like a townhouse though and I only share a wall with one other unit.  For various reasons I was pretty sure I had brought in the bug, but in the back of my mind I was afraid I was wrong and they were coming from my neighbor and it was going to be a huge problem because my landlords absolutely would not have handled it properly either.  I was so aggressive with treating it myself because I didn’t want to have to turn it over to them because I had no confidence they would do the right thing.  If the Raid and everything else I did hadn’t worked I would’ve had no choice though, I didn’t want it to spread or anything and become a whole infestation and I guess they would have had to do something.   

I reread the Maxwells post and I cant believe they put the pillows in the attic hoping for next summers heat to kill the bugs.  I missed that the first time I read it.  Why would you not throw them out or put them in the dryer??  Everything I couldn’t get rid of was double bagged and sealed tightly and went into commercial dryers at the laundromat on high for 90 minutes.  I wasn’t playing, lol.  

I think the Maxwells are going to have further problems with this, unless they get really lucky.  I don’t see how taping the door is going to do anything, they can travel through walls and electrical outlets and spaces as thin as a credit card...

Edited October 5, 2020 by FreeKaylee

[freejugar]

Steve is way over his head with this problem, he needs to swallow his ego and get outside help.

[MamaJunebug]

On 10/3/2020 at 9:29 PM, thoughtful said:

In the last thread, @Black Aliss said:

Ask, and ye shall. It's a girl band song, but, really, what else could I choose? I went to a subject a bit more specific than salvation (although, that's included!).

The groomsmen at Jesse’s wedding sing back up for Sarah:

Did he really move so far away?
Well, there’s his sister, let’s ask her.
Sarah, did Joseph move away from Maxhell?
Mmm-hmm.
Gee, it must be sad missing him.
Do you think he might send his kids to school someday?
Mmm-mm
By the way, how’d you lose him?

We lost him when the realtor said
“You’ll like this house in Olathe”
You get the picture?
Yes, we see.
That’s when we all lost The Boy Who Won’t Come Back!

(sounds of a moving van with muffler issues pulling up to Maxwell compound)

My folks were always holding him down
They said “You stay here on our side of town!”
They tell me he was bad, but I know he was sad
That's why we all lost The Boy Who Won’t Come Back!

(sounds of moving van revving it’s engine)

Each day my dad says he’ll have regrets
And even worse, might carry some debts!
He says that when it’s time to die, poor Joseph is bound to fry,
I’m sorry he guilt-trips The Boy Who Won’t Come Back!

(sounds of moving van doors and hatches closing)

He broadly smiled and kissed me good bye,
His joy was just turning to glee,
As he drove away on that sunny day,
I begged him to take me.
Whether he heard, I'll never know.
He’s out! He’s out! He’s out! He’s out!

(sounds of moving van driving safely to Olathe)

I feel so helpless, what can I do
Will he come Sundays and join the crew?
While writing I stop and stare
I wasted some time, but I don’t care!
I'll never forget him, The Boy Who Won’t Come Back!

Ooh, The Boy Who Won’t Come Back! now he's gone . . .

(fade-out to sounds of moving van pulling away from the house in Olathe)

 

This might be your magnum opus. Well, to date. 

Well, this year — you’re indescribably talented!!!!!!!!!! Thank you for using it for the good. 

[SPHASH]

New post up.  Just a recipe.  Sarah goes on and on about how she loves fall aka autumn.  Well Sarah I hate fall, it means summer is over and winter is coming which I hate even more.