Your ballet is in the mail, duly tabulated!
I watched a short clip of Walz on The View. I guess he is now the official authority on what is Weird since he invented the term. They asked him what he's noticed that is weird lately, and he brought up vegetarian turkey-substitutes for Thanksgiving as if it was something he had just found out about. I thought it was phony and annoying, which probably means it was good politics.
2: Well, I was hoping to vote for his dog, Walter, but it turned out he wasn't on the ballot, so I had to settle for voting for Sherrod Brown.
3: It was a positive experience. There was a fairly long line, but it moved quickly. Whoever was in charge of setting up the system at the Morse Road early voting location did a great job.
What happens if everything goes wrong and lots of people suffer unnecessarily as a result?
My brother died about a month ago,* and then there has been a fairly long period of associated delays and hassles around that with the investigation. The funeral was about 10 days ago, and was very nicely done with a woodland eco burial.
So, not the most jolly of check-ins.
On the other side, my son started high school at the start of September, which has been a positive thing. He's definitely much more into it than he was into his previous school.
* he had long running mental health issues, and unfortunately, killed himself the day after he was admitted to hospital. Which should definitely not have been able to happen when he was under observation in an acute admissions ward.
I'm so sorry. That's awful, especially in the hospital.
9 is awful. I'm so sorry.
(I was going to say that I feel unable to ignore the election right now but, in comparison, that feels minor).
I just got a video of my 2.3-year-old niece on a beach, approaching from a distance to very close to the camera, inadvertently recapitulating the "It's..." guy from Monty Python.
--
So sorry, ttaM.
9: Really sorry that happened - especially in a psych ward.
I am so sorry, ttaM. You've said he had a hard time for a long time.
13.1: How do you know it's not advertent on the part of her or her parents?
9: That's so tragic. And must feel even worse to happen in the hospital. I'm so sorry.
Thanks everyone.
Re:15
Yeah, off and on for at least a decade, with long periods in hospital and one period in jail. He was generally doing better over the past 18 months, though, until his most recent episode.
An uncle and aunt of mine - once married to each other, and parents of my cousins - both died in the past week. One had moved away and become semi-estranged, so I hadn't heard his health was failing; the other had a stroke a couple of years ago and had been miserable since, until falling and hitting her head more recently, which precipitated the final decline. It's sad, but for both I had already kind of registered missing them, as they were gone for all practical purposes.
I haven't seen an obituary for my uncle, but my cousin did update his Wikipedia page with the death date. That's very much his style but still odd.
The question now is how much to tell my mom, who has a notable degree of Alzheimer's and bad short-term memory. At least once, we think, but maybe best not to keep mentioning it. And she's just gotten home from rehab after slipping and breaking her leg, which was no fun but seems slight in comparison.
21: oh, that sounds rough with your amok all the same. A lot on your plate.
My wife is having a rough time of it; both her Dad and step-Dad are in the hospital. Step-dad has ICU psychosis right now, so she is reliant on her brother for updates since he's not texting and lacks access to a phone. (It does sound like his lucid periods are lasting longer.) Her Dad checked in with a hole in his lung, but he's almost ready for discharge. They're both several states away.
On our end, we had a pair of successful break-ins that led me to waste most of my Sunday attempting to harden the shop's back door. Most products didn't work - it looks like the standard backset has reduced from 2.75 to 2.375 inches since the door was installed, so the in-stock at big box store products were poorly sized. The latch shield did work, with some remedial drilling in the door jamb.
Thinking about a particular also divorced uncle and aunt of mine. The relationship blew up at some pretty bad behavior by my uncle (hurting his wife and child in a major way, only financial as far as I know) which soured pretty much the whole extended family on him; he still comes to the very occasional sibling get-togethers but I used to have a relationship with him and now I don't. Then my aunt is a very hard-to-get-along-with person who I haven't talked to for possibly over a decade now, and even those other relatives trying to maintain a relationship with her ended up mostly throwing in the towel, especially once her son grew up. Either of them could easily die in the next 10-20 years, and it would probably just be a small ripple for me. I can live with that, but it feels weird.
21: My condolences. I don't have any useful advice, but I do recall that the worst part of my dad dying other than my dad being dead was having to tell my mom that he died every day for weeks.
My MSc supervisor died recently. It was one of those 'oh huh that small thing turns out to be cancer and you have a month to live' things. So while I knew he was sick before he died, I didn't know for long. He was also a top scientist (stable isotopes) and was a career mentor for me and I had just visited him in April. I wouldn't be a scientist without his support (and reputation). Anyway, it was too soon and it's hard to grieve.
Also a woman I work with (remotely) who I really hit it off with committed suicide so that is also weird to grieve.
I have a therapy appointment this week (and couples therapy next week) and have lots to talk about!
Sorry to everyone else too. People dying is bullshit. Also pets dying. Shouldn't be allowed.