BS: stay afloat while others don't

Subject: RE: BS: stay afloat while others don't
From: Mrrzy
Date: 18 Nov 24 - 07:57 PM

Wave particle: 2 people together do not behave as either does alone. For instance, in conversation with someone, one speaker pauses, the other nods, then the first talker goes on. When talking to yourself, you don't pause for the nod from the audience. And if you pause and don't get the nod, it feels as if you are not being listened to.

Social behavior is a wave between the individuals being social with each other, while solitary behavior can be a particle.

Apparently, when I am alone, I cease to exist *to myself* - I can only be *me* in the context of other people.

What my shrink noticed was, as I was describing my day, that I only use the word "I" when with others. When by myself, passive voice gets used a lot, or at least use objects rather than myself as the subject of my verb phrases.

I have always had issues with being ignored, or left out... well, if I don't exist unless attention is being paid to me, by someone else, no wonder.

Sigh. Years more therapy.

Subject: RE: BS: stay afloat while others don't
From: keberoxu
Date: 16 Nov 24 - 07:24 PM

Kind of lost me, too, with the wave versus particle question.
I'm more of a which-way-is-the-wind-blowing person, I guess.
Sorry you have another broken toe,
but glad that so much else is going so well,
from the hats to the adult children.

Subject: RE: BS: stay afloat while others don't
From: Mrrzy
Date: 16 Nov 24 - 06:55 PM

Anagrams are therapy too!

Subject: RE: BS: stay afloat while others don't
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 16 Nov 24 - 11:55 AM

So sorry about your toe! Good news about a dancing venue. Not sure about the particle and wave bit - it sounds like a physics problem. Rearrange some of the letters and it's a psych problem. Good luck with either one.

Subject: RE: BS: stay afloat while others don't
From: Mrrzy
Date: 16 Nov 24 - 11:45 AM

I got to dance in the sunshine for a couple of hours yesterday, in a parking lot where I randomly ran into a group playing old-timey music! Guitars acoustic and electric, fiddle, bass, lap steel guitar, ukelele, drumset, and the lap player also fiddled, and sometimes there was song. I was surprised at how many people just walked by, but a few stopped, mostly with kids, and only one other person danced. The icing on the cake was the fellow-dancer telling me about a dance coop, so I can go dance 3 times a week when I would never go *exercise* woot!

So last night I broke another *bloody* toe! Can you believe it!

It IS always something.

Meanwhile things are moving along in therapy about basics. Social behavior is a wave, not a particle. But in solitude, the particle has to actually exist. I do the wave fine; I have serious trouble with the particle part. We are working on that.

Subject: RE: BS: stay afloat while others don't
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 15 Nov 24 - 12:06 PM

Mrrzy, it's always something, isn't it? I had to look up glass chillum, so that pretty much means I can't help you with that. Reminded me of a rainstorm decades ago in NY City - walking with a friend in Greenwich Village when the heavens opened. Approaching us on the sidewalk were two foot-patrol police officers. As the rain hit we all darted through the nearest business doorway and found ourselves standing in a beautifully set up head shop. Everyone was kind of surprised. I don't remember how long we stayed but I'm sure the cops left first.

New Internet provider set up this week, went through the fuss of installation and declining the offer of help (and sales pitch for bundled stuff) from the associate who arrives partway through the installation. I set up online bills and auto pay to lower the price by $10 a month - and the first bill arrived via email full price. A week into the plan I have to call and badger the billing department. That is probably why they give you a $100 gift card as a thank you for switching - it covers all of the nonsense in that first bill.

Subject: RE: BS: stay afloat while others don't
From: Mrrzy
Date: 14 Nov 24 - 10:38 AM

Indeed, Stilly.

