08:41 – Barbara took the day off. She ordered a new mattress and wanted to get the bedroom cleaned out and be here when the mattress was delivered.
We’ll both be doing science kit stuff over the next three days. I’m trying to get subassembly inventories for all the kits built up before the summer rush. Today will be a first for me. I’ve never ordered 10,000 of something at a time before, but today I’m putting together a purchase order for bottles and caps. I’ve been ordering 15/415 caps for 15 mL bottles in boxes of 1,440 at a time, but I’d figured I might as well order a full case of 10,000. They’re 20% cheaper that way, and we’ll certainly go through 10,000 of them in the not-too-distant future. I’ll keep ordering the bottles in cases of 1,100 to 1,650, depending on size, because that’s the largest UOM they offer and because our storage space is limited.
Amazon is behaving strangely. Yesterday, I ordered an ebook from them, which as usual I chose to download for transfer by USB. That worked fine, but I noticed that I didn’t get the usual email receipt for the order. So I checked on the Amazon.com site, where the order was showing as “Pending”. It stayed that way for several hours, even though I had successfully downloaded the ebook. Then, this morning, I got email from Amazon saying that my subscribe-and-save order for five 2-pound boxes of Alpo Snaps dog treats had been canceled. When I checked the item it showed availability of 2 to 5 weeks. This is the second time in a row that’s happened, so I canceled my standing order and just ordered the dog treats from WalMart.
09:06 – A victory. Barbara was going to have the old mattress hauled off, but I convinced her we should keep it downstairs. It’s about 15 years old. I think it’s perfectly fine, but Barbara says it’s gotten uncomfortable for her. I pointed out that when we relocate we may do so gradually and it’d be good to have a mattress in each place while we’re doing so. She said she’d actually thought about that, so it wasn’t that hard to convince her to hold onto it.
“Amazon is behaving strangely.”
Last week I ordered the Turbo Tax 2014 download on Amazon and got it OK and installed it here accordingly. But they kept sending me emails that my credit card had been declined. Yet the card account shows that it went through OK.
I also recently ordered some other stuff from the U.K. and Netherlands and those transactions got instantly blocked by the credit card company and I hadda call in and verify them. Until I did that, ALL transactions on that card were blocked.
Sunny with blue skies here today so far; we’re expecting snow flurries later and then a mix of stuff tomorrow and tomorrow night; a previously scheduled trip up and back to Montreal has been cancelled; Princess seems to think we can devote our weekends from now on to multiple four-hour driving ordeals for her entertainment and also wanted “at least $500” yesterday to buy tickets for something and her contact lenses or something. Her mom just gave her that amount last week; “oh that was for the rent.” She’ll be 23 in June. Brilliant, gifted kid, but with the attitudes and expectations of a 12-year-old again sometimes.
I have no problem with parents helping their children. In fact, as I’ve said, I think we should return the old days, when kids got married in their mid-teens and the parents helped get them started in life.
But at age 23 Princess should be doing more to stand on her own feet. It’s the whole dependency culture thing, but on a personal level rather than by government. If what you’re describing continues, you’re going to be supporting her when she’s 40. But then you know that already.
“She’ll be 23 in June. Brilliant, gifted kid, but with the attitudes and expectations of a 12-year-old again sometimes.”
My sister says puberty does that to a girl…
“If what you’re describing continues, you’re going to be supporting her when she’s 40. But then you know that already.”
I’m technical support for my brother, who recently turned 61. In the morning we’re going shopping for a new TV. He doesn’t have a car so my sister and I take him a lot of places, and he’s the ultimate technophobe. His 1987 CRT TV has finally quit working, so I’m elected to pick him up, scout out a new tele, deliver and install it. He also needs a new cell phone. Guess who’ll be doing that.
“Barbara was going to have the old mattress hauled off, but I convinced her we should keep it downstairs. It’s about 15 years old. I think it’s perfectly fine…”
The matress I used in Canberra lasted me 28.5 years. Wasn’t worth hauling an old one to Adelaide so I had it taken to the dump. Bought a new one here which I figure will do me ’till I move to a pine box.
