"Couldn't be bothered..."

We just got back from a trip to Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C. It was a chilly spring break.

People have an interesting dialect in Western Pennsylvania. Certain expressions are unique: for example, "couldn't be bothered."

My uncle is basically a squatter in his house, but I know he didn't set out to be that way. He was legit when he moved into the house, ready to pay rent, I'm sure. He moved in several years ago, and I couldn't remember the details, so I asked my grandma for the original explanation of the situation.

"Oh, she knew he was there, the woman who owned the house, yeah. She just couldn't be bothered."

That was it! She died, later, the landlady, and because she "couldn't be bothered," my uncle was sort of left in limbo, living in a house that nobody seemed to own.

Another thing: the bar where my uncle hosts musical acts just went out of business. They were actually doing fine, but the roof developed a leak, and the landlord? He couldn't be bothered to fix it. Roof caving in, the music house shut down, and is now looking for a new venue in which to operate.

The movie theater in Irwin had a leaky roof, as well. The owner couldn't be bothered to have it fixed, so she sent one of her minion employees crawling over the roof, patching it, and he fell right through, into the seats below. The place later burned down. She couldn't be bothered to rebuild it.

The trailer next door to my cousin's trailer is up for sheriff's sale because the owner couldn't be bothered to live any longer.

The long drive home was peppered with many a collapsed barn that someone couldn't be bothered to fix.

From the toll way, it appeared that the entire town of Gary, Indiana, just couldn't be bothered any more.

I couldn't be bothered to write...