Not much going on here...except usual Schizophrenic Ohio weather...we had a couple of weeks of 50's, 60, and 70's, then sudden 20, 30, and a couple days with snow showers or flurries...today started out in the 20's , supposed to get to 42...light rain early afternoon, heavier later on.
I keep trying to get my inbox cleared out , and unsubscribe to some things that are free, but, I don't have time to read...just too much stuff, too little time.
If anyone is interested, I have three free two months subscriptions to give away for Matt Yglesias' "Slow Boring" Newsletter...though I would need a way to get them to you, I hate to waste them
I have one gripe...I use Tax Act to do my taxes...I have for years...( I can do them myself by hand, but, it is just so much more convenient to do them online, though after what happened I may go back). Your federal return has always been free, then if you want them to do your state ( I do the State and City tax directly on their sties, it doesn't cost anything and is very user friendly.) the charge you for that one..
So, I get everything entered , and get ready to check out and a pop up appears telling me I can no longer get a free one because of Real estate taxes and something else I don't remember, but both required no extra work on their part...I now have a simple straight return, just the allowed deduction, (don't itemize anymore), so just a money grab...at this point I want to just get it filed, so I proceed..$49.95..$53.25 with tax...but, here is the kicker...I tell them to just deduct it out of my pitiful refund ( $241.00). and they tell me I have to pay them another $55!!!! for them to do that...I was livid and sure my BP went up..lol..so anyway I am NOT going to pay them over a $100 to do a simple return and direct deposit...so, I just paid the original fee with a credit card...sigh...Very little electronic processing actually costs as much to do as businesses want to charge...grrrrr
Ok, rant over
No week end plans other than doing my budget for April...fun fun...lol
G'morning all: On my way to campus to fetch the youngest. Yesterday the Mothership joked about the happiness survey (the US fell to 23rd, but it's bi modal. Young people are 60th, old people are 10th). Their QOTD asked why that is. For some reason many people were joking about it, so I wrote something serious. Some people think I joke for calling her a saint, I'm not. Here's what I wrote.
*****
The QOTD asks why happiness is down. What drove it down? Rather than joking about it, here's a serious thought.
My (now deceased wife) was diagnosed with cancer when she was pregnant with our son (I've since remarried and have two more kids). 15 months after he was born, she had a bone marrow transplant. If you really want to interrogate spies, diagnose them with Leukemia, and announce they'll get a bone marrow transplant. Once they experience it they'll fess up.
She went weeks without eating because she couldn't keep food down. I'd bring her ice chips to munch, which she'd spit out because swallowing hurt. She had gorgeous thick hair, which fell out (it caused her to cry). Radiation gave her a deep tan (it didn't feel good to her). But she never complained.
Treatment wise, she suffered graft vs host disease, and also battled two infections while in the hospital. She got released twice, came back in a 3rd time, when her marrow failed. She died 3 weeks later from an infection, as she was immunosuppressed.
Other than the day of the death sentence (when they announced her donor marrow failed, and they'd have to put her diseased marrow back in), she never once complained about being in the hospital. She went weeks without seeing her son, she never complained.
Except on her most sick days when talking was very painful, she asked each nurse who attended to her how they were doing. She listened to them stress about their jobs, she thanked them every time they did something for her (provided she could talk). Several told me she was their all time favorite patient, she was so gentle and caring.
She asked every visitor how their day had been. She listened, she prayed for them.
A teen-ager came in for a transplant during her 3rd time in. He was loud (next room over). One of the nurses apologized to Pam for the noise he was making, she told the nurse to let him be noisy, it was a sign he was fighting through the illness, she supported that. He had a video game controller, one day she heard a crashing sound. She got on her slippers and a mask, walking over to his room, to retrieve his game controller which had fallen. She handed it back to him and told him to reach that next level for her! She told him she prayed for him to survive.
Other than perhaps Mother’s day, the death sentence, and the last virus, she was happy every day she was in there. About every bad thing that could happen to her, happened to her. Yet she was happy, she felt God was watching over her. She endured everything she did because she wanted to be my wife and her son's mother. Even after she knew the treatment failed and she would die, she wanted to be my wife as long as she could, her son's mother as long as she could. Each day would be a gift. Her dream was to put our son on the school bus once, kissing him as he turned to board the bus.
Pam was not about fame or success or material goods. She simply cared for everyone, and in doing so it made her happy. Because she asked for so little, I loved giving her things, to which she always expressed gratitude. I bought a throw blanket at the hospital gift shop, then the nurses allowed me to drape it over her, tucking her in. She smiled, telling me it warmed her, thanking me.
Gratitude for what you have, not anger about what you don't, and caring for others goes a long way towards happiness. Sometime I’ll write about her sourdough; she baked several loaves each week as gifts for others, until she went into the hospital.
It's pretty amazing how much trouble that third world country causes. I guess that's known as "punching up." Seems like there must be a lot of wasted potential for developing a decent country.
We have been blessed with some late season snow that has made the skiing acceptable---except for yesterday when 40mph winds blew the powder off the slopes and we were left with ice. We are expecting somewhere in the range of 12" this weekend, so skiing next week, at least at the beginning of the week, should be ok. After that....
Good morning and happy weekend, everyone. It's raining here.
Happy TGIF everyone.
Not much going on here...except usual Schizophrenic Ohio weather...we had a couple of weeks of 50's, 60, and 70's, then sudden 20, 30, and a couple days with snow showers or flurries...today started out in the 20's , supposed to get to 42...light rain early afternoon, heavier later on.
