News flash: The world has gone mad. ION, I should just stop watching/reading news.

Still trying to make some progress unpacking, cleaning, and organizing the camp. It's a chore for sure. Meanwhile, my son and DIL are working hard to organize my FL house in our absence. They pulled out all the contents of my kitchen cabinets and cleaned and organized. The garage, which is a real horror scene, is next. They know how I feel about a place for everything and everything in its place, but the house has gone very far astray from that goal.

msbelle, I'm sure they appreciated the extra help. (And if they didn't, they don't deserve you and they should be ashamed)

Owww. My whole head and face hurts. I woke up and took various meds and drank some caffeine. But owwww

Ugh. I'm trying to finish off a task and somebody on another team broke the build of the product I'm working on, keeping me from testing my stuff. Really frustrating as I'm probably close to being done.

Also my wife texted me that she was having trouble with her webcam. She got it working again, but she blames me for messing it up the last time I did something for her on her computer. She's already angry at me for not doing anything around the house, though she seems to remember me doing a lot less than I do. I mean, I don't do much during the day, but I'm not physically there so it's hard to do a lot. I probably haven't done as much lately though, some of that was being sick due to a bad reaction to new medication (thank you insurance) and I stepped on a nail Saturday which slowed me down quite a bit. I did put in an hour and a half of clearing brush, mowed the yard (1/2 acre so it takes a bit), put up a couple of blog posts for my wife's website, did a load of dishes, took my son out for a bit of driving practice, and took out some garbage, but I did slack off on some things. I dunno. I probably should be doing more.

Not feeling very good about myself lately.

What did your wife do in that same time period? Other than complain, I mean.

Gud, I'm sorry you're feeling so low. I think a lot of it comes from your wife's constant criticism and unreasonable expectations, though. Like Matt said, what does she do around the house? Anything?

Please please consider seeing someone you can talk to. I think it would be really helpful to have another perspective on the dynamics in your marriage. To me, you're a reliable, responsible, active dad who does more than his share of the housework. And you hold down a full-time job! You should be proud of yourself.

Also, please tell me your tetanus shot is up to date? You kinda skimmed over that whole "stepped on a nail" thing, but that's not nothing. You need to take care of yourself while you're taking care of everyone else.

Unsatisfied with lingering on the cusp of Mostly Well, I decided to buy every tiny little bottle at Walgreens that might interest an ENT and give my head a thorough flushing.

The Debrox produced the most dramatic yet satisfying yet gross result. Then salty snorts, lemony gargles and one more pass of the antihistimine eye drops and I declare myself DeGunked and DeGooped.

Timelies all!

Yes, take care of yourself, Gud.

Would it be useful to sit with your wife and map out a reasonable set of tasks for the day? I think she is still loading her anxiety onto you, so that she can deflect it into criticism.

Tasks that she says you do not do well: ask her if it would be better if you don't do them at all, and hire somebody else to do them -- or have her do them herself.

It sounds like you NEVER do things WITH her. Even if all she'd be doing is handing you a wrench when you're under the sink, it would get her involved.

I'd very much like to see you take a "weekend off" once a month. Announce it in advance, so nobody is surprised. Second weekend of the month is Dad's, where he works on his own cool stuff, maybe goes to a movie (with other family along if they'd like) maybe stop for a meal out on the way home, or take a walk in the park.