Good small TV,
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00IDXB1WW?tag=thewire06-20&linkCode=as2
.mg
“If what you’re describing continues, you’re going to be supporting her when she’s 40. But then you know that already.”
Yup. I don’t mind support within REASON as WE define it; but Mrs. OFD and MIL are slowly coming around to my POV, finally. They’re getting tired of this and now berate ME if I sometimes cave in to the demands. We need to beef up a united front ASAP.
“…’till I move to a pine box.”
Pine? You elitist sybarite, you! Pine??? Mine was gonna be cardboard, but I got over myself and have now decided a simple canvas shroud will do. Wait–canvas?? I must be outta my own sybarite mind! Peeps are starving in China!
Just grind me up and toss me out there for shark chum, who cares.
But at age 23 Princess should be doing more to stand on her own feet. It’s the whole dependency culture thing, but on a personal level rather than by government. If what you’re describing continues, you’re going to be supporting her when she’s 40. But then you know that already.
We have told our kids that we will help them through one undergraduate degree as long as they do it in four years and they pay the difference between a state school and their choice of college. Both of our sons (now 27 and 30) did that. Our older son got a degree from a private college and then decided to change fields. We let him live at home while attending the local state university at his expense while he got a second bachelor’s degree, in math.. He got a teaching fellowship while getting a master’s in math. Once he had an income, he paid us rent. For the last year and a half, he has been teaching math in a private English immersion program in Beijing. Because the school pays his rent and provides him with most of his meals, he has paid off his student loans and has a sizable savings account. The only help he has asked from us is help transferring money to his account here.
Son number 2 got a degree from an “ivy league” school. He worked part time in a restaurant while at school, rising to manager. He has stayed in the restaurant business and manages a thriving bar and restaurant in Santa Cruz. Aside from borrowing money from us to move from New York to California when he graduated, he has been self sufficient.
Our daughter just turned 19. She will graduate from high school in June. She wants to go to a private college. Its list price is over twice what a state school would be, but they offered her a discount (they call it a scholarship) which brings the cost to about $10,000/year more than a state school. I told her she has to decide if she wants to take on that much debt. As she currently makes $12/hour in a part time job, she is beginning to understand how much that is. I suspect she’ll go there any way.
Rick in Portland
Thus, another illustration, perhaps, of the gender-determined expectations of kids from their parents? Sounds like your sons picked up the ball and carried it, successfully. As did ours, working a series of crap jobs until he caught a break and is now doing real swell, about to move out to the SF Bay area and rake in a quarter-million per annum. But with non-working wife and three little kids, one of whom has “challenges.” And that dough won’t go fah out there with the cost of living being what it is for allegedly middle-class Murkan derps.
Mrs. OFD has told Princess that we’ll fund the undergraduate stuff, as we also have for years abroad in Italy and coming up, Germany, but any grad school is on her. Supposedly. Nevertheless, she seems to think we have a readily available slush fund of cash lying around here for her endless weekends of entertainment and gallivanting and commandeering one of our vehicles, with me still out of work. I told her in the earlier phone call we don’t have $500 lying around this weekend and she sez she’ll have her grandmother put it in her account. So come hell or high water, as is her wont, she is determined to come down here this weekend and do whatever she wants, at whatever someone else’s expense and time and effort. I’ll be having another talk with her mom later today about this; say, honey, how about just BAGGING your plans for this weekend???
Mrs. OFD has told Princess that we’ll fund the undergraduate stuff,
I’m glad my Twins agreed to commute to UNLV. They’ll get their degrees and have no student debt. Advanced degrees are on them. This summer they’ll either find jobs or work for us. Like Mrs. OFD, MrsAtoz travels extensively. Her assistant begins her PhD in the fall and is leaving this summer. Perfect opportunity for a Twin to take up the slack. The other Twin can start helping me with the books.
Last week I ordered the Turbo Tax 2014 download
I would have sent you my copy (Premier) of the program. But I lost it in a shallow river. Remind me next year and I will see if the river is low enough to recover the newest version.
