You can get a not-all-in-one laser printer for somewhere in the $200s (or maybe less if they’re on sale). That’s the price range I got mine in. I would have sprung for the copier+scanner option for $400 but it was too physically big. I haven’t replaced the toner yet, and by my estimate I have almost made up for the toner already since by this time I would have replaced the toner in my inkjet at least twice.
One hour past schedule and counting. Instead of (my plan) stage everything that needs to be packed, pack the truck, and go, we’ve gone with (his plan) nag wife “is this ready”, pack randomly, unpack because he forgot the pack & play, cuss, argue, repack, apologize to crying wife, etc.
Days like this make me fondly reminisce about being single.
For some reason, my Lynn Bodoni email address gets a LOT of Republican political spam, especially from Arizona and New Mexico. I get entreaties from Republicans in these states to vote for them and/or give them money. Every now and then I write to them, and tell them that they are buying email addresses from the wrong people, because I don’t live in those states, and they can expect a massive blizzard in those areas before I’m going to give a Republican any money.
The Five Guys at Tyson’s Corner Center has closed. I was planning on eating there, but the front is covered by a tarpaulin; I peeked behind it and all the fixtures are gone.
I really hope it’s just for renovation because if not, it really restricts my options. The Dairy Queen (the only place in the whole mall that served onion rings, and their Flamethrower Grillburgers were to die for) closed a few months ago. In neither case was there any sign or other warning that this was going to happen. Why the fuck can’t they at least put some notice in the goddamn newspapers or something?
There’s still Elevation Burger, but their burgers are about half as good as Five Guys, more expensive, and have severely restricted choices of toppings. No BBQ sauce!
And what is with nobody making onion rings any more? Are onions a goddamn endangered species now??
Burger King isn’t even making onion rings any more 
No, seriously, what they call onion rings literally taste like cardboard.
Sick and tired of fighting going to sleep! lol… I spent the first 35yrs of my life sleeping pretty much anywhere I wanted, never an issue. The past 6 years?.. bah!! August has sucked… I dont understand, i’m older now shouldn’t I be MORE tired at the end of the day??
I’m beat until I lay down, then it’s like my brain goes “nope… not today!! and for added measure lets make sure you fret about it the next day too so the next night is even worse!!!”
wtf??! bah
Your dr. might have something helpful in his/her arsenal. I went onto an SSRI for anxiety about a year ago, and as a bonus, my insomnia has mostly gone away. I assume the reduced anxiety calms down the brain/hamster-wheel cycle.
Good luck. Insomnia SUX.
I have some xanax I use for flyihg… but I hate taking it for insomnia…lol, feels like I “wuss” out.
Not necessarily. My grandmother has always been on the night owl end (1), but for the last few years she complains that she “can’t sleep worth shit!”
At night. Can’t sleep worth shit at night. Except for eating and using the bathroom, her mornings are now spent sleeping in her armchair. I sometimes wonder how much of the problem is her age and how much the age of the mattress… (I think it’s gotten replaced once in the last 45 years - no idea whether it got replaced in the previous 12 since that house was bought).
1: can’t imagine where she got it from: both her brother and father weren’t so much night-owls as morning-sleepers; one of the father’s jobs was as a “lab tech” for the oil industry, and he’d run the analysis in the kitchen at home between getting there from a night out and the women getting up (great-grandma worked as a washerwoman, the three sisters were seamstresses).
I love sleeping with the window open and a fan blowing the cool air in when the weather is cool. When it’s down into the 50’s at night is the only time I’m ever using my covers and blanket.
Except this motherfucking Crow that parks nearby and caws incencently every 15-30 seconds every morning about 1 hour to 15 minutes before my alarm goes off.
If I wasn’t in the city, I’d be walking outside with a shotgun and put an end to that shit.
My dad, who had a stroke almost two months ago, was supposed to come home from rehab tomorrow. Instead, he’s been transferred back to managed care because of a possible brain infection. They’ll know more tomorrow, but sure as heck he’s not going home.
