Getting Cow-Butted by Life
As I drunkenly blubbed on the Glibs Zoom this weekend, SwissDad is heading to Hospice. It will be months, not weeks or days, but he is on the final glidepath.
This makes me a bit sad, and a bit crabby. I will keep that out of the Links, I think. But I may be sketchy in my linking and editorial duties over the next…whatever period. That doesn’t mean that any of you lot are off the hook for content. IF YOU HAVE SOMETHING IN DRAFTS, PLZ GET TO IT. And thanks to those of you I see in Pending. I will get to that today.
There, that’s done. Let’s link.
- You cannot be serious!
- The last thing a CCP sailor sees?
- How do you say “The bubble is popping” in Mandarin?
- Uh-oh.
Music: Wistful.
Comments are yours.
I’m sorry about SwissDad. My father was in hospice for a short time but years declining to that. At least with the drugs he was in a good mood when I visited. We watched his favorite films and chatted about all the fun times we had together.
+1 “Me Too”. SDF-Dad isn’t in hospice… but he’s been fairly chair bound at home with Mom taking care of him for nigh unto a decade now post heart attack… so it could come at any point. Part of why I moved back… to get whatever moments we still can.
I haven’t faced that situation… but it hasn’t been far from my thoughts and while I can only imagine how you feel… I do so imagine… and you have my empathy, Swiss.
Life royally sucks sometimes, even when that’s the way it has always been. May his journey be as free from distress and joyful as possible, may you get as much time with him as feasible… and may your memories be as bright as they may be when it is time. That’s certainly what I hope for when it is my family’s turn.
Sorry if this sounds Hallmark card trite… I’m no poet, I’m afraid.
The last couple years with my mom after her cancer diagnosis were actually, strangely, some of the best times we spent together. Knowing the time was short, both of us got said everything that needed to be, despite neither of us being particularly good with feelings. I highly recommend spending the time wisely when it’s scarce.
Mine as well. He went via Alzheimer’s. I support you from afar and will keep you as SwissDad in my thoughts.
You have my sympathy, Swissy.
I’m currently sitting with HayekMom in her assisted living apartment. It’s her first day here. She is somewhat confused and getting cranky.
But her cat is here too and is making her feel better. It’s been a stressful few days…
As I drunkenly blubbed on the Glibs Zoom this weekend, SwissDad is heading to Hospice. It will be months, not weeks or days, but he is on the final glidepath.
My condolences.
Same here.
I noticed that you sometimes pre-grieve. With my dad it was a year+ of battling cancer. Wishing your dad a peaceful end and your own peace with that.
I definitely experienced that with my mom during her cancer treatment as well. I made a conscious effort not to indulge it before its time, which is a lesson I’ve tried to retain afterwards as well. All of the time I’ve spent worrying for most of my life didn’t help one iota when the bad things I worried about actually came to pass.
Same, sorry to hear, Swissy.
Mom is getting very confused these days and I fear it’s “sooner” rather than “later” for her.
Sorry about your Dad, Swiss. My hockey buddy’s cousin had a massive heart attack last week, they kept him on life support long enough to say goodbye, and pulled the plug. My hockey buddy isn’t doing too well. And today Mrs. TOK found out one of her good friend’s mom had a massive stroke last night. Life is too short.
I heard that song on WXRT a few weeks ago and blasted it. I was lucky enough to see them live in the 80’s.
I’m one of those Pending authors, thanks for supervising.
The years go fast and the days go so slow
New girl wont be able to climb…to tiny. Like 5′ 100lbs wet tiny.
Not sure how she will do her job otherwise
Fuck…oh well
Condolences.
First outbreak of lumpy skin disease in cattle near Geneva
Hey, we have Frankenstein rabbits.
I think that was the origin of the jackelope myth.
You knew Animal was all over that. Though I’m a little saddened he didn’t reference the more interesting Reagan Star Wars concept.
https://preview.redd.it/6zrzf6lzx7s21.jpg?width=1080&crop=smart&auto=webp&s=93e452cf1aa5dc694d10d75fd21492558780f6b8
Wow, flashback. I cut that out of the comics and had that taped to my bedroom door. Completely forgot about it until now.