Statement from Carly Fiorina:
The right answer ultimately is that the government shouldn’t be in the business of subsidizing anything. Subsidies and a variety of tax credits distort the markets. But we need to phase out subsidies for sugar, oil and renewable fuels but do it at the same time so that we’re not disadvantaging any one state or industry.
She’s the new Great White Dope ™!
SF Bay area and rake in a quarter-million per annum
Me thinks that’s about equivalent to trailer trash wages in the south. Shocked when I found out a house like mine was worth about 2.1 million if located in the bay area. Sizable yard helps in that value assessment.
Thanks for the suggestion Mike G, but I’m in Australia so I don’t know if that TV would be suitable. I’d rather buy from a local big box store.
I can’t believe I’m saying that a 32″ TV might not be big enough. I remember when I considered a 26″ CRT to be gigantic. When I got my first flat screen it was a 40″ Sony. I recently got another for a different room: a 48″ Samsung. I’ll almost certainly get a 40″ Samsung for my brother – he’s in a fairly small apartment.
OFD wrote:
“Nevertheless, she seems to think we have a readily available slush fund of cash lying around here for her endless weekends of entertainment and gallivanting and commandeering one of our vehicles, with me still out of work. I told her in the earlier phone call we don’t have $500 lying around this weekend and she sez she’ll have her grandmother put it in her account. So come hell or high water, as is her wont, she is determined to come down here this weekend…”
Dave, allow me to introduce you to a word in the English language that you don’t appear to have encountered before: “No”.
“Remind me next year and I will see if the river is low enough to recover the newest version.”
How can I do that when I don’t even remember what year it is? And in another couple of years, I won’t remember what decade it is.
“Me thinks that’s about equivalent to trailer trash wages in the south.”
That’s about what I figured; they’re in for a nasty surprise over the next several years and I get the impression they have no clue, really, on what costs of living are out there now. What he’ll be making would get them an estate on a horse farm here in rural Vermont.
“Dave, allow me to introduce you to a word in the English language that you don’t appear to have encountered before: “No”.”
I know dat word real well. I told her “no” yesterday and again today. So she’ll get the $ from her grandma and then we’ll have to pay grandma back again. Rinse and repeat. I used to tell her “no” all the time and that would then be circumvented/undermined by her mom and grandma and she got her way all the time. Now Mom and Grandma are getting sick of it and saying “no” more often. Better late than never, I guess.
I’ll say this about gender: she’s been more trouble in any given month than our son was in all the years he grew up with us. And my own mom will tell you that our sister was more trouble than all four of us boyz. Two quick anecdotes about sister: once drove our parents’ car through the store front window while they were in the store. Another time was arrested for shoplifting on Cape Cod and I had to take a day off work to go get her out and do the court hearing, too. Another time, bonus anecdote, she got locked up for DUI and another brother had to go bail her out in the middle of the night. She’s calmed down considerably since those years.
And I suppose my brothers and I were slick enough to never get caught at anything.
How can I do that when I don’t even remember what year it is?
Just remember to tell me to remind you.
So far none of our kids have been in trouble. Our daughter is a good kid. Hope she stays that way.
My older sister was hell on wheels as a teenager. She has been married and divorced twice. Then again, that runs in my family. My mother had six kids over 25 years and three husbands. My younger sister and brother are each on their third marriage. Brother two (sibling 5) is on his third marriage, but two of them were to the same woman. Only my youngest sister and I are on our first marriage. I’ll be celebrating 35 years this year and my sister, who is 23 years younger than I am, has been married about 15 years.
Rick in Portland
Yikes.
I’m on my second and final wife; another one would surely kill me. We’ve been married now for 17 years. First wife lasted with me for 7 years. Two of my brothers are married and have never divorced, though they regularly complain about behavior and spending habits, seems to be a regular gender-specific tune. They also each have two teenage daughters. In the old Doom games, this would be NIGHTMARE LEVEL. And since our son has been gone, I’ve always been outnumbered here by at least three to one.
