Krud lived in an upstairs apartment in the building where Kelz and I lived. He was probably a couple of years older than me and had long, brown hair that he wore in a ponytail. When we first moved in, we would see him come and go, but we didn't have much contact with him.
Krud and Kelz struck up a friendship around the time that the problems started with Wod. He would invite Kelz and Sasd to his apartment to watch TV. He was very proud of his entertainment system. He enjoyed watching movies that had the audio recorded in Hi-Fi. He also had a smaller TV hooked up to the same system in his bedroom. This way, the movie that was playing in the living room was also showing in the bedroom. I'm surprised he didn't have one hooked up in his bathroom.
From what I could tell, Krud didn't work. Or at the very least, he didn't have a full-time job. It seemed like he just spent most of the day at home, watching movies. Kelz told me Krud wondered why I'd never got to know him before. Under normal circumstances, this was not someone I would be friends with. Really, the only thing we had in common was that we both couldn't stand Wod.
Krud was a recovering alcoholic. Around this time, an Alcoholics Anonymous convention was taking place in San Diego. He told me about one gathering in which they had people who had been sober one week stomping on the floor. Then they had those who had done two weeks, three weeks, a month, two months, etc., until everyone in the room was stomping their feet. He said that gave him such a spiritual lift to be part of that.
Krud had been married once and had a kid, but had gotten divorced a few years earlier. I'm guessing that it was the alcohol that split that union up. He had a girlfriend that would come to his apartment from time to time.
He swore to me that there was nothing going on between him and Kelz, but he did admit that he was attracted to her. At this point, it didn't matter. I had already started my plans for moving out of the apartment.
One night, he asked me to go with him to the liquor store a couple of blocks away. He wanted to get some peppermint schnapps that they kept in the freezer. I asked him what he was going to do with it. "I'm going to drink it!" "But what about all that stuff you were telling me about Alcoholics Anonymous and staying sober?" "Hey, man! I know I can handle myself! You can't tell me what to do!" So, we went to the liquor store and sure enough, there was peppermint schnapps in the freezer. He bought it and brought it home. I just didn't have to be around him when he drank it.
Another time, he came up to me and asked me if his ex-wife re-married, would he still have to pay child support? I told him that unless he gave up the rights to his kid and the new husband adopted, then no, he'd still have to continue paying. He didn't like that answer.
One day, I got in a fight with Kelz. She told me she and Sasd were going to leave me and move in with Krud. I thought, "Great! This will solve all my problems." I could just move and let Krud deal with all the drama now. She went and saw Krud. She came back and she was obviously angry. I went up to see Krud. Without him really saying anything, he indicated that he wasn't letting them move in with him. I figured that she had probably recently slept with Krud and hoped that he would let them move in. That didn't work.
But Krud would wind up playing a larger role after I had abandoned Kelz and Sasd. That will be in a future post.
Meanwhile, I do have a small follow-up. A few years after I left this era of my life behind, I was going through my VHS collection (which was very small compared to the DVD collection I would build up later). I pulled out the boxes that had my Duran Duran and Peter Gabriel videos. I found the boxes empty. I noticed that the audio on both was presented in Hi-Fi. KRUD STOLE THEM FROM ME! And please note that watching them on YouTube is not a viable substitute. The video quality on the VHS tape is much better than YouTube (until they come out with a REAL Hi-Def version). But on the bright side, he didn't steal my Kate Bush videos.
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