NO ONE would be sane after that. Why isn’t the clinical psychologist giving you a break by taking the kids for a day? Both of you use some vacation time and he takes the kids for a week, or at least a long weekend.
Even “these days” there are places you could go to refresh… hell, even if it’s just take a book on a hike or to a park…
This is what we discussed last night. I do have some vacation days saved up, and I think it’s high time I took some.
Good for him, and good for you!
And congrats for being able to discuss it rationally (I assume if there was bloodshed, you’d have mentioned that).
That made my punchin’ fist curl.
Our shelter cat has a wee bit of Maine Coon. Looks wise and personality. You might get luck as they have said up thread. We sure did.
So sorry about TBCitW .
@Spice_Weasel, if there’s room for a desk and chair in your bedroom, I suggest getting a KVM switch. That will let you switch between using your work and your personal laptop/desktop with an external monitor, keyboard, and mouse without having to move cables and dongles around all the time. It won’t help with the noise, but at least it would be more ergonomic than trying to work while sitting in/on a bed and you’ll be able to see what you’re looking at instead of squinting all the time or zooming in to the point where you can read it but now don’t have enough of the information visible because teeny screen, and how did we manage with those 15" CRTs way back when? Oh, right, all text information …
That’s pretty close to what I do, but since I live alone, I can have my setup in my family room where I spend about 95% of my awake time.
[My setup is that I get to sit in my comfy chair (a La-z-boy recliner) and I have a special desk on wheels (which means I can have my feet up or down) that has built in Bluetooth speakers, 2 power outlets, and 2 USB power ports. On it, I have my external monitor (LG 34"), a trackball, a keyboard, and a KVM switch that lets me use all of this with both my work and personal laptops plus provides a couple of additional ports to let me plug in my USB headphones for meetings and a USB camera, in case I feel like people being able to see me.]
There are KVMs out there that let you plug in 2 monitors per computer, also (if your computer has two display outputs, but if not there are adapters that let you use a USB C to HDMI for a second display), but I haven’t gone that way because I want to be able to see the TV set, too, and two monitors would block it completely.
DId I mention that I love winter? Did I mention just a few of the reasons that I hate the coming of this goddam hot weather, or even the first signs of it? Why yes, I believe I did, right up in post #143.
But hey, I’m an easygoing kind of guy, and I take things as they come and make the best of them. I opened the window in my office where I have my computer, and the wafting of fresh spring air was really quite pleasant. And then the fucker across the street – the consummate DIY-er – decides it’s the perfect day to change out his winter tires and put on his summer wheels. And of course, like any annoying DIY-er, this fucker owns the perfect toy to play with while doing it. No tire wrenches for him. No, he has a fucking electric impact wrench that you can hear approximately ten miles away. I had to close the goddam window and I can STILL hear it.
Hello, summer! I know that you have so much more to offer: screeching children, roaring motorcycles, yappy neighbours, howling dogs. It’s all unfolding in the lovely months to come.
Drat. I was planning to make roast taters with my pork roast, and it turns out the taters have both sprouted and softened.
Gonna be butter & herb noodles, instead. I mean, I like them, but my teeth were kinda set for the roast taters.
Our neighbor behind us has been running some kind of leaf vac/blower for about the last two hours. 
Thankfully, my hearing aids have a “mute” function.
A clear advantage over Stone Age organic ears.
I used to work with an older fellow who said “I love winter, it keeps the creeps off of the streets.” I thought he was awfully misanthropic, now I agree with him.
My two rants about spring:
I have a neighbor who, in an older suburb with small lots, uses a wood burning furnace until the weather gets up to 72 overnight. Another dear neighbor got a fire pit last year and apparently needs a smoky back yard to keep the mosquitoes away. So between the two, I have to keep the house sealed tight - no delightful spring air. (Readers may wish to substitute the neighbor who barbeques all summer.)
Hay fever season from spring until autumn. Need I say more?
I know I’ll get flamed but so what. So many people went on and on , even on Here, about how Trump had to hold his cup with two hands! Ooh, he must be failing. But out president can’t walk up stairs and its all ignored. Aw. You’re all harper valley hypocrites! Just someone come here and admit you havbe two separate standards.
