The cranky thread

[Pariah]

I was in a professional development meeting today and I was telling a small group of fellow teachers something about my Mom, who was in middle school teacher for almost 30 years.

 

Suddenly the emotion hit me and I completely lost it. I could barely put coherent sounds together for the next 2 minutes.

 

I'm surprised at how hard this still hits me sometimes. I don't know why I'm still surprised, but I am.

[death tribble]

All I wanted to do was to book a hotel room via a website as I will be in London for 5 days. All went well until we get to payment confirmation and then it wanted to send a text to my old mobile number. And I get a fraud alert call. which I deal with. No problem. So go into the credit card website and change mobile phone. Try booking again. Security still looking at my old number. Despite all I can do.

Try PayPal but they have old numbers and the only way to confirm now is to ring them as security is not rigged up for my e-mail addresses or home number.

Eventually got through to the telephone number for the hotel chain and booked my stay. It cost about $3 more but I at least have somewhere to stay..

 

[Hermit]

I got a text about a half hour ago  Dad is at the ER. He was having double vision, said his head hurt,  and also threw up. He almost passed out. He's getting a brain CT done. He's in good medical hands, but thoughts, prayers, good vibration, positive energy or even just a well wish deeply appreciated.

 

 

[Logan D. Hurricanes]

Well wishes sent! Please, keep us updated when you can. 

[Pariah]

Prayers and positive energy coming your way from the Pariah household.

[Hermit]

Update: Dad is in care over night. They suspect it was a small stroke. He is eating again, and talking from what I hear.

[tkdguy]

Best of luck, Hermit.

[Cancer]

Good luck to you and your father, Hermit.

[Hermit]

Thank you all. My dad is still undergoing some tests at this point. Concerns about blood clots etc

[Cancer]

Pull up a chair, folks.  Very heavy dose of irony.

 

Spoiler

Those with long memories will remember that when I started here in mid-2005, I chose my user handle here for multiple reasons.  My thesis topic had been an observational study of some stars in Cancer.  My classical astrological sun sign is Cancer.  And at the time I had two jobs, one being teaching physics and astronomy where I still am now, the other being a scientific programmer coding up a population microsimulation model for evaluating screen strategies for some cancers. The PI on that project was an economist (she was interested in the costs of medical care, both on individuals and on society, both in dollars and in lives), but others on the team included a biostatistician, a lab biochemist, a practicing MD oncologist, one or two others whose roles I have forgotten in the intervening dozen years, and a gonzo astronomy PhD who had been the chief code monkey for every research team I was ever a part of.  There I worked with two different models, one each for two different cancers, breast and ovarian.  Most of my time and effort was on the latter.  Now, my role at the cancer research center ended in 2008, but I still have much more knowledge about ovarian cancer than I would have any reason to have otherwise.

 

Well, add some unappreciated-at-the-time hubris to the factors that went into my choice of user handle.

 

To cut to the chase, in the last ten days my wife has been diagnosed with ovarian cancer.  First session of chemotherapy is tomorrow morning.  Her doctor is the practicing gynecological oncologist that was on the research team.  He's the best in town.

 

They tell you the odds up front (and they have changed since the early 2000s), and between me bring a gamer and me teaching probability and statistics in some of my classes ... I understand the odds.  But they are odds.

 

And as a gamer, I have long experience with crappy dice rolls.

 

... so recently in a different thread I mentioned being stressed by teaching courses, and other stuff.  There's the other stuff.  It's going to last a few months.

[Pariah]

Best wishes for you both, Professor. 

[death tribble]

Good luck, Cancer

[Old Man]

Hang in there, Hermit and Cancer.  We're here if you want to talk or anything.

 

Or if you want to commiserate, I could mention my brother in law.  He retired last year after five decades of working his ass off.  He and his wife sold their house and were finally planning on traveling and doing all the things they'd wanted to do but had put off.  Instead he came down with a bad case of metastasized esophageal* cancer and will spend the next 4-5 months in intense pain, unable to eat solid food. 

 

I'm actually more optimistic than some, as cancer treatments have gotten exponentially better over the last 10-15 years.  Immunotherapy, in particular, is fricking miraculous when it works.  But the timing is tragic.

 

 

* And lung, and liver, and stomach cancer, that being how metastasization works.

[Hermit]

Sympathies, Cancer. Prayer on the way for  you and yours if you don't mind

[Logan D. Hurricanes]

Best of wishes, Cancer. Let us know how it goes. 

[tkdguy]

Best wishes, Cancer.

[aylwin13]

Sorry to hear this, Cancer. Please pass this positive energy on to the Mrs.

[Hermit]

Latest update on my father:  He is home. On blood thinners. They doctors  look at him again in a week or less. He is still in a bit of danger, as the first week after a stroke is most prone to repeats . However he is doing much better. Bouts of double vision still but  not often. Apparently  it was indeed a stroke, back of the head, just above the hypothalamus. And the doctors say he is, comparatively, very lucky, as it is usually far worse or just plain lethal when one hits there.

 

I want to thank everyone for the kindness and support. He is not completely out of the wood yet, but at least out of the worst parts, and  I hope on the mend.

[Logan D. Hurricanes]

An uncle recently had a stroke with no warning signs. One of the youngest ones, too. Happy to report  he made a pretty full recovery. Here's hoping for similar luck of your own. 

[Pattern Ghost]

Shooting positive thoughts at Cancer and Hermit. Wishing the best for your loved ones.

 

Meanwhile . . .

 

I hate having direct reports soooooooooooooooooo much.

 

[csyphrett]

This is the first time I have looked at this thread. I'm sorry about the health problems going around. The fact that I want to kill someone at work for being a crooked piece of crap seems petty compared to that.

CES 

[Hermit]

2 hours ago, csyphrett said:

This is the first time I have looked at this thread. I'm sorry about the health problems going around. The fact that I want to kill someone at work for being a crooked piece of crap seems petty compared to that.

CES 

 Sounds like your crooked piece of crap at work is the sort who might damage not just your enjoyment of the job, but over time might (or may have already) done the same to others. And depending how crooked crooked is, could lead to legal backlash one day for more than just himself.

 

 

[csyphrett]

On 11/18/2021 at 10:00 AM, Hermit said:

 Sounds like your crooked piece of crap at work is the sort who might damage not just your enjoyment of the job, but over time might (or may have already) done the same to others. And depending how crooked crooked is, could lead to legal backlash one day for more than just himself.

 

 

It's informal rules stuff, Hermit. Something my coworker knows he is violating. He confronted me over breaking the rules.

I was like what about all this?

I don't know what you're talking about.

You don't know that you have been stealing runs for seven months?

I'm faster than you, that's all. You malinger.

No, Dan. You're a thief. 

Apparently, he feels that I stop at the local gas station after every run even when we're trading places so that makes it okay to steal runs. It's not enough to get him fired, but it's nothing new either. He's been a thief forever.

CES 

   

[Hermit]

Damn. Sympathies you have to put up with him

[Old Man]

31 minutes ago, csyphrett said:

It's informal rules stuff, Hermit. Something my coworker knows he is violating. He confronted me over breaking the rules.

I was like what about all this?

I don't know what you're talking about.

You don't know that you have been stealing runs for seven months?

I'm faster than you, that's all. You malinger.

No, Dan. You're a thief. 

Apparently, he feels that I stop at the local gas station after every run even when we're trading places so that makes it okay to steal runs. It's not enough to get him fired, but it's nothing new either. He's been a thief forever.

CES 

   

If management isn’t willing to do anything about that then there are better places to work during a labor shortage. Life is too short. Plus that guy is going to get you into trouble if he can.