Looks like Snowplow Guy finally gets a break after this extraordinarily snowy winter. As springtime looms ahead, we’re getting more and more sunshine and what precipitation there is is now coming in the form of rain and even spring thunderstorms. Ever the pessimists, the weather bureau is now warning that still-frozen ground that can’t absorb rainfall may lead to water accumulation and flooding. Those guys must be real fun at parties!
Minor disaster at Best Buy. We took the kid to get a laptop for his 6th birthday. Naturally the best laptop was not available in store and so he was told he had to wait two days for shipping. This would be hard on any kid but my particular kid has a REALLY hard time when things don’t go according to plan. He was causing a bit of a scene.
But I have to hand it to him. He rallied. Once I got him out of the laptop area (first rule of my son’s meltdowns is: get him away from the trigger), I explained the situation and that this laptop would be the very best one if he waited until his birthday, followed by promises he could use my computer with his new mouse once we got home.
He really did calm down. Waited patiently as you please for Dad to check out. It shows how much he’s grown. It was stressful, yes, but he got through it.
Now he’s sitting at my computer playing Universe Sandbox on his own (it’s an amazing physics-based simulator of the universe - check it out.) I was worried with the laptop he was still too young for a mouse, but he’s sitting here using it on my PC like a pro. Guess he just needed one his size.
It warms my heart to see him playing a real game instead of passively watching it on YouTube. It’s going to open up a whole new world for him.
Based on your previous posts I expected a lot worse of an outcome. That’s great for him.
Yes and he’s had a full month without any behavioral notes from school! He really seems to have turned a corner.
Just because someone is a murderer doesn’t mean they’re an immediate threat to others. I’d be making arrangements to move because someone with a history of bad relationships (as evidenced by the fact that it ended in murder) and gun violence is likely to be a difficult person, but they’re probably fine if you leave them alone. Maybe don’t hire her to babysit, though.
I see what you’re saying.
Personally, I make that judgement based on the context in which it happened. People who kill romantic partners are statistically more likely to use violence to resolve conflicts. Domestic violence and violence against the police, retaliatory violence etc are very strongly linked statistically. A person who would kill their romantic partner might also kill someone who just generally pissed them off.
Now it’s entirely possible it was a self-defense measure, and the fact that no arrest was made suggests it’s doubtful we’re talking about a stone cold killer, but I’m still gonna worry about it.
I broke my brain to complete my puzzle game today, finally got the last two puzzles, strode triumphantly into the final showdown… And got the worst ending in the game. I ended up as a human sacrifice. 
Doesn’t that just feel appropriate lately, though?
Just a bunch of mini annoyances all day today.
I woke up a big hungover, after drinking some mostly vile beer the previous night, received an automated call from the credit card fraud department for a purchase I made yesterday, and confirmed yesterday was legit, partially spilled a drink down my back as I was making my way back to my car from making a return and purchase, cleaned it up, while an employee on break smoked next to my car with no thought of moving just a bit away, had a drink spill in my car, which cleaned up and then successfully closed the car door on my index finger, had one card refused when paying parking to the point that parking cost more because of the elapsed time it took to get another card out to pay.
Add to that, I started looking a flights for later this month to visit a friend that has stage 4 cancer, which means it might be just a trip to say goodbye to them.
Ah well, a new week start tomorrow (I don’t care what anyone else says the week starts on Monday dammit!) so maybe things will improve, though given that the time changed, it will be difficult for people to stick to their schedules for a good part of it.
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Do you have a drinking problem? How do you spill a drink down your back?
I remember how funny that hit when I saw it for the first time.
In my case it was because I had two drinks to carry back to the car, while also carrying a box in one of my hands, so not enough hands to carry everything. I put one drink in the drink holder(?) of my sling backpack thinking I could walk steadily enough that it would not spill, alas, halfway to my car I started to feel wetness on the back of my pants 
//i\\
That is simply crazy! You really had a wipe out of a day.
Hope it gets better.
My daughter’s class went on a winter camp and they went sledding. Stupid ass teacher didn’t check to made sure it was completely safe and my daughter and her friend wound up getting injured. It’s gotten icy earlier this year, so the snow was fast.
The teacher checked to make sure the top of the run was flat, but I guess he forgot about physics and didn’t look at the end of the run so he didn’t see the ravine at the end if they got better at going faster on their two-person sled.
The friend got hurt pretty badly, with a nasty laceration to the eyelid and a fractured orbital bone. My daughter had bruised ribs but no apparent damage to her spinal cord.
The teacher didn’t call an ambulance but rather had the somewhat-trained health teacher come up and they took them to the ER.
Contact with us parents was haphazard, and we were given incomplete information. I was on a plane back home when it happened but the teacher who contacted me didn’t have complete information.
It’s a small private school and they are still having growing pains. I’ve talked to the leaders and complained but it’s annoying.
@TokyoBayer
One would think the staff would be more observant and careful with winter activites.
Those sound like nasty injuries - bruised ribs and a fractured orbital bone are going to be painful for awhile.
You probably already know this, but just in case…
Are you sure you didn’t accidentally disable your touchpad? I have mine (deliberately) disabled because I don’t use it and I often inadvertently move the cursor with my fat hands.
mmm
Glad things weren’t worse. I’m going to roll out my best sledding adventure.
Sledding at a state park golf course, I was about 10. Six person toboggan, we convinced mom to ride with us.
Down the hill we fly, we can tell we’re going to set a distance record. Through virgin snow, across a road, in to bushes on the other side. Just after we crossed, a car went by on the road. No ones fault in particular, we had probably gone 20 yards farther than anyone else ever.
When we went back the next weekend, the road was closed. I’m assuming mom made a call.
I don’t fault anyone there because you were with parents, but this was a school trip and the teacher has years of experience and should know better.
I’m or happy because this is not the first time that something happened and the communication with the parents is hit or miss. There are a few teachers who are conscientious about contacting the parents when something happens and others who don’t.
Agreed. As an American in America, I can’t imagine a school having a sledding trip - the potential for even minor injuries would have trial lawyers salivating (note that I have a lot of lawyers in my immediate family, although none of them are personal injury).
Another gaming rant.
Recently download Slay the Spire II (it rocks) and they have a multiplayer mode now so I invited my husband to join me. In Steam I had heard you could set up families/teams where you can share your library with a select group of people. So I created a team, added him in and he downloaded the game.
But it wouldn’t let him play it. You can share libraries but you can’t both play the game at the same time. So he had to buy it and we now have two copies of the game in our shared library.
What the fuck is even the point?
I know this is mostly a rant about both of you not being able to game at the same time, but I actually find the shared library thing quite useful. There are plenty of games where either I, or members of my “family” (they don’t have be even living with you) don’t play at the same time, either because we have different schedules, or one or the other of us has lost interest/conquered the game. In those scenarios the library works great.
//i\\