I had reason to call my place of employment through the client number. It gave that blurb… the person that recorded it died eight years ago, a mere three years after he retired.
Another rant about my brother in law because I’m unoriginal. Ever since the pandemic began, he’s been hyper vigilant. And I don’t mean hyper vigilant “wear your mask in public, make sure you wash your hands,” I mean hyper vigilant as in, “set up a ‘decontamination zone’ in your garage, make your wife shower for X number of minutes after she goes to the grocery, don’t allow her to touch your phone ever, sleep in a different bed, refuse to walk in the neighorhood,” kind of vigilant. My sister let me know that whenever she goes shopping, she has to spend at least one hour washing her purchases (which he insists she handle with gloves) to ensure they’re disinfected.
As such, we were all really excited for him when they both got vaccinated, thinking that might help with his anxiety. We were wrong. My sister enrolled their dog into an obedience school. The guy was caught bleaching the dog last month because COVID. What. The. Fuck.
Anyway, he insists his therapist told him his “caution” was normal, but I’m pretty sure his therapist doesn’t know he was bleaching the damn dog. Because therapists are as good as the information you give them. It caused a nearly knock-down drag-out fight and now my BIL and sister aren’t speaking. Also, their kids have been damaged by this whole thing - their oldest now refuses to leave the house and washes his hands until they crack. So my sister is taking him to a therapist, too. I feel terrible for her.
This vacation with them is going to be…challenging. I guess we won’t have to worry about the BIL trying to dictate what my kids do if they go out in public, though, since they won’t be allowed within 10 feet of BIL or his kids.
He has gone full-blown germaphobe (or technically speaking, a mysophobe). Based on your description of his behavior, this has gone beyond COVID, and will most likely continue well past the time when it is no longer considered a pandemic and people talk about it in the past tense. Generally this condition is caused by extreme anxiety, depression, or a traumatic situation, and the COVID-19 pandemic may have been a source of all of these for him. Since this seems to have reached the point of harming his relationships with people and even endangering the family pet, he should seek some kind of therapy.
I see this a lot, where spouses are expected to reinforce someone’s anxiety disorder this way, else they are accused of being unsupportive. By giving in to these ridiculous standards your sister inadvertently made his anxiety worse. I’m not blaming her, just trying to explain the dynamic. I’ve seen a lot of people with anxious tendencies really kick into overdrive with COVID. My husband isn’t that extreme but even he has demonstrated behaviors that seem more anxiety-based than demonstrative of prudent caution. He researches obsessively. By comparison, I’ve been following CDC guidelines because that’s what you do during a public health crisis but I haven’t spent much time worrying about it.
It sounds like your BIL has OCD. Whether it’s bound only to COVID or will generalize after the pandemic it’s hard to say. But his behavior is not normal or healthy and your sister should not be expected to limit her own behavior based on his anxiety disorder. I think it’s time for sister to have a sit-down with her husband and his therapist to talk about what’s really going on.
Hell, just hit #4 and see what happens. 
I just spent an interminable amount of time on the phone with a laboratory going through the (un)changed menu options, listening to the blather until I was finally given a key number to indicate I needed other information, at which point I got a recording saying my call could not be transferred. This led to my calling another lab outlet of the same company, which reeled off more options (again, none of which were applicable).
Miracle of miracles, when the Disembodied Recording asked me to state what kind of assistance I wanted and I said “Need to speak to human being” it actually connected me to one who was helpful. More often than not, the plea for a human just confuses the Robot Receptionist and you get directed back to the main menu.
As for germ-phobia, I was already partway there before Covid, having a tendency when walking down a hospital corridor to hold my breath when approaching a germy-looking individual, or keeping my distance from similar folk in other indoor settings. The pandemic has if anything reinforced that tendency.
My BIL is almost the opposite. He refused to mask up and isn’t going to be vaccinated. He’s going to be in for a rude awaking when he tries to come down next month for Fang’s graduation/birthday party next month. I’ve reiterated to him that his sister has leukemia (she’s getting better), and the chemo has nearly wiped out her immune system. If you’re not fully vaccinated, you’re not coming. I think he thinks their parents are going to override me and let him come. Not in my house, buddy. Your sister’s health is much more important to me than your desire to see you nephews or your paranoid conspiracy theories. I think his mother backs me up on this, but does not want to be the Bad Guy. I guess that’s up to me, I don’t mind.
And all the mumpers are standing right along side of you.
The latest web page design “feature” is driving me insane…
Start to read the article, scroll down a bit, hit a video…which almost invariably anymore has NOTHING to do with the article I am trying to read. So now it becomes a game of my trying to hunt for the pause or X button before the accursed thing starts to play, making me waste the time I should be spending reading, you know, the article in question. Anyone who puts shite like that on a web page needs to be strung up by their thumbs and forced to listen to It’s a Small World over and over for 24 hours.
