Nice article. A couple weeks ago, I got a call on my birthday. It was from a number I didn't recognize at first, but I answered it. It was the 92-year-old father of a person who I hadn't spoken with in 19 months. We exchanged pleasantries and then he said "(fill-in-name-here) would like to say 'hello." I responded, "I don't want to talk to your son," and hung up the phone. If there was ever a time I still wish I had a landline, this was it.

The man's son is a mentally unstable, wound up so tight fuse box that he has tried to harm me in many ways over the years. He once said he wished he could go back in time and kill my dad so I would never have been born. Never mind the fact that he's eight years younger than me, or most people who have theorized about time-travel have stated it would be impossible to go back to a time before you were born.

Plus, on the last time we were together, he threatened to throw me out of his car, because he didn't like driving me to my optomitrist. On January 6. That January Sixth. I told him, "we're not having this conversation." I thought he was going to hit me at one point. I then pointed out to him that the dentist he took me to was just two miles up the road.

There were personal, private reasons that I had to spell out to him as well. But from that day forward, I spoke to him twice. I doubt I'll ever hear from him again, which is a good thing. You shouldn't have to put up with the crap from your family or friends. Like me, you just unfriend them. Or tell them to piss off.