RhaenysBee

I checked back because I thought it was in my post at some point, but I only found the plural pronoun, so I probably cut back the text for length edits. No, he’s not alone, they all sleep there, he even lets Miss Molly on his mat sometimes and snuggles with her. The door is locked for him in winter because he doesn’t really have an undercoat and needs to be kept warm. Normally they can all hold their business till morning, when they are let out and he gets his jacket on. Now that the weather is mild, it’s okay if he lets himself out sooner because he doesn’t need a jacket anymore and the garage rooms don’t cool down significantly from the draught and the others have thick winter furs so they don’t get cold either. One thing I’ve noticed is that he seems slightly leaner than usual, which is not a surprise with the increased amount of exercise in the nice weather, so maybe we’ll try upping his food portion and time it better, in case his stomach gets rumbly at 4.

Come onnnnnnn now. He sleeps in the garage with two other dogs, the same way he had done his entire life. Somehow he started to feel this arrangement isn’t social enough now? I get that, he can be, and he is, just not at 4am.

No, he’s scratching the door that leads to the house. He sleeps in the garage because it’s heated but he has access to the garden (through the unlocked door) to get in and out to do his business as he likes. (Except when it drops below 5C at night, then the garden door is locked so they don’t get a cold if they open it) He‘s nearly 4 (years old). Not that anybody expects him to last 48 hours without peeing. They “go to bed” around 9pm, but as explained above, for most of the year when the weather allows, the door to access the garden is unlocked so he can let himself out to do his business. Quite recent, couple weeks. He had 2-3 accidents, when we thought the same. Then the weather got milder, now his garden door is unlocked, he does go out to do his business when he likes and still scratches the door, presumably for an excessively early breakfast. He used to steal apples from the shed, which got fixed so now he doesn’t have access to a free snack, which may contribute to the acting up. Yeah, I agree, I do believe in positive reinforcement but also in its limits. Sometimes it’s just gotta be a negative kita.

Provide me with some advice, please. How do you make a dog stop scratching the door at 4am? Ideas tried: -ignore him - feed him in the evening so he doesn’t get hungry - leave door unlocked so he can let himself out to do his business - leave door open so he doesn’t even need to let himself out (fortunately the weather is mild enough for this now) - get up at 4, feed him to shut him up, be like a zombie all day, resent the dog, expect change behavior - quite obviously this is the practice I wish to exchange for a more effective one Further ideas being entertained: - feed dog in the evening, leave door unlocked, keep ignoring him - feed dog in the evening, leave door unlocked, add negative consequence (aka get up at 4am to push head down by scruff and angrily tell off) - … any other thoughts you might have…? Big thanks!

no clue but let us know if you find out, because now I want to know too

I’m with you on the apricot jam, but I make an exception for donuts sometimes. Carnival donut ought to be as my grandma made it, fried in oil, with a little well in the middle and with a sprinkling of caster sugar on top. I liked it best with just the sugar, but every once in a while I did put a tiny little jam in the middle for the feeling. Man I want a donut. Nice! Were you a hot witch or a scary witch? Oh, did you have a broomstick? a Nat Geo magazine I can’t commit to books yet. Yup everybody is really sweet and doing their best in their own ways. I really appreciate it . Yes, that’s the rational way to approach this. I hope it will do her good and I’ll support her as best as I can in this. endeavor.

I would never have got the joke if you didn’t explain but it’s a good one Whatever would give you the impression that it was? It 100% wasn’t, the idea wouldn’t even occur to me. Music’s never a wrong response. Chill, no worries. And I know you do, even without saying

Yeah and that’s a decidedly better song. Not sure why the Marina one keeps playing in my heads.

I guess there isn’t a more apt time to share this piece of music. Well, what am I gonna do for three hours while I patiently wait for my scan? Other than radiate.

This sounds super cool! Do you have traditional carnival dances in Slo too? Carnival food? Boy, now I want a donut. (Donut, not the American kind, is a traditional carnival food here). I have to go back for a test tomorrow, so I could send my dad on a donut hunt while he waits for me. Today, I had the mental energy to read. Yay for me. Though I still feel like I could nap at any moment. I have completely let go of the idea of getting back to work this week. It will have to wait and I guess there’s truly no shame in taking two weeks for this. What else is new? My mother wants to move house. I have… feelings about that, but she’s an adult and she should do whatever feels right to her to improve her life.

strictly regulated if also functional doesn’t sound too bad. Hospital food is generally considered terrible, but I don’t think what we had was any worse than your generic canteen menu. We had vegetables and fruit, soup, meat, dessert, vegetarian and gluten free options too. Overall we had a pretty decent hospital environment so I guess I’ll never complain about taxes and social security ever again. Screenings are super important, so is self check, do take care of yourself, everybody, please. Well that’s the key good luck with both!

I do feel like I’m a decent patient. I have my emotional ups and downs and little breakdowns. In my defense they are mostly internal or reserved for my close family, who need to endure my hysterics because I endure theirs too. I don’t accept the opinion that I should suppress them with a daily dose of alprazolam because this is tough shit and tough emotions are a natural part of it. I feel like I need to ride the waves so they pass undisrupted, rather than build a dam. ETA: me is going home today.

