# Thanks for Nothin'! November Mini-Rants **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [November 1, 2023, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thanks-for-nothin-november-mini-rants/992417 "2023-11-01T13:42:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 16
**Author:** ![scudsucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scudsucker/32/14101_2.png) [@scudsucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scudsucker)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2023, 10:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thanks-for-nothin-november-mini-rants/992417/301 "2023-11-14T10:40:02Z")
> [@Chef\_Troy](#): > > She didn’t make it I am really sorry for you and Chef\_Jr. I’ve been through that, albeit less traumatic. I still cry, 7 years later. ---
**Author:** ![Mundane\_Super\_Hero](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mundane_super_hero/32/6304_2.png) [@Mundane\_Super\_Hero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mundane_Super_Hero)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2023, 11:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thanks-for-nothin-november-mini-rants/992417/302 "2023-11-14T11:05:02Z")
I’m so very sorry for your loss… ---
**Author:** ![Mikkel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mikkel/32/13151_2.png) [@Mikkel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mikkel)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2023, 11:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thanks-for-nothin-november-mini-rants/992417/303 "2023-11-14T11:59:16Z")
I’m sorry for you and your son. It is never easy to say goodbye to a devoted friend through many years. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2023, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thanks-for-nothin-november-mini-rants/992417/304 "2023-11-14T13:37:12Z")
@Chef_Troy, so sorry you have to go through this. I hope the kitty went peacefully. I came to wail about the situation at my mother’s house. She looks after my grandmother, who has dementia. Grandma’s been having a rough month, with falls and night terrors. No major injuries so far, but she’s been to the ER a couple times and she looks like one big bruise. And now Mom’s got a bad case of covid. I don’t know what I can do besides go over there and get sick myself (I haven’t had the vaccine yet this year). But I may wind up doing that anyway. Mom hosts Thanksgiving, so I think that’s going to be cancelled. Doesn’t bother me, but it will everyone else. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2023, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thanks-for-nothin-november-mini-rants/992417/305 "2023-11-14T13:49:21Z")
> [@Dung\_Beetle](#): > > I don’t know what I can do besides go over there and get sick myself (I haven’t had the vaccine yet this year). But I may wind up doing that anyway. At least around here getting vaxxed is a walk-in deal. No crowds, lots of supply. Yes, it takes a couple/few days to reach full effectiveness, but it can’t hurt to get vaxxed then go see Mom & GM afterwards. ---
**Author:** ![rocking\_chair](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rocking_chair/32/2918_2.png) [@rocking\_chair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rocking_chair)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2023, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thanks-for-nothin-november-mini-rants/992417/306 "2023-11-14T14:49:19Z")
i’m so sorry to read this. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2023, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thanks-for-nothin-november-mini-rants/992417/307 "2023-11-14T15:26:09Z")
Hmm, I thought it took longer! I know the reaction from the shot will put me out of commission for about a day, so I’m waiting to see how things go for now. I don’t want to be sick on the day I decide I’m needed there. ---
**Author:** ![Chef\_Troy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/85f322/32.png) [@Chef\_Troy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chef_Troy)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2023, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thanks-for-nothin-november-mini-rants/992417/308 "2023-11-14T16:04:39Z")
Thanks, everybody. I know expressions of sympathy aren’t exactly… on brand for the Pit, but I appreciate it. I just can’t get over how fast this all went. She was not showing any signs of being sick, eating normally, not hiding or anything. The checkup was on a Sunday, she was in surgery by Wednesday after X-rays and a sonogram, and then they called me to say that during the surgery they were able to see that they couldn’t remove it without catastrophic damage to her internal organs and the most humane thing to do would be to just not wake her back up. We agreed to let her go, and now Mrs. Chef, Lil’ Miss Sous-Chef and I are trying to help Chef Jr. hold it together. I think he’s going to be okay - he’s said a couple of times that sometime down the road he wants to go to the clinic’s adoption area and see if he falls back in love. ---
**Author:** ![Chef\_Troy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/85f322/32.png) [@Chef\_Troy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chef_Troy)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2023, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thanks-for-nothin-november-mini-rants/992417/309 "2023-11-14T16:10:25Z")
Which leads me to another mini-rant that isn’t really all that mini. Chef Jr. had to take some time off work to mourn his cat, and they were really great about letting him do it, but he was already close to the line of his average weekly hours being below the line to qualify for health insurance (he’s a part-timer at a unionized grocery store). We were already worried that he would lose his insurance before this, and now we are more worried. So fuck you, America, for ever thinking that health care should be a) tied to your job, and b) something to profit on. I know how rare it is for a part-time job to even offer health benefits – it’s the main thing that has kept him working there even though he hates it – but see point a) above. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2023, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thanks-for-nothin-november-mini-rants/992417/310 "2023-11-14T16:37:29Z")
> [@Chef\_Troy](#): > > So fuck you, America, for ever thinking that health care should be a) tied to your job, and b) something to profit on. I agree with this fully. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2023, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thanks-for-nothin-november-mini-rants/992417/311 "2023-11-14T16:41:53Z")
