Housepets!

NHWestoN wrote: ↑Sat Feb 13, 2021 1:36 pm The missus' thrashed me three games of Monopoly this afternoon. Nap time!

NHWestoN wrote: ↑Mon Feb 15, 2021 10:42 am Friend of our down in NC is having a really rough time of late. Her mother (95) was diagnosed with cancer after seeing two previous doctors who misdiagnosed her affliction. T is a hard person to help as she has depression and is convinced everyone is a knave, an idiot, or a pervert. Truthfully, I'm not sure why she confides in us, although she does have a couple of other friends (who will also call us with "You know what T said about you two" to which we reply "Nope ... and don't wanna know.") She really is a tragic individual.

Amazee Dayzee wrote: ↑Mon Feb 15, 2021 5:40 pm Joy: My granduncle is doing fine even if the police dropped the ball on the accident.

trekkie wrote: ↑Mon Feb 15, 2021 7:57 pm Good to hear he’s doing fine, Dayzee.

Anger/Depression : My brother’s wife came down for the weekend, (they’re going through a rough patch but are trying to work it out) and she snobbishly said that, all I did was work at a market, and as a legal assistant and so I’m not a success, and her parents were better parents because her brother and her are successful. (He works for Disney animation, she’s an architect.) She also said the market was full of stupid hicks because they didn’t have Starbucks coffee, and that she’d have to think about allowing her kids to eat anything from there because they (the market workers) are “obviously stupid” . I got angry and took a walk. But, I couldn’t help thinking that maybe she was right about me and that I was a failure. Depression is a ***** like that.

trekkie wrote: ↑Mon Feb 15, 2021 7:57 pm Good to hear he’s doing fine, Dayzee.

Anger/Depression : My brother’s wife came down for the weekend, (they’re going through a rough patch but are trying to work it out) and she snobbishly said that, all I did was work at a market, and as a legal assistant and so I’m not a success, and her parents were better parents because her brother and her are successful. (He works for Disney animation, she’s an architect.) She also said the market was full of stupid hicks because they didn’t have Starbucks coffee, and that she’d have to think about allowing her kids to eat anything from there because they (the market workers) are “obviously stupid” . I got angry and took a walk. But, I couldn’t help thinking that maybe she was right about me and that I was a failure. Depression is a ***** like that.

DDeer wrote: ↑Wed Feb 17, 2021 1:10 pm Joys, got to see my Dad in person for the first time since Christmas!!! Great to see him, he's o.k. recovering slowly.

DDeer wrote: ↑Wed Feb 17, 2021 1:10 pm Joys, got to see my Dad in person for the first time since Christmas!!! Great to see him, he's o.k. recovering slowly.

Rydr Warklub wrote: ↑Wed Feb 17, 2021 3:18 pm

DDeer wrote: ↑Wed Feb 17, 2021 1:10 pm Joys, got to see my Dad in person for the first time since Christmas!!! Great to see him, he's o.k. recovering slowly.

Good for yous!

SORROW: Anemia sucks.

JOY: Saw my baby sister Billy for the first time since 2018 on Videochat!

NHWestoN wrote: ↑Mon Feb 15, 2021 10:45 pm

trekkie wrote: ↑Mon Feb 15, 2021 7:57 pm Good to hear he’s doing fine, Dayzee.

Anger/Depression : My brother’s wife came down for the weekend, (they’re going through a rough patch but are trying to work it out) and she snobbishly said that, all I did was work at a market, and as a legal assistant and so I’m not a success, and her parents were better parents because her brother and her are successful. (He works for Disney animation, she’s an architect.) She also said the market was full of stupid hicks because they didn’t have Starbucks coffee, and that she’d have to think about allowing her kids to eat anything from there because they (the market workers) are “obviously stupid” . I got angry and took a walk. But, I couldn’t help thinking that maybe she was right about me and that I was a failure. Depression is a ***** like that.

Your first sentence, trek, really sets the context you need - "they're going through a rough patch". Whatever successes she might be enjoying for now in her career, they are of no real matter because of her anxieties over her marriage. People undergoing such stresses react in various ways. There are some who project their anxieties and inadequacies through being more sensitive and empathetic to others. Your sister-in-law apparently needs to reassure herself by belittling and degrading others. You have to wonder what psychological defects would prompt someone to vomit such emotional bilge, unprovoked, on a family member. Perhaps, unintentionally, she gave you some insights into why she and your brother are becoming estranged.

