Bob and Barb seemed to have the most fun getting shitfaced at the bar, but their day to day life was extremely dull. Barb did luck out she found someone like Bob who was honorable, just enough, just a tiny bit, to stick with her and Chris. Then again, he probably thought another genius would flop out of Barb's vagina and become rich and able to take care of them, but not hate them like his first round of kids.
He underestimated the Weston genes. Most, if not all shitty aspects of Chris come from Barb's side rather than Bob's. Furthermore, Barb undermined all efforts of Bob to raise Chris somewhat right.
Bob was a nutcase too. He's the one who put all the "Greene County education board is conspirin' aginn us!" and "Mihke and Meghan are leadin' those damn innernat trolls!" nonsense in Chris' head.
How much of that came from bouncing ideas back and forth with Barb?
Since Chris told Jackie barb threatened divorce against him he likely didn't want to spend his twilight years homeless (and I've seen that but the dude was a wino).
I'm almost sure the whole "Mike and Megan leading the trolls" thing came from Barb. Barb's influence should not be underestimated, and I believe that all Bob wanted in his later years was some peace and quiet which would mean that he probably just went along with her bullshit.
At the very least Bob believed it too. I swear there's a phone call where he's complaining about Mike from the Game Place and how he, Megan and some people there "some of who are hommasexuals" were conspiring against Chris. I know he was old and didn't understand the internet but the whole family is insane. I strongly suspect Chris was parroting his parents half of the time in the old days.
This is going to sound really fucking stupid, but why not? Here is the plan: Null goes onto MATI and talks about how he hates Barb or some shit like that. He says that he's happy that the bank will get the house and that Barb will end up on the street. Or better yet, he announces that he wants Barb to end up in the gutter; tries to frame the situation in a way that would give the appearance that he would be humiliated if Barb somehow got to keep the house. If he sandwiches this inbetween to segments where he makes fun of the Gunt, then maybe he will take the bait and help Barb.
That sounds complicated and fraught with the possibility of failure. But I would love to witness the attempt.
If anybody was going to fall for such a convoluted plan and pays for the house to spite Null, it would indeed be Gunt.
Also remember that he just came out of a divorce at the time he met Barb. "Easy pickings" doesn't even begin to describe it. He was the equivalent of a wounded animal, all Barb needed was to pounce on him.
I don't know a lot about Bob's first marriage, but I assume the woman he was with was considerably different from Barb.
