Dorothy, even if we may love them, friends and family sometimes can be so toxic to us. I hope that for his sake R will learn to either turn the phone off or only answer during certain times of the day. I've done what you did, venting at the toxic person, a family member for me also, but it never does any good. Like you say they don't get it, their brains are wired that way. One of the best things, I've ever done for myself was to limit, or even cease communication with a couple of people who were that way in my real world life. For one of them, it seems to have helped in that he has learned to be more independent, not co-dependent.

Meditation and qi gong this morning. Two pillows between the knees on my side helped with the sciatica last night. My osteopathic girlfriend has added another day of the week for treatments, so I get to go see her tomorrow. Yea!