Meanwhile as was not improving on the gabapentin, they've added olezapine, aka zyprexa, and I like it, but oh, do I not want to be back on meds. But I am feeling better, and having more energy, and disorganizedly organizing. I couldn't stay on task but I got a lot done by the end, just doing everthing at once and nothing first, like a General Products hull encountering antimatter. But stuff got done, the hats are sorted, the clean clothes folded if not in drawers, the kitchen acceptable if you don't open the fridge. That's today's project, so here I am on the Mudcat instead. On verra.

And on the tower (Amphigory reference), they are looking into why both legs are showing weakness now, so this morning was an MRI for lumbar. Probably cervical coming up... and myelograms, or whatever nerve tests for legs. Then for hands, I hope, as I am really dropping things a lot, some of which break. Anybody know where I can get a lovely green glass chillum with stars engraved? Don't recall where I got it, malheureusement.

One immediate effect of the olzo was getting back into my body, as I hadn't realized I had dissociated, but the things that didn't hurt, like my toe, started hurting, as they should have been all along.

Subject: RE: BS: stay afloat while others don't
From: Helen
Date: 11 Nov 24 - 08:34 PM

I don't know if I said this before, but when one of my debit cards was cloned and a couple of transactions for Pizza Hut and a chocolate shop in Atlanta, GA showed up on my statement the very helpful bank service person told me a good tip for online shopping. She suggested setting up a specific account and only adding money to it just before an online transaction, leaving a small amount only to keep the account open. That way, even if that account is compromised there is never enough money in it to worry about.

BTW, when I saw a Pizza Hut transaction I literally laughed out loud. I haven't been to a P/Hut for decades. They don't have shops around here any more. The transaction stood out like it was lit up in neon lights. I only lost about $200 and the bank reimbursed it after a quick investigation to show my transactions around that date were close to home and not in the US.

Subject: RE: BS: stay afloat while others don't
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 11 Nov 24 - 06:25 PM

Mrrzy I'm sorry to read about your credit card adventure. I suppose looking on the bright side you can cancel the accounts you weren't using. Save some money.

Subject: RE: BS: stay afloat while others don't
From: Donuel
Date: 11 Nov 24 - 03:01 PM

A little bit of stress is good for body and soul. In fact it is healthy. Stress that is unrelenting over long periods is more dangerous.?

A cold bath or a hyperbaric chamber experience are both small stresses that can be good for you.

Subject: RE: BS: stay afloat while others don't
From: Mrrzy
Date: 10 Nov 24 - 10:11 AM

Yes, my credit card got compromised (well, I stupidly fell for a scam) so I am finding out about all kinds of recurring charges I forgot about, as they fail, because I canceled that card. Albatrosses, most of'm.

Subject: RE: BS: stay afloat while others don't
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 09 Nov 24 - 06:23 PM

Staying afloat - ditching Spectrum is a struggle - when you try to close your account they send you to the sales folks who insist on this and that - discount offers, you're paid up and losing 10 days of service - crap - it really helps if you have a Scotch before making the call. On hold several times. The last time she came on (after telling me my router doesn't work well enough - it's blazing along at 650 on ATT, nothing to do with being deficient) I have repeated I want to simply close the account. I paid the last bill, I am aware that there are a few days to the end of the enrollment month, I don't give a phuck that I paid for service I'm not using. Ditching that 800-pound gorilla is a pleasure. Good riddance. I feel better already.

I feel awful about the election results and have already dedicated these savings to monthly donations to the ACLU.

Subject: RE: BS: stay afloat while others don't
From: keberoxu
Date: 09 Nov 24 - 02:54 PM

Right now the inspection sticker on my windshield is dated, which means it passed.
There may have been a failed sticker that had to go to the DMV to be processed. I remember the DMV visit but not clearly as I was that gobsmacked by the whole thing. Then it was also distracting to be told that the replacement license plates might take as long as ten weeks to be delivered. The temporary registration I have now (paper tag in rear window) is good for three weeks, and I can get extensions if the replacement plates have not arrived by then.
Of course the delivery of both plates and title will be to the apartment that is my residence, not the treatment center where I am staying. SO there will be traveling back and forth to keep up with things.