Grandma and Princess stopped by about a half-hour ago to pick up the mutt for the weekend; and now Grandma will underwrite Princess’s Excellent Adventure Weekend and we’ll be paying it back to her next week. Meanwhile Mom is due to arrive in Vermont from San Antonio in another hour or two, spend about 16 hours here and then fly out to Harrisburg, PA for next week’s gig. I probably won’t see any of them all weekend, which means it’ll be real quiet around here and I can knock off more chores and my online course assignments for this week in HTML5, CSS3, PHP, MySQL, WordPress and Security +.
OFD is on his way to being a web dev drone and IT security geek. Also a firearms dealer and gunsmith.
Dave, tell Princess’ grandma not to give her dough. If she does, you won’t reimburse her.
Still on my zeroth wife. Would like one, but Princess is out of the running. I couldn’t afford her, plus she might try to turn me into a vegan.
Mrs. OFD will reimburse Grandma, per usual. I wouldn’t, but it’s already done.
Princess is probably a bit too young for ya and also a bit too tall for ya, unless you’re over six feet, that is. Also weighs over 200. She’s not a super-vegan anymore and will now eat some fish, like wild-caught salmon, of course, no farm-raised. Somehow still manages to stay over 200, though, funny how that works.
I’ve got five inches and fifty pounds on her and seven inches and seventy pounds on Mrs. OFD and am usually armed so their control over me is quite limited.
I’m 6’1″ and not much heavier than her, but I’ve read enough about her to run for my life.
Well, hell, I’m not always as convinced as I probably ought to be that I want the one I have, so between you and me we probably average out to pretty well content.
When my first wife moved back to mommy, I was upset, but that was mostly because she took the kid with her and, the typical American family court being what it is, I had trouble seeing him until he was old enough to state his wishes and make them stick. I was slightly upset about the family being broken, but I got over that real quick. Life was much better, and financially much easier, without her.
With my current (second and presumably last) wife, I think about leaving pretty much every day. Sometimes pretty much every hour. I’m still here mainly because of our 7-y-o daughter, but also because of the nagging suspicion that my wife’s poisonous personality* and general uselessness when it comes to helping out around the house and such might not be her fault. She’s taking a number of medications for this and that** and several list various mental side effects. Whether the personality change is because she was pretending to be nice until she had a ring on her finger, or because of natural changes over the years, or because of the drugs, I don’t know. I’m giving her the benefit of the doubt, no matter how miserable day-to-day existence is.
* And this is me talking. I can be charming, but only when I remember to be; otherwise I’m abrasive because I don’t notice or don’t care if I’m not being nicey-nice polite and I’m hurting poor widdle babies’ pwecious widdle feewings. I’m not generally a deliberate asshole, but I do dial it up to 11 right quick when someone manages to annoy me.
** She’s the drug company’s dream client. I think all of her approximately four prescriptions are drugs she’ll be taking for the rest of her life. (Or until the patents expire, at which point I misdoubt something new and “better” will be prescribed.)
“…but I’ve read enough about her to run for my life.
Excellent plan, sir, excellent. Would that I could. But too late now.
@Mr. SteveF; sorry to hear that, man; like you say, it could be any one of several factors/causes or all of them. But you, like I, and like my two married brothers, feel that compunction to stick around for the still-at-home kids. I hope things work out for ya better in the long run, one way or another.
Just watched “Idiocracy” finally.
There is a very serious chronological discrepancy, though.
I dunno how they came up with the script setting the events 500 years in the future, when it’s pretty clear it’s all here in the present, I mean, like right now.
My late Aunt Elinor was a hot shit. Kinda actually hot, too. She died way too young. But I remember hanging out with her as a kid in her room; yeah, she lived with her parents, my maternal grandparents, into adulthood and never married. CPA gummint accountant in Boston and commuted from Fairhaven, MA to Boston five days a week and smoked ciggies and drank Miller High Life beer. Her room was floor to ceiling with classical LP records and she played the piano downstairs once in a while, usually Chopin.
I never forgot what she told me one time: “David, 98% of the American people are stupid.”
Now I think she was too optimistic.