Hell ya, I havbe two (or more) separate standards. If someone I like is sick or injured, I offer support and well wishes. If someone I hate is sick or injured, well, fuck 'em.
thank you
You really are one of the most vapidly stupid, tedious idiots I have ever encountered. Trump invites ridicule because he’s a bombastic self-aggrandizing narcissist:
“His physical strength and stamina are extraordinary,” read the letter, which Bornstein had initially said he wrote himself. “If elected, Mr. Trump, I can state unequivocally, will be the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency.”
Bornstein now says that Trump had dictated the language as the doctor and his wife drove across Central Park.
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/385765-trumps-ex-doctor-says-trump-dictated-letter-claiming-he-would-be
As for Biden, it appears to be your belief that we should all be having a great big belly-laugh because an old man stumbled on a stairway. That may be your style, because you’re a brainless fucking idiot with the intelligence of a radish, but it’s not anyone else’s.
Yeah, it’s that time of year again. The homes behind me have hired their “landscaper” again this year because it’s getting sunnier and a little warmer and the grass has grown a quarter of an inch in spots, with a few isolated tufts towering as high as 3 inches above all else. Said “landscaper” still takes an hour to mow 2 quarter acre yards, and then there’s the 2-stroke trimmer and backpack blower for 20 minutes.
So for me, sonic-wise, it’s like the inauguration of turboprop commuter airline service for the neighborhood, though the plane is not quite as annoying as his stand-up zero-turn mower, followed by a 30 minute dirt bike motocross race.
“Landscaper” my ass. It’s mow, blow…and go. Cha-ching!
I’m glad to see some support for my summer-hate. Another one: there’s a specialty boutique grocery place down in the Big City, now a fair distance from me, with all kinds of wonderful goodies unobtainable anywhere else. I was just thinking about this because I’m going to be there tomorrow. In the winter, I can put perishables in the trunk and not have to worry about them, even if stuck in traffic for a long time. Even prepared sushi arrives perfectly fresh. In the summer, moving groceries is a pain, even with insulated grocery bags. And I can no longer put hot leftovers in the garage to cool, nor soon be able to keep bottled water or soda out there again until late next fall.
It’s a shame I’ve been so downcast about spring coming. Everybody saying “Oooohhh! I’m so glad it’s getting warmer!”. I want to backhand them. Yeah, it’s getting warmer, but before we’ve taken a half dozen breaths it’s going to be getting fecking hotter and then the air is going to assume the consistency of mud as dewpoints rise. Spring should be nice with it’s mild temperatures but then there’s the pollen, dirty trees, and cacophony of a neighborhood as you describe.
Great observation about perishables in the trunk of a car. That’s the one nice thing about winter: I can make my rounds the most convenient way and don’t have to make a bee-line for home like I do in the summer. Ditto about keeping bottled water, beer or whatever in the garage where it’ll be pre-chilled before you place them in the refrigerator when there’s room for it.
Then there’s the sun-bake effect on my bedroom. The thermostat is on the cool ( west ) side of the house and so it’s happy, but the sun beating on the bedroom on the east side of the house gets warm and stuffy unless I leave the door open to all the light and noise of the house.
I have a different thermostat-related issue. It’s not the fault of summer, but it only manifests in summer. For some strange reason, in summer – and only in summer – the part of the house where the thermostat is located reacts slowly to temperature changes in the rest of the house. On top of that, the A/C cycle has a hysteresis of 0.5 degrees C, while in winter the heating cycle is more like +/- 0.3. The end result is that in summer, the A/C cycles are long and relatively infrequent. I deal with it by switching the fan to “always on”, so that it varies between low-speed idle and high-speed when the A/C is on. Which, in turn, means I have to replace the filter more often.
And then there’s the lawn mowing and bush trimming. In winter the only issue is snow clearing, and I have a plow guy do that. The same guy does gardening in the summer season, but it’s more expensive than the plowing and so far I’ve intermittently gotten neighbourhood kids to do it or done it myself. But I’m not young any more (except in spirit) and I dislike sweating like a pig or getting sunstroke. I dislike getting heart attacks even more. Did I mention that I hate summer?
I live in Minnesota. Zone 4B for gardening. It’s been abnormally warm here, so many people are chomping at the bit to get out and work in their yards.
However, the general consensus is to not do anything until Mother’s Day. Okay, maybe rake the lawn later in April, but do not uncover anything or plant anything until Mother’s Day.
One snow berm in my sideyard just finally melted after we had a couple of inches of snow last week.
Why is my neighbor mowing?