The Hellion Day
Jun. 1st, 2022 07:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
smokingbootOr how to get nothing done.
The trouble is that the light gets me up early. No that's not the trouble. The trouble is so enmeshed and complex and stupid that all I can do is warn readers I may swear.
First there was the light and then there were the cats, my noise sensitivity kicking in at about 6 am, trying and failing to get anything done due to these attention seekers yowling, not for food, not for need but because they want cuddles, even if I am working. Especially if I am working. I have tried to edit a decent chunk today in my vain attempt to get this thing sorted by the end of the week. Not going to happen. Still, I struggled on for most of the morning, until my phone exploded. Not one, not two, not three, but four relatives all seeking me at the same time, with the urgent message to phone/text my mother, as she is panicking.
As if we don't speak every day.
Has something terrible happened? No, nothing at all, she had just sent me monkeypox videos to try to terrify me and was mortified because I had neither read the messages nor texted back. I was remiss because my phone hadn't been charged last night. And my work never matters, no, the first thing I must do every morning is watch some random on Youtube who my mother has decided to trust more than the NHS, the CDC, the WHO and any authority anywhere that hasn't triggered her endless paranoia.
Not only must my relatives wonder if I am neglecting her (short of living with her, I could not be more attentive) but Bro gets in touch, saying she has ruined his holiday before it even starts. He is furious. I try to calm him down, I know it will be OK, I want him to go easy on his heart, whereas she is all about ramping up the pressure, having no idea of what it might do to him. Here's what you do to stop the badgering; watch the videos, be frightened, stay in your house. Don't got out unless you have to, scorn anything that is even remotely calming, decry any advice that doesn't fuel your fear, spread as much misery as possible. In short, turn into her.
She's deadly. She thinks we are exaggerating. I am not used to my family descending upon me hopelessly worried because she can't bear me not to have watched her favourite trigger video.
But between thee and me, while I don't mind anti-vaxxers (do what you need to do, just don't do it to anybody else) I hate anti-vax preachers. She was always fertile ground for conspiracy theories. Now she is a crop of crazy. This will recede, probably to be replaced by calm. But for now it is one of those peak points of gibbering madness, and she doesn't realise her boy can't take it. I am far more robust than he is, healthy as the average weed, and I can't take it.
We are exhausted. The irony is that she is the biggest single factor over the next month most likely to drive Bro into another heart attack. Yes, even more than booze and cigarettes. Of course she cannot know because if she learns her life will become agony, her fear quite seriously dangerous to her own health.
Oh, the mess of my work today! The mess of my day today! Damn!
It takes a lot for me to crack a beer out of the fridge at 5.30 pm.
So I will take this opportunity to scowl at the world:
1) The tragedy of Texas is indeed a horror, a tragedy I won't demean by discussing in this fiercely fatuous post. For all the evident evils it illustrates, I am not interested in using this as a way to bash Americans. I like Americans, and if we are talking about farces of justice, we don't need to cross the Atlantic, speaking of which;
2) Gawd bless yer majesty! 70 years of service! What does she do again? No-one knows behind all that jaw quivering, though we know she's tried to pay off those looking into the suspicious antics of her Epstein friendly son. But we don't talk about that.
3) The return of imperial measurements! Can there be anything more little Englander, more petty, more absurd than this ridiculous notion that Villainous Foreigners (mainly French and Germans) took the crown off our pint glasses? A complete lie. The crown didn't need to go anywhere. What utter epsilon is this meant to humour?
4) Depp/Heard. Wow. This has become the mega entertainment. Not sure it was a wise move to let the cameras in. I've always liked Depp's performances, I don't like Amber Heard's facial expressions. So clearly she is evil and he is good. They have teams and everything. Jaysus. How can this be a thing?
4) Stonehenge. Apparently some Russian News anchor lost his mind and said Russia ought to invade the UK until they reach/take Stonehenge. This is particularly important right now, because various photos of the Queen have just been projected all over the stones, obviously to fix in our minds the Queen as eternal fossil/cavewoman. She has less in common with the Britons who built Stone Henge than I have with Getafix in the Asterisk comics. But, to finish on a brilliant note, there is this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbyzgeee2mg
Normal service will be resumed tomorrow.
The trouble is that the light gets me up early. No that's not the trouble. The trouble is so enmeshed and complex and stupid that all I can do is warn readers I may swear.
First there was the light and then there were the cats, my noise sensitivity kicking in at about 6 am, trying and failing to get anything done due to these attention seekers yowling, not for food, not for need but because they want cuddles, even if I am working. Especially if I am working. I have tried to edit a decent chunk today in my vain attempt to get this thing sorted by the end of the week. Not going to happen. Still, I struggled on for most of the morning, until my phone exploded. Not one, not two, not three, but four relatives all seeking me at the same time, with the urgent message to phone/text my mother, as she is panicking.