Subject: RE: BS: stay afloat while others don't
From: Mrrzy
Date: 09 Nov 24 - 01:12 PM

Keb, I love how minor that is, as aggravating things go! Not that it isn't aggravating, of course, but Everything passed but the plates is a pretty good inspection.
i hate failing inspection on something minor like that.
I once had someone put the intact but now-unattached side mirror their poor parking had apparently removed from my car onto the roof of the car, where I'd notice it, at least. Forgot about it when I went to get inspected. Passed because the guy said Well, the glass has to be intact, and it is.
So sometimes it's the people, not the car. Did you have to get a Failed sticker?

Subject: RE: BS: stay afloat while others don't
From: keberoxu
Date: 07 Nov 24 - 06:21 PM

The newer used car I am now driving is holding up as it ought to do.
Today was time for the registration and the state inspection.

Wouldn't you know, my old license plates failed the inspection --
the plates are "chipping." Everything else passed.

So it was off to the department of motor vehicles in order to
order replacement plates, which may take up to ten weeks, they said,
to be delivered.
In the meantime, I am driving with the old plates on
and a paper license tag taped to the rear window.
Sigh. It's always something.

Subject: RE: BS: stay afloat while others don't
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 02 Nov 24 - 05:41 PM

No Halloween, I turn off lights and stay away from the front of the house, but I didn't hear anyone walking around in the street, so it was probably another quiet year. Most years here are quiet. My dogs don't appreciate the kids and costumes, so we hunker down to spare them the excitement.

Keb, good news on the newer used car. With each couple of years a whole bunch of useful safety features come along so it's a good thing for you to have traded up. (I also miss having a stickshift; the last couple of times I bought cars I didn't have the leisure to search for something with a good standard transmission. Not all are created equal, so I drive a ubiquitous automatic.)

That baseball duo I linked to seem to be staying afloat - after that stunt they were only banned from one game and their admission price to that game was refunded. There will still probably be a social comeuppance.

Subject: RE: BS: stay afloat while others don't
From: Thompson
Date: 02 Nov 24 - 03:55 PM

Hallowe'en here is like a small echo of Gaza. Fireworks, which are, strictly speaking, illegal (from the days when people were liable to make a revolution with their contents) are ubiquitous on that night. Samhain has also become Americanised, with lots of plastic cobweb material (fatal to small animals and birds, plus plastic skulls, plastic spiders, plastic witches, etc, as well as the old-fashioned thing of gangs of children dressed up and made up going around begging for sweets - nowadays saying "trick or treat" in the American style rather than "any apples and nuts" as we used to. The kids were flawlessly polite, most taking only one sweet from my plastic boxes of plastic-wrapped chocolate, and thanking me nicely, before going out again into the explosives-riddled sunset.

Subject: RE: BS: stay afloat while others don't
From: Mrrzy
Date: 02 Nov 24 - 03:35 PM

I heard part of that BBC thing on Voices, Thompson, fascinating, what a great idea.

Driving again taught me exactly which muscles I'd shredded at the ankle, by wow, pain up the shin and calf in truly specific fibers! But I love my stickshift.

Do you all do Halloween?

Subject: RE: BS: stay afloat while others don't
From: Helen
Date: 02 Nov 24 - 02:46 PM

Yes, better times ahead for Mrrzy and family, I hope.

keb, what a coincidence! I bought a newish secondhand car a few weeks ago and sold my 19 year old car which I have had for 17 years. I keep my cars a long time too but this one was for longer than any of the others. She's an old friend, part of the family but luckily she has gone to a good home. I put a For Sale sign on her, parked her out the front of the house, and a neighbour couple checked her out, test drove her and then paid for her within four days. I was panicking about driving the new car but I'm used to her now.

The funny thing is that I learned to drive just over 50 years ago in an FJ Holden which was as old as me, and which my Dad, a motor mechanic, owned and looked after like a member of the family, and the number plate on the new car has FJ in it. First ever car that I drove is commemorated on the last car I will ever own. (Dad's FJ was the light blue colour shown on that page of photos.)