She clearly feels a need to reassure herself of her own status by degrading others, itself a sign of a pretty low sense of self. Ironically, I'm guessing, she came from a fairly privileged background because she attributes her status to her parents. Well, in my world, such circumstances should call for a sense of gratitude and personal humility rather than arrogance. Having been an officer and then a teacher, my experience was to look at people not as what they are but as what they could become. That was how I was treated and that lifelong support from some many other people, along with dumb luck, some unplanned breaks, and God's sense of humor, accounts for whatever advantages I "earned" in life.

I was brought up that all work is honorable if it contributes to the well-being of others. It is an honorable thing to be a legal assistant. Your occupation is not a measure of your worth as a human being; it is a developmental stage in your social and economic life. Enjoy it, learn from it, and dream of going on to many greater things - in the law, in business, in writing, in writing - claim it all. My mother used to say, "Life is a banquet and too many people pass it just sucking on the ice in their water glasses." Who cares what a Starbuck's swilling, self-indulgent, one-percenter aping lout thinks? (Okay, that was unkind...sorry. Not very, though.) Spare a little compassion for your struggling compatriots, for yourself, trek, maybe even for this terribly unhappy architect who can't see where she's going because it's really hard to walk anywhere safely looking down your nose at everybody you meet. Oh, and maybe for your brother, too. You're building a future, trek; she's likely creating a past.

To better days, eh.

trekkie wrote: ↑Fri Feb 19, 2021 7:50 pm Sorry to hear about your friend, Weston.

NHWestoN wrote: ↑Fri Feb 19, 2021 5:09 pm My folks pretty much knew one way to cook veggies - overdone.

My daughter said the same thing - the only problem with zoos were the bipeds outside the enclosures. The Giraffes had a little gal, and Ellie just adored her (baby Giraffes are just achingly cute), but she had the opportunity to live-in at a farm that the owner wanted to turn into a horse farm/riding school so she moved on. To my sorrow, I admit, because I always wanted to work in a zoo and ... well ... we parents sometimes project such vestiges of our own childhoods on our kids. Oh, and the owner was one of these golden guys who knew everything about money but how to manage it, but that's another story for another beer.

I wish your cousin all good luck in pursuing a career in teaching.

Sorrow: I learned a retired colleague of mine died on the 15th. He was a fellow veteran and a good fella, but a heavy smoker. At the beginning of a Fall semester, he was experiencing some shortage of breath. As the weeks wore on, the breathing difficulties became worse, his energy level sank, and he suffered occasional blackouts. By the end of the semester, he received a diagnosis of emphysema and put in his retirement papers. Courageously, Mickey adjusted very adroitly - he found some exercises that helped, carried a breathing "football", and enjoyed golf and travel right up until his passing. A salute, a couple of suds, and a brief moment of sadness to yahs, ol'chum.

NHWestoN wrote: ↑Sun Feb 21, 2021 4:15 pm Sophie had a bad day yesterday.

Morning was fine, walks and friends, playing with the scotties and her rotwieler pup pal, although there was snow and ice on the road. Since her left front paw is missing, she's always anxious about falling. That afternoon, however, she did not want to go for her afternoon constitutional even though that's when "nature's call" is especially insistent. She was listless, lethargic, and frequently just stopped walking, even though she had both me and the missus as companions which usually makes her very playful and "puppyish". We only went a short way and I practically had to drag her home (I kinda wish now that I had carried her). She didn't eat, drank only a little, and spent the rest of the day under the bed.

Today, she has been a little better, a little less droopy, and she ate and drank a bit. No interest in walks or scottie dogs, but functions are normal. She's become withdrawn and passive, not our enthusiastic, poised little fox. The sparkle in her big brown sheltie-dog eyes is subdued. But Sophie, I have to remind myself, is a very senior dog (18 years +/-) and that even in normal times, walking and running is a bit of a challenge. Perhaps her back or hips are getting out of whack, but there's no apparent discomfort. We'll just have to wait.