And here is some interesting advice, though not the mil-spec angle at my advanced age and decrepitude:
https://masondixontactical.wordpress.com/2015/03/13/beyond-bug-out-or-what-next/
Funny chit at Starbucks, eh?
https://westernrifleshooters.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/crappuccino-sm.jpg
Yup, my memory banks are going screwy; I somehow had it in my head that Mrs. OFD was gonna be back tonight, but no, she’s still in TX, on a hoss farm overnight, and then flying back tomorrow night. Has to bail on Sunday again for PA, so I won’t see her for another week. (staying tomorrow night at Grandma’s, as it’s a LOT closer to the airport).
Maybe I’ll get a pilot’s license and start flying her around the country in the next few years; we got us a airstrip just up the road here:
http://aviation.vermont.gov/airports/franklin_county
And Northern Lights Airport here:
https://www.google.com/maps/@44.871986,-73.28652,819m/data=!3m1!1e3
The grassy one looks a little iffy for that executive jet you are going to be flying.
Maybe I’ll get a pilot’s license
lol Go for the seaplane rating Mr. OFD. Then you can have Champ pull you out for takeoff. Just like the Palins. lol
If I had the dough I seriously would start working on the pilot’s license, instrument rating, seaplane rating and multi-engine. Probably too old now, though.
Well, hell, if money were no object, I’d buy up/conquer all of Africa near the equator and build a space launch facility. Load the capsule in (the former) Equatorial Guinea, ride the rails east and then up the side of Mount Kilimanjaro and then up into space. Having such a long track for acceleration would cost more initially but would allow much gentler acceleration to reach orbital launch speed, and would also make for more convenient loading at the coast rather than somewhere in the (former) DRC.
Up into space, eh? What’s the attraction?
a) More resources
b) Getting some of the eggs out of the basket
c) Getting away from stupid people
Pick any or all of the above.
“We have told our kids that we will help them through one undergraduate degree”
That’s pretty much our philosophy as well.
The older son is in his last year of apprenticeship (where he earns about $1000-$1500/month). We pay his health insurance, he pays no rent, and he can raid the fridge, but he pays any other expenses he has (clothes, food, etc.). He also does his own laundry, and pitches in with other household stuff. When he gets his first real job, probably in the Fall, he should take over all of his own expenses. He’ll be 20 at that point.
The younger son will probably start college in the Fall. We’ll probably pay everything for his first year, and then expect him to earn at least his own spending money starting in the second year. After finishing his degree, we’ll expect him to go independent as well. Assuming he takes four years, he’ll be standing on his own feet at 21. If he still wants to live here, that’s fine, but he’ll be paying a fair rent.
I can see couple of years of leeway if life throws a curve ball or two. But “kids” who are 25 or older, still living off of their parents? I really don’t get it. It won’t happen here, not because we are hard-cases, but simply because we have always pushed our kids towards as much independence as they could reasonably handle. When the time comes, they will *want* to be fully self-reliant.
– – – – –
Re Princess: I know how the “I’ll get it from grandma” gig goes. I had a cousin who borrowed money endlessly from his mother, until her husband (she had remarried) took her name off all of their bank accounts. Then my cousin tried to borrow from anyone and everyone in the family, turned down by all, because we all knew him for the deadbeat he was. He ultimately hit up our grandmother, got her to max out her credit card and give him the cash, even though she was broke and just scraping by.
I’m pretty sure that a couple of my cousins (one of them a marine who also did competitive weight lifting) had a little “come to Jesus” meeting with him just after that. We’ll never know what effect it had, seeing as said cousin went and got himself shot not long afterwards. Mourned by no one but his mother, who still thought he was her darling boy…
Yikes.
Well, grandma up here won’t be around forever for that; she’s about to turn 87.
Also found out that the bulk of the money request was to pay off a speeding ticket she got from the state cops on the interstate a couple of weeks ago. Get this: the bastard tagged her going 75 in the usual 65 zone there. 75 is the minimum on that road; you have to do that just to keep up with the flow of traffic; while other cars and trucks fly by you like you’re standing still. No matter how bad the weather or road conditions.
