Calli that’s a lovely idea, though I don’t think they really decorate at all. I’ll check with my sister, too, see if she has good ideas. Last year it seemed very obvious to cancel….and we are back to those levels of virus….but I feel like it’s harder to say no.

sumi, so good to see your pixels, and yay on hitting the quarter-done mark!

Gud, what everyone else said--that's a minor blip, not a screw-up, and it is incredibly normal and human to have difficulty shifting mental gears like that.

I'm in awe of Matilda--deeply emotionally sensitive and attentive to others, but also so socially adept and purely fun to be around. She's an emotional intelligence rock star!

My vaccination card seems to have completely vanished, but I have my QR code, and I got both shots at Employee Health so if someone wants a hard copy I can get it without much trouble.

meara, that sounds so hard. I'm already pre-fretting about my own mom, who lives alone and has been hardcore self-isolating since it all began but is finally, despite her strong hermit tendencies, beginning to feel gnawed at by loneliness and forgetting how to *be* around other people at all. I don't know what should happen over the holidays, but it feels like for her emotional health and resilience it definitely shouldn't be Zoom (though maybe for her physical health it'll have to be). My brothers will be here in October, and we'll have to talk about it then.

God you are not stupid. Nor are you a mind reader. Your wife could have said something explicit about what she wanted but she probably won't.

You do not have to be perfect. You do more than most of us on a regular basis and you are a good and kind person.

Your wife is not being fair or reasonable.

Meara that is a really tough situation. For most of 2020 South Carolina stayed more in the middle of the pack in terms of Covid cases. Even though Greenville County was always at the top it didn't seem that bad here. Now I'm hearing more and more from people who know someone who has covid. Now we've broken the top 20 for total cases so not a good trend.

Yeah, askye my parents are in Greenville!

My elder daughter is in the process of moving out now. I'm proud that she's leaving the nest, but I'm going to miss not having her around though.

Yeah, that is hard Gud. It does help when you see her happiness.

Aw, that must be hard, Gud. (And echoing that you are not at fault for not being a mind reader. If she knew what she wanted for dinner, she should have just gotten it! Why even involve you if it wasn't a true solicitation of your desires. All I'm saying.)

Aw, kids leaving home, that must be bittersweet

My Mom was born 100 years ago today, well not really, but it is the day we celebrated her birthday. Remembering her warmly and being grateful that I had her until she was 95.

You guys, what the fuck. There's more nonsense afoot involving my dad and his guns and him being really fucking crazy. The thing is, every time that my brother and I have talked to Dad in the past...year? I think? he's been completely lucid and not at all crazy and/or loopy on meds. (Quick backstory: he had been hallucinating, the geriatrician took him off Ambien, and the hallucinations stopped; separately, his PCP stopped prescribing him opioids, and without those, there's nothing that makes him all loopy.) So this is totally out of the blue for both of us.

In a really weird coincidence, the guy (Wally) who lives across the hall from my dad went to high school with my SiL. So Wally sent a FB message to SiL saying he needed to talk to my brother about Dad. Bro calls Wally this morning and finds out the following: (1) Dad is seeing hallucinations again (he has not mentioned this to me or my brother); (2) Dad told Wally that some nights he sits up in his recliner (which is in front of the door) with his shotgun (!) because he's afraid someone will break in; and (3) one night this week, Dad called the police at like 3 a.m. and told them people with guns were trying to break into the building to get him, which led to 10 (!!!) squad cars on the street at 4 a.m., AND THEN apparently Dad slept through all of that??? And the cops didn't try to go in and talk to Dad??? Which I guess is good, because if he had a shotgun pointed at the door they would have shot his stupid ass.

(I'm really confused about how #3 went down; hearing it thirdhand from my brother, who heard it from the neighbor across the hall, is really confusing. Like, I kind of doubt that there were 10 squad cars there. And I don't understand why the police wouldn't try to make contact with the person who called them. But the overall point is that SHIT IS FUCKED.)

So neighbor Wally talked to downstairs neighbor Mark, who is the landlord's brother (got all that?). And Mark said, look, if Dad is crazy, that's one thing, and being crazy will resolve itself one way or the other, and he pays his rent on time. But he CANNOT be crazy and possess firearms. It sounds like Dad needs to get rid of his guns or he's going to get evicted.

Brother calls me, tells me all of the above, asks me if I think he would take his guns to our aunt's house, because she should have a gun safe, since our uncle (who passed away a few years ago) had a ton of guns.

I said it would be easier for Tim and me to just go get the guns from Dad (WHY does he own a shotgun??? fucking hillbilly) and keep them in our attic, or, preferably, dispose of them for him, because I don't like guns and would rather not have them in our house.

So I'm waiting for Tim to wake up (he's still on second shift BUT -- yay! -- is back to first shift starting Monday) so I can ask him if he's okay with us taking Dad's guns and keeping them in the attic or disposing of them. (My brother thinks Dad has the shotgun and 2 handguns. If he has more than that, I'm going to lose my damn mind.)

AND THEN I have to call Dad and calmly explain to him that if he doesn't give us his guns he's very likely to get evicted. AND THEN if he refuses, I have to lay down an ultimatum that goes as follows: "You don't have to give up your guns, but you will get evicted if you don't give them up. And if you get evicted, I WILL NOT lift one finger to help you find a new place, pack, or move." And that's going to suck, so I really hope he just gives us the guns without any fuss.

Holy shit, you guys.