Useless Conversation

[HaemishM]

I hear you, brother. Fuck 2015 right in the goddamn earhole.

[Sky]

A bit early for the Airing, but yeah. Between the old lady being hospitalized for ovarian cancer and me being out of work for two months because of this stupid toe (my wood is still stack in the backyard, no fires this winter) and losing the last of my childhood friends... Fuck it. Bring on 2016.

[Hawkbit]

It's weird, my wife and I had a conversation in a similar vein last week. I know other people have life so much harder than we do, but this year was tough. Time to make some changes to our lives next year, I think.

I wish you all a better year for 2016.

[01101010]

My year actually has been going ok save for PA budget limbo putting a freeze on pay raises this year. Otherwise, I'd say this is one of the better years I have had in Pennsylvania. Polishing the resume for next year to try and get the hell out of here though...

[Lantyssa]

It's been a good year for once.  Probably because I've been on extended vacation for six months and have already put the hell of the first six behind me.  Yay for poor memory retention!

[Sky]

I've decided to loop the Imperial March on my cell phone in my jacket pocket while I'm at work today.

[Ironwood]

I know other people have life so much harder than we do, but this year was tough.

My wife and I had the same conversation.

[Chimpy]

With the exception of the crazy work stuff which in the grand scheme of things (or the past) 2015 has been a hot d year for me. No near-death hospital visits made it better than 2014 by leaps and bounds.

[Rasix]

Things turned out OK in the end.  There was a rough ride for a bit, but everything's cool now.

[Morat20]

The relative in ICU? Grandmother (90). She passed last night. Never really woke back up.

It's been coming, and the last week has been, by all accounts, awful. Massive rapid mental decline, delirium, etc. (I saw her just three weeks ago, and she was obviously uncomfortable being somewhere outside of her comfort zone, she was still cogent. Hard time processing anything new, but recognized family and was capable of carrying on conversations (mostly involving old stories and memories, but you know -- there). This last week started with a fall, and a rapid mental decline. I'm rather relieved not to have seen that. Not that I found out about that until she went into the ER Thursday.

The real pisser is I'd planned to visit her last weekend, and decided to do it THIS weekend instead. That, clearly, didn't work out.

I really feel for my Aunt. Her husband's mom passed just a few weeks ago, and now her mom. And my grandfather. Gonna have to keep an eye on him. He's younger, in much better shape, and more active than she was. I don't want to see him just fade away now that his wife of 50+ years is gone. I've got some stuff sketched in for the spring, stuff he hasn't been able to do in awhile. Fishing at my in-law's lake house, some time out in nature (something he loves) but really laid back and low impact.

Sitting in a boat or on a dock that someone else has to handle, just with a fishing rod in his hands, would do him some good.

It's the kind of thing I used to do with him as a kid, and haven't gotten to do in a decade or more since they moved back to Houston.

[Lantyssa]

Sorry to hear, Morat.  90 is a good run, at least.

[Morat20]

Sorry to hear, Morat.  90 is a good run, at least.

Hell yeah it was. And you know what really killed her? Tuberculosis back in the late 30s. Scarred the heck out of her lungs. You could trace every health problem she had back to her lungs, or to something that couldn't be treated because it screw up her lungs worse.

I'm pretty happy to have her genes, all things considered. And since my mother never had a horrible case of TB back in the day, given the invention of antibiotics (of course, there are now nasty, resistant TB strains which is terrifying) , maybe my mom can manage to hit 90 or past. I'd be okay with that, especially since my Grandmother's was pretty sound of mind until the last year, and somehow related to either her breathing problems or problems that couldn't be addressed because it caused lung hemorrhages due to all the damage.

So yeah. I mean, 90's a good run. She survived TB, WWII, Russian soldiers (apparently not fun people to be around after WWII), got out of East Germany right before the wall went up.....impressive woman, that's for damn sure. Hell, I remember in the 1980s she had a bunch of her relatives get to travel from East Germany to the US to visit her. I'm still not sure how that was arranged, considering the whole Cold War and all. (I've seen the same relatives get served lobster, just a few years back. The look on his face. Pretty sure he thought it was a joke until my wife started tearing into one.)

[MahrinSkel]

I'm with him. Frigging giant insects are not food. Put enough butter on it, and dirt is edible. Doesn't mean it belongs on the menu.

--Dave

[HaemishM]

My condolences, Morat.

[Engels]

Hang in there Morat. I hope you get the chance to get to spend more time with your grandpa.

[NowhereMan]

That sucks man. 2015 has managed to take two uncles from me, one was an in-law, heart surgeon who went out from a heart attack. The other was father's eldest brother who was really more of a mercy death. He was about 85 and had basically gone into near total dementia slowly over the past 5-10 years. It's actually very hard looking back on it to tell when it stopped being his natural awkwardness and aggressiveness combined with going deaf and became actual senility.

On the plus side, two other siblings are now contesting the will as he named the woman who lived with him for the last 12 years or so as his sole beneficiary because they don't like her. My dad is happy this gives him an excuse to cut all ties with most of  his surviving siblings now so there's a silver lining

[RhyssaFireheart]

My condolences, Morat. 

