The Whine thread.

[Weeble]

Hey Putaro

Bingo!

[Distracted]

I rarely whine because it doesn't usually do any good, so this is probably the wine I had with dinner dropping my inhibitions, but I feel like griping tonight.

I hate these damnable hot flashes. I know I'll be 50 on my next birthday, but I still look less than 40 (or so my totally unbiased husband likes to say)... at least with my makeup on... so I'm too young for this! One second I'm red-faced and sweaty and the next I'm cold because my clothes are wet. And I can't take hormones because my mom is a breast cancer survivor. This really sucks. Grrrr.

[putaro]

Well, as I say to my wife, getting old sucks but it beats the alternative!

I should be getting bifocals, which is somehing I am not happy about.

[Distracted]

I got those a couple of years ago. Had no problems at all adjusting. Of course, I've been wearing either glasses or contacts since I was a toddler, so it wasn't much of a change. The contacts that correct one eye for far and the other for near gave me fits, though. I finally decided that I just wasn't vain enough to deal with the darned things and went back to glasses full time.

[Weeble]

Dis,

One of the ladies I used to work with called hot flashes "her own private summer". My poor wife has been dealing with this for years. One benefit for me is that i sleep kinda cold and there's this furnace on the other side of the bed. I just sneak over and warm right up.

[Alelou]

I'm still waiting for that to happen (and hoping the hot flashes part of it never does), but I've heard that eating soy products can help. Also raspberry tea. (This could be utter nonsense, of course.)

My mother's a breast cancer survivor, too, and my doctor already told me she won't treat symptoms like that anyway (even the one I dread most, an extra helping of spaciness -- I've already got that badly enough as my normal state). And I avoid soy for thyroid-related reasons. But maybe I'll decide it's not so bad if I get desperate.

Speaking of spaciness, I just remembered that I owe Putaro a chapter beta. Putaro, you should nag me!

[Cogito]

Iain Banks announces that he has been diagnosed with late stage cancer and has months to live.

One of my favorite authors, and far too young for this sort of thing.

[Distracted]

Poor man. Only 59 years old. Gallbladder cancer is a nasty one. It's rare so docs don't think to look for it, and by the time the tumor's big enough to cause symptoms it's usually already spread all over the place, so it's too late for curative treatment. Hurts, too. I hope he's got a good pain management doc. Time to break out the morphine. That's so sad.

[Kotik]

Looking around among the people that I hold/held dear, quite a few died of cancer, so it appears that very few these days die of old age. With me guzzling beer and smoking 70-90 fags a day, my destiny is pretty much laid out already. The good thing is, when the diagnosis comes, all I have to do is to get someone to drive me the 200 miles to holland, where I can get myself the lethal injection legally. Leave it to Germany to make suicide a capital offense.
I suppose I may have 10 or 15 years left, but since I never wanted to get old anyways, that's just fine with me. I saw both my great grandparents struggle for years. My Great grandma suffered from Alzheimer and literally was more dead than alive for her last years and my great grandad fell apart when granny died. I don't wanna end up like that. Rather go out early.

[putaro]

Rather go out early.

Be careful what you wish for. A good friend of mine died of cirrhosis of the liver in his early fifties. It was not a pretty site. I used to go over and get drunk with him once a month or so and never thought that it was something he was doing every night.

[Kotik]

Rather go out early.

Be careful what you wish for. A good friend of mine died of cirrhosis of the liver in his early fifties. It was not a pretty site. I used to go over and get drunk with him once a month or so and never thought that it was something he was doing every night.

Putaro, I'm not afraid of death. The moment I get a diagnosis like cirrhosis or cancer, I'm off to Holland or Switzerland and off myself. I don't cling to my life. It was fucked up the moment I was born. Settled with a violent mother and an absent father I later was sent to war as soo as I was out of school and my success with the female of the species makes Trip's season 4 antics look like a spectacular success. I take every day I can reasonably 'enjoy' myself in the forever-alone life of mine, but when the time comes, I'll have no qualms to off myself. The last thing I want is to become an intesive care case. My relatives never gave a shit about me in the first place, why shoould I force them to care for me if I become a vegetable?

[putaro]

There's a difference between not being afraid of death and courting it. You're not the only one who had an f'd up childhood. I grew up in an SRO hotel in San Francisco's Tenderloin and shared a toilet and shower with junkies - you are what you make of yourself. You never know when you may meet someone that you want to spend more time with.

[Kotik]

To put it sarcastically, brother death might be the only one, where my courting is actually successful. I dodged it in Somalia and as lately as two weeks ago, when I was unwillingly caught up in a knife fight between Greek and Turkish thugs in front of my house. I don't have a death wish per se, but when the call comes, there won't be much resitance from where I am sitting.

[Distracted]

Sounds like you need some company, Kotik. Ever thought about getting a dog? A dog's love is unconditional, and having to take care of one is good training for the work it takes to maintain relationships. Just a thought.

[Kotik]

Sounds like you need some company, Kotik. Ever thought about getting a dog? A dog's love is unconditional, and having to take care of one is good training for the work it takes to maintain relationships. Just a thought.

I would like nothing more than that. I adore rough Collies. But finding a flat for rent where pets are allowed is practically impossible. I'll have to build a house if I want to have a pet. I had a lovely cat a couple of years ago, but the Russian bitch killed it. Ever since then I haven't had a pet again.