What is it about me that makes people not want to be honest with me? I’m so sick of trying to decode “nice speak” I could scream. I head a small organization, very small. Person we work under told me a year ago “This would be really cool to have happen.” I put best person in charge of the project. We both get run arounds, push back, “nice speak”, and garbage for six months. We finally get project off the ground, and she and I have both gotten more “nice speak” hints and telephone game complaining over it. All because a very nice person, whom I do like, was too nice to say “hey, I changed my mind. Don’t do that.” I also got yelled at for five minutes last night because awesome volunteer was sick of the bad communication garbage. So. Much. Fun.
This is just one example of this phenomenon. It happens all the time with me and I’m so tired of it I could cry. Just tell me the truth. Really. Stop trying to make me guess what you want because you don’t have the guts to just be honest.
Also, how did we get to a world where I’m the weird one because I do not identify as my dog’s mommy? I have children. they do not have fur and do not eat cat poop. There are even people who feel I am not a good pet owner and my dog is neglected and should be rehomed because she’s not my “baby.” Why? How is this ok?
My daughter got her learner’s permit today. Please join me in my nervous breakdown. And be on the lookout for a giant bright red Chevrolet Suburban, because that’s the weapon of choice as she learns to drive.
(The rest of the week doesn’t get better. Tomorrow we are going to mediation to maybe/maybe not settle Tony’s case with the insurance company. And we are going camping this weekend with a group of old friends. I love these friends, but I’m still of the opinion that I scrape to pay mortgage and taxes precisely because I don’t want to sleep outdoors in the cold. I hope there’s lots of booze.)
My daughter got her learner’s permit today. Please join me in my nervous breakdown. And be on the lookout for a giant bright red Chevrolet Suburban, because that’s the weapon of choice as she learns to drive.
(The rest of the week doesn’t get better. Tomorrow we are going to mediation to maybe/maybe not settle Tony’s case with the insurance company. And we are going camping this weekend with a group of old friends. I love these friends, but I’m still of the opinion that I scrape to pay mortgage and taxes precisely because I don’t want to sleep outdoors in the cold. I hope there’s lots of booze.)
I’m sorry, especially about the camping, Lacunae Matata. Personally I have long been of the opinion that if the good lord wanted us to pee in the woods (or in our shoes, in the case of us girls), he/she would not have allowed the invention of the flush toilet. I hope there is a LOT of booze and that it doesn’t rain or snow or be too cold or too hot. And that there are no rocks under your sleeping bag.
I have been assured that the state park has decent plumbing facilities. So at least there’s that. But I still need plenty of booze. After the past couple of weeks of nice spring weather, it’s supposed to be in the mid-30s (Fahrenheit) this weekend. At least the park is only 2 hours from home, and central heating.
Like going to war*, camping is one of those things one should leave to men and young people. I’m perfectly happy to stay at home and make sure the supplies of chicken broth and band-aids are ready for when the adventurous come back.
As per my ancestress Honoria (mother), upon a joker asking her how come she hadn’t enlisted like every other member of her family above age 16.
To paraphrase the first line of T.S. Eliot’s “The Waste Land”: April is the [del]cruelest[/del] hottest month.
The weather station closest to my home in Central Thailand reported 11 consecutive days of 40°+ (104° Fahrenheit) heat in March. A year ago March had only a single 40°+ day. April 4, 2016 (the most recent date shown at that website) was 41.7° (107° F).
Checking all the other Marches at that website, I see many Marches with only 2, 1, or zero 40°+ days. In 2001 and 2011 March never got above 38°. This past March had ELEVEN consecutive days of 40°+ heat. April is always hotter than March. :eek:
(In temperate countries, one is used to the hottest month coming about 6 months after the coldest, but in tropical Thailand the hottest month is just 3 months after January, the coolest.)
I arrange to spend almost all my time in air-conditioning but sometimes feel a frightening blast of heat when I venture out. Given my age and health, if our air-conditioner failed I’d feel an urgent need to race and find an air-conditioned hotel.
Had a tooth violently removed on Monday. I say violently, because it took well over an hour of effort to get the roots out.
So why is the corner of my lip on that side still slightly numb three fucking days later?
Why is it a lot more numb today than it was yesterday?
Why, after being fairly normal and mostly pain-free yesterday, is my jaw feeling completely jacked today?
Why does blood taste so fucking metallic, and why have I been tasting blood for the last 3 hours solid when I can’t find any bleeding?
How the fuck am I supposed to do actual work today on the amount of pain meds I just sucked down to deal with this?