Thank you for the Smithereens.
Sorry to hear about SwissDad.
My mom turned 90 last spring. Dad hits 90 this fall. It’s only a matter of time. Although they are both in good health right now.
Mine are both 86 and very much NOT doing fine. I am bracing. What everyone tells me is ‘You see it coming and you think you are prepared but you are never prepared.’
If I am knocked on my ass, so be it. I have to get back up, I have children and grand children to look after.
I am very sorry about. your father Swiss. That is a tough one.
We should draw lessons from our abandonment of Taiwan and embrace of the CCP and tell the Ukes the teat’s gone dry.
We can solve this. Just… don’t have a cow, man.
I thought the Biden Administration was going to cure it right after cancer… “No bull, Jack!”
So this popped up, right after the lumpy skin disease article.
https://dallasexpress.com/crime/photo-horrifying-contraband-primate-and-rodent-meat-seized-by-customs/
There are pictures.
Wouldn’t be my thing, but if anybody wants to risk it on a fine imported monkey steak, I don’t see any reason the government should stop them.
Has anyone asked Warty’s position on lumpy?
Better than great big gobs of greasy grimy gopher guts, I guess.
These fellows were enjoying some baboon meat:
https://youtu.be/QNQNhPC4Jvw?si=iHnq-YFCjUMGMJSN
But would you grill it, saute it, roast it, pan fry it…?
There’s more than one way to eat a rhesus.
You have lots of options, Shpip… from chimp pan A to chimp pan Z.
Sorry to hear about that, Swiss. I’m hanging out at my Dad’s house now, matter of fact, because he’s on chemo at age 83 and needs help with some things.
Again, condolences Swiss.
My mom passed away last month after being in a nursing home the past several months. She was not the same person after her stroke about a year ago. She couldn’t communicate and we didn’t really know if she was aware of anything. In a way it was a relief when it happened. The last 5 years I had been staying with my mom and dad nearly every weekend to cook, change diapers, take care of the bills and maintenance around the house. It was a huge pain in the neck, but I almost miss it now.
A long way of saying, my condolences and enjoy the time you still have together.
When my father passed, after a decade of Alzheimer’s, it was a relief.
When my father passed, after a decade of Alzheimer’s, it was a relief.
It was bad when my father’s short term memory went. He could recall details of events from decades ago but could not remember events from the current day. The upside was my mother could agree to his craziest requests instead of arguing because he would forget in a short time.
Sorry to hear that.
I know it’s easy to say when you’ve still got all your marbles and haven’t been there yet, but I pray to god I have sufficient mental and physical resources to off myself before I end up in circumstances where I’m no longer able to maintain any independence.
Ditto. Does one really want to put loved ones through months/years of feeding you and wiping your ass? How to go out with dignity ?
My favorite epitaph goes something like:
Rest after Work
Port after Storm
Peace after War
Death After Life
It’s paraphrase of this poem:
https://www.poetrynook.com/poem/sleep-after-toil
***
Sleep after Toil
by Edmund Spenser
He there does now enjoy eternall rest
And happy ease, which thou doest want and crave,
And further from it daily wanderest:
What if some little payne the passage have,
That makes frayle flesh to feare the bitter wave?
Is not short payne well borne, that bringes long ease,
And layes the soule to sleepe in quiet grave?
Sleepe after toyle, port after stormie seas,
Ease after warre, death after life does greatly please.
***
Sic transit gloria mundi, Herr Swiss. Memento mori.
I wonder, if we could raise the dead would they thank us or curse us?
Damn Swiss. My prayers for you. We are in end of life mode for my dad (step dad, but dad) and my mom probably a decade off from body failure and a couple years from mind failure.
Just sucks and your dad is lucky to have you as much as you are lucky to have him
Despite all the end of life, the circle continues. About 5 years ago we lost a dear friend and derby teammate to cancer. Her husband and her best friend never got along, but after her passing those two leaned on each other, and Saturday they got married in a lovely ceremony in their yard against a corn field backdrop. At least it looked lovely, I was home sick.
All these stories about aging parents sure are stirring up the dust in here.
lol I knew what that was going to be without clicking.
