Rant VIII: The Reckoning

Bubble181

Bubble181

Sounds like it could be a heel spur...Which, yeah, wearing better shoes with a good in-soles and lots of rest are usually the only real solutions, unless you want an expensive and only half-effective operation.
Often becomes a problem after changing routines - my father has it, and it became problematic because he went from mostly sedentary to walking the dog three times a day :p Also, very painful, apparently.
 
Cajungal

Cajungal

Staff member
Ranting on another family's behalf... i might have already told this story before.

A school mom was complaining of abdominal pain during her pregnancy. They chalked it up to normal pregnancy discomfort. Three weeks after her baby was born, she wad diagnosed with advanced stomach cancer. She's put up a really good fight, but it looks like she's not going to make it. Her son is barely eight months old. It's not fair. I know life's not fair, but this is just so horrible. This woman was sweet, kind, and to top it all off, she treated her body like a temple.

I'll be teaching her oldest kid soon. It's gonna be a rough year for her. I want to keep hoping she'll get better, but it doesn't look good. She's barely 40.

And to top it off, this poor husbands poor FB page is plastered with "faith will heal her" posts.

Not. Fair.
 
Gared

Gared

Well, I finally have an interview (the first since I was laid off almost 6 months ago). As is tradition with my family, whenever one good thing happens, a bad thing must happen to balance the scales. Since this is just an interview and not a job offer, the bad is equally non-confirmed, but still bad. My wife's company, which has been acquiring companies for the past couple of years, recently appointed an SVP of "efficiency." A couple of weeks ago they started offering early retirement to some of their older employees. This week, they have apparently been going around the country firing regional and branch managers. In the west region, that means that they've fired the strongest managers and kept the weakest ones - the ones who have multiple HR complaints against them for violating labor laws, or who are old and sick and miss more than half of every week, or the ones who are already completely overwhelmed. These are the managers they're keeping. Because they're the cheapest. We should know in a week or two what's being done to my wife's department, but I fully expect them to fire everyone except the newest (and therefore cheapest) employee at my wife's level, and then go bankrupt in a couple of years and wonder why.
 
bhamv3

bhamv3

Gared said:
Well, I finally have an interview (the first since I was laid off almost 6 months ago). As is tradition with my family, whenever one good thing happens, a bad thing must happen to balance the scales. Since this is just an interview and not a job offer, the bad is equally non-confirmed, but still bad. My wife's company, which has been acquiring companies for the past couple of years, recently appointed an SVP of "efficiency." A couple of weeks ago they started offering early retirement to some of their older employees. This week, they have apparently been going around the country firing regional and branch managers. In the west region, that means that they've fired the strongest managers and kept the weakest ones - the ones who have multiple HR complaints against them for violating labor laws, or who are old and sick and miss more than half of every week, or the ones who are already completely overwhelmed. These are the managers they're keeping. Because they're the cheapest. We should know in a week or two what's being done to my wife's department, but I fully expect them to fire everyone except the newest (and therefore cheapest) employee at my wife's level, and then go bankrupt in a couple of years and wonder why.
Click to expand...
You just can't seem to get away from mismanaged companies, can you.
 
Gared

Gared

bhamv3 said:
You just can't seem to get away from mismanaged companies, can you.
Click to expand...
This one came with a special level of incompetence. My wife works with many of the branch managers who are being fired, but no announcements have been made company wide as to who was being cut (or, for that matter, that cuts were taking place). It just happens that she's really good friends with one of the branch managers in California, who was traveling this week, on business, in Hungary, and who emailed her today from his personal account to tell her that he can't log in to his email anymore. He's still in Hungary. With company property. And a company computer. And a company credit card. They fired him, deactivated his accounts, and didn't tell him, all while he's still in Hungary on business. Honestly, if it were me, I'd be living as large as I could on that corporate card until I got back to the states.

But at least this time it's not my brother-in-law at the helm of the sinking ship.
 
DarkAudit

DarkAudit

My mom broke her upper left arm yesterday. She did not fall or otherwise impact her arm, but it broke nonetheless. At first she thought it was a pulled muscle, but then it started swelling and hurting more.

She's put a lot of stress on her arms trying to compensate for the bad hips and knee. Add the twisting and turning in her bed at the nursing home, and it's not a huge surprise. But it is a major setback in trying to get her knee rehabbed. :(
 
Cajungal

Cajungal

Staff member
Cajungal said:
Ranting on another family's behalf... i might have already told this story before.

A school mom was complaining of abdominal pain during her pregnancy. They chalked it up to normal pregnancy discomfort. Three weeks after her baby was born, she wad diagnosed with advanced stomach cancer. She's put up a really good fight, but it looks like she's not going to make it. Her son is barely eight months old. It's not fair. I know life's not fair, but this is just so horrible. This woman was sweet, kind, and to top it all off, she treated her body like a temple.

I'll be teaching her oldest kid soon. It's gonna be a rough year for her. I want to keep hoping she'll get better, but it doesn't look good. She's barely 40.

And to top it off, this poor husbands poor FB page is plastered with "faith will heal her" posts.

