Oh, Dung. I’m so sorry. You’ve been visited by aliens. The foot thing was an entrance port. I suspect in 20mos. or so, you’ll be giving birth. A little green one is in your future. Possibly one that looks a little spidery. Good luck. Send me an invite to the baby shower.
I have to put down one of my rescue kittens today. At 6pm. He has FIP. Incurable. I was sooo hoping 2019 would be better than 2018. It’s not starting great.
Awww, llcoolbj77…that’s neither a whine nor a mini-rant, just full-on terrible. 
Reading the thread on college admissions brings up a lot of emotions. I’m increasingly aware of how completely my school-age bullies and unsupportive family damn near ruined my life. I spent decades and made-life altering decisions based on the idea that everyone hated me, I couldn’t do anything right, and I didn’t deserve to have good things happen to me. Now I’m 40 and I wonder what my world would have been like if I had grown up with self-esteem and enthusiasm, as opposed to guilt and shame and self-hatred.
I can relate. But I really don’t know ANYone who “grew up with self-esteem and enthusiasm”. They’ve all overcoming their childhoods. Mostly successfully… until a sensitive hot button gets unexpectedly pushed.
The best revenge on bad parenting is to raise your kids without making the same mistakes. I’m proud to say my kids are less screwed up than I am!
And, hey, I got to punch the worst of my school bullies… at my 40th reunion.
“Hey, what was that for?” *
“For all the times you beat me up on the way home from school in 1961.” *
“Well, I don’t remember it [chuckle] but it sounds like something I would’ve done. I’m really sorry. We even now?”
“Yeah, that was some cheap-ass therapy.”
“One of?”
Out of how many?
I mean, I can only sympathize with (but never fully comprehend) the pain this causes you, but I hope you can find some comfort in the rescues you’re able to see through to their permanent homes. The work you’re doing makes you a hero.
Peace.
A big, hearty “fuck you” to the vandal who ripped off a large branch from one of our Japanese maples last night and tossed it into the street. I hope your new year is filled with misery and unhappiness, you prick.
I’m so sorry. FIP sucks.
I would appreciate some healthy thoughts for my cat. He’s been dealing with kidney disease since the summer and I thought he had been doing pretty well. Special diet and CBD oil and he was pretty much back to his old self.
Monday (NYE) he didn’t eat much but I wasn’t terribly worried because he’s had some off days here and there. Tuesday-Thursday he was back to eating normally. Yesterday he wouldn’t touch his food. He stood over his food bowl and yowled. I got some of his old food out just to see if he would eat anything at all or if I needed to get him to the emergency vet. He ate the old food like he was starving. He ate more of the old food overnight and again this morning but won’t touch his kidney food.
I called the vet this morning and told them what was going on. He said the old food would be OK for a couple days if that’s what he’s eating but he wanted me to bring him in on Monday.
I don’t know what I’m going to do if his kidney numbers are bad again. I’m going to have to make a decision and I want to do right by him. I’m hoping the vet will have something else we can try before it gets to that point. Right now he’s sleeping peacefully in a pile of towels I just took out of the dryer. I don’t think he’s uncomfortable or in any pain.
Maybe he’ll wake up from his nap and be back to “normal” again…he’s given me scares before but this one feels different. I’m dreading Monday more than usual.
Prayers for your kitty, DrG.
Poor, kitty-kitty. Good luck, good vibes and good wishes!
It’s called the Channel Tunnel. No-one in the country on either end of it calls it the ‘Chunnel’. That’s a repulsive word that sounds like a bubbling drain full of vomit.
There was a brief, sad attempt to popularise the word in the UK, before we came to our senses, quietly picked it up in a napkin and shamefully disposed of the thing, but it has unaccountably stuck, like dogshit to a shoe, in the Americas.
The following names are acceptable, and will not cause us to tut, make subtle eye contact with each other with raised brows, or say ‘Well…’ after you’ve left, slightly shaking our heads:
Channel Tunnel
‘the Tunnel’
The Eurotunnel
or Eurostar (the name of the train).
Early afternoon Saturday, I started coughing, a lot. Throughout the day, I was getting a headache (from the constant coughing, presumably), and the constant spasms started making me very congested. My face felt hot, but putting my hand on my forehead, it didn’t feel like I was having a fever.
Took Advil as per the bottle’s instructions, but to say I got a single hour of sleep that night would be a bold and unsubstantiated claim.
Spend Sunday morning on the couch, hoping it’s a 24-hour bug, but around 3 pm, I realize I’m going to have to take more action, so I run to the pharmacy, and text some co-workers to let them know I’m heading to the office to take my work computer home so I won’t be Patient Zero.
Describe to the pharmacist what my symptoms are (including a little bit of tenderness, but I think that could be due to the fact that I’ve been coughing so much for 24 hours, non-stop), and she suggests one other medication. I maybe got another two hours of sleep last night.
