We just survived our second hurricane since arriving in Florida. That, along with my 68-day hospital stay for congestive heart failure, has me convinced that this state is trying to kill me. Plus, I start very extensive dental work day after tommorrow. I'll get some nice drugs, supposedly. On the plus side, I haven't had a drink since entering the hospital back in May.

Plus, I've made friends with a crane. Here, he seems to be contemplating lunch:

≡ Click to see image ≡

What a beautiful bird!

Yeah, Florida has been a wild ride for you and Pips. I'm so glad you made it through your hospital ordeal - and well done on six months of sobriety. For me, rock bottom was more of a mental/spiritual descent rather than a physical one, but I know that it was something I needed to go through to get where I am today. Stick with it, your health is so important, and Pips needs you to stick around. I look forward to seeing a photo of your new gnashers.

Senyar, I want that hoodie. I have a sewing pattern for it. And I can easily buy fabric. This is the second time recently Metafilter has made me spend lots of money, I bought the purple coat. Ah well.

Doing the same. Still single. Still complaining about it. I have PTSD from the asshole priest and the semiasshole church organist who both left more than 2 years ago, and I don't know how to get rid of it. I went on a nice trip to Montreal for the weekend with my friend, we loved it so much we're already talking about going back. I wish I was better at languages.

Meh.

I go on.

For much of the year I just felt hollowed out. Now I feel an ineffable sadness. I have been biking, walking, and lifting weights in order to avoid things I really need to be doing. It's regression, it's displacement, and it's doing damage to some other people but at least it's not too destructive like drinking, drugs or Russian roulette.

I missed Thanksgiving and Halloween. Just didn't even notice until the night before both times. It just occurred to me that Christmas is coming. I have to do something for my granddaughter. (She turns 13 this Christmas and is now 5'10'. I really can't wrap my head around it.)

I attended a couple of grief seminars and a couple of group support sessions, but they don't seem to be for me. I'm not saying they are bad as I see people getting something from them, but they are not helping me at all. I know the difference between grieving and bereavement. I don't have questions about what I am doing. It's just not connecting.

Casper, Nora, and Possum are all doing well. Ginger now lives in one of the houses at the side of the house. Not sure why after all these years he has decided to stay. Maybe because he is becoming more and more domesticated or maybe his old home is gone. There has been a lot of construction going on so his old home may have been destroyed. Pan, now old and deaf, is still hard as nails but now when I come out in the morning she gives me a huge ma-rowww! I guess because she can't hear she doesn't realize how loud it is.

They have bulked up for the cold, but Ginger is trimmer than he was in past years. He is getting older, and I think he gets that he can't do the kind of weight he used to. Rocky has taken the mantle of "my neck is bigger than my head" this year.

Jon it's good to hear you have been sober. I hope your dental work goes well and Florida stops trying to kill you.

I am struggling with the burdens of full time care of my mom. Her mental state is rapidly declining and I am trying to figure out her and my finances. I've had to cut my working hours down to almost nothing.

This is not sustainable, yet I am pretty wasted mentally. If there was enough money to get her into a nice facility it would be so much easier.

I try and check on my home once a week if possible and am fortunate that my neighbor is willing to check on a few things and hold my mail. But my once delightful garden has been taken over by weeds and some of my plants died during our summer drought.

And, I have been worrying about all of y'all; each of you are also burdened, too.

May we each find hope in our futures.

Feeling quite ill with coughing and sneezing and aching, but there's no fever and both tests for you-know-what were negative, so I guess it's just a cold, how Old School.

My uncle passed away this week, which means I have no more uncles or aunts left. I started out with 8, not counting spouses.

I am having technical difficulties.

Just got a raise at work, but because I work for government and have reached the last "step" it's the last increase I'll ever get, except for tiny ones negotiated by the union. But my coworker points out that now is my chance to become the bitter, uncooperative employee I've always wanted to be. Yeah, I can do that.

After Thanksgiving maybe I will post some Xmas music.

