It's all very stressful and heartbreaking

Oh, no, javachik, that's awful. I hadn't realized.

As for me, I had a meeting with a health care company to talk about providing more assistance to my parents this morning. That was fun. It's going to be such a battle to get my mother to accept more support, and it's mostly going to fall on me.

ION, the hiring manager here has apparently admitted that there's almost no chance of getting through the hiring process before the current contract I'm working under runs out. And because they assumed last year that they would certainly get through the hiring process in a year, there is no provision in the contract for an extension.

They have to put out another whole RFP and go through the contracting process again, to keep me on board. t facepalm

I've gone past frustration, annoyance, and infuriation into apathy. I can barely react anymore.

Condolences to your friend, ita.

That sucks, java, but heh on the polar bear.

That's a hard convo, Suela. I feel like we're around the corner from that for my folks, but they're so resistant. I don't blame them, but I wish I were able to be there.

Also, seriously? Seriously! re: your perpetual contract hell.

We're doing the limbo thing too, re: SO's dad's health. We heard (via my niece's fb page, wtf?) that he was in the hospital Monday night for high blood pressure they can't get down. We didn't hear until Tuesday, right after we got home. I couldn't get hold of anyone, and we were panicky about needing to turn the car around and go back. Finally heard, but with no real update, although the SO did get to talk to him. So we have a waiting game.

Oh Consuela, that's such a bummer. Pardon me for saying so, but I think it's time to cut bait and start looking for a new job. These guys are treating you like crap, and it pisses me off. At the same time, I do realize that it's a daunting idea, looking for a job right now. Ugh. So sorry.

Ugh Liese. I'm glad your SO got to talk to him, but it's got to be nerve wracking, waiting to find out what's happened.

That's the bit that sucks. We came out here for a reason, and we don't regret having done it, but it came at a cost, and that cost is our ability to be there for our families. That was part of what was so hard about furlough, and what we will need to make decisions about in the future.

I'm sorry the saner marketing director was not a sign of better things to come, java. I know you've put a lot of yourself into the company.

It only recently occurred to me that now that I have a Nook and so many books have been digitized, I don't have to keep clinging to so much of the Western canon. I don't have to be personally responsible for the survival of literature after the end of the world as we know it, at least as long as the power holds out.

A publishing company looking for someone to write for "BB publications" means business to business, yes? I'm used to seeing the 2 in there.

I don't have to be personally responsible for the survival of literature after the end of the world as we know it, at least as long as the power holds out.

Well, yeah, but.. .what are the chances the power is going to hold out? You may still have to be personally responsible. Just sayin'. (Not helpful.)

I don't have to be personally responsible for the survival of literature after the end of the world as we know it, at least as long as the power holds out.

I have that worry, that everything I've got is depending on electricity.

I figure if the zombie apocalypse comes, I'm going to find a defensible library and load up with ammunition to shoot both the zombies and the hordes that think books will make great fuel.

A local columnist, after seeing a film clip of a panda gnawing on bones, has said (jokingly, I assume) that he's working on the script for a movie to be called "Zombie Pandas of the Apocalypse".