So I have mixed feelings about this latest demand for money. And then in today’s email I get one from the state tax office demanding money, too. This week ain’t starting off real well…
the bastard tagged her going 75 in the usual 65 zone there
I got stopped for doing 65 in a 55 zone on I-40 East in Knoxville. I was in the right hand lane of four lanes clearly getting passed by other vehicles. I was one of the slowest on the road. Said he pulled me over because I was speeding. Relative to the limit yes, relative to other traffic, no. No citation, just a warning and a request to search my vehicle which I denied. I think he was looking for someone or something and used the speeding as an excuse to pull me over. Got to have that probable cause you know.
My first and only traffic ticket was issued by an officer named Dennis Cude back 25 years or so ago. He ticketed me for going 33 in a 35 zone. You read that right. He wrote down 40 and claimed I’d been going 45. Lying bastard. He must have been behind on his quota.
Mrs. OFD has told Princess that we’ll fund the undergraduate stuff, as we also have for years abroad in Italy and coming up, Germany, but any grad school is on her. Supposedly. Nevertheless, she seems to think we have a readily available slush fund of cash lying around here for her endless weekends of entertainment and gallivanting and commandeering one of our vehicles, with me still out of work. I told her in the earlier phone call we don’t have $500 lying around this weekend and she sez she’ll have her grandmother put it in her account. So come hell or high water, as is her wont, she is determined to come down here this weekend and do whatever she wants, at whatever someone else’s expense and time and effort. I’ll be having another talk with her mom later today about this; say, honey, how about just BAGGING your plans for this weekend???
Hey OFD, from where I sit, count your blessings. Our daughter is 27 and will probably never leave our home. The Lyme disease has basically destroyed her body and her immune system. But it is spring and her arthritis is getting better so she actually been able to go outside and walk a mile with her mom. That is the furthest that she has walked in years. The blessing here is that she is mobile on the good days.
I was in Sam’s Club Saturday and was talking with lady in line ahead of me. She had her 25? year old son in a large kid stroller. His body was curled up into a semi-permanent fetal position. MS?, I did not ask. I was telling myself, “wow, count your blessings”.
BTW, get a job! You need to be able to support your daughter in the style that she would like to become accustomed to. Sorry, could not resist!
I’m not real knowledgeable about how weather affects arthritis and Lyme Disease; will spring and summer make life easier for her?
Yes, I’m aware that other folks have much heavier crosses to bear; I should quit bitching about our minor crap. Just venting, that’s all; outnumbered here, ya know.
As for jobs and spendthrift lifestyles, it doesn’t seem to matter; nor does it with my married brothers. The more we make, the more they spend, anyway. So why bother?
I’m not real knowledgeable about how weather affects arthritis and Lyme Disease; will spring and summer make life easier for her?
Her arthritis, all??? arthritis, is very sensitive to ambient temperature. We keep the house at 68 F in the winter and we have thought about putting a heater in her room to keep her even warmer. Right around 68 F, her finger joints start locking up and she cannot grip anything. But her fingers do not bother her at 73 F, the A/C temperature setting in our house. Like I said, very sensitive.
Yeah, I have very minor osteoarthritis in my hands. At 68F, they ache. At 73F they’re much better. I usually wear fingerless gloves when I’m not at the keyboard. Those help a lot.
I thought of Lynn’s daughter, but I think he understands – we all gotta bitch about our own situation. Doesn’t reduce our sympathy for him and his daughter…
No citation, just a warning and a request to search my vehicle which I denied.
Damn, Mr. Ray. Cooking meth in the trunk again. That stove pipe coming out probably gives you away.
Anyone at my ballpark age of advancing senility and decrepitude experiencing any occasional numbness in the weak hand and a tendency to drop stuff all the time from that hand? Probably just a pinched nerve in my case.
“That stove pipe coming out probably gives you away.”
Plus his nonstop chattering at the officer about political and rayciss stuff, high skool basketball, the gigantic camera roll on his iPad, and the great dope we had in ‘Nam.
Dead giveaway.
