The Coffee House

[Gary A.]

Today in Germany they have colorful parades with marching bands and floats, from which they throw sweets and chocolate into the crowds and everyone has a great time. Later underground parking lots are transformed into discos in which upbeat music is played extremely loudly and a small amount of alcohol is also consumed, apparently.

In Britain they have pancakes today.

They know how to throw a party, those Brits!

God save the Queen ... lol.

 

[SquarePeg1]

In Gary's household, like JC's household, every Tuesday is a Fat Tuesday. When Gary was just a little tike, Fat Tuesday was a special day out here ... but no longer.

I think it's less of a big thing these days because fewer people actually fast during Lent.

 

[waday]

Deadlines suck. My construction deadline were so bad because usually you had a few weeks to procrastinate. News deadlines were a killer ... every jammin' day ... hell, six times a day.

They do suck. The problem with this project is that I didn't even have time to procrastinate. LOL

Holy crap! That's awful. Hope she rallies soon; this has been a horrible flu season.

Sounds like it was hell week at your house! Y'all take it easy this week.

Thank you!

When it rains, it pours, sometimes, waday. Hope it soon lets up for y'all.

Thank you!

I feel your pain, @waday . Both of our kids and both of us have had a nasty cold since early last week. No one was sleeping. The good thing is that we both have jobs that are pretty flexible. My wife brought them both to the doctor last week to make sure they didn't have the flu, and since I set my classroom schedule and my own grading deadlines, it's much easier to move things around until we were a bit better.

By the way -- as a parent now, you know just how amazing 4 consecutive hour sleep session can be. Who knew!

We knew we were going to lose sleep as parents, but holy crap! Four hour stretches of sleep are absolutely amazing, LOL!

Sorry to hear about your colds and lack of sleep! Good to hear about flexible jobs. My wife's job is a little more flexible than mine. My supervisor "needs" me in the office, despite me working from a different office. She tends to not trust anyone working remotely.

Ugh rough week! Sorry to hear that the little one is sick - that's super stressful and scary. Hope to hear soon that she is feeling better.

Thank you! Yes, if she were a little older, it wouldn't have been so stressful! The doctor said that he was happy it didn't happen to her a month ago, when she would have had no ability to fight it.

@ Wade: Hopefully all the bad stuff will all just goes away ... the quicker the better.

Thank you!

 

[Cortian]

We've a similar problem, smoke. We're both in an age-related "at-risk" group. My wife is especially worrisome, as she has asthma and is allergic to many drugs, incl. many antibiotics. Her getting sick with something too bad might mean a death sentence for her

So we're limiting our exposure to The World, right now, and being very, very cautious.

If people who knew they were sick, or even suspected they were coming down with something, would just Do The Right Thing and remove themselves from the population until they either knew they weren't or were over the contagious phase, maybe so many people wouldn't have to die.

 

[davidharmier60]

Amen to that Cortian!
Home. Still in jeans, t, flannel shirt, socks and shoes because it ain't exactly warm in the house....

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G890A using Tapatalk

 

[Gary A.]

The LA Times is running Special Sections on the Olympics. Filled with wonderful photos and great stories. Today, a photo looking up at an airborne Chloe Kim, fills 3/4 of the page and she looks as if she's about to land on the photog.

 

[JonA_CT]

We've a similar problem, smoke. We're both in an age-related "at-risk" group. My wife is especially worrisome, as she has asthma and is allergic to many drugs, incl. many antibiotics. Her getting sick with something too bad might mean a death sentence for her

So we're limiting our exposure to The World, right now, and being very, very cautious.

If people who knew they were sick, or even suspected they were coming down with something, would just Do The Right Thing and remove themselves from the population until they either knew they weren't or were over the contagious phase, maybe so many people wouldn't have to die.

I agree with you. Unfortunately, like Wade has said, our society values pushing through and being at work and the like more than our general (or collective) well-being.