Subject: RE: BS: stay afloat while others don't
From: keberoxu
Date: 02 Nov 24 - 12:49 PM

So glad to hear that Mrrzy had a good visit with hospitalized son.
Those visits have to be good for the soul.

Yesterday I traded in my old car for a gently used car,
never an easy move for me as I hang onto cars.
But I have hopes this newer car will serve me well.

Subject: RE: BS: stay afloat while others don't
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 30 Oct 24 - 05:24 PM

Today I saw this and it doesn't take much time to contemplate the arc of what this guy is going to experience, in rapid succession, in the next few days, both socially and legally.

He thought he was so smart to grab the glove and the ball, but on live TV with millions watching and he is clearly identifiable, the fans are going to crucify him while the courts spoil his day. And he'll probably be banned from attending games forever.

That said, my one thought at the very end of the video is that the profile of this guy looks like Down's Syndrome - and that could be a mitigating factor.

I'm curious to see if this guy stays afloat or not. (It's possible we could all be really surprised.)

Subject: RE: BS: stay afloat while others don't
From: Thompson
Date: 30 Oct 24 - 04:52 PM

Interesting piece in the Guardian about an experimental treatment for one of the most distressing symptoms of psychotic breakdown, The Voices.

Subject: RE: BS: stay afloat while others don't
From: Mrrzy
Date: 22 Oct 24 - 09:15 AM

Lovely visit. Excellent deep philosophical discussion of free will v determinism. I have missed those!

Meanwhile I have finally turned a corner where I can take 1 gab in the morning and one at night, without having to add one in the middle of the day, yay. And the foot is almost ready to drive, so we are converging nicely.

How are y'all?

Subject: RE: BS: stay afloat while others don't
From: Mrrzy
Date: 20 Oct 24 - 11:14 AM

It keeps my mental hamster, Fortesqueue, off his tiny yet invasive wheel. Does a good job but I feel too drugged to drive. Luckily I can't drive right now because of my foot, so yay, driver.

Going to visit son in his psych hospita later today. That is never relaxing, but at least he's in the not-max-security place now, so I can bring him food, and pj pants...

Subject: RE: BS: stay afloat while others don't
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 18 Oct 24 - 10:49 AM

What does Gabapentin do for you? It sounds like a moving target as far as the off-label uses it is prescribed for. The top answer I see when I Google it (without AI) is that it is prescribed for epilepsy, but then I hear about all sorts of other uses. The [new] vet tried to send some home for my dog a couple of weeks ago (we declined, she wasn't in the pain he thought she might be.)

Subject: RE: BS: stay afloat while others don't
From: Mrrzy
Date: 18 Oct 24 - 10:40 AM

Dig it.

Am slooowly climbing out of my Slough of Despair. Tried to titrate down the gab(apentin), too soon. But I drfinitely feel better.

Subject: RE: BS: stay afloat while others don't
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 17 Oct 24 - 12:18 PM

Police rescue injured man from tracks seconds before an oncoming train - a better story of police work than so many we see these days. Hopefully Harborview has a good psych ward to help him also.

I have a pooch in a t-shirt this week after a small surgery to remove a small fat mass from her side. Two years ago I didn't act quickly enough when she developed a similar mass that turned out to be mastitis - and that got bad when it finally blew up - so I promised myself I wouldn't let something like that go for too long. And the t-shirt means she doesn't have to wear the cone of shame, for which we are all truly grateful.

Small donation made to a former coworker's cause on Facebook - trying to offer moral support to what is apparently an issue in her family. Just in general trying to stay on top of things and help others feel better.

Subject: RE: BS: stay afloat while others don't
From: Mrrzy
Date: 16 Oct 24 - 08:53 AM

Well, good!

