Venting. It's healthy. And as you acknowledge, the territory you're on is well-trodden.

Once you get the 8-hour job you're shooting for, you'll be able to plan your schedule a little better and get some wifetime. In the meantime, grab the moments you can and enjoy them. They may be few and farther between than you'd like, but they may taste all the sweeter for their scarcity.

I'm there with you. People say all sorts of stuff to try and console you (i.e.: "She's looking down right now...") but I think they sometimes don't realize that what they find comforting would not be comforting at all to another person.

Besides, anyone who actually knew my mother would say she's looking up, not down.

My mother died. She is gone. Slough'd the mortal coil. She is past tense, no more. She wouldn't Voom! if you put 50,000 volts through her. She's not pining for the fjords, she's pushin' up the daisies.

I have my memories of her, but the idea that she 'lives on' in them is frankly disturbing. That would mean that ALL of my memories are 'living on' with her. Every bad thing I've ever overcome, every regret for something I might've done and didn't, the condition Mom was in before she died... all of that 'living on'? That would drive a man insane. No, she's not 'living on'. She's dead. Those are mutually exclusive paths.

My parents are both dead, and one day, I'll be dead as well. And I'm okay with that.

Oh, I'd hate to spoil it for you. Trust me, you'll want to read this one for yourself...

http://hca.gilead.org.il/li_merma.html

Here's a sneak peek:

Kill the prince and come back; hasten: do you not see the first red streaks in the sky? In a few minutes the sun will rise, and you must die.”

Even better is the 1968 Russian version, which I recall gave me nightmares as a small child.

The Hans Christian Andersen original was...a teeny bit darker than the Disney Version.

Ponyo is based on the same story.

Have you ever read the original? It's a bit...different.

Yeah, I started picking up the ingredients for sausage/apple/cranberry stuffing when it dawned on me I'd be the only one eating it.

So it goes.

People like that don't think. They just react.

Something went wrong--->I'm mad--->I yell now

never

Something went wrong--->Why?--->How to make sure it doesn't happen again?

No system is 100% reliable. Nothing is crash proof. They will be right back there sooner or later and they won't be any more prepared for it than they were this time.

^ Ding! Ding! Ding! We have a winner!

What do you want to bet that, with everyone busy playing the blame game, the basic problem of the entire store being dependent on a single system for operation with no fallback in case it fails won't be addressed at all?

The entire store is being restructured, "but rest assured nothing is changing too fast. you can remain comfortable and keep doing what you're doing."

Translation - Don't leave before we are ready to replace you.

Get while the gettin' is good.

It's hilarious because it isn't happening to me. It's sad because it's so damned predictable.

Gotta love managerial incompetence. Systemic managerial incompetence, really. The system is designed to ensure managerial incompetence.

You, my man, are The Man for even living within 500 miles of a spider that big.

It's why I like Canada and the far north, y'know? Igloos are a bit too chilly for them critters.