The "boy next door" from when I grew up died yesterday. My sister, who lived with him for a time when she about 30 called me to let me know. He was 10 years older than me and I knew him all my life, although I didn't keep in touch after moving to Florida. Anyway, Judi has quite a few art pieces he did, and my other sister has a painting he did of Otter Lake with an eagle flying over for my mom. Freak accident. Apparently he was an avid fisherman and was crossing over one of the rivers in central NY when he lost his footing and was swept away. So, not a hard loss in that we hadn't been close in decades, but a sad loss of a good man. RIP, Keith.

Well fuckity. Mac dropped a class without telling me and is currently failing the other class he is in. Without taking 2 classes all $$ I use from the college savings account could be taxed.

And one of my uncles who has been having some cognitive issues, took a sharp decline this week and had to get admitted to the hospital. Now he has to be in isolation at the retirement facility for two weeks before he can be possibly transferred to the memory care or nursing section. He is not in great physical shape either (needs a walker to walk and will likely be in a wheelchair soon, congestive heart failure also).

I'm sorry, msbelle. Kids! Your poor uncle, I'm sure he is terribly frustrated, as are the healthcare workers whose hands are understandably tied.

Oof, msbelle. That's a lot of hits. I'm sorry!

And I'm sorry about your friend, Laura.

I'm sorry for your loss, Laura.

Ugh, msbelle. I'm so sorry about Mac, and tons of ~ma for your uncle.

So much ~ma to the uncles of sj and msbelle. And, oh, Mac, please, kid. You know better; do better!

ND, you've taken heroic care of your staff and your business under the absolute worst circumstances this year. No ranting apology needed--it's amazing that you haven't spent the entire last 10 months doing nothing but rant.

And Shir, I'm so sorry about your friend. All possible good and healing thoughts.

I've been sitting here for 20 minutes trying to think of something nice or goofy or distracting to say, but I am drained. Not even depressed, just empty. All I want is to curl up with spouse and kid and the piggies and draw the curtains tight and not move until spring, and I don't understand why some venture capitalist hasn't funded a bioengineering project to make human hibernation a viable option.

Ugh, Mac!!

ND rant away. I’m very impressed you’ve managed to not utterly fall apart and hope you get to take a good vacation sometime once that’s possible rather than just having to double down and go harder.

My puppy got groomed today for the first time—he’s been before but more for a wash and blow dry than an actual trim. And he is soooooo soft now!! I just want to loooooove him

I'm sorry, Laura. And I'm sorry, msbelle.

I'm sorry for your loss Laura. Lots of ~ma to your families sj and msbelle (including to Mac and college).

ND I can't imagine the stress this year has been as a business owner but you've done so much for your employees it's really amazing.

I have nothing going on in my life much except work, coming home, catching up on FB and here and sometimes twitter, Second Life, and rereading fanfic. I want to start crocheting again but my hands are really rough from dealing with boxes all day and my shoulders are often sore and this current job in fulfillment is physically exhausting - from the actual packing, moving boxes around, the walking around to get items, and the hours-this week I've worked shifts that were 7 am 3:30, 2:30 to 11, 9 to 5:30, tomorrow is 6 am -2:30 and then had over time thrown in for a few 10 hour days and only a half hour break. BUT it's not emotionally draining like working on the sales floor (especially this year).

I really really want to keep doing this after the holidays. I love the whole process, the managers can see how we are doing in real time and make adjustments accordingly. It stresses some people out to get hourly updates of how we are doing and how much we need to process in order to catch up or get ahead or whatever but I like knowing where we are and what we need to do because it's very controllable. According to my manager all the other managers have noticed how well I've been doign and how much I've taken to it. And that same manager asked me to train a new person and said "you may not realize but you are a really good trainer". Which I've gotten that feedback before, but then we got behind so he did some of the training but I still coached the person along.

Oh, askye, that makes me so happy! Not the exhaustion, but the strong positive feedback. It makes a world of difference to have managers who notice and appreciate your strengths.