tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7366909960546184927.post2681400170062985267..comments2023-06-11T02:19:27.429-07:00Comments on Academic Cog: Random bullets of turkey and boredomSisyphushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09880634753539329199noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7366909960546184927.post-39004878434020241012007-11-23T20:02:00.000-08:002007-11-23T20:02:00.000-08:00Thanks everybody! I had pie for breakfast this mor...Thanks everybody! I had pie for breakfast this morning, and that is always a good thing.<BR/><BR/>Some of you seem to be sympathizing over the family-fight thing ... does that mean there's another way? This has always been pretty much the only way I interact with my parents, through arguing. Or nagging circles. <BR/><BR/>And dad isn't mentally *gone* so much as his circle of interests has shrunk to whether he is cold, or can't get out of the chair, or the tv/conversation/sound of dinner cooking isn't loud enough. That and, since he has nothing else to do, he will throw away, clean or recycle whatever you may be drinking or using or currently looking at unless your hand is actually on said object. Heh. Sigh. Heh.Sisyphushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09880634753539329199noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7366909960546184927.post-19985825701066555702007-11-23T14:53:00.000-08:002007-11-23T14:53:00.000-08:00so sorry to hear about your dad. i am going throug...so sorry to hear about your dad. i am going through the same thing with mine right now...<BR/><BR/>and the commercials, i hoped at least they would be over today. when i turned on the tv for news, and *still* saw commercials for stores which had already opened at 4 am, announcing they would open at 4 am, i wanted to scream.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7366909960546184927.post-35134895579099035742007-11-23T10:15:00.001-08:002007-11-23T10:15:00.001-08:00I'm sorry to hear about your dad, and about the wa...I'm sorry to hear about your dad, and about the waiting game.<BR/>I highly prefer spending holidays with the nieces and nephews (and the one much younger cousin, who is only now -- at 15 -- beginning to talk socially to family members other than his parents) than with the older generations. And shamefully, I kept looking at my grandma and thinking of Abe Simpson. In all seriousness, that was disturbing, given that she's generally well on top of things.kermitthefroghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15742856153167362749noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7366909960546184927.post-19271250380064740392007-11-23T10:15:00.000-08:002007-11-23T10:15:00.000-08:00I hated that nagging part of the holidays for ages...I hated that nagging part of the holidays for ages. I've resorted to shock therapy with the family over it - I once claimed to be having a child at the beginning of a conversation only to withdraw it at the end - just so I could suggest exactly how irritated and cranky the constant nagging was getting. <BR/><BR/>It's probably gotten me a few rows closer to the fire when I wind up in Hell, but the general end to the nagging seems a worthy trade off. <BR/><BR/>In any case, Happy Thanksgiving to you.Dr. Curmudgeonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17311538014480815090noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7366909960546184927.post-71863083802452554492007-11-23T07:36:00.000-08:002007-11-23T07:36:00.000-08:00I'm sorry to hear about Poppa Cog - and about the ...I'm sorry to hear about Poppa Cog - and about the fighting, etc.<BR/><BR/>Hang in there - you'll start hearing more right after T-giving...until then, drink wine.<BR/><BR/>(((Sis)))medieval womanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00457130525946143002noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7366909960546184927.post-83125997545708967392007-11-23T06:15:00.000-08:002007-11-23T06:15:00.000-08:00i would like to "ditto" the above four comments, a...i would like to "ditto" the above four comments, and offer you love, hugs, and warm thoughts for the fam--especially your dad.<BR/><BR/>happy (day after, now) thanksgiving.<BR/><BR/>i'll be one of those retail "slaves" being pummeled by wacko customers later today.<BR/><BR/><3,<BR/>mlMaudehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11918488082176862598noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7366909960546184927.post-50695765975769692007-11-23T05:51:00.000-08:002007-11-23T05:51:00.000-08:00i am sorry to hear briefly about your dad....i hav...i am sorry to hear briefly about your dad....i have no words other than thinking of you. <BR/><BR/>and i'm so with you on the waiting: it is turning me into a crotchety old thing. why oh why, i keep thinking, aren't they coming to my door going yes, it's you, it's always been you!!!gwoertendykehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00542058287462910446noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7366909960546184927.post-76381484949458011382007-11-23T01:10:00.000-08:002007-11-23T01:10:00.000-08:00Oh Sisyphus, what Belle said. For years, going to...Oh Sisyphus, what Belle said. For years, going to see and stay with my folks has made me crazy -- and part of it is just that I live this quiet life with a cat while they have this rambunctious bumptious life with people bounding up and down the stairs and walking into rooms already talking and people shouting over each other. And the TV is always always on. I too live in a TV-less world -- and can't believe the piles of commercials. And people sit through them! What is happening?!<BR/><BR/>I also don't have one of those academic families where suddenly my father is going to put down his fork and start asking me if I've considered Foucault thoroughly enough. (That is, perhaps, a good thing.) Though my family really has no way of understanding what it is that I do, this did not stop them from being very proud when I got done talking about their daughter, the doctah. So never fear. (Though if I hear one more thing about not being a real doctah, I'll have to crack my head open on a quartz boulder and let the mad flapping vultures out.)<BR/><BR/>Eat, drink, and be merry, for next month you will be in Chicago. (This is a bad version of a very bad shirt that was popular when I was a kid: Eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow you may be in Utah.)Earnest Englishhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01947000435270263070noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7366909960546184927.post-32327079852066109932007-11-22T20:40:00.000-08:002007-11-22T20:40:00.000-08:00My best wishes to you. This posting gave me lots ...My best wishes to you. This posting gave me lots of flashbacks. When I was finishing the dissertation, I'd fantasize at the holiday dinner table that someone would put down a fork and say, "Now tell me about that problem you're having with Chapter 3. What's got you so stuck?" Instead, y'know, it was just, "How come your cousin the kindergarten teacher makes more money than you do?"<BR/><BR/>And there's nothing easy about your parents' aging. My father is 86 now and often forgets what he's saying in mid-sentence. I treasure the phone calls or visits when he's crystal-clear lucid, but it happens less often now -- and the holidays make this so much more emotional.<BR/><BR/>Hope your holiday got better once those board games started!Shimmyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04134984926357545516noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7366909960546184927.post-50079117235074749902007-11-22T16:11:00.000-08:002007-11-22T16:11:00.000-08:00Not the way the holiday is supposed to be, so here...Not the way the holiday is supposed to be, so here're head pats and a couple of hugs ^^( ) ( ). Take a long walk - alone - and give yourself a break. <BR/><BR/>I've lived alone a long time, and believe me - just being around lots of people when you're used to having quiet is hard and grating.<BR/><BR/>And boy do I share the parent-denial thing. I'm doing it myself with a mom who's in her late 80s and suffering. Ick.Bellehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10849272391043604637noreply@blogger.com