Although I might give a side eye to some 'service' pets in the grocery store.

I will own my crotchetiness and say I'd rather have most of those pets rather than most of the kids in the grocery store.

Right now my massive annoyance is a whole slew of people telling my nephew's fiance that he needs to have a sleep study because he must have sleep apnea because he snores. His mother chiming in with testimony that both she and his grandmother have sleep apnea, so he should get the study done. His mother and grandmother are both seriously obese and he is an athletic mid 20s guy in great shape. People with sleep apnea often snore, but the vast majority of people who snore don't have apnea!!

Phew, got that off my chest.

The father of my childhood friends died today. I say friends, because while A was my age & my buddy, the three other siblings were equally my playmates & friends. We grew up in each others' houses, living next door to each other until high school, and then carpooling in high school ( & the younger to the middle school) until graduation. Victor wasn't a dad to me, but he was family, in a way. He coached my brother's soccer, took me with the rest of the kids to their grandparents' house so often they'd ask when I wasn't with...

He was younger than my parents,

Aw, sarameg, I'm sorry to hear that.

Ugh. I'm sorry it's been a shit day (or few days) for people.

sarameg, I'm so sorry.

I'm ok, just sitting here acknowledging mortality. I'm getting better at it, if better is just "sigh."

Which is piling on.

...I think my mom's short term memory issues are escalating. We're coping, but I think dad's gonna need to take over the financials soon. It causes her too much anxiety over whether she remembered to pay this or that (she always has, because she's like that) which leads to more forgetfulness,which leads to more anxious spiraling, etc.

But it's always been her bailiwick, so this will be fun. Dad can do it, he's managed multimillion contracts, just skated on the domestic budget. Hell, he got an allowance for years.

Until the last couple years, we'd all assumed mom would outlive/outbrain dad. Them included. We're recalculating.

Sorry, just having a mental dump.

It's not "I'm not getting what I need" it's "Somebody is getting something they don't deserve".

And somehow, in their minds, the people who "don't deserve" things are usually darker skinned than the people getting in a huff. I think this is behind white people on or below the edge of financial security voting for people who are destroying the social security net. Sure, it means that help won't be there for them, but at least those people won't be getting something they don't deserve. And I don't know how to talk to people like that. What do you say to someone who'd rather watch their own kids go hungry than know that, somewhere, a poor kid of color is getting a sandwich?

Question for the group: I'm going to a high school graduation party for someone who is basically like family. We aren't close. His parents have no sense of social mores, so I don't have to worry about what they will think. My mother already gave a gift. The grad has a brother graduating next year. Do I give him a gift? I was thinking just cash, but how much?

{{sarameg}} That's a lot. Mortality blows. Mom transitioned the cooking, cleaning, and bookkeeping to step-dad over a period of years. It was complicated by him having zero experience on the domestic front. Fortunately she found his incompetencies adorable rather than frustrating and they managed the transition.

Early morning news scanning seems encouraging on the primary fronts. Hope all the Buffista voters had good outcomes.

HI-larious encounter on my beach travels yesterday. The SUV in front of us had a huge Ravens sticker on the back window, a third scraped off. Over the remains he had an X in blue duct tape with "F@##$ the Ravens" and "Respect Our Flag and Country" written on it. Maybe he gets Hell Yeah responses from some, but we both pointed and burst out laughing. NFL is so screwed pissing off both sides with losing people who hate the kneeling, and losing those that hate the owners and their rules.