I deal with it frequently here...parents send their sick and miserable kids to school to teach them to “toughen up” and because they can’t miss work because of a sick family member.

 

[smoke665]

@Cortian Yeah I also have severe asthma, which can be an issue for me. Wife had a stem cell transplant will be two years this July. Her immune system has been slowly recovering, but it takes time. When you have one, they call it being reborn, because you lose all the immunities you built up over the years, like a new born baby. She had to get all her childhood immunizations again. Still has one more round. At least now when she acts moody, I can legitimately accuse her of acting like a two year old.

 

[Cortian]

I agree with you. Unfortunately, like Wade has said, our society values pushing through and being at work and the like more than our general (or collective) well-being.

I am anything but a collectivist. To me this isn't about the collective well-being so much as ethical behaviour and consideration for others. Quite simply: Don't make your problem a problem for others. Particularly when your problem may kill somebody else.

I deal with it frequently here...parents send their sick and miserable kids to school to teach them to “toughen up” and because they can’t miss work because of a sick family member.

That is wrong, too. School is supposed to be school, not daycare.

 

[snowbear141 72]

TL;DR: Hell week last week. Everyone finally feeling better. Work has calmed down. I feel like a quasi-normal person again.

Flu sucks. Hope everyone gets over it quickly.

Hey, I think I used to work with her.

Today in Germany they have colorful parades with marching bands and floats, from which they throw sweets and chocolate into the crowds and everyone has a great time. Later underground parking lots are transformed into discos in which upbeat music is played extremely loudly and a small amount of alcohol is also consumed, apparently.

In Britain they have pancakes today.

They know how to throw a party, those Brits!

And in NOLA, girls flash their . . . to get a string of plastic beads.

 

[waday]

Flu sucks. Hope everyone gets over it quickly.

Thank you!

 

[smoke665]

And in NOLA, girls flash their . . . to get a string of plastic beads.

You can buy case lots of beads for $30. Not that I would have any need for.

 

[waday]

I agree with you. Unfortunately, like Wade has said, our society values pushing through and being at work and the like more than our general (or collective) well-being.

If I were to ask my company for a sick day with no impact to work, they'd say yes.
If I were to ask my company for a sick day and impact my work, they'd say no.

The reason I am at work is to make my company money. They don't care about employee well being, unless it means that it'd hurt productivity. And then, they'd find someone else to do the work, leaving said employee without work. At least, this is how it is at my current company and previous two companies.

Should it be this way? No.
Is it this way? Yes.

And starting to rant now.....

IMO, it's one reason that companies are going to start struggling with my generation and those younger. Companies want to keep it status quo, no one retiring, no one moving, and everything quite stagnant--well, except for requiring profits to increase. They decrease the amount of time required to do work, increase the workload, and remove pertinent items that allow us to do our jobs because it reduces overhead costs.* The problem they're going to face, and are starting to face, is that my generation and those younger aren't going to put up with the status quo for the sake of having a job. The "American dream" isn't real for my generation; we're being swallowed up by debt from education that's pretty much now the standard requirement, not able to afford or able to obtain mortgages, and frankly, we care more about job satisfaction than making someone else money.

Stopping now before I go on and on...

*On a somewhat related topic, having open office layouts only work if they're going to pay and provide the amenities that companies like Google, Apple, Amazon, etc. provide their employees. Otherwise, it just causes people to get on each others' nerves.

 

[SquarePeg1]

Yuck hate the open office concept. One of the reasons I started working from home way back when was because the guy in the cubicle next to me was a loud talker who was on conference calls all day long. I couldn't focus on my work or my phone conversations. One of our main offices has moved to open concept and it is much hated and complained about. Glad I'm not there!

 

[Gary A.]

Mary Lou and Gary have arrived at our first stop, Thornton for their great food. Their vino is meh (when compared to other California vintners), but their food is quite good. Thornton’s Champagnes are good. Mary Lou and Gary are starting our adventure with a Champagne, Sweet Angel’s Waltz, bubbly and Delish.