Medvedev’s reign as the game’s biggest douchebag continues without any serious challengers. And the NYC crowd is full of classless shits too.
meh. I have seen that movie before.
https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/1f3d4d6/2147483647/strip/true/crop/3001×1951+0+0/resize/1200×780!/quality/75/?url=https:%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F24%2Ffa%2F5205c60348b1b012ef992b53fca4%2Fap800509090.jpg
He was no Arthur Ashe.
The last thing a couple sailors in the CPP Coast Guard saw was the bow of a CCP Navy destroyer.
That was as hilarious as it was beautiful.
All my best, Switzy. I only know him of what you’ve posted and by his son on a semi anonymous website, but I’d say he’s a damn good dad.
Asian drivers, amirite?
He got exactly what he was looking for. He will be fine.
Stop. It.
So did Mathias Rust.
Imagine the fun he would have with an unauthorized, non-emergency landing on an USAF base.
Let him buy fuel and be on his way.
Watching our loved ones waste away is one of many clues that this is purgatory. My prayers go out to you and yours.
Something something if I had known I was gonna live this long…
It was good enough for Abraham Lincoln
Trump argued it was called the Department of War during U.S. victories in World War I and World War II.
“Defense is a part of that,” Trump said. “But I have a feeling we’re going to be changing. Everybody likes that. We had an unbelievable history of victory when it was Department of War.”
A federal bureaucracy by any other name would smell as rotten.
Rather it named properly I guess
Go full branding and rename to Department of Peace.
Department of Interventionism and Corporate Welfare?
Team America: World Police?
Trump argued it was called the Department of War
The Navy wasn’t part of the Department of War. The Department of War was split into the Department of the Army and Department of the Air Force and combined with the Department of the Navy to form what would become the Department of Defense.
So it should be renamed the Department of Redundancy Department?
This has bothered me since I was a kid and learned it had a better name at one point
I’d turn back if I wuz you
Weather conditions are expected to take a turn for the worse this week, with 40 to 70% chances of thunderstorms in the Sierra Nevada that could bring quarter-sized hail, gusty winds and the risk of flash flooding to the playa as soon as Sunday afternoon. The weather service’s Reno office also warned of a slight risk for excessive rainfall in the area, which is “something we don’t see too often.” Meteorologists urged people at the festival to “please be cautious” and find a way to receive weather alerts as storms, which may “start off discrete,” could progress and intensify throughout the week.
“If you’re on the playa at the Black Rock Desert, you may very well be in for a muddy mess Monday through Wednesday,” an area forecast discussion read.
Burning Man meets Global Warming
After 30+ years, they are going to get the Woodstock they always dreamed of.
The wind has already been significantly bad (which in turn was driving a lot of dust). The rain not so much (and it knocks down the dust level), not compared to ’23 with the remnants of the hurricane that came up from the Gulf of California.
It appears that global warming will not drive absurd temperatures there this year at least. Last year had some real heat.
I wish I hadn’t been such an unadventurous pussy when I was a youngster and gone to Burning Man before it became Coachella East. When I was in high school I had planned on doing an econ graduate thesis on the Burning Man internal economy.
I thought that just happened last year? Year before? I remember photos of sad faced hippidippis next to their vehicles buried up to the frame in muck lined up for miles.
Go full branding and rename to Department of Peace.
Ministry of Love has a nice ring to it.
Trump’s theocracy should have a Department of Ministry.
This. I like that.
He could do it with Just One Fix.
As long as they play Everyday is Halloween, I am down.
@JaimeRoberto:
After I was done laughing, I actually wondered what Ministry was up to (I had their “Greatest Fits” album in the early 2000s). Wiki sez: “Conversely, AllMusic’s Paul Simpson gave the album 2/5 stars and stated that “AmeriKKKant finds the industrial metal juggernauts railing against the alt-right, racist Internet trolls, fake news, and everything else to do with the aftermath of the 2016 election.”
Ugh. That’s just sad.
Department of Freedom – Good and Hard
What Pat and Creech said. I have no intention of sucking the soul out of everyone I care about on my way out. That is nonsense.
