What's your current headache?

Gawd, when Stick and I did the Helix thing it went dark for over a week and both of us were freaking out. No word from the post office as to how the Stick claim is going and then poof: I wake up one morning to a text that it's going to be delivered that day.

We both figured that somebody in the post office snagged it but it went off into postal limbo till it didn't. Bless Stick for being as patient as he was.
 
I sent some merch to someone living in a US territory, and after three weeks it hasn't arrived. A few days after I filed a claim (a sizeable amount of money), it was delivered…

40 years of kneecapping does a number on a carrier service.
 
Need to vent: I’m 0/2 on the last 2 boards I’ve populated. Flintlock Flanger is losing audio somewhere around the JFet and I can’t find the problem. It’s going to sit for a bit and come back with fresh eyes. Tremulus Lune board is now up on the bench. 9V gets to pedal. LED at LdR flashes and then goes off. Something is shorting or wrong. Replaced the electrolytics thinking they were bad. No dice.

Dammit
 
I have no earthly idea how to navigate office politics.

Fuckin...goddamn. Its like walking through a minefield, but all the mines are invisible rakes.

I call out of work today...my sister's in the hospital, there's a worry re: leukemia, but it could just be an adverse reaction to her new medication along with other factors. Stressful. Couldn't get to sleep. Called out this morning.

I took a call from a project manager this morning to discuss a job that has been going tits up and has also been weighing heavily on my mind. Nursing a headache from this morning, intending to call my foreman about returning to work tomorrow, I get a text from him about taking tomorrow off too around 1:00pm.

I say...aite...there's a meeting at 2:30pm to discuss this tits up job. Does he mind if I sit in and contribute.

He says, yes, absolutely, that he minds. That he doesn't like that I took a phone call on a day that I had called in sick and that I had not gotten in touch with him at that point regarding returning to work tomorrow, and that we are going to have a conversation tomorrow in order to make what is expected of me very clear.

And I'm just kinda like...jeeeeeezus. What the hell did I just stumble into here? Fuck a doodle doo.
 
I have no earthly idea how to navigate office politics.

Fuckin...goddamn. Its like walking through a minefield, but all the mines are invisible rakes.

I call out of work today...my sister's in the hospital, there's a worry re: leukemia, but it could just be an adverse reaction to her new medication along with other factors. Stressful. Couldn't get to sleep. Called out this morning.

I took a call from a project manager this morning to discuss a job that has been going tits up and has also been weighing heavily on my mind. Nursing a headache from this morning, intending to call my foreman about returning to work tomorrow, I get a text from him about taking tomorrow off too around 1:00pm.

I say...aite...there's a meeting at 2:30pm to discuss this tits up job. Does he mind if I sit in and contribute.

He says, yes, absolutely, that he minds. That he doesn't like that I took a phone call on a day that I had called in sick and that I had not gotten in touch with him at that point regarding returning to work tomorrow, and that we are going to have a conversation tomorrow in order to make what is expected of me very clear.

And I'm just kinda like...jeeeeeezus. What the hell did I just stumble into here? Fuck a doodle doo.
What the heck? Is your boss usually difficult to deal with? That sounds like a very strange interaction. Sorry to hear this is piling on top of other shit!
 
What the heck? Is your boss usually difficult to deal with? That sounds like a very strange interaction. Sorry to hear this is piling on top of other shit!
Him? Sometimes when he gets stressed out he'll lash out. Typically that's momentary, he's generally reasonable.

The guy above him has been, ah, well...he and I have had disagreements. He's been less...willing...to engage with me. Conversations with him tend to go one way: him speaking, me listening. My thoughts are neither asked for nor welcome. He's made that very clear.

I was rapped across the nose recently for providing a document to a project manager instead of routing it through those two first earlier this week. It was a dumb mistake, done because the project manager asked me for it directly and I obliged without thinking.

This is just...I can only surmise that the more reasonable of the two thinks I took the day off frivolously. Which is not the case. I couldn't get to sleep last night: my mind wouldn't stop. If I showed up that sleep deprived at the job site I would have been a safety hazard.

Which is something that is commonly referenced as something to be cognizant of, but should you follow through and do the responsible thing folks have a tendency of being incredulous.

So...I'm gonna have a follow up conversation with him tomorrow. See what the deal is.

Union rules would require me to charge for that phone call...sorta. Its fuzzy. Not entirely clear. They're written for an era before ubiquitous cell phone access. Dudes take phone calls off hours all the time.

What I do know, however, is that he had the guy above him are a bit tired of dealing with this particular PM team. They may see my taking their phone call as an act of insubordination: which it *absolutely* was not intended to be. This particular job is a horrific money pit of a project that we're *almost* done working all the kinks out of. It was poorly engineered, the equipment was full of bugs, and we've had six different entities with their hands in trying to fix these things that keep pointing at the other five.

So, it's weighed heavily on me. I've been leading the charge in terms of diagnostics and gathering all the information for the relevant parties. Maybe I've overstepped my mandate? I have no idea.

Fucking stressing me out even more. Its like...man...what's the fuckin point.
 
Test results came back for my sister.

Acute Promyelocytic Leukemia.

70 years ago it would have been a death sentence within a week. Modern 5 year survival rates are 80-90%. Its considered the most treatable form of Leukemia, which is good...but it's still Leukemia. She's gonna need to be vigilant for the rest of her life.

Oof. I should just quit my job. None of that shit matters.
 