And now I have to contact my brother, who’s all the way in San Diego to let him know what’s up. I don’t really mind doing that. I also have to decide if I wanna tell my sister, who’s made it passive-aggressively clear that she really doesn’t give a shit about what happens to him. And it’s frustrating because…well, it’s not like I had this excellent relationship with him. I didn’t talk to him for four years. But he’s still my fucking dad, you know? And, really, I don’t want to be the only one there.
And I’m scared that it won’t go well and he’s going to die, even though I intellectually know that’s not really on the table right now. I still get scared.
Arrrgh! Nobody, it seems, ever knows how to spell “every day” correctly. It’s always spelled as “everyday.” I see this mistake every day. It’s become an everyday annoyance.
I went to a grocery store in Halifax this summmer and the “everyday/every day” mistake was all over the store. Annoying!
In your honor we should name the next minirant thread “Everyday I’m triflin’.”
I’m so sorry. Parental illnesses are really hard to cope with. After my mom died it was incredibly hard to sort out how I felt about her after years of abuse. I finally let it go for my own sanity. He’s your father and you have every right to feel feelings that aren’t always clear even to you.
My own father continues to be almost impossible in the immediate aftermath of my mom’s passing. He yells at me when I call to find out how he is. I desperately want to tell him you are not the only one grieving mom. I am not the reason she died. Please stop yelling me as if I were. It’s only because I am a good person that I call at all as you are a pain in the neck right now.
It gets even worse when dealing with siblings. Idiot Brother’s latest stunt was to call me nasty names when someone gave my book a favorable shout out. If he pulls this stunt when it comes out on Amazon in a few days I’m going after him with every ounce of venom I have. He’s about to be 38. He’s been unemployed for a long time, attends college part-time and is only homeles because my father hasn’t thrown him out.
LavenderBlue is absolutely correct with that statement but you have to remember the same is true for your sister too.
I recommend that you talk to her and make it clear that you’re not going to try and change her mind about your dad (and then don’t) but that you need to maintain your relationship with her for your own sake. Understand that she’s as conflicted as you she’s just fallen on the other side of the fence. Don’t be passive aggressive back though, if you say you’re not going to try and change her mind don’t. Make sure that anything you ask her to do or to listen to is about or for you not him.
My sister and I are getting along fine. I haven’t pursued the point with her, and I don’t intend to. Her life, her choice. But goddamn if it doesn’t suck that I’m the only one dealing with this on a regular basis, you know?
The missing/misused spaces are rapidly becoming a pet spelling peeve of mine; either there’s more of them than there used to be or I have a space stuck in my eye, because I keep seeing them.
Re. parental deaths:
July 7th is my parents’ wedding anniversary. This year, Mom was in Barcelona visiting Grandma, I was in Barcelona because that’s where I happened to be working, and it fell on the weekend so I hopped over to Grandma’s. We were in the deli when Mom managed to drive the conversation with the owners to “oh this is horrible, today would have been my wedding anniversary!” “No, Mom, today is your wedding anniversary, only because the other side is missing doesn’t mean it’s not the anniversary of the day you two got married” “dramatic sigh Ah, it’s been years, but it will always hurt!” “12 years, yes” “12 years? It hasn’t been 12 years” “February 25th 2000, Mom” “Really?” “Yes Mom” “How come you remember it?” “Because it’s the day I lost my father. You also don’t remember what dates the Bros were born, Mom.” “Oh well, that’s irrelevant” “Yes Mom”. But she stopped the moaning and went back to picking food, which was what we were there for damnit.
Every year she spends June and 3/4 of July making this huge production of “oh, my husband is not with us any more!” And every year, when she moans to family for too long, someone ends up reminding her “I lost my brother/father/friend on the same day, you know.” At least she’s stopped complaining about her pension being too low because he retired a bit early: her pension is the maximum, she wouldn’t have gotten more if he’d been working to 100.
Angel, that’s tough and I’m sorry you have so much to deal with right now.
I don’t know what your relationship with your sister is like, but is there any chance you can ask for her help as a gesture to you? If you’re honest about not wanting to go through this alone, perhaps she’ll be willing to get involved out of concern for you.
That does suck 
Idiot. If I have something listed on Craigslist for $100, do NOT make your opening inquiry “How much will you take for it?”
I’ll take $100, asshole. If you have a better idea, shoot.