I do wish society had a different attitude about voluntarily ending one’s life rather than suffering through it in extremely painful slow motion.
My aunt passed away last winter through something called “voluntarily stopping eating and drinking”, which is a way to basically speed up the death process when there’s no hope of recovery and it’s very painful to remain alive. It’s still slower and more painful than it would be if it were legal to just consent to end your life and get an injection that could make it into a calm fading out.
Letting govt have a hand it is is a mistake. I will take care of it myself when the time comes.
The reason why assisted suicide laws are beneficial is mostly because of the lack of access to drugs without a physician’s blessing. I’d rather do away with drug controls entirely, but since that’s not happening within the time frame of the heat death of the universe, getting EOL patients access to suicide drugs and removing liability from the physicians who have grant access gives me a little more by way of peace of mind. I’m not 100% sure I’ve got it in me to splatter my brains in the woods, and I may find myself in no condition to do so even if I had.
It reeks of the “noble savage” myth you racist like to piss on and it’s commie as hell, but nonetheless I’ve always found the story of the old Injun who felt his time was over and he had no more left to give to the tribe so he would take the oldest horse in the remuda and ride off into the wilderness singing his death song to be pretty bad ass. Don’t know what the modern equivalent would be but that’s how I’d like to go out if I get my druthers.
Oldest horse?!
That’s cultural appropriation.
50,000 drones over two years?
Better add a zero to that.
The number of drones being used to snipe individuals on the battlefield is incredible.
Begun, the drone wars have?
Over a decade ago.
“The exchange advises shareholders of the company who have any queries about the implications of the delisting to obtain appropriate professional advice,” said HKEX.
Suicide counseling?
Swiss and all the others,
My position is a little different. My wife and I are in the age bracket you all are talking about. Believe me, old people don’t want sympathy. We have lived our lives and we want you to live yours without worrying about us. I don’t want my kids and grandchildren to be sad, only happy that we had time and memories to share.
Getting old is difficult but we want to remain as independent as long and as much as we can. Mrs F and I are sorting through the possessions and getting rid of as much as we can. Last Friday we traded the cabin we owned for almost 40 years for a piece of paper that we don’t need. We want to make the transition as easy as possible for those we love. There are still things we need to do, some of which will never get done but it won’t matter in the long run.
Help your loved ones as much as necessary but not any extra. Moj did a great job is guiding things for her mother. Don’t push, visit when you can. Some things will change. We probably will not burn wood this winter, deer hunting will be something I used to do. OTOH I probably have cut and carried enough wood in my lifetime. Sitting in a deer stand, questioning my own sanity, will be history.
There’s very little more we can do, we did the best we could to teach our kids how to be responsible adults. Now life is up to them.
Honey Harvest is Sep 21st. Be there or be square.
I have never heard it put better.
My dad is going on a major purge.
Except he’s purging all the things that I have memories of as a kid and a lifetime of expensive tools and equipment.
I think he’s doing it to piss me off.
One final troll for the kids is kinda based, tbh.
He’s done it my entire life.
“Want a tv?”
Thanks dad!
It’s broken.
“Want a vcr?”
Head is worn out.
“I got you a present you really need” (after asking for a carburetor for over two years
Open carburetor size and weight box. Weather radio.
I do wish society had a different attitude about voluntarily ending one’s life rather than suffering through it in extremely painful slow motion.
Go back and look at the ongoing freakout here bout Canadian euthanasia parlors.
It is for good reason. Let govt get its paws on…well, anything, that is what you get.
Well, everything’s set and the car’s being towed for its estimate tomorrow. We shall see. *cuddles car stuffy, feeding positive vibes through ultrameridian waves y’all can’t understand*
Then on the phone with State Farm, Mom kept interjecting mid my-conversation. No words, but a physical display of anger resulted, along with the hormones involved. This led to a semi-big thought, especially as I’ve long said “Anger” is not an emotion I feel. This was a legit instance, and I can’t remember the last time I felt that punch.
Biggest thought: Uh. People regularly, or semi-regularly, feel that shit? And for perhaps many (not most), that’s their emotional baseline? I’m obviously not used to it, and I suppose I’m ~90% happy for that. But fuck. Folk get ‘angry’ about all the tiniest of little things, and emotional attachment adds weight. Fuck, the poison hair-frogged *exist* in it. (Most do? Fuck, whaddya I know?)