I have no earthly idea how to navigate office politics.

Fuckin...goddamn. Its like walking through a minefield, but all the mines are invisible rakes.

I call out of work today...my sister's in the hospital, there's a worry re: leukemia, but it could just be an adverse reaction to her new medication along with other factors. Stressful. Couldn't get to sleep. Called out this morning.

I took a call from a project manager this morning to discuss a job that has been going tits up and has also been weighing heavily on my mind. Nursing a headache from this morning, intending to call my foreman about returning to work tomorrow, I get a text from him about taking tomorrow off too around 1:00pm.

I say...aite...there's a meeting at 2:30pm to discuss this tits up job. Does he mind if I sit in and contribute.

He says, yes, absolutely, that he minds. That he doesn't like that I took a phone call on a day that I had called in sick and that I had not gotten in touch with him at that point regarding returning to work tomorrow, and that we are going to have a conversation tomorrow in order to make what is expected of me very clear.

And I'm just kinda like...jeeeeeezus. What the hell did I just stumble into here? Fuck a doodle doo.
yikes. sounds like my office.... (public health / clinical research)
 
yikes. sounds like my office.... (public health / clinical research)

Construction on my side.

I'm in the field on 98% of the time. Thank God I don't have to deal with much of that nonsense. Its like a carefully laid trap designed to make life hell for whomever accidently tip toes into it. And nothing else.

I really wish that competently accomplishing the tasks that I'm assigned was good enough.
 
I’m sorry to hear that stickman. That shit is scary and it puts things into perspective.

I had a heart attack a month ago. You would not pick me out as heart attack material. It hit me right after a workout.

Modern medicine is amazing. I would have never guessed they could put a stent in through my wrist, and I’d be able to be awake to see my heart beat on a giant high-def screen.

But that still didn’t stop me from staring my own mortality right in the face. Honestly, it was pretty liberating, I was happy to be alive. But it did come with PTSD-style symptoms. To the point where I went back to the ER for what amounted to a panic attack. I learned that’s a common scenario. Hydroxyzine was helpful for that. Just saying because treating anxiety caused by these kind of events helps.

Hopefully being vigilant turns out to be a reasonable lifestyle change. Staying alive is a big motivator.

Most of all, just reach out, check in. That meant so much to me.
 
Appreciate it.

That shits scary. I'm glad you're ok j-crizzle. I'm always nervous about my own risk...getting towards 40 now, and I'm certainly not in as good of shape either physically or in my health indicators as I was when I was younger.

Mentally? Complete inversion. I was a mess in my 20s.

Lots of existential what the fucks, though. My sister and I are two years apart, she's older. We were close as kids and kinda drifted apart afterwards. Family stuff. Mom wasn't well. She's not around anymore...and we've had time to work things out a bit

Now, she's got herself a daughter who's cute as a button and loves her stick uncle very much. Makes my heart melt. Makes me wanna have kids even more.

But yeah...leukemia, albeit a very treatable form. Apparently this specific subtype leads to the body forming what are called "faggot cells" in the blood. I shared the link and told her that apparently her blood was both gay and fabulous.

Fucking nuts. Dad had an esophageal cancer scare not but a couple years back.

I'll tell ya one thing: my conversation with my foreman tomorrow is going to be interesting. If I'm looking for silver linings...I got two:.

1) it's an extremely treatable form of cancer.
2) Life just handed me a hell of a comeback.

"Oh, I'm sorry, you're upset that I crossed a poorly defined line in pursuit of fulfilling my work duties? I'm so sorry. I've just been emotionally dealing with the fact that my sister has blood cancer. But no, your problem is completely valid."

Fuckin hell.
 
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I live in Colorado,,,this is going up and down the East Coast. 🫤 Tayda made it here before the board.
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Did you try clicking on "View Less Activity" ?
Maybe that would help reduce boucin' 'round.


Just a desperate attempt to bring some levity 🤡 in light of ...


...Serious crappola flowin' Stickman's way, and jcpst's.


Story of office politics (sort of) and another of a fit heart-attack:

1) It was common when I was in Hong Kong for employers to require a doctor's note if you were sick.
Well, if it's just the flu or similar then you know you're too sick to go to work, risking others' health, but ALSO too sick to go to the doctor who's just going to tell you to go back home and REST. :rolleyes:

2) Friend who was in my paddle-club and a fellow peddler was at the velodrome riding/training with two friends — he was 50/51 or so at the time, and by his own estimation fitter than he'd been at any point in his life up to then. BAM had a heart attack on the track. One of his riding partners was a doctor and knew exactly where the defib-device was at the track — had it not been for the doc friend and the de-fibrillator my buddy would not have made it off the track alive. ⚕️🚴‍♀️


Stickman, Sending positive vibes through the cosmos to you, your sister and the rest of the family.

Jcpst, glad you're still here postin'.
 
require a doctor's note if you were sick.
Well, if it's just the flu or similar then you know you're too sick to go to work, risking others' health, but ALSO too sick to go to the doctor who's just going to tell you to go back home and REST. :rolleyes:
With all the absenteeism as fallout from the pandemic, the schools around here are now officially ok with you coming in sick (the nurse confirmed this). They adopted the practice of requiring a doctor’s note to avoid an unexcused absence.

I always had the same rationale you presented. All it does is put more burden on parents. The kids were counted unexcused when my wife called in and said the kids stayed home because I was having surgery due to a heart attack! Sorry that they are more than information-absorbing drones!!!!
 
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