I learned to drive on a 1990 Chevrolet Suburban (two-tone – white and red – so it was super distinctive). It builds character. Seriously, it’s a very forgiving vehicle for a new driver – you don’t have to worry about vehicle damage from popping up on a curve, for example – and being in control of a vehicle of that size really makes you focus on what you’re doing.
And have fun camping…maybe pack a few airplane bottles?
I’ve had it up to here with Apple (specifically iOS.) over the past couple of months my iPhone has been “forgetting” the artwork for more and more albums I have loaded on it. Today, for some reason all of my music just up and disappeared. All of it. All 70 GB of it. Just gone. the “storage” entry in Settings confirms that only 11 GB of my phone’s storage is used. grumble, get home, plug it into my PC and launch iTunes. iTunes also agrees there’s only 11 GB used, and “Audio” is only 5 files. But then it tells me I need to update to iOS 9.3.1, which I did back when it was released. whatever, OK, run the update again. Phone restarts, and I go into the Music app and it’s showing most of my music (tons missing.) But iTunes still says only 11 GB of the phone’s storage is taken. So after authorizing/deauthorizing devices and computers (having to enter my Apple ID a dozen times) now I’m re-syncing everything. Again.
I’m going back to a Windows Phone. it may be a sinking platform, but at least I like using it and it doesn’t require me to use the shitpile that is iTunes.
I was surprised when an application I tried to run on a new(ish) laptop sent me an error message saying I needed to download Flash Player. Odd, I thought - shouldn’t that be a standard part of the software bundle? I go to the Adobe website and start to download Flash Player, only to get a message saying I already have it. They even have a test you can run to confirm it’s on the machine - and it was.
Turns out Adobe has made a deal with the devil (Microsoft) so that my Flash Player only works with Microsoft’s Edge browser (billed as “the all new browser for doing”, whatever the hell that means). I go back and manage to download and start installing a separate Flash Player, carefully unchecking boxes so that I don’t also get crapware from Intel and MacAfee (a program to check my existing antivirus software to see that it’s functioning properly - uh huh, I’m sure MacAfee won’t find any problems with their competitor, right). As Flash Player is installing, I notice that the crapware is busy installing itself too.
ABORT ABORT ABORT
The second time, the installation goes OK without the crapware.
Four hours until the behaviorist arrives to evaluate and hopefully come up with a treatment plan for our warring kitties. I’m not ashamed to say that I am utterly terrified. I really, really, really hope that she has a magic wand with her.
I know people who consulted a veterinary behaviorist due to aggression in a multi-cat household. She observed the situation, drew some maps, and made some simple suggestions that fixed everything (simple things like adding a feeding station, moving this box from here to there, etc).
We had two cats – both neutered females from the same litter. As in, literally never apart from the day they were born. They were never really cuddly with each other, but got along. Until, for no reason we could determine, when they were about three, Libby started trying to kill Tracy. Not normal spats or jousting, flat out shrieking attacks with blood lust. Tracy, always the submissive one, was terrified.
We basically had to divide the house into three zones that were sealed off from each other with doors: some bedrooms wereLibby’s zone, the others were Tracy’s zone, and the public rooms were a DMZ where we could only let one cat into after we’d carefully gotten the other out of it. If we screwed up, or someone tried to pass from one zone to the other and Libby was close enough to launch a running charge through the doorway, War was on!
They had separate feeding spots, separate litter boxes, separate toys and nesting boxes, everything. There was nothing for them to compete over. They even each had their ‘own’ separate person!
And then, almost as suddenly, it stopped. It was like Libby just got bored with it, or something. She’d occasionally glare or hiss at Tracy, but that was it. It took months for Tracy to ever really relax when Libby was around though. and the two never got to the point of being willing to share the couch or a window sill, as they had originally done, but at least we could walk around our house without constantly worrying “Where’s Libby? Is she in running range?” every time we opened a door.
Anyway… don’t give up hope. These things can pass. The vet guessed the separation we’d enforced might have sort of let whatever had triggered the sensitization/hatred between the two fade away. Hopefully something similar will happen with your pair.
I hope it’s gone well, bobkitty. I’ll be inheriting a very nice six-year old male in a few months from a relative who’s moving out of the country. He likes other cats and I’m pretty sure my little female will be fine with him, but my male is an asshole. Not looking forward to it.
Mini-rant about eating potato chips in public. Now I love a chip more than just about any food, but due to the noise factor I eat them at home or by myself. I do not want to hear that nasty crunching sound from anyone’s mouth. It’s just so freakin’ loud. CRUNCHCRUNCHCRUNCH.
Seriously, it’s a very forgiving vehicle for a new driver – you don’t have to worry about vehicle damage from popping up on a curve, for example – and being in control of a vehicle of that size really makes you focus on what you’re doing.