Is this the old gag of suffer through the night, wake up and snow is over and you look and you are not in the real lodge? The glorious all comfort lodge was just beyond sight in the snow. You slept in the guard cabin or whatever.
An ordinary life is not a bad thing, though. People just notice the good, exciting, positive things in someone els’s life and the problems, hardship, and negative in their own. That is where the jealousy and wanting to see people fail comes from. Everyone has good and bad. Having an “ordinary” life with loved ones, a job, some hobbies that you enjoy. That is a great life.
I kind of get the feeling Arlo is thinking something else. He is worried that this the first step of losing independence and autonomy. You are offered some help and soon others begin to think you cannot handle as much. It starts with assistance and could eventually end up with “assistance”.
Or…Kip stays at the poolhouse and it is discovered he is the leader of the ring of thieves. Giving him a base in the neighborhood and a quick place to “disappear” to when the neighborhood is being patroled by the cops.
Devouring Cobra is a pleasant idea, but I doubt it would work out well in the attempt.