I’m really sorry for you and your son, @Chef_Troy. Kitties are a love like no other. And I’m sorry American Healthcare sucks - consider me cosigned on that one. * * * Because Day 4 of required unnecessary insurance evaluation for my son will be done today. It will be a parent meeting in which they say, “Yup, your kid is autistic” and check a box for insurance. But it will be done. As of this moment, we have nothing else planned. No more evaluations, medical procedures or schedules to figure out. I’m not thinking about the future right now, lol. Potty training continues, nothing is really happening, oh well. My kid went nonverbal today over a very strange thing and with his lack of communication I was so overwhelmed I just had a mini-break down, right there. Rather than yelling at him, I sat down, buried my hands in my hair, bent over and had a good cry. I generally don’t emote in front of my kid, but sometimes I am just exhausted. My son has always been prompt dependent, but lately it has gone on overdrive. He had a total meltdown for 15 minutes this morning and he just lost the words to explain why. Turns out, he wanted to remove his Beep Beeps from the bed (plush racecars.) The items were right there in plain reach. He couldn’t just grab them himself, he needed me to give him approval to take his toys and go play with them. I wish I really understood what was going on in that special brain of his. I don’t normally spend too much time dwelling on it but today I am just feeling really bad about all the things I haven’t experienced with him yet, and wondering if I ever will. Everyone seems to think it’s all going to turn out okay, but they don’t live with his challenges in the day to day, they don’t really understand the more serious aspects of his disability because where it most shows up is the day to day routine, an intimate reality known only to his father and I. Yet sometimes I think people are just being willfully blind because people like my Aunt spend a few days with him every few months and she sees it and has always seen it. People may see her as pessimistic but I find it refreshingly honest when she says things like, “This could either turn out really fine or be a total shitshow” because that’s really the space we are living in right now. I’m so grateful for her and can’t wait to see her this Thanksgiving and just be with family who accepts us where we’re at. ---
**Author:** ![pjd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pjd/32/3009_2.png) [@pjd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pjd)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2023, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thanks-for-nothin-november-mini-rants/992417/312 "2023-11-14T17:22:14Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > He’d thank them for the offer, but he’d go do it himself. Sound advice. It has stood me in good stead, whatever that means. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2023, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thanks-for-nothin-november-mini-rants/992417/313 "2023-11-14T17:22:18Z")
I have a complaint that has been irking me for a while and continues to do so. Another peer in my office is giving a training. They are trained to do this training. Our org paid money to get them trained. Yet when they deliver this training I or a member of my team have been requested to be there to “support” them. On a Saturday. Because they are feeling very nervous and anxious. Well, fuck you! I get nervous and anxious too but no one would ever help me and honestly I’d never ask. I am out of town that day and so am skating out of my responsibility but I am so aggrieved that they are getting this special treatment. Are you not a professional? Same title as me so equivalant pay. STFU and deliver your training on your own. I do tons and tons and tons of trainings on my own. No one ever “supports” me because I am feeling “anxious”. ---
**Author:** ![jerseymule](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jerseymule/32/3155_2.png) [@jerseymule](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jerseymule)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2023, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thanks-for-nothin-november-mini-rants/992417/314 "2023-11-14T21:58:54Z")
To AT&T: why does my phone plus internet account have to be reactivated in order to cancel the service? I did not make an appointment to get the fiber optic cable installed because I was planning to cancel the service and get T-Mobile which operates without any kind of cable. Once I got the T-Mobile set up, I called AT&T to cancel and receive a final bill, but can’t cancel because my account is already deactivated. I am supposed to call back on December 7th, a day which will live in infamy. Then my account will be reactivated so I can cancel it. ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2023, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thanks-for-nothin-november-mini-rants/992417/315 "2023-11-15T04:10:04Z")
> [@pjd](#): > > It has stood me in good stead, whatever that means. It’s put me in a good place, metaphorically. ---
**Author:** ![whitetho](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whitetho/32/1059_2.png) [@whitetho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whitetho)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2023, 8:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thanks-for-nothin-november-mini-rants/992417/316 "2023-11-15T08:53:28Z")
Spent a couple hours trying to figure out info about mystery radio station “KWLS”, listed in the late 1920s on the FCC History Cards for station WCBS. Finally figured out that KWLS isn’t a station located west of the Mississippi River, but instead a transmitter power abbreviation for “kilowatt, local sunset”, i.e. the daytime power. ---
**Author:** ![slalexan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e47c2d/32.png) [@slalexan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slalexan)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2023, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thanks-for-nothin-november-mini-rants/992417/317 "2023-11-15T18:04:44Z")
Do you remember when I mentioned that my boss lost her daughter to suicide several months back? Well that same boss lost her husband yesterday. She cannot catch a break and I am ranting on her behalf today. My heart is broken for her, again. We don’t know when she’ll be back in to work and I don’t expect her back before the end of the year. ---
**Author:** ![Rebo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rebo/32/13005_2.png) [@Rebo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rebo)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2023, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thanks-for-nothin-november-mini-rants/992417/318 "2023-11-15T18:15:25Z")
To suicide also? That’s just terrible. ---
**Author:** ![Sylvanz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/fbc32d/32.png) [@Sylvanz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sylvanz)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2023, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thanks-for-nothin-november-mini-rants/992417/319 "2023-11-15T23:13:34Z")
> [@Kelevra](#): > > Trick or treat is thankfully over. Tons of people drive into my Easy. The kids won’t share. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2023, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thanks-for-nothin-november-mini-rants/992417/320 "2023-11-15T23:22:01Z")
Most parents of kids are bigger enough than the kids that “won’t share” can be persuaded to change into “will share grudgingly”. Just need to remember who’s the Big Bad around your house. Hint: it ain’t the littles. 😁 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thanks-for-nothin-november-mini-rants/992417.md?page=15) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thanks-for-nothin-november-mini-rants/992417.md?page=17)