Subject: RE: BS: stay afloat while others don't
From: keberoxu
Date: 15 Oct 24 - 07:37 PM

Today I got a tour of a retirement community, have had this in mind for a while, but haven't got round to it before today.
Looks like a strong candidate for my big lifestyle change.
I got a whole folder of paperwork and literature and stuff.
So many problems would be solved by taking this step. It's still a big one.
But this visit today left me feeling hopeful.

Subject: RE: BS: stay afloat while others don't
From: Mrrzy
Date: 15 Oct 24 - 04:14 PM

How are all of y'all?

Subject: RE: BS: stay afloat while others don't
From: Mrrzy
Date: 14 Oct 24 - 09:39 PM

Indeed.

Subject: RE: BS: stay afloat while others don't
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 11 Oct 24 - 07:54 PM

Several years ago I started following The Oatmeal for the same kind of cartoons. And he has branched out into other products, particularly games and puzzles. My favorite jigsaw puzzles have come from there (and they are a challenge - this is the one set up on my sunroom jigsaw puzzle table now. I fall in love with each one as I work it, but the Great Wave (the parody of the Japanese wave) and the Dog's Nightmare have been favorites so far.

Knowing how to taper is a skill, and knowing when you're ready is also a skill. Good luck sorting them out.

Thompson, that sounds like an interesting book.

Subject: RE: BS: stay afloat while others don't
From: Mrrzy
Date: 11 Oct 24 - 05:12 PM

EXCELLENT cartoon! Love Strange Planet. I have been to that location, too.

Meds are for a month, said shrink. Don't want to taper yet, at any rate.

The purring cat reminds me of a different Strange Planet cartoon, where the one holding the cat says, It's vibrating, and the other says, That means it's functioning.

A purring cat is definitely functioning.

Subject: RE: BS: stay afloat while others don't
From: Thompson
Date: 10 Oct 24 - 06:41 PM

Mrrzy, sorry the world is out to get you right now. It will divert its savage attention to some other poor victim when it's had its fun (in my experience).
Meanwhile, I'd recommend (from the first quarter or so) a strangely life-affirming book about a woman who takes her own life - but before dying, finds herself in a library full of regrets, where she can relive all the things in her life that have burdened her with regret, grief, guilt and sorrow. It's called The Midnight Library, and it's as comforting as a warm purring cat on your lap.

Subject: RE: BS: stay afloat while others don't
From: Helen
Date: 10 Oct 24 - 03:04 PM

Mrrzy, I'm hoping that your current issues might be the post-adrenaline physical and mental slump resulting from your recent need to keep on top of family events. Rest and recuperation, pamper yourself, give yourself some time and space to recover and hopefully you will get your equilibrium back. Sending healing thoughts from sunny Oz.

Subject: RE: BS: stay afloat while others don't
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 10 Oct 24 - 01:43 PM

Mrrzy, someone in my Facebook friends recently posted a clever cartoon to which I originally posted a "hahaha" Facebook response but then realized she'd posted it because she had broken a toe in the way described in the cartoon so I felt bad about laughing at the cartoon and changed my response to "wow!" Sometimes things deserve a laugh and tears at the same time. I hope you can sort that out in our responses!

Will you taper the meds at some point to see if they have done the trick and you can proceed without them? Does their making you loopier mean they can be reduced (because they're not as needed?) Understanding how your medicine works is probably as much work as figuring out that you now need it in the first place. Good luck with all of that.

Subject: RE: BS: stay afloat while others don't
From: Mrrzy
Date: 10 Oct 24 - 12:37 PM

Yes on luggage, only one day late.

And just for fun, broke 3 bones in my foot last night. Whee!

Subject: RE: BS: stay afloat while others don't
From: keberoxu
Date: 09 Oct 24 - 03:28 PM

Mrrzy, I'm thankful that you got the help you needed,
and that there is medication that helps now.
Did the bride and groom ever get their luggage back?

Subject: RE: BS: stay afloat while others don't
From: Mrrzy
Date: 09 Oct 24 - 10:59 AM

Mental health is indeed precarious for we who have mental health conditions- mine took a nosedive recently, but I am being monitored. And drugged, for the 1st time in over 5 yrs. Gabapentin, anyone?