Oh, that’s… delightfully specific, I suppose. I have no doubt that you’ll get your third excellent review next year. Go go go! We have semi decent food, actually, just quite small portions. Which makes sense because you don’t really want to stress your body with overeating after surgery. Well the average person doesn’t, I totally do. Ehh, it will it should, but it’s certainly a long term ride. Just make sure you take care of yourself (and go to annual screenings). But if you enjoy your job and your dissertation then it’s a good kind of overworked at least.

Holy F’ing shit. Thank goodness we don’t have curtains. We don’t even have visiting hours past 7pm. Boy oh boy. Were there no nurses on that ward? I’m so sorry about this absolutely awful way to spend the first night. I had my surgery in the morning, and I was out by 10am but wasn’t quite lucid until around 1-2pm. The night was shitty, I barely slept. The bandage felt like a torture device, but since they removed it, I just feel numb and tingly in my armpit. That’s supposed to improve with physiotherapy. And it hurts to swallow. But I don’t give a shit about any of that, what bothers me is the lifestyle change. I’ve been doing everything, literally everything for myself on my own for 12 years and now I’ll need people to change my f’ing bedsheets for me for 3 months. What the f’ing f , I’m so pissed. If there was anything I liked and valued in myself it was my (slightly pathological) hyper independence. And bamm, I’ll never build a f’ing ikea cabinet in my life and I’ll not put up my own wallpaper in the summer. I cried over this three times already. None of you wanted to know that, sorry. I’m just so pissed. I miss the boredom. ETA: so I don’t just b* about stuff, I’ll also tell you that my former roommate (from the previous surgery appointment) has been texting me nonstop. She’s such a darling, she was The Dream Roommate. My current roommate is very nice too, we just don’t have the same chemistry. But I was super lucky both times.

and it does indeed. Yay congratulations! Does it come with some extra benefit or is it just for feedback about how you’re doing your job? The weather has been weird around here. End of last week we had -10C at night a -4-5 by day. Then it flipped and we had +10C on Sunday. I haven’t been outside since Monday morning but it looks pretty sunny. I suppose I don’t have much to contribute these days unless anybody wants me to live report my medical adventures, but that might be quite creepy and definitely super boring for y’all. Beside being super bored, I’m also super hungry and I could eat anything and everything all day long. how are you all?

I’m sooooooooooooo bored. I brought a silly amount of entertainment with me so it’s rather obnoxious to be bored. I sent work emails at 4am because I couldn’t sleep. Then we had a vitals check. Then I napped. Then we had morning visits. Then we had bandages removed. Then I changed and attempted to brush my teeth left-handed. Then we had a tiny but decent breakfast. Then we had a shitty vending machine coffee with my roommate. And it’s still only 9:30. I. Am. So. Bored. ( I’m sorry I bored you too with my boring and never ending morning, but I’m too bored)

It’s freezing with 0C now but at least there’s sunshine. We stared out at -5C at half past 8, but we are getting there. May hit above zero for a couple hours. I suppose this is called proper winter, we just forgot about it.

Well it never happened after all. Got a new appointment two weeks from now. This has got to be lowest point in this saga, or at least a tie with the impromptu biopsy. I’m already home. And I don’t know where the f the tranquilizers went in me because I’m a total mess.

I checked into the hospital today for my surgery, I’m supposed to be going home on Thursday. Today is just random waiting around for tests and not knowing what the heck is happening. But no complaints I just want these nice overworked people to fix me. Though some downtime would be welcome because I didn’t bring all my magazines to sit in my bag while I’m jittering in a different building. I suppose caffeine wasn’t a good idea either. How are you doing?

Big congrats and good luck with the dissertation!

Incredibly, if you come down from the mountains, we have 8-10C over here. Good luck, you’ll do a great job! And the deadline is always a great source of motivation. Thank you. <3

Yay for the snow!!! Can’t say I’ve seen snow this season. Not on the ground anyway, and for longer than ten minutes. Sounds like a fun weekend! Does the gentleman have a big family? And how is your conference talk coming along? It’s gonna be for the upcoming week, if I’m getting the timeline right, correct? Good luck with it! Oh yeah it’s been even emptier than last year. My life has kinda been taken over by a health issue, so not much else has been going on. Although, as my therapist wisely said, it is and should be just one part of life, not all of it. So what else can I share? I had some lovely meetups with friends, brunches and lunches with family and watched a lot of movies and had some cuddles with our doggies. One of the fun things about being a woman is that I get to reframe the no-fun things as a shopping opportunity and find a little superficial joy in them, so there was a bit of that as well. Anyway, the real lesson to take away is that screenings are in fact important to get every year and that when you stress about something, always ask yourself if it matters enough to get sick over. The answer is nearly always that it doesn’t.

Thanks. Ehh they were okay. Reality not so much. How is the new year treating you so far?

Happy New Year, thread!

Lol lol lol. Our national covid website disappeared I can’t even. No more stats, no more sewer samples, no more nothing. Well, I suppose the time had to come but still, that’s a choice. I don’t suppose we will be doing further boosters either. Man, I feel sorry for kids in history class. Though the whole thing will probably be a paragraph.