I can empathize.
I hurt my neck gargling mouthwash last week. Have barely been able to move it since. Guess I’m at that age 
3 Likes
Woof. I read that with my eyes, but I felt it with my back.
A month-ish ago, when we were on our road trip to Florida, I strained my back by having to turn around in the front passenger seat of our minivan dozens of times for as many reasons. My kids are all still in car seats and we had all 3 car seats in the middle row of the minivan… there were so many dropped things that needed picked up, but also so many small spats between the older two.
When we stopped for lunch, my partner thought it would be fun to take our food to a city park that we found along the way, complete with play ground. When it was time to get back in the car, 3 ran towards the swings instead of walking back to where we were parked. Instinctively, I reached down to pick her up – this was a mistake. 40ish pounds of 3-year-old that is already in-motion away from you, along with the back strain from spending what seemed like the better part of the 3 hours we had already been on the road turned around in the car seat meant that I immediately let go of the kid and spend the next 20 seconds (which felt like 90 minutes) doing basically whatever I could to not just fall over from the pain and the inability to bend or otherwise alter my posture. Slowly, I managed to walk back to the picnic area and texted my partner to chase down the 3 year old on the way.
My partner was supposed to keep driving for a while longer before we switched, but as we were getting back in the car, I insisted that I would drive and she could strain her back, because I would be unable to continue the front-seat administration of the back seat. This, too, was a mistake; as we got back on the road, my body was ready to rest and I caught myself several times zoning out – fortunately(?) the only thing keeping me from dozing off was the unrelenting back pain. “This is fine” I said to myself, knowing that we had another 6 or so hours of driving to do and at the end of the day, I would be sleeping in a hotel bed. The hotel had neither a hot tub nor a bathtubAs I laid as perfectly still as I could in as comfortable position as I could manage that night, I figured one of two things would happen in the morning:
- I would not be able to move and I may derail our family vacation (of 12 people) by having to go to the hospital hundreds of miles from home
- It would feel slightly better.
Fortunately, it was the latter. When we arrived at the rental house, I found that it was easier for me to (very slowly, very carefully) unload the car rather than have to look after the children – the children often required quick intervention… moving quickly was not an option; but methodically unloading the car with careful movements was actually not bad… it certainly didn’t hurt that the rental house had an elevator for getting the bags up the stairs.
Each day, I would wake up and my back would be tight and sore, but each day it got a little better and after a few days I was back to normal.
10 Likes
That’s a similar level to the time I injured myself by sleeping.
5 Likes
Just lost power to our building.
All our vacuum instruments are no longer under vacuum.
Yay! Early finish
Boo! Problems for future raged_norm
8 Likes
Is anyone else struggling with existential drea… actually, that’s not quite right. It’s not really “existential dread” so much as “existential malaise”?
Like, the fact that I can’t get a better job, that I’m broke, and that the world is literally burning results in this massive wall of apathy. I’m not dreading the future, I just can’t summon up any feelings about it whatsoever other than “So why bother.”
Just me? I hope it’s just me. Because this is not a great feeling. It’s kinda like burnout, but without anything I can do about it?
On the upside: watched the NPI review of Aeon’s Tresspass (or whatever it’s called), and that was fun. Efka is really good at his job. I hope he feels appreciated.
15 Likes
You’re not alone in that, no. In fact, whether it’s labelled “Eco-anxiety” or “Climate dread” or whatever term they decide on eventually, feeling helpless and apathetic in the face of giant eco problems is being recognised as very much a real thing for a lot of people.
I’m in my (going to be generous and say “mid forties”) and I’ve been earning enough money to not feel broke all the time for… a little over 18 months now, and that’s all.
It’s hard, but it’s important to recognise that how you feel about it while you’re in the middle of frustration and hopelessness isn’t the same as “this is what the future will actually look like”. Stuff is going to change, it always does, and a better job can happen. It just might take a year or two longer than you want.
Anyway, yeah, it’s very much not just you. And I must find the hour or so to watch that NPI vid, I like their stuff.
8 Likes
Yup, I’m fortunate enough that I’ll be looking to go part time when my wife is back in work.
Gives me an extra day to find some meaning in what I do.
4 Likes
Mini Ross gives me a hard time for the state of the environment. I think she’s mainly cross at humanity in its entirety.
On the plus side, garden visitor.
17 Likes
I’m… In a weird place. Like, on the one hand, I see the environment being turbo-screwed (my province is LITERALLY on fire right now), and the rise of the alt-right, the rampant racism, sexism and so many other -isms and it makes me so sad and so angry. And I’m not touching on the state of our health care and education systems, or the inflation that’s gonna make so many people homeless with the quickness.
But… I look at my dog, Baloney, lying at my feet as I sit here typing this, at how carefree and happy he is… He’s gonna turn 1 soon. I look at Maryse and the frankly flabbergasting amount of progress she’s made since that fateful day almost a year ago when we had to choke down the BIGGEST shit sandwich (apologies for the profanity) possible, I just spent an afternoon playing with my nieces and nephew and Maryse’s mom (herself a double cancer survivor) in our new pool, and I’m… I dunno, at peace, maybe?
It’s like… Sure, I can do my part for all the ills in the world. I recycle, I reduce waste as much as humanly possible, I treat people as people, I try to help out (we recently cookef a gigantic batch of chili for a local soup kitchen, and we’re not gonna let it be a one-off), but that’s a drop in the ocean. But to Maryse, to Baloney, to my family, blood or otherwise, I’m much more than a drop.
Maybe I can’t change the world. Not on my own. But maybe I can make my little corner of it less dystopian. And if we all do that, if we all just… Take care of our little corners, that’s a lot of corners. Eventually, that’s a world.
Wow, this turned into a big ol’ ramble, didn’t it?
17 Likes
I have spent a whole day in a planning meeting with the entire company, including spending the whole of lunchtime shut in a room with the senior leadership team. I now have no desire to speak to anyone for the rest of the week. That is all 
12 Likes
If I ever talk to anyone at work I go into over frazzle mode and can’t work all day.
4 Likes
Do you have a plan?
5 Likes
If it’s like any of these situations that I’ve witnessed before, it’s along the lines of:
The Plan
- Stop doing all the things that we are doing that are wrong (e.g. everything) – TIMEFRAME: immediate
- Start doing things we’ve been saying we will do eventually – TIMEFRAME: immediate
- When #1 fails, we’ll blame it on #2 interfering with our business processes and go back to doing things the way we did them before – TIMEFRAME: indefinitely
6 Likes
For now…
4 Likes
A cunning one?
5 Likes
I prefer the all-purpose plan: Dash in, kill everyone, grab the stuff and leg it.
5 Likes
Ah, the “murder-hobo” method! 
3 Likes
I have a postcard that tells me the plan.
Stop doing the things that don’t work and just do the things that work
3 Likes
When I was younger and did exams I used to have a “strategy” (it’ll be clear why this is in quote marks) where I spent more time on the parts I knew I could well so I could enjoy more more of the exam time rather than not enjoy more of the exam time.
8 Likes
I have spent the last 3.5 weeks scoring essays from a timed national exam. Tomorrow is hopefully the last day. I’m certain many students follow your same strategy.
3 Likes