Drove from southern Indiana to Kentucky to reach the line of totality for the last one. This time I am only about 20 miles from the totality line, so I will be watching from my backyard! Maps say I will see 3 minutes, 23 seconds of totality, vs 4 minutes if I made the 20 or so mile trip.

Yeah, I hadn't intended to make the long post I did... but once I started typing, it just came rushing out. My cousin for a while was basically ostracized from the entire family after I finally got her out of my house. They all got tired of the lying, the begging, the stealing. Everyone tried to help her, but she would just take advantage of them in any way she could.

Surprisingly, something finally seemed to click.. For 9 months now she has held a steady job, as has her boyfriend. They are even getting ready to move into their own place. For the first time in her entire life (she is 39) she finally seems thing have things together. I only hope it holds.

You aren't kidding!

I allowed my cousin to stay in my house temporarily as I had an extra room and she and her 4 year old son had nowhere to go. We had grown up together, I thought of her like my own sister.

This turned out to be one of the biggest mistakes of my life. That temporary situation turned into nearly 3 years of hell. She would bring random people in at all times and sometimes they would stay days (without permission), moved 2 boyfriends in without asking. One of which completely took over my garage; had it piled so high with junk I could barely get my car in. They never paid for or contributed anything.

I tried to kick her out, she called the police, as under state law she was considered a tenant. I had to start legal eviction procedures to get her out. It took months; she knew exactly how to game the system. Continuance, after continuance. I felt trapped, they completely took over my home. Every other week was a big scene, between her boyfriend and/or random people. Police had been to my house so many times. I started to stay in hotels occasionally just because I didn't want to be there anymore.

The room she lived in was destroyed. She had let her son poke hundreds of holes in the drywall. One of her boyfriends was trying to charge a battery and caught fire and burned a hole all the way through into the crawl space. Another one punched holes through the walls and into the doors. Near the end of her stay, she started bringing in a dog, that she never let out, it pissed and shit all over the room. I had to completely gut the entire room; drywall had to come out, and even the entire OSB subfloor. I ended up completely re-doing my entire house, new flooring and all, because the destruction had started to spread outside her room.

I am never letting someone move into my home ever again.