I have to admit that I’ve gotten somewhat used to the Holter monitor and blood pressure monitor. The latter still activates every 30 minutes but is now doing just one cycle instead of an imitation of an arm-torture device with increasingly high pressure cycles. I’m still looking forward to ripping the whole mess off tomorrow morning! I’m supposed to throw everything into a wicker basket in the cardiologist’s office in the morning, and I will do so with the kind of considerable and emphatic force that unmistakably says “good riddance!”.
(To those who might have to endure such a monitoring regimen: it’s really not THAT bad. But definitely annoying enough to justify a Pit mini-rant.)
When I left my last (desk) job, at the exit interview I told Personnel that they SHOULD make a special effort to interview people with “mobility concerns” to replace me. It was job that would have been a perfect fit.
Have you tried putting the interviewer on the defensive - in a nonconfrontational way: “You might have noticed that I use a wheelchair. If you have any concerns with that let’s bring them out into the open. I’ll be honest and tell you if there is anything about the job that is insurmountable. But you’d be surprised how much I can do.”
One of Heinlein’s juvenile SF stories has a character, without legs, who was in a space station. Heinlein made a point of the fact that the character was BETTER than others at working in the zero-g environment, he had learned to move around much more quickly. And in a completely dispassionate sense, took that much less fuel to send his body into space.
A real mind-stretching moment to read that as a teen.
I’m gonna post about my husband again. Sorry, guys - I love and respect the man, but I feel like my pet peeves are probably not worth starting a fight about, so I lay it all out here.
He’s on furlough from his job currently, which is great - it means he has tons of time to get things done. He also has been getting up early with me & the kids, which I love. What I do not love is that he is following me around the house more and spending hours and hours on his phone. He will literally forget where he was going and what he was doing and just stand there, half in, half out of the room Right now he’s sitting on the steps in front of my desk, having completely forgotten that he was about to leave the house to go to the woodshop, and is instead looking at reddit and snickering occasionally. A couple of times since his furlough started, he’s gotten so caught up in his phone he’s forgotten to actually leave until he decides he doesn’t want to bother anymore.
Anyway, I’m (theoretically) not up for retirement for about 20 years, so I’m hopeful that by the time that rolls around, this won’t be so annoying. Because I’m 'bout to murder the guy. He asked if he could run errands for me, but he usually calls me several times while he’s at the grocery to ask where things are, so it’s easier to just order them for delivery. Grrrr.
The lunch questions are sure to start soon. “What’s for lunch? When is lunch? Are you having lunch? Why aren’t you eating lunch? Will you have lunch with me?” It happens on a daily basis and is so reliable I could set a clock by it.
Anyway, we’ve had a few discussions about this and he gets upset, saying that me getting aggravated makes him think I don’t want to be around him. One day - one day - we will figure this out. Today is not that day.
I disassembled myself this morning, the wires and tubes on my chest initially looking like the top view of a Chrysler Hemi V8. No scars, thankfully, although I do have a scar on my knee from attempting to do a face-plant on the sidewalk by tripping on the curb on my way into the building to return all the stuff.
Strangely peaceful night last night. I expected to have trouble sleeping but it wasn’t bad. The Holter heart monitor was fairly unobtrusive, and the blood pressure monitor was cleverly programmed to do its thing every hour instead of every 30 minutes after 10:00 PM. In a weird way it was actually strangely comforting, sort of like being watched over. But maybe this was all because I’d popped a Valium to help me sleep and so was off in la-la land.
Heh. Maybe buy him a fishing license or a kayak (or both). My gf has been working from home for over a year. If I’m home she cannot be interrupted, no ifs/ands/buts. I’ve had to tell a neighbor who stopped with a question for her that I’m not allowed to interrupt her unless the house is in flames.
I will run out to a brewery if any are open, go fishing, take the dogs for a hike, or maybe kayak some flat water, but I will not interrupt her.
My wife doesn’t interrupt me too much when I’m working from home, but boy does she love to vacuum. I’ve asked her why she needs to vacuum so much, and if she could wait until I’m eating lunch or the work day is over, but no… It’s like a craving, an addiction. She just decides the floor needs vacuuming and there’s no stopping her. (She thinks closing the door helps, but it’s just a cheap hollow core door, so it really doesn’t.)
Today is my first full day back in the office after 18 months, and I am just loving the peace and quiet. No sound but the clackety clack of my keyboard.
Wait… What? Aren’t there employees there who can help? It’s not like you are there to guide him.
My wife does the grocery shopping most of the time but I never mind doing it when it works better for her and I go with a list she provides. If I absolutely can’t find something I might text her to let her know. Calling her to ask where in the store I find something seems insane to me. Sure, maybe she will know, but an employee there absolutely will know and is paid to do that.
I also feel no guilt about bothering someone to ask. I did my time for years in retail and helped countless people. I never minded doing it, it was part of the job and usually felt good to directly help someone. I don’t ask unless I absolutely can’t find something after I carefully search everywhere, but when it gets to that point I’ll ask. What I won’t do is bother my wife because she doesn’t fucking work there.
Apparently a very common syndrome. Sometimes, though, I discover the item all by myself through the creative expedient of rotating my head and finding that it’s on the shelf behind me. But sometimes I do have to ask. The last time I had to ask was at Home Depot. This resulted in a blaring announcement for a plumbing expert to come to the plumbing department to assist a customer. An old geezer arrived who was obviously the type who knew everything there was to know about plumbing. When I described my quest, he said, “over here, in the next aisle”, where there were thousands of such items. I had been through that aisle at least three times but didn’t see the huge display. Reason: see the point above, regarding the rotation of head, and also, “Dumbass Syndrome”.
Yeah, did you know that Publix keeps the gravy mix on the aisle with the sign that says “Mixes” and not on the soup aisle? I buy it rarely, but every time I search on the soup aisle and then get a nice employee to take me to the right place.
I find that really weird, too - then again, the only aisle we have that says mixes is the baking aisle. I think our gravy mixes are near the rice.
The husband slept late this morning after he lost track of time (on his phone) and wound up staying up until 2 a.m. So I didn’t see him until around 11, when he walked by to get in the shower. It was nice - no one stood in front of my desk for a half hour, alternating between staring at me and snickering. He disappeared quite a while ago so I’ll probably hunt him down at some point, but for now, the quiet is bliss.
I can never find the honey in any grocery store ever. It’s always in some random location. I started buying the local more expensive honey partly because it’s not clover honey (I hate the taste of clover) but mostly because it’s always in the same place.