I keep trying to get my inbox cleared out , and unsubscribe to some things that are free, but, I don't have time to read...just too much stuff, too little time.
If anyone is interested, I have three free two months subscriptions to give away for Matt Yglesias' "Slow Boring" Newsletter...though I would need a way to get them to you, I hate to waste them
I have one gripe...I use Tax Act to do my taxes...I have for years...( I can do them myself by hand, but, it is just so much more convenient to do them online, though after what happened I may go back). Your federal return has always been free, then if you want them to do your state ( I do the State and City tax directly on their sties, it doesn't cost anything and is very user friendly.) the charge you for that one..
So, I get everything entered , and get ready to check out and a pop up appears telling me I can no longer get a free one because of Real estate taxes and something else I don't remember, but both required no extra work on their part...I now have a simple straight return, just the allowed deduction, (don't itemize anymore), so just a money grab...at this point I want to just get it filed, so I proceed..$49.95..$53.25 with tax...but, here is the kicker...I tell them to just deduct it out of my pitiful refund ( $241.00). and they tell me I have to pay them another $55!!!! for them to do that...I was livid and sure my BP went up..lol..so anyway I am NOT going to pay them over a $100 to do a simple return and direct deposit...so, I just paid the original fee with a credit card...sigh...Very little electronic processing actually costs as much to do as businesses want to charge...grrrrr
Ok, rant over
No week end plans other than doing my budget for April...fun fun...lol
Hope everyone has a wonderful week end
G'morning all: On my way to campus to fetch the youngest. Yesterday the Mothership joked about the happiness survey (the US fell to 23rd, but it's bi modal. Young people are 60th, old people are 10th). Their QOTD asked why that is. For some reason many people were joking about it, so I wrote something serious. Some people think I joke for calling her a saint, I'm not. Here's what I wrote.
*****
The QOTD asks why happiness is down. What drove it down? Rather than joking about it, here's a serious thought.
My (now deceased wife) was diagnosed with cancer when she was pregnant with our son (I've since remarried and have two more kids). 15 months after he was born, she had a bone marrow transplant. If you really want to interrogate spies, diagnose them with Leukemia, and announce they'll get a bone marrow transplant. Once they experience it they'll fess up.
She went weeks without eating because she couldn't keep food down. I'd bring her ice chips to munch, which she'd spit out because swallowing hurt. She had gorgeous thick hair, which fell out (it caused her to cry). Radiation gave her a deep tan (it didn't feel good to her). But she never complained.
Treatment wise, she suffered graft vs host disease, and also battled two infections while in the hospital. She got released twice, came back in a 3rd time, when her marrow failed. She died 3 weeks later from an infection, as she was immunosuppressed.
Other than the day of the death sentence (when they announced her donor marrow failed, and they'd have to put her diseased marrow back in), she never once complained about being in the hospital. She went weeks without seeing her son, she never complained.
Except on her most sick days when talking was very painful, she asked each nurse who attended to her how they were doing. She listened to them stress about their jobs, she thanked them every time they did something for her (provided she could talk). Several told me she was their all time favorite patient, she was so gentle and caring.
She asked every visitor how their day had been. She listened, she prayed for them.
A teen-ager came in for a transplant during her 3rd time in. He was loud (next room over). One of the nurses apologized to Pam for the noise he was making, she told the nurse to let him be noisy, it was a sign he was fighting through the illness, she supported that. He had a video game controller, one day she heard a crashing sound. She got on her slippers and a mask, walking over to his room, to retrieve his game controller which had fallen. She handed it back to him and told him to reach that next level for her! She told him she prayed for him to survive.
Other than perhaps Mother’s day, the death sentence, and the last virus, she was happy every day she was in there. About every bad thing that could happen to her, happened to her. Yet she was happy, she felt God was watching over her. She endured everything she did because she wanted to be my wife and her son's mother. Even after she knew the treatment failed and she would die, she wanted to be my wife as long as she could, her son's mother as long as she could. Each day would be a gift. Her dream was to put our son on the school bus once, kissing him as he turned to board the bus.
Pam was not about fame or success or material goods. She simply cared for everyone, and in doing so it made her happy. Because she asked for so little, I loved giving her things, to which she always expressed gratitude. I bought a throw blanket at the hospital gift shop, then the nurses allowed me to drape it over her, tucking her in. She smiled, telling me it warmed her, thanking me.
Gratitude for what you have, not anger about what you don't, and caring for others goes a long way towards happiness. Sometime I’ll write about her sourdough; she baked several loaves each week as gifts for others, until she went into the hospital.
I read recently that, mid century, anti-communist efforts were used as a cover for antisemitism.
What a twisted mess.
It's pretty amazing how much trouble that third world country causes. I guess that's known as "punching up." Seems like there must be a lot of wasted potential for developing a decent country.
"You are meant to wind up questioning what is fact and what is fiction."
So true.
We have been blessed with some late season snow that has made the skiing acceptable---except for yesterday when 40mph winds blew the powder off the slopes and we were left with ice. We are expecting somewhere in the range of 12" this weekend, so skiing next week, at least at the beginning of the week, should be ok. After that....
"Would antisemitism exist in the world without Russian activity? Most likely."
The Spanish Inquisition would like a word.
Good morning. Supposed to start raining this afternoon but clear up by Sunday. Good thing F finished the lawn yesterday.