Fun times, difficult times

First, I'll start off with the good stuff!

Youngest has been doing well with her driving lessons.  In her last lesson, she parallel parked for the first time and did it perfectly, except that she stopped a couple of times rather than doing it in one smooth move.  It turns out her instructor has come up with a mathematically precise method for parallel parking.  After describing it to her, she followed it and it worked perfectly!  She's described it to me and I *think* I understand it, but I'm not sure.  I don't parallel park very often, so I haven't had a chance to try it myself.

Eldest and I had our first sales day at the event that will be happening every Saturday.  With the weather, we ended up indoors and some artists never showed.  Still, we had traffic and people who came specifically to see the sale.  No one bought anything from any of us, but I hope the word spreads.  We've got word of a couple of other events, some my stuff doesn't qualify for but Eldest will be able to take part in. 

On Father's Day, we had plans to go to some botanic gardens run by a local university.  Dh had asked for it as his Father's Day gift, as we haven't been in years.  In the end, he had to stay home as he was in too much pain, but he encouraged us to go anyhow.  Youngest stayed home with him, but I went wtih Eldest, The Watcher and Beetle Child.  The girls had a blast right from the start as we left the city and drove through farm land and small towns to get there.  The gardens are extensive and there was no way we'd be able to see all of it (we've been there several times in the past and still haven't seen all of it), but we got the big ones - a wetlands area, some different temperate zone gardens, a butterfly garden and finally a gloriously groomed Japanese garden.

On Monday, the girls got to spend most of the day with their mom, then they got to see her again on Tuesday, which is pretty darn awesome!  It's so good to see them being able to spend time with her.  Their behaviour and attitudes are noticeably changing.  Perhaps the most obvious change we're seeing is how they are responding to the other residents at the care centre.  They had been taught by their dad to avoid the residents for fear of catching whatever they had, and when a resident greeted them, they would turn away, avoid eye contact and ignore them.  Now, they're talking to people and getting to know some of them, and are so much happier!  It's been an amazing thing to see.

Meanwhile...

I finally got an email from their dad on the Saturday.  He apologized for not contacting us sooner, explaining that he had to search for a company with month to month internet rather than yearly contracts, so it took a while.  He mentioned some things about his father's condition and, to be honest, it sounds really off.  I have no idea what his father is supposed to be sick with, but the combination of things he mentioned just don't make sense.  Ah, well.

Then he said that he wanted to Skype with the girls on Sunday at noon.  He's never asked us when would be a good time before, but until now, it had never been an issue.  Since we were already planning on the trip to the gardens and wouldn't be home at the time he wanted, I wrote back saying we wouldn't be there and gave an evening alternative, or a Monday morning alternative.

I ended up going to see the girls' mom that evening and arrived as she was reading an email from him that had just come in.  It was mind blowing!  One of the most vile, disgusting emails I've encountered.  He repeatedly went on about how much he hated her, how much he wished she were dead, etc. etc.  It was so bad, she's planning to get a restraining order for when/if he comes back.  So completely different from the relatively polite email I had received just a short time before.  Wow.

I didn't hear back from him about the alternate times until Monday night, though I sent him an email on the Sunday night with a link to a photo set I'd put online, as there were so many photos.  I logged onto the girls' Skype account at the times I'd suggested, just in case.  I didn't hear from him until Monday night.  This time, the email was far less polite.  He objected to the photos being online, which is fine, but then went on about how the photos of the girls belonged to them and should only be on their computer.  He then proceeded to make accusations and insults about various things, then making vague threats if I don't do what he wants, then telling me what day and time he wanted to talk to the girls.

I answered his email and put him straight about a few things, from the copyright on the photos to calling him on his insults and threats, pointed out his ungrateful attitude towards those trying to help him and told him to never threaten me again.  I have not heard back from him.

The day and time he asked for worked for us, though, and that was this morning.  I set The Watcher and Beetle Child up on their laptop and we waited.

And waited.

After more than half an hour, I logged them out and shut everything down.

Interestingly, while the girls were clearly looking forward to talking to him, they didn't seem as excited as the first time we tried this.  When he didn't show up, they didn't express any disappointment, either.  They just made a few questioning comments about why he might not have been able to log on.  Then we had lunch, Eldest painted their nails, and now they're watching Avatar - Eldest has the entire series, and they've been really enjoying working their way through it all.

So now what?  I don't know.

The poor girls.  As much as I dislike the man, the girls want to talk to their dad, and this is incredibly unfair to them.

I really hope this all works out well in the end, but I can't even imagine what "works out well" would even look like at this point.