Black Swans

Well, I said I was done posting, figured there was nothing else to say worth saying.

I was wrong.

Nassim Taleb has written a very intriguing book called "The Black Swan". No, it is not about Pirate ships, it is about the impact of what we consider highly improbable events. He is mostly interested in stock markets and scalable phenomena, but the central thesis is applicable to a lot of life. In a nutshell, life is wayyy more random and unpredictable that we allow for or even imagine and the "improbable" is a lot more frequent than we account for in our thinking and in our planning for the comings and goings of our lives. Hence, the old adage, "life is what happens while we are making plans.."

So back in January, the Wife and I were making plans for this summer. We figured that we would have a visit from oldest daughter, frequent weekends with middle daughter, and basically a lot of time together with Wife, Baby and me. We planned a trip to Hawaii in July and I was heading to Yellowstone with my son, brother and nephew at the end of August, and all was well with the world.

Well

First, my first ex wife decided that she was not quite enough of a religious nut, and to up the ante declared that my oldest daughter was to stay home after graduation from HS, take care of Grandma and await an appropriate suitor to arrive, after which she would move into the shack next door and start popping out kids. Oldest had other plans, and in early May I went to Texas and "fetched" her. So plans changed a bit, while oldest moved in for the summer. Not a big deal, she is off to college in the fall and the plan was for her to get a job and a life in San Carlos as soon as she got back from a trip to China. I am paying for all of this, but I have the money, and frankly the first ex and her husband are a couple of broke losers. Ok, so we shift, but Hawaii is still on the map and all is on track.

Then

The crazy second ex decides to attempt suicide. I get a call one Tuesday afternoon at 5 pm from my former sister in law telling me that they just took the ex out in a gurney and that I needed to come get my daughter. Seems that this is not the first attempt, happened two years ago, but the family covered it up.

Yes, seems that she has been off her meds for the past two years, well at least the legal ones. She was on her drug of choice (codeine) right before the attempt. Fortunately, daughter was not at home and saw nothing, but she knows.

So I hired a lawyer and after a week of negotiation I have custody of my daughter and a lot of restrictions on her mom. Daughter will be living with us and going to school in SC. Plans are, obviously completely out the window.

And I will be writing some more. Stay tuned for the rest of the story.