Does everyone have a groundhog this year? Was there a sale or something?

(We have two groundhogs living in a hole near the back of our yard. From the sizes I think it's a mother and juvenile. We call them The Fat-asses, or Fatso (affectionate) for short.)

No groundhogs here. I am resigned to missing out.

Used to quote “don’t drive angry” from Groundhog Day a lot. Not sure why, it’s not like it was appropriate to try the context usually. Getting judged by a groundhog while you park is possibly the most appropriate trigger for it!

Eta by “here” I mean in my immediate vicinity. There may be some farther afield.

We’ve had a groundhog, or a series of them, on the apartment complex grounds. One year a neighbor had big pots of basil in front of his place, and I came home to see the groundhog just stuffing his face with the basil leaves. The man had plenty to spare, so I left the beastie to it.

Afaik no groundhogs here. Not sure how the dog would handle one!

I would like to hurkle durkle. Most days my alarm goes off, I hit snooze 1-3 times, and then I look at my phone for around 30 minutes. After that I’m awake enough to know I have to get up, even if I still don’t want to.

t requiring you to be there for 9 hours without giving official breaks sounds like it probably isn’t compliant with California labor laws.

Yeah, that’s my gut feeling but I think this is what being classified as exempt explicitly removes protections against. It’s a dick move, though.

The policy justifies personal internet time.

My wireless router is misbehaving. Drops, then takes a dozen restarts to get it working again. Getting a new one tomorrow, but it has been an annoying couple days. We had storms yesterday involving flooding and a tornado. None immediately around me, but this caused a couple power outages. Oh well. Good thing I have books.

I do find myself taking that tack, Laura. Stay safe everyone with storms!

My summertime love of long skirts does not mix well with my rolling office chair.

We work 10-hour day Mon, Wed, and Thurs, and Tues and Fri till 1. No weekends. But the 10-hour days are a killer, especially back to back.

Oh, that does sound pretty rough. 10 hours is a lot, especially twice in a row like that!

We were doing a 9/80 schedule for a while - 9 hour days M-Th, 1 8 hr Friday and one Friday off. That was actually pretty nice. 9 hours 5 days a week feels like a lot more, even when the individual 9 hour days do not bother me much

I ran out to pick up Taco Bell for lunch because I was intrigued by the Cheez-It crunchwrap (it's no Doritos Taco) and listened to Beach Read in the car so now I am very much resenting that I have to work rather than listen to my book. I had 15 minutes left in the chapter, too long to sit in the parking lot and finish it up.

Oof, some hard news yesterday. Remember J, my dad's part-time caregiver, who had a bit of a breakdown after my dad died and then said he couldn't move out, even after I gave him a big chunk of money I knew my dad would have wanted him to have to get a fresh start? His mom got in touch with me yesterday to let me know he passed away in his sleep May 2. I don't know anything more than that, but given how distraught he was and his tendency to use alcohol to self-medicate, I worry he overdosed on something or took his own life. I'm just heartbroken. He was 26. He had massive baggage and a lot of issues, which is why ND and I urged him to move back home to Pennsylvania until he got back on his feet, but he also was a genuinely good person who loved my dad and was very good to him the last three years of his life. His mother and I had a nice conversation — she didn't know he was struggling until it was too late, and she expressed her gratitude for all we tried to do for him — but my heart broke for her. Definitely feeling very sad today. I know it's not my fault, but I wish I could have done more.