People who know me well know that when bad things happen to me, I compare them to the absolute worst things that have happened to me over the last 40 years. If they don't add up, I don't worry too much about them. If they compare, they go on the list. There were 3 things on it.
1) When I was in the Navy, I was in charge of my division's berthing area of about 210 bunks plus head and a few other spaces. In the middle of the night one time, I got woken up because a pipe had burst and we had a CHT leak (iow sewage) in our head. So we start cleaning. Unfortunately, one of the drains got clogged up and because of a lip used to keep solid materials from clogging up the pipes, Chem gloves couldn't get in there to clean it out. Off came the gloves and barehanded cleaning of the lip.
2) Working on a historical farm, I was prepping the area for the daily school groups. A Co-worker comes down and tells me the ram, Bucky, was dead. We go up to the area and find that the ram had got his head caught in the fence overnight and choked to death. Coworker lifts up the rail while I pull the ram out. He had been sitting there for hours and had swollen up to about twice normal. When he came out, so did all the gas.
3) Again while at the farm, I was working at one of the satellite buildings and got a call from my roommate at the time that there was an emergency back home. I didn't have long distance there so I close everything up and go back to the administration building. My boss lets me call and I talk to my mom. She tells me my dad was killed in a work accident. I manage to make it back to my apartment, throw some stuff in a suitcase and head out. My vehicle at the time was an old, beat up pickup. With no radio. I drove for 3 hrs by myself w/ no distraction whatsoever and then pull up to find a bunch of news crews there. This was Sept. 8th, 2001. You can guess the absolute numbness that I was in for the rest of the week.
Today I've added a 4th.
After a pretty stressful and tiring day at work (not entirely unusual though), I come home hoping to veg out in front of the computer to decompress for a bit, part of my normal routine. The wife comes in from picking up the kids and motions me into another room and tells me to close the door. She tells me she found the remains of one of our cats that had disappeared the weekend before. She was only able to recognize it by the collar and used a stick to place what was left in a bucket but couldn't bring herself to do any more. I brought the kitty down to the area where we had made a mausoleum for the various small animal pets the kids have had. It was bad. Horror movie bad. It was one of the worst things I've seen and the memory of that image I think is going to haunt me for a long time. This is the first time I've had a drink in several years. Honestly, I knew what had happened to her and wish we hadn't found her.
I think I'm going to stay away from aggravating political stuff for awhile and just do 'fun' stuff like gaming.
5 comments:
Not sure what to say except hang in there, friend.
Wow, that is horrible! I've been there with similar things but exactly with the last. You have my understanding, sympathy and condolences!
For anybody who thinks "it's just a cat?!?", it's family.
So yeah, do fun stuff! Check out Happy Jacks RPG podcast! Have you looked at Savage Worlds? It's a great simple system that could get new players involved. Fast learning curve.
Be well!
My condolences.
In regards to #1, I grew up working a hog farm. Slipped and fell into the manure pit and was fully submerged for a moment.
Hang in their buddy, I'll look after the trailer for a while. Go do what you need to do.
I'm so sorry. Take all the time you need
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