So, I’ve been working remotely for the past hour (which isn’t so hard to justify since I deal with people in time zones ahead of mine).
Being sick is bad enough, but there are a few other factors. I have a co-worker who is a real busy-body and makes a point to notice when people are in or out of the office. Also, I have a very important phone meeting Tuesday, and I’m sure I’ll be asked to give a presentation. I can’t speak more than a sentence before hacking up a lung. And, possibly the worst, I have a phone interview with a firm on Wednesday afternoon. I don’t want to attempt to reschedule it early, on the off-chance I get better in 48 hours, but I don’t think it’s good for me to message him hours before and explain the situation.
The only good thing is I have a doctor’s appointment (for something else), and maybe that doctor will see what’s going on and possibly direct me to someone who might be able to help me out, immediately.
So, hitting up CVS after the rush hour and raiding the pills section for anything that might address my symptoms, but honestly, I’m not optimistic.
So this made its way into my social media feed today. (TLDR: it’s about traffic camera generated tickets)
“This is expected to preserve many of the safety benefits of having cameras at these intersections while lowering the financial burden on residents.”
Lowering the financial burden…on those who deserve a financial burden. I absolutely sneer, with all my might, at those who say red light cameras and photo radar are primarily ‘revenue generating’ devices*. Simply self-serving codswallop. I’ve been cited exactly twice by such devices–once when I ran a red light, and once when I was driving in excess of the posted speed limit. I was not tricked, I chose to break the law and I got fined. Know how many times I’ve ‘generated revenue’ by doing nothing wrong? Ze-Ro. But I HAVE toed the line when I knew there were ticket-writing cameras watching (hey, I’m nobody’s bitch, but I ain’t stoopid) The devices are NOT revenue generators. They disincentivize unsafe driving practices. ONLY those who get fined are lawless perpetrators. Nation of laws my hairy ass. You honestly gonna tell me you shouldn’t be held accountable for breaking a law if a person doesn’t catch you in the act? Hell, maybe I should run for political office and use my campaign funds for all sorts of tawdry shit, since nobody cares unless they see you doing it, right?
What else what else…Oh yeah. 5 lanes of interstate. That one person in the middle lane driving the speed limit? Annoying, but he’s not doing anything wrong. It’s the badgers driving side by side in the lanes to his left that make my eyeballs glow.
Oh, and God glurge. Today it’s “Sleep in peace tonight, knowing GOD is BIGGER than anything you face tomorrow.” Sounds sweet, doesn’t it? Almost like the God in question isn’t the one who’s gonna be throwing all that big shit at me tomorrow. Seriously, “Sleep tight punkin, Daddy’s gonna whup your ass all day tomorrow, but he won’t leave any marks. And remember, Daddy loves you.”
- The most vocal opponents of the gizmos cite craftily-placed devices, fraudulently documenting violations or whatever. If such exist, fine, you get a pass. I’ve encountered hundreds of the things, and the game has always been fair–plenty of time to adjust speed after a posted limit sign; no ‘short yellow’ lights.
Sorry to have been so unobservant; in our defense, however, had you been a bit more vociferous in carrying out the disposal, it might not have gone unnoticed over on this side of the Atlantic.
They’re English, they only do vociferous when it involves sports.
In 1994, children in Duplin County, North Carolina were being taught all about the Chunnel. I will now strike the word from my vocabulary. (I thought the word sounded like something you might encounter at a frat house.)
This probably belongs in the workplace rants thread, but while I’m here… The lady two offices down from me is on speaker phone with a toddler. :smack: Yes, this is a regular occurrence.
Is she talking in that sing-song voice that some adults insist on using with children? Because no jury would convict if you brained her with her own computer.
Surprisingly, no sing-song voices…just loud, repetitive statements (“Are you watching TV? Are you watching TV? Is it good? Is it good?”).
I was actually thankful for this morning’s two hour conference call/meeting.
I was taking a shower this morning when the phone rang, so I went to listen to the message after I got out. Somebody named Sabrina said that there is a “civil case” filed against me and I needed to call a number and reference a case number. I figured it was a scam, so I just deleted it. Just now, I got a text from my sister, who goes by a different last name and lives in a different county, saying they contacted her to let me know about this case and case number. But the phone number they gave her, when I google it, goes to a car dealership in New Jersey. What?
It’s a scam. The same automated call, thus the same “case number”. It is more interesting when it keeps calling a lawyer. Or an office of several lawyers. At any rate, you can tell it is a scam because any legitimate legal issue will come by mail, usually registered to confirm delivery; or by the presence of some sort of process server.
My own rant, chosen from the dozen or so things conspiring to drive me batty today, is I have a cold and it is windy outside. A passing cold front is blowing 20-30 mph with higher gusts. Made even more fun by being on the 36th floor. I can hear the building creak. Which is fine, but I think my sinus cavity my explode any time now.