Damn, I hate that. My news source for Taiwan’s covid situation has that and it’s annoying as hell.
Maybe try gethuman.com?
CNN had an article today that did that. 
Hardware store rant!
I went out this morning to buy a Thing. While at the store, I realized I didn’t know if I needed two (2) Things or not.
I could buy two, knowing I’d possibly come back to return one .. or I could buy one Thing, knowing I’d possibly be back for another one.
Went with the latter option.
(You see where this is going… ?)
Got home. DON’T NEED THE DAMN THING AT ALL.
Going back later anyway to return, I guess. FML
I heartily endorse this rant.
My rule of hardware store: You can never make just one trip.
Doesn’t even have to be a physical hardware store. I ordered a whole bunch of stuff from Amazon related to setting up my new projection home theater, and sure enough, a day or two later I thought of more items that I might or might not need, but wanted to have on hand. There was no way to add to the order, so I had to place a whole second order. It all arrived on the same day.
Bad news and good news. I’ve been in a funk since last night when I tried to flush out my ear with warm water and a syringe, to get rid of excess wax. Instead, the effort just somehow totally blocked the ear and I was completely deaf in one ear. And no amount of further spritzing could fix it. Anyone who’s experienced that knows how disorienting it is.
The good news is that a walk-in clinic just up the street took care of the problem quickly and promptly. But the really odd thing is that they wanted to get paid for it – just $20, but why? It’s like being in the US, but I’m in Canada, which has single-payer. But as I’ve often said, single-payer is great for nearly everything, especially the way it pays for major medical procedures with not a cent required from the patient. But they’re notorious for nickel-and-diming on small things. Apparently an “ear flush” is no longer considered a covered medically necessary procedure. The logic is simple. The cost is a pittance to the individual, but in the aggregate, multiplied by thousands or millions, it saves them a boatload of cash. (I’m sure they also billed the single-payer system for the “consultation”. No doctor is going to spend 20 minutes with a patient for $20. But I guess there is no valid code for this particular remedial procedure.)
$20? I weep for the US medical system (would have cost $200)
Hubs is still sick. He’s got fever, fatigue a nasty deep cough and sleeps about 20 hours a day. This has been going on for 10 days and he still hasn’t gotten better. He denies that he’s sick and is positive its not COVID or the flu because he doesn’t get that sort of thing. Its all a hoax.
Today I asked him what he was getting out of this because he’s ruining his health and he didn’t have an answer. I told him that he had promised to call his doctor last Monday and he just shrugged and went to bed.
You know how some seemingly happy, long-term marriages suddenly fall apart without warning? That’s what’s happening here. I refuse to spend the last 20 or so years of my life nursing someone who can’t be bothered to care for his own health.
I’m sorry but I’ve had it with fucking DOGS AND THEIR FUCKING OWNERS.
Today I went for my daily walk through my neighborhood. First, there was a “boundary trained” dog that ran out of its house when the owner opened the front door, and while I was on the sidewalk the whole time, this fucker growled and barked at me until I crossed the street despite me even putting my arms in the air and sweet talking the mongrel . Did the owner do anything to correct the dogs behavior? Nope he just went on his errand. I’m sorry sir, your house looks like its 500sf. What is it this mutt is protecting you from? You have Fort Knox in your basement?
Next, again, just walking the sidewalk minding my own business when suddenly a dog lunges at me, and barks at me and pulls its owner towards me with its leash. I make a joke about it, she laughs, but Jesus Christ lady, who is running the asylum here? Has your dog ever had obedience training? If it escapes with the leash is it going to attack me? Who is the alpha here?
Finally, I come home, and our new neighbors have a backyard dog that barks at ANYTHING that walks by, including me. I even walk into my garage and this fucking thing barks at me, and not in what I or anyone would feel is a friendly way.
I get it, dogs sometimes get overstimulated and bark. That’s why they are sometimes called “watch dogs”. But if you are a dog owner, at what point do you get sick of the racket and just teach your idiot mutt to just shut the fuck up?
Couple of small ones tonight:
- When I was thinking that I was getting a bit burned out at work and could use a break, this is not what I had in mind.*
- I’ve always been slightly annoyed that I can’t grow a presentable beard, but now that I’m past 50, boy howdy am I growing a fine crop out of my ears. sigh
*For those who don’t click links, due to an outbreak of COVID, the entire state of Victoria is on lockdown for a week. Consequently, I’ve been stood down from my job.
I feel for you, @JaneDoe42. I hope you can get him to see the light soon.