As if we don't speak every day.
Has something terrible happened? No, nothing at all, she had just sent me monkeypox videos to try to terrify me and was mortified because I had neither read the messages nor texted back. I was remiss because my phone hadn't been charged last night. And my work never matters, no, the first thing I must do every morning is watch some random on Youtube who my mother has decided to trust more than the NHS, the CDC, the WHO and any authority anywhere that hasn't triggered her endless paranoia.
Not only must my relatives wonder if I am neglecting her (short of living with her, I could not be more attentive) but Bro gets in touch, saying she has ruined his holiday before it even starts. He is furious. I try to calm him down, I know it will be OK, I want him to go easy on his heart, whereas she is all about ramping up the pressure, having no idea of what it might do to him. Here's what you do to stop the badgering; watch the videos, be frightened, stay in your house. Don't got out unless you have to, scorn anything that is even remotely calming, decry any advice that doesn't fuel your fear, spread as much misery as possible. In short, turn into her.
She's deadly. She thinks we are exaggerating. I am not used to my family descending upon me hopelessly worried because she can't bear me not to have watched her favourite trigger video.
But between thee and me, while I don't mind anti-vaxxers (do what you need to do, just don't do it to anybody else) I hate anti-vax preachers. She was always fertile ground for conspiracy theories. Now she is a crop of crazy. This will recede, probably to be replaced by calm. But for now it is one of those peak points of gibbering madness, and she doesn't realise her boy can't take it. I am far more robust than he is, healthy as the average weed, and I can't take it.
We are exhausted. The irony is that she is the biggest single factor over the next month most likely to drive Bro into another heart attack. Yes, even more than booze and cigarettes. Of course she cannot know because if she learns her life will become agony, her fear quite seriously dangerous to her own health.
Oh, the mess of my work today! The mess of my day today! Damn!
It takes a lot for me to crack a beer out of the fridge at 5.30 pm.
So I will take this opportunity to scowl at the world:
1) The tragedy of Texas is indeed a horror, a tragedy I won't demean by discussing in this fiercely fatuous post. For all the evident evils it illustrates, I am not interested in using this as a way to bash Americans. I like Americans, and if we are talking about farces of justice, we don't need to cross the Atlantic, speaking of which;
2) Gawd bless yer majesty! 70 years of service! What does she do again? No-one knows behind all that jaw quivering, though we know she's tried to pay off those looking into the suspicious antics of her Epstein friendly son. But we don't talk about that.
3) The return of imperial measurements! Can there be anything more little Englander, more petty, more absurd than this ridiculous notion that Villainous Foreigners (mainly French and Germans) took the crown off our pint glasses? A complete lie. The crown didn't need to go anywhere. What utter epsilon is this meant to humour?
4) Depp/Heard. Wow. This has become the mega entertainment. Not sure it was a wise move to let the cameras in. I've always liked Depp's performances, I don't like Amber Heard's facial expressions. So clearly she is evil and he is good. They have teams and everything. Jaysus. How can this be a thing?
4) Stonehenge. Apparently some Russian News anchor lost his mind and said Russia ought to invade the UK until they reach/take Stonehenge. This is particularly important right now, because various photos of the Queen have just been projected all over the stones, obviously to fix in our minds the Queen as eternal fossil/cavewoman. She has less in common with the Britons who built Stone Henge than I have with Getafix in the Asterisk comics. But, to finish on a brilliant note, there is this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbyzgeee2mg
Normal service will be resumed tomorrow.
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no subject
Date: 2022-06-02 01:48 pm (UTC)Wait! Are these relatives all living in Spain, close to where your mother lives?
Amazing.
Why don't they deal with your mother? <-- Rhetorical question alert! I know why they don't deal with your mother.
As your friend, I worry a bit about the guilt you feel when you think about your mother. What will happen with you when (not if at her age) something serious happens to your mother. What you will feel, how you will cope.
no subject
Date: 2022-06-03 07:05 am (UTC)But then Bro would never have been born so.
I'm the Girl Who Lived. And I'm going to carry on being the Girl Who Lived even when disaster strikes.
Thank you for being such a caring friend XXX
no subject
Date: 2022-06-03 12:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-06-03 06:49 pm (UTC)I've always wanted to do the El Camino De Santiago.
no subject
Date: 2022-06-18 10:24 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-06-18 10:25 am (UTC)I don't think she's heard this one.
And I hope she never does, or my life won't be worth living!
no subject
Date: 2022-06-18 10:26 am (UTC)