Good wishes to all of you and good to hear from you.

Went to the first of my dental appointments today. had a few extractions and the post for implants put in my lower jaw. They gave me Halcion, so I mostly daydreamed through the procedure. It's sore now, but I got plenty of tylenol and advil. Next Tuesday, I get a bridge put in my upper teeth.

Tommorow, I get my Florida drivers liscence, I won't be smiling in the picture for obvious reasons.

Actually my next dental appt is on the Monday after thanksgiving. my bad.

Got my Florida licence today. Amazing what 35 years can do to a man.

1987:≡ Click to see image ≡ 2022:≡ Click to see image ≡

It took 3 tests, but it turns out I do have you-know-what. I have a painful sore throat and feel rotten in the evenings but other than that am fine. I will miss the Thanksgiving event I was going to (boo!) but thanks to the holiday/isolation timetable I don't have to go back to work until the 28th, so there's that. The cats, of course, are very pleased.

Nice '87 hairdo, jonmc.

Sorry to hear you caught The Rona, janetland :(

We went to Boston, Massachusetts yesterday to have lunch with chrismear who was in the area for work. Got to wander around for a few hours until lunch. turtlegirl got to visit a pen store to try a few fountain pens she has her eyes on. We also stopped by a cannabis dispensary and found a few nice treats to take home with us. 3 hour coach ride from Vermont to Boston, 6 hours in Boston, 3 hours back home. Glad we got to sleep in today.

On the bright side, I no longer have technical difficulties.

ightshould; having to stop working to take care of your mentally declining mum whom you can't enter into a home. That sounds super tough. My hat's off to you. I hope you find ways to take care of yourself too.

Here in the NL energy & heating is a challenge with the war in Ukraïne. My room temperature is 55.4 F. The upside is that I get to wear my thick irish cable knit jumper. And a heating blanket on my seat makes all the difference.
Just to give you a bit of context: I know of an old man whose heating bill went from 150 euros per month to 550. So it's a real issue.

I visited my 14 yr old daughter. She's living in the Cotswolds on a farm with her mama. Such a pretty area. Besides seeing my daughter I went for a run through the fields. Those 'right to roam' paths are an amazing way to explore the landscape. Hard to find with just a paper map. But very doable with the OS Survey app + gps on your phone. Recommended.

janetland: It's Always DNS

Senyar, can you tell me where you got that amazing teddy fleece hoodie? Thanks!! :)

I got it on eBay, but it's available in the USA from Amazon.

Happy thanksgiving to to the USAians. Good to hear from you all.

Meh, life just seems to keep throwing punches at me lately. My job, which I'm quite unhappy in but pays well, has decided everyone gets to take a mandatory 5-week break over Christmas and I only have two weeks of leave, so money will be tight. I've finally gone to a doctor about my shoulder pain and have tears in two tendons as well as some age-related arthritis and bursitis, so cortisone injections to start and physio then we'll see, but hopefully, no surgery is required. I stupidly forgot to pay my car registration and got caught out on Sunday by a police car with ANPR (Automatic Number Plate Recognition - scans number plates as they drive and automatically alerts on anything like registration expired, outstanding warrants, expired, suspended or canceled driver's license etc). The worst though is that the Child Support Agency has, over two years after 'closing my file' because all my kids had become adults, decided that I now have to pay an additional $7k in child support and I have two weeks to pay. I'll call them today and argue against it and try to appeal - paying that money to someone that never paid for a thing for their kids (I paid for everything or they got nothing), then abandoned their children and hasn't had anything to do with them for years just makes me furious and depressed. I know what's going to happen though - they'll call me a deadbeat dad again and say 'just pay the money by next week or we'll garnish your wages'. It's just so fucking unfair.

It's great to hear bout positive things happening to people around here and the real problems that others have make my own gripes seem petty. Either way, I hope everyone has a chance to get the good things they deserve.

Coming late to this as usual. All's well here; good to hear from everyone, and extra big hugs to those of you who are going through rough times.