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At this point in pandemic I feel like I've got my routine down pat. Here is Monday. Get up around 6-6:30 Coffee, the Times, the Post, the Journal. YouTube videos of rainy streets or beaches. 7:30 go to the gym. Home by 9. Shower. Breakfast is usually some variation of potato, onion, sausage, veggies (whatever is lying around) and 3 eggs with a lot of hot sauce. 9:30-10:00 work starts. I normally have my schedule full days in advance so I don't waste time or miss things. Lots of water with lemon. More coffee. 5~ish I finish work, start making dinner. I make dinner 4-5 times a week. Family time. Beer. 9- Adult time. Whiskey and weed. Well, whiskey every now and then, most nights it is weed and snacks. TV with boobs. Reading. 11-12 Bed. The weekends are essentially the same, with a lot less work and more naps.

Bright Lands - started great, small Texas county where everybody is obsessed with the high school football team. The first 80% is a really engaging story, part small town mystery, part supernatural horror. But the last 20% just fell apart. It eventually devolved into a violent orgy. Yes, literally.

Thanks, I'm sorry to vent when other people have it a lot worse but its infuriating.

So the Girl and the Kid and I moved about 8 years ago from FL to MD. One of the benefits of this was space from the Girl's folks. What I have come to accept in the 12 years we have been together now is that my wife is the adult in the family. The narcissistic parents had to learn to fend for themselves a bit when she left, although they continue to call her almost every day to vent their frustrations, with each other, with other family, with the world. In the intervening time the Kid has grown up and become aware that grandma in particular just isn't a very nice person. Its hard to watch your kid slowly realize that this person that they really tried to love just doesn't know how to love them back. Grandpa is a little better, a perpetual victim but he has a lot of love for his granddaughter and we have tried very had to maintain that. They are in extraordinarily poor health due to decades of no exercise, fast food, and bad luck. Their house is a two story pack-ratters squat at this point, full of random shit, guns, and stolen school supplies from when her mom was a teacher. Since they insist that any repairs are 'too expensive' and they pester old friends from their temple to fix stuff every now and then. Neither of them can take the stairs, and the chair lift they got for free ten years ago is broken and they insist they can't afford to repair it. Now they have COVID. Mom got it first, after disregarding COVID protocols over and over (going maskless to parties, restaurants, etc). Her first response was to try and keep anybody from finding out. People she had been around? She refused to tell them. To his credit her husband called the temple cantor, who is a massive gossip, and told her. She then got him sick (on purpose we think, she kept going into his room and trying to get close to him. These are people that haven't shared a bedroom in YEARS). So far their symptoms are mild but since both have every single comorbidity that exists they were taken the hospital as a matter of precaution. And of course, they are depending on my wife to figure shit out for them. Neither is vaccinated, they apparently thought a magic carpet full of vaccine and snacks would be deposited on their doorstep I guess? My wife called and made their appointments for them. But COVID found them first. Now my wife is dealing with other family, who are concerned, and her parents (who are both angry WITH HER). Now, in the midst of a pandemic my wife will have to fly to Florida and figure their shit out for them again. I am fucking furious. Is that wrong of me? I don't know. But fuck them. My parents by contrast, despite being a couple of years older, are healthy and have just gotten their second vaccine shots. So that puts me at ease a bit. Anyway, sorry to vent here but I'm trying to be cool so the Kid doesn't get upset and be supportive of my wife that has it a lot worse than I do.

I've placed a hold on Convenience Store Woman! Thanks!

We are very sorry for your loss.

Those are all natural, valid points and I hope for that reason this board will continue, and even exist alongside the slack. A symbiotic arrangement seems possible, I mean there is no overriding reason to be "either/or". @Psychophant posts cool stuff. I hope you keep posting here (even if you mute me ;))

What school? What work?

My direct boss, she was at HUD before but this is a big step up and it sucks and I hate it.

On the downside, my boss, one of the best managers I have ever worked with, got poached by Marcia Fudge to be the Chief of Staff of HUD.

Hmmm seems like my settings are right. Nada in the spam folder either... Well, back to work for a short, intense week. DC is basically an armed camp as we proceed with the coronation. Which is kind of weird right? Its like the founders wanted some of the pomp of the monarchy without the monarchy. Do other democracies make a new executive taking office into such a big deal? OTOH, the transition is a freight train steamrolling right over hapless Trump appointees that are scrambling to either get embedded in the career federal workforce or looking for work. A lot of the biggest names are finding themselves not worth what most former WH staff are worth on the private market. Some seem to feel like they are two weeks from hanging out on street corners with a sign reading "will lobby for food". Fuckers. All of them. Don't let the door hit your ass on the way out, starting with the douchebag at Census that tried to push staff to come up with a bullshit way to count undocumented people.

Is anybody else not getting notifications? I set it to send me a daily email and didn't get one yet, though I appear to be following stuff?

I thought this might be an interesting poll given the times.

I reconnected with some awesome people on zoom. Moving forward, should we want to do zoom meats, I'm up for it.

Interesting little piece on aging goths. https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/magazine/do-elder-goths-hold-the-secret-to-aging-successfully/2021/01/11/a565b2de-3b04-11eb-9276-ae0ca72729be_story.html I feel a bit seen. We were actually at two of the events mentioned here, but compared to Florida they were pretty small scale.