Spoke to my mom on Friday.  She'd gone in to have a mammogram on Thursday because she found a 2 cm lump in one breast.  So they squeezed her in and there was also something with the lymph node nearest to the lump.  Friday she calls and the doctor was pretty sure it was malignant so she's have a needle biopsy done tomorrow (Monday) and they're going to push to get the results back before Christmas.  Will probably need to have a lumpectomy done at the very least, other treatment depends on how involved her lymph system is.  Her mom had a single mastectomy in her 80s, my mom is 72.  Guess I need to make sure to schedule a mammogram next year when the new insurance kicks in.

[Khaldun]

Nothing especially bad in the nature of events happened to me this year, but I am more worn out and burned out feeling than I have ever been in my life. I just feel like I'm losing ground on almost everything I care about professionally and just staying afloat personally.

[01101010]

Weird weekend.

Girlfriend is finally moved out of her apt. Sublet tenant was moving in Sunday so she boxed up the rest of her stuff, rented a truck and we packed it up and were out by 1pm Saturday (coldest day this year so far). So filled her storage unit to the brim with her vintage stuff and moved the rest of it into my 1bd place.

Sublet tenant moves most of her stuff in Sunday according to the GF's old roomate. Then late Sunday/early Monday, there is a triple homicide in that building - 1 female, 2 males, shot dead first floor near the other entrance of the building. After driving away for the last time with her stuff in the truck, she remarked she's going to miss the quiet neighborhood. Talk about weird tragic timing.

[apocrypha]

Talk about weird tragic timing.

Weird, tragic, suspicious timing!

[Chimpy]

Ugh this day needs to go faster.   

In 16 hours I hop a plane to escape work and go to ski country.

[Khaldun]

Seriously, I think if I were 011, I would be a leetle bit worried about the girlfriend. "Let's not look back, especially not the entrance on the other side of the building. I can't wait to live where you live instead!"

[01101010]

Full disclosure, she's been staying with me for the past 6 months anyway. 

Besides, story is unfolding as a break in to a marijuana dealer's apt looking for cash and weed. Got into a shoot out with someone in the apt but took out a 16 year old kid and a 20 year old girl before getting shot and dying trying to duck out the back. Still, very out of place for that neighborhood.

[Selby]

See?  Marijuana is a gateway drug to a life of crime and harder drugs!

[Sky]

If you legalize it, they'll be breaking into everyone's house and shooting them. Science.

[01101010]

Update now is that the girl who was killed won some lottery amount (couple of thousands) and that is what the perp was after. *shrug*

[Yegolev]

I blame social media.

[Morat20]

Funeral today, mom misses because she's ill -- now in hospital. It's probably nothing (stomach bug + insane stress + some damage to her esophagus from throwing up so much), but if you're 65 and say "Chest pains" they are going to make darn sure it's not heart problems. Could also be her gallbladder, something like that. They've ruled out a ton of stuff already (like aortic aneurysm, whatever that is).

We expect her to be released in the morning -- they're keeping her overnight to do some enzyme test that detects heart damage, and it'll be complete by the morning. (So far her labs and CT scan have been clear).

But seriously, really? My life has become a damn soap opera. all I need is some teenager showing up claiming to be my kid and I'm set.

[Hawkbit]

These things tend to happen all at once. Hang in there; it will get better. I'm really sorry your family has been through so much lately.

[Chimpy]

Got to steamboat this afternoon, it was already snowing, might get 2+ feet before it stops tomorrow 

[RhyssaFireheart]

Work laptop refresh complete.  Now to reset everything to how I like it (seriously, who runs apps in windows full screen all the time?) and to make sure everything works fine.  Thinner laptop, more RAM, SSD hard drive.... think I'm going to like this.

Oh, and the guy left me with admin access until I reboot the computer.  Which might be a while, depending on my mood and what I want to install, lol!

[Merusk]

(seriously, who runs apps in windows full screen all the time?)

Designers, people with screens that are too small and those who only try to look busy all day. (The last may overlap with the first one significantly)

[RhyssaFireheart]

(seriously, who runs apps in windows full screen all the time?)

Designers, people with screens that are too small and those who only try to look busy all day. (The last may overlap with the first one significantly)

Yes, yes, I know.  I use my Excel window to hide many things in the background.  I can't stand having every window maximized though,e specially not my browser(s) and Outlook. 

Can't wait to see how much rearranging I have to do when I switch from docked to undocked mode though.  Didn't laptops used to have a mode where you could set your windows and it would arrange them based on whether or not it was docked?

[Viin]

Got to steamboat this afternoon, it was already snowing, might get 2+ feet before it stops tomorrow 

How long are you in Steamboat? I'll be up there this weekend.

[KallDrexx]

I usually have only one window maximized at a time.  Even while coding it's rare that i need to see two things side by side, and even doing a vertical screen split between visual studio and a browser at 1900x1200 it usually doesn't leave enough width for the experience in either to be what I need to fully evaluate things, so alt-tabbing is usually more efficient for me.