*physical display = ‘Angry’ shaking
I think I’m on the low end of the anger trait as well. Personally, I don’t find it to be a very useful or beneficial emotion. It happens and we have to acknowledge it, but it’s probably not good for anger to be sitting in the driver’s seat.
A problem I run into is that most other people interpret low anger expression as weakness or unseriousness. Some of the same people who tell me “you can’t just bottle up your anger like that” are the same ones who let their anger rip every time and do damage to physical objects, relationships, and their own health.
‘Anger’ is only a useful emotion when someone is actively trying to kill you.
(The response to seeing a wife/child stabbed+ is also a responsible use of such.)
*This is what I say, but I know it’s not wholly true.
I see the weakness of it in myself. I kinda bring it to what Jordan Peterson says is his 3rd biggest ‘issue’ in practice, after depression and anxiety: “Assertiveness training.” I’m not wholly lacking, but I try to push that in myself. (I think on the whole, it’s a confidence issue. (I might wholly go in the wrong hole!))
I can maybe see how reactions to Anger, in small amounts, could help bring out such self-assuredness. (Human patients don’t follow medical dosage recommendations. Your orphans are behaved, at least. (Cunts. I got salt that need minin’.))
I’ve had some success in moderating it, but my temperament is such that what should be rather trivial annoyances will momentarily piss me off at a nuclear scale, but dissipate very quickly, usually after a cathartic outburst of “Jesus fucking Christ, give me a break!”
That said, even on the rare occasions when I’ve gotten pissed off enough to actually want to break something, I’ve maintained sufficient frugality and presence of mind to avoid damaging anything of value, and instead busting my knuckles on a nice sturdy, resilient surface like wood, siding, or tree bark.
FWIW, it’s never earned me any respect, but that may be because I’m not especially assertive, socially inhibited, and don’t express it in public.
“Roald Dahl was a British author of popular children’s literature and short stories, a poet, screenwriter and a wartime fighter ace.”
First sentence in Wiki. Sure, start w his authorship; he certainly earned it. But lemme tell ya something. When I go, I want folk to know my time as a wartime fighter ace *outranks* “poet” as a matter of interest. Way to bury (that side of) the lede.
(I’d also add that I fucked pols’ wives in Washington during WWII to .. push them for information. And was damn good at it. Fuck. Let’s make *that* the lede.)
I never knew he was a pilot.
Much less an ace.
How many enemies did he shoot down, vs. children who delighted in his books?
Siegfried Sassoon was an officer in WWI, and gained the nickname Mad Jack for sneaking across no-mans land and killing the enemy. He was also a poet, one of the finest. How many soldiers will remember him? And how long will his anti-war poetry last?
We’d gained our first objective hours before
While dawn broke like a face with blinking eyes,
Pallid, unshaven and thirsty, blind with smoke.
Things seemed all right at first. We held their line,
With bombers posted, Lewis guns well placed,
And clink of shovels deepening the shallow trench.
The place was rotten with dead; green clumsy legs
High-booted, sprawled and grovelled along the saps
And trunks, face downward, in the sucking mud,
Wallowed like trodden sand-bags loosely filled;
And naked sodden buttocks, mats of hair,
Bulged, clotted heads slept in the plastering slime.
And then the rain began,—the jolly old rain!
I likely would have sought out his stuff had I known he was an ace.
Col Ed McMahon USMC-Ret, WWII and Korean War pilot (instructor during the former and artillery spotter/forward air controller in the latter)
Starship launch in 7 minutes!
https://www.spacex.com/launches/starship-flight-10
I always feel like it’ll be a scrub
They are pausing for a big cloud to go by.
Told ya!
Swiss I feel for you.
My Dad and Mom are still both alive and doing well considering their age and ailments.
I need you count my blessings.
Need to count my blessings.
Dammed fat fingers.
Swiss, I learned it here: “A sorrow shared is halved; a joy shared is doubled.”
Sorry to hear about your Dad. I’ve been through hospice with Mama Tres.