Last month I worked about 20 hours OT* (with the project manager’s hearty approval; “we” were running way behind the promised delivery date** and she was glad I volunteered to work extra, because I’m one of the approximately one productive people on this subteam). Got the nice fat check early this month (minus the extra-big government “share”, of course) … and it went straight onto the credit card bill because my wife had bought a third iPad. It was a necessary expense, because two iPads weren’t enough for Grandma, her, and the seven-year-old, and it’s not like I was going to replace my broken office chair or anything. Strictly speaking, the OT pay would have been enough for a cheap chair even after these deductions, but there were a few other apparently necessary expenses, and not only was it all gone, my wife was telling me I needed to come up with more. Suggestions that she might cut down on her spending result in temper tantrums, of course.
* One of the benefits of being an hourly contractor is getting paid for the OT. “Exempt” employees are forced to work OT for no extra pay even when it’s someone else’s screwup which caused the problem.
** “We” were behind because I gave her my estimate for time to complete the scheduled work, based on certain assumptions, which resulted in a projected delivery date of whenever. The customer pushed for an earlier delivery date and the PM agreed to it. Then the customer changed the requirements. And changed them again. And again… And the PM agreed to the changes every time “because she had to”. This, as one might guess, caused the schedule to slip. Nevertheless, I shunted the useless team members off to the side, pulled off a miracle and got the project ready for acceptance testing … and then we found that the PM had forgotten to get test accounts set up. Getting that fixed took over a week (government office; it’s not like they’re motivated or anything) and then we found that the designated testers in the customer group were going on vacation. I’d be really pissed off right about now, except that I’m a contractor, paid by the hour, and not paid to give a shit.
Anyone at my ballpark age of advancing senility and decrepitude experiencing any occasional numbness in the weak hand and a tendency to drop stuff all the time from that hand? Probably just a pinched nerve in my case.
Unfortunately, yes. I started taking Rythmol about 7 or 8 months ago for my heart tachycardia. That stopped but now I am getting desensitivity in all my long muscles.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propafenone
It is now difficult for me to pick up a communion cup. I am dropping stuff (have broken two ceramic bowls in the last month) and fallen twice. Managed to nail the kitchen sink counter the other day and my hip looks like someone went after it with a baseball bat. You can really get some nice internal bleeds on warfarin.
If I hear “that is just a normal part of aging” one more time, I am going to go after them with a baseball bat.
and it went straight onto the credit card bill because my wife had bought a third iPad
Cancel the credit card?
Could be a joint card.
“…my wife was telling me I needed to come up with more. Suggestions that she might cut down on her spending result in temper tantrums, of course.”
Married brothers have reported that same scenario to me before a few times, plus the four teenage daughters between them.
http://vintageprintable.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/Art-Painting-Mythology-Hell-probably-Italian1.jpg
“If I hear “that is just a normal part of aging” one more time…”
I only take one BP med but maybe I pinched a nerve somewhere; left hand/fingers slipping the grip now a lot. I should get one of those hand exerciser thingies…
Lynn, if it happens to be some form of repetitive strain injury, then exercise is definitely NOT the thing to do without expert oversight.
Nope, I tripped on the one inch thick foam pad on the tile in front of the kitchen sink about two weeks or so ago. I forgot the foam pad was there when I went over to wash a dish. I’ve got a little bit of neuropathy going on in the feet and hands due to the Rythmol so I did not feel the foam pad. When I tripped, I managed to turn and take the hit of the kitchen counter on my hip instead of my front. That may not have been such a good idea as I got a blood blister on my hip bone about two inches across. Might have been a better idea to take the hit on my manhood.
The hip bone is still bleeding a little bit but nothing bad as the bruise is only 3 inches by 2 inches. Bad would be a bleed from my hip down to my knee. Or down to my ankle. Then I would go to the ER and get a pint or two of whole blood for the clotting effect. And then I would get the anti-clotting injections in my stomach for a week or two. All this to keep me from having a stroke since I am high risk (afib and tachycardia).
Just got back from my daily two mile walk. The weather is awesome for it now, temp right at 60 F and very little wind here in the Land of Sugar. The dog and I had a great time even though the sidewalks are rolled up around here at 9 pm.
Or are you talking to OFD about his nerveless hand?
the four teenage daughters between them.
They are so lucky! (that is a curse down here in the deep South)