Originally Posted by
accountinquestion
I read this and I just become immensely sad.
What Rob portrays then the reality of his life... so different.
He's older, didn't ever keep ahold of any money. I run into these guys in life. 65+ and broke. SS barely covers anything, all living on that edge of not quite homeless. No property - usually a car. Rob and his wife (lovely lady) lives in the frontyard inside his broken down RV that was towed to his daughter's driveway. Living mostly off macaroni and P&J sandwiches. His daughter invites him in, but the man of the house (aka son-in-law) is perpetually perturbed at Rob's bumming meals and insisting at eating at the table with them. However, his daughter still feels great pity for Rob. Rob always gave her attention when he was around. When flush with food stamps - once or twice a year - Rob buys some steaks and cooks them. He must repeat some variation of "A man should eat well" line 20 times during these ordeals.
On the internet though Rob thinks he can be someone. He comes up with grandiose stories full of so much bullshit they're seen as nonsense by every sharp forum poster. Yet it doesn't dissuade Rob. A stupid man doesn't have the capacity to understand what they don't understand. Rob sincrely believes he is going to pull the wool over someone's eye, just for the equivalent of a grain of respect. He just wants to be seen as someone. The sort of man who drives around in a Newell. Sadly in his actual life he has nothing else to offer anyone.... except for a P&J sandwich and a cramped placed to sit in a pop-up.
Just the pointlessness of his life. The bleakness. The sadness. The people hurt by his gambling problems and pathological lying. That $40 he spent on the ad could have given him a shot to take his wife to their yearly steak and dinner deal in downtown LV. Where they tow their pop-up every year and dutifully park it at the Circus Circus. Rob comes alive though and manages to go through all the cash they have available. On a good year, he doesn't get into the credit cards. These days his wife keeps them and Rob has come to understand if he does it again, she WILL leave him. Unfortunately for her it is mostly bluster, because it is clear she has no better option. What sort of woman would want to live in a RV, where they're but tolerated guests parked in the frontyard. The neighbors not happy because the RV hasn't moved in years and it really does impact the neighborhood. They have pity though. They feel for the old man in a broken down RV who tells endless stories of his "glory days."
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