A-gust of fresh mini rants

The BBQ Pit
81

My lovely little brother told her that the sheer sight of her food makes him vomit, and has lived on takeaway for a decade now.

And you won’t want her washing your dishes when she wails that she’s 85 and you’re working her like a slave.*

If you tell her to leave it and that you’ll do it, you’ll be screamed at for ruining her new dishwasher. Or acting like you don’t need her. And if she leaves it for you, it won’t ever be done. Not to her satisfaction.

Ask me about her daughter some time- if I spilled anything in the kitchen, she’d grab me by the hair and make me lick it up.

*n.b.- as she is an old, racist lady, you can guess what she really says. Yes, grandma, black people do understand the word ‘swartza’. No, it’s not any better/nicer, either.

82

Ugh, reminds me of my father-in-law’s pickiness about his old hunting lodge’s kitchen. My husband and one of our brothers-in-law decided to be nice and do the dishes when FIL had gone to bed early. Washed, dried, put away. At 4 in the morning or a similar ungodly hour, FIL was raging at discovering what they’d done… they stacked these mismatched, old, cheap plates/bowls/etc in the “wrong” order in the cabinet. No, they weren’t unbalanced or with the most fragile ones on the bottom or anything. Nope, just not the way he does it.

And to think he was surprised and disappointed when no one wanted to “invest” in the place (read: pay him money towards upkeep/taxes, and get little in return).

83

Several years ago, my former father-in-law (FFIL) went into the hospital for emergency, life-saving surgery. While he was in the ICU, less than 24 hours after the surgery, his wife (FMIL) decided she couldn’t stand anyone else being the center of attention and took a handful of pills. My former stepdaughter (FSD) found FMIL dead on the floor of their house when FSD went to pick FMIL up to visit FFIL in the hospital. This was, as you can imagine, fairly traumatic for FSD.

Two years ago, FSD, FFIL, and former stepson sat at the bedside of my comatose former husband and followed his wishes to take him off the life support machines. It took about a day after they pulled the plug, but he passed mostly peacefully. This was REALLY traumatic for FSD, who had ignored all my suggestions over the prior 15 years to spend time with her father because he was genuinely, truly ill. She continues to struggle with the loss. Not long after the death of her father, FSD and her family (husband, four kids under the age of 8 at the time) moved in with FFIL (yup, in the same house that FMIL died in).

On Tuesday, FFIL told FSD he needed to go to the hospital. She got the baby (less than a year old) up and dressed, and went to FFIL’s room to tell him they were worried. The door to his bedroom was open, as was the separate entrance he had to the outside. She found him in his truck- he’d shot himself. Luckily the kids were still in the house, but they heard FSD screaming and the cops showing up and all the commotion, and the two older ones (10 and 8) overheard what happened. FSD is sending them for counseling next week. Apparently he’d been planning this for a while- he sent letters to his brothers saying goodbye.

Now, I’m a big proponent of assisted suicide, and as a therapist I completely understand mental illness and how people can become overwhelmed and feel like the only solution is to take themselves out. But I’m… kind of really furious with FFIL. What a completely dick move to pull on your granddaughter and her kids. Words just completely escape me. For gods’ sake, he couldn’t go to some field somewhere?? If nothing else, he could’ve easily gone to my old house, which is unoccupied and nicely out of the way. I can’t even imagine what the funeral is going to be like. Way to totally ruin all the good memories your family has of you, dude.

Sadly, suicide and mental illness runs pretty strongly on both sides of the family… I hope at some point there’s a generation that can break the cycle.

84

bobkitty, I’m so very, very sorry.

85

Thanks, Missy. The viewing was yesterday and the funeral today; I can’t even imagine how those went.

86

“I’m average, you’re just really, really short.” :smiley:

87

In a former life, I must have peed in Gandhi’s cheerios.
My 18 year old has announced that he has a girlfriend.

Named for a flyover state.

With a double barbed piercing in her septum.

And a tattoo of some molecule with carbon rings on her left shoulder.

The only upside to this is it will hasten my inheritance if the GF and my mother ever meet.
Please kill me now.

88

Thank you for your kind words.

I have kittens. Lots and lots of kittens. And a couple of other strays. Steve is an asshole.

89

Ah good. Glad to hear that you are not here because you are covered in kittens! Well, maybe not glad - homeless kittens are not good, but on the other hand, having many kittens in the home must be good! How is the Beloved Butthead?

90

It was a murder case on a Rez. It was horrible, and I never EVER want to sit on that sort of jury again. I don’t want to talk about it because it was so terrible. It was worse than Angela’s Ashes.

Anyhow, I’m glad to see your name here…have you heard about the new non-adjuvanted vaccines? Our rescue vet is very excited about them, she says that using them means that she can stop giving cats shots in their skinny legs and can start using their fatter butts now.

91

Yes! Merial has had them for quite a while, but they were prohibitively expensive. Now Zoetis has thrown their hat in the ring and beats Boehringer’s (still adjuvanted) pricing. We haven’t jumped on the change quite yet - they take a tad longer to take effect and haven’t decided whether it’s a risk factor or not, and if it is whether it’s worth it. This reminded me, though, to bring it up again with Dr. It’s been a couple months since we talked about it.

92

If that’s the biggest problem you face, i want your life.

I teach college, and some of my best students have piercings and tattoos all over the place. So do half the geeks with six-figure incomes who are driving out poor people in San Francisco.

93

Glad you’re ok, flatlined. Sorry about the attack of the fuzzbutts and may you never have to go through something like that trial again.

Sorry about your family, bobkitty.
The Vorlon, inquiring minds want to know which molecule is it. It can’t be this one since it doesn’t have rings, but for a while, 3D molecular models of acetone were all over the place, being treated as some sort of abstract art. Since I actually knew what those “pretty balls and sticks” were, I found it hilarious.

94

Good to hear you’re OK, flatlined and glad the trial is over. And you (and SeaDragonTattoo and everybody else who does animal rescue) are good people for taking care of critters who don’t have anybody watching out for them.

95

Welcome back, flatlined. :slight_smile:

My gripe: Yesterday, we received notification of an $80/month increase to our rent. Yes, they haven’t raised it in the last eight years or so, but you’re never ready for it, and it’s NEVER welcome.

96

That was my thought, too. In organic chem in college, we would use those plastic molecule kits to make models of stuff like alcohol, caffeine, that kind of thing. If it’s those or estrogen or something equally bland, I wouldn’t worry. If she thought that methamphetamine or a similar substance was worthy of permanently inking into her skin, then that’s more troubling.

97

At the local Costco, not one but three little dogs with those bought over the internet ‘service’ dog vests. They were walking about or in the child part of the cart. The best part was at a sample table where there was a dust up between two of them. You are going to tell me 'service ’ dogs snap at people and other dogs…:confused::dubious:

I left a comment for the manager.

98

What can the manager do? “Service dogs” are not just permitted, but I think it’s even illegal to question their owner over what disability they supposedly help with and/or ask for documentation of any sort.

99

Time to stop visiting, no? Why would you waste your time on such people?

Are you near to FSD? I think she needs lots of help if she and her children are going to be the ones who break the cycle. Even someone to watch the baby while she gets counseling.

100

I went on vacation and the mailman did NOT hold my mail. The mail was strewn all over my front porch yesterday when we returned. The local post office was very apologetic but this is just not acceptable. How much mail has to dot my front yard before it finally occurs to the mail guy that he might want to find out if a hold has been filed? Also while the white cat has greeted with me great love and affection, the long haired Maine Coon is still sitting in the corner occasionally hissing at me.