Not. Fair.
Click to expand...
She died. :(
 
Cajungal

Cajungal

Staff member
Me too. It's an awful situation. Three kids, one younger than a year. It's at least good to see people coming together. A lot of people at the school are chipping in with the medical expenses, which is nice. She was given 6 weeks to live originally, so they really pulled out all the stops. Lot of debt.
 
Bones

Bones

Cajungal said:
Me too. It's an awful situation. Three kids, one younger than a year. It's at least good to see people coming together. A lot of people at the school are chipping in with the medical expenses, which is nice. She was given 6 weeks to live originally, so they really pulled out all the stops. Lot of debt.
Click to expand...
cancer is the fucking pits, i watched my father slowly waste away for 2 months last summer. he was diagnosed at the end of May he was gone by the end of July. that night will live forever in my memory, there is nothing that comes close to riding the storm the night he passed. I am still haunted now, almost a year later.
 
Officer_Charon

Officer_Charon

"I'm tired, boss.... Mostly I'm tired of people being ugly to each other. I'm tired of all the pain I feel and hear in the world everyday. There's too much of it. It's like pieces of glass in my head all the time."

I'm good, but one's spirit does take a bashing.
 
ThatNickGuy

ThatNickGuy

Had a near-complete breakdown at work tonight. Crying fits, suicidal thoughts (running through different ways in my head). Still kept working somehow. I've calmed down now, but...yeah. Still depressed.

EDIT: Nearly quit at the end of my shift but for some reason, I didn't. Still might. Don't see much point.
 
Last edited:
ThatNickGuy

ThatNickGuy

jwhouk said:
...

Nick, have you ever talked to someone about checking for Manic-Depressive Disorder?
Click to expand...
According to google, that's the old term for bipolar. And no, my psychiatrist (and other professionals) don't think that's the case. I was officially diagnosed with Situational Depression.
 
B

BErt

ThatNickGuy said:
According to google, that's the old term for bipolar. And no, my psychiatrist (and other professionals) don't think that's the case. I was officially diagnosed with Situational Depression.
Click to expand...
Well, I mean...something isn't right, right? It's great that you're getting help but maybe it's misdiagnosed? You're a great guy, Nick and you don't have to feel this way.
 
ThatNickGuy

ThatNickGuy

BErt said:
Well, I mean...something isn't right, right? It's great that you're getting help but maybe it's misdiagnosed? You're a great guy, Nick and you don't have to feel this way.
Click to expand...
I don't know anymore. Don't see much point. I've already wasted enough of my life. I'm nearly 40, still living with my parents, never married, no kids, and the only job I seem even qualified for are shit, minimum wage jobs like the one I have.

I'm surprised I HAVEN'T just put myself out of my misery yet. Guess I don't have the courage just to finish myself off. Too afraid of inflicting pain on myself.
 
GasBandit

GasBandit

Staff member
ThatNickGuy said:
I don't know anymore. Don't see much point. I've already wasted enough of my life. I'm nearly 40, still living with my parents, never married, no kids, and the only job I seem even qualified for are shit, minimum wage jobs like the one I have.

I'm surprised I HAVEN'T just put myself out of my misery yet. Guess I don't have the courage just to finish myself off. Too afraid of inflicting pain on myself.
Click to expand...
Let me tell you about my uncle. He went to college, got a degree, did programming work for Grumman before they got bought out, and then found himself on a decade-long slide down into unemployment and insolvency. About 10 years ago, in his late 40s, divorced and destitute, he had no choice but to move back in with his parents - my grandparents. He, too, fell into a depression and was rarely able to find work, and what he found wasn't meaningful and certainly not in his degree's field. My father often expressed sadness and exasperation about his brother's situation - my uncle's attitude often sabotaged himself, and it was furthered along by my grandparents' de facto reinfantilazation of him back into the "dependent offspring" role in the household. The rest of us were beginning to think he'd never be independent again.

But, just a couple years ago, he managed to find a job in Houston which would barely let him support himself... and he made the big move all the way from Colorado to Texas, and over these last years he's managed to work his way up into living fully on his own and by his own terms again, despite being in his late 50s. I have to say even I was surprised, but definitely proud. It can be done, and it's not too late.
 
PatrThom

PatrThom

GasBandit said:
Let me tell you about my uncle. He went to college, got a degree, did programming work for Grumman before they got bought out, and then found himself on a decade-long slide down into unemployment and insolvency. About 10 years ago, in his late 40s, divorced and destitute, he had no choice but to move back in with his parents - my grandparents. He, too, fell into a depression and was rarely able to find work, and what he found wasn't meaningful and certainly not in his degree's field. My father often expressed sadness and exasperation about his brother's situation - my uncle's attitude often sabotaged himself, and it was furthered along by my grandparents' de facto reinfantilazation of him back into the "dependent offspring" role in the household. The rest of us were beginning to think he'd never be independent again.

But, just a couple years ago, he managed to find a job in Houston which would barely let him support himself... and he made the big move all the way from Colorado to Texas, and over these last years he's managed to work his way up into living fully on his own and by his own terms again, despite being in his late 50s. I have to say even I was surprised, but definitely proud. It can be done, and it's not too late.
Click to expand...
So, in other words, "You're only a failure if you want to be."™

--Patrick
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top