Ron Around The Clock

Ron is a real person.  Not even his name has been changed to protect the innocent.  Welcome to your weekly Ronday blog!

Ron was a class act charmer. My sister was not necessarily on the top of her game, but with some help she had gotten a studio-style apartment in a decent area of town near enough to the bus system that she could get back and forth to her job at the call center.

However, a few weeks after meeting Ron, he convinced her to move in with him in his much smaller place which he was currently being evicted from.

But it was okay, because he then moved them in with another girl who was in section 8 housing with her small baby concieved by an illegal alien who had recently been deported. This new girl was living on unemployment and food stamps and had failed her driver’s test 4 times – but that’s another story and this is, after all, the Ron thread.

Nevertheless, my sister was no longer on the bus schedule so she lost her job and Ron got her a few hours at Burger King with his “executive” pull.

My sister soon got in to the habit of calling me on the 11th and 28th of each month (my paydays) and asking to borrow a few bucks until her checks came in (my sister got small SS & VA checks each month beyond her dream BK salary). I usually would spot her 20 or 40 and she would pay me back within a week.

But one time she called me up to ask for much more than that and I just couldn’t do it – plus I felt like I was enabling bad habits in her. She explained to me that Ron had sat on his glasses and had broken them and had spent their last $200 on some new studly designer glasses because he needed them to see/work.

(He couldn’t find any ones sexy enough that were actually covered under his BK health plan.)

My sister told me that they were living off BK food but needed diapers and formula for the baby (evidently the food stamps didn’t cover some of that either).

I just couldn’t do it (my husband at the time was pretty adamant)- and said maybe Ron should return the glasses for cheaper frames or tape the old ones back together until he could afford new ones. This was not an option for dear old Ron.

All week long, I felt bad and worried about my sister and this innocent baby. On that Saturday, I told my husband I couldn’t be stronger any longer and decided to take my sister grocery shopping for the things they needed or see what I could do to help.

I couldn’t reach my sister all day, and was growing concerned. Finally, she called me back all excited.

“Guess what, sis! Ron bought us Garth Brooks tickets!”

Surprised, I asked if Ron had gotten a bonus that allowed them to score such wonderment and cover their daily necessities.

“Oh no,” she explained. “Ron’s car payment bounced – so he just used the money from that!”