Overreacting to real things. New term: statastrophizing. Using statistics to catastrophize.

It got very bad, though, before I realized how bad it was getting. But as soon as the plastic bag I took off my sunny paper said, you know, you could put me over your head, I called my shrink in.

Better now, on a slow upswing. Not yet well enough to be watching for the overshooting, whee, still just trying to climb out of the hole.

Cooked with knives today, which I'd been unwilling to risk. Tiny cut on fingertip. Thought, serves me right.

So, not well yet. But definitely better.

And someone else is doing all the driving, but that's because I am drugged to the gills on this stuff. Enjoying that part, actually...

Subject: RE: BS: stay afloat while others don't
From: Thompson
Date: 06 Oct 24 - 04:44 PM

Mental health is indeed precarious - most tragically for those cursed with psychotic illnesses. Which makes it particularly excellent (fingers crossed) news to hear that for the first time in 50 years a new medicine for schizophrenia has been launched. It doesn't cause the raging hunger and resulting fat that the current medicines do, or other side effects, though it does have nausea as a nasty side effect. Only available (at US costs) in the US so far: Cobenfy

Subject: RE: BS: stay afloat while others don't
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 06 Oct 24 - 12:43 PM

Lots of videos of Western North Carolina and other places where many are having to start over, where "staying afloat" is simply to have stayed alive during Hurricane Helene.

Subject: RE: BS: stay afloat while others don't
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 06 Oct 24 - 12:07 PM

Doug, it is just fine here. The point is that the neighbors across the street aren't doing so well now, so the signs are a boost to them. You don't have to read between the lines to understand that simple point.

Subject: RE: BS: stay afloat while others don't
From: Doug Chadwick
Date: 06 Oct 24 - 06:27 AM

That doesn't change the fact that the post belongs elsewhere.

DC

Subject: RE: BS: stay afloat while others don't
From: Helen
Date: 06 Oct 24 - 06:20 AM

Whatever the outcome of the election, some will be floating and others won't and there is a lot riding on that outcome.

Subject: RE: BS: stay afloat while others don't
From: Doug Chadwick
Date: 06 Oct 24 - 05:04 AM

The thread title continues "...... while others don't". Our US friends will sink or swim together on this one.

The post of 05 Oct 24 - 03:18 PM belongs in the "BS: American Presidential race 2024" thread, not here.

DC

Subject: RE: BS: stay afloat while others don't
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 05 Oct 24 - 03:18 PM

We are a month out from the presidential election so my village now allows political signs in yards. I'll be mowing then strategically placing two Harris/Walz signs. I've ordered one for the senate race (against Ted Cruz). It will join the others as soon as it arrives. The next door guy has a Trump banner on his house.

My neighbors across the street have put up Democratic signs in the past, but they've both been unwell and are about 90 now. Not doing so much. So I'll be sure to put my signs so they can enjoy them any time they look out. Staying afloat here and buoying the neighbors.

Subject: RE: BS: stay afloat while others don't
From: Mrrzy
Date: 05 Oct 24 - 01:56 PM

Woot! Hippo birdie all around!

Subject: RE: BS: stay afloat while others don't
From: keberoxu
Date: 01 Oct 24 - 01:27 PM

Keb is fine and celebrating my 67th birthday today,
a birthday I share with the Mudcat itself.
Am especially pleased at how the decluttering and downsizing is going,
having just sold an extra bed frame to a nice family one town over.

Subject: RE: BS: stay afloat while others don't
From: Mrrzy
Date: 01 Oct 24 - 09:20 AM

Keb, how are you?

Subject: RE: BS: stay afloat while others don't
From: Mrrzy
Date: 24 Sep 24 - 07:33 PM

Indeed. Good to hear!

Honeymooners back. Luggage is another story.

Still not well but out of despair. Doing things about it, though!