MrVilliam
Glad my wife and I aren’t the only ones. It’s frustrating to explain why proposed solutions won’t work while already worked up over stressful bullshit. Sometimes there just aren’t real solutions. Sometimes you just need to open a pressure relief valve for a minute so you can have a little reset and be better equipped to tackle the mountain of bullshit.
I’m a power plant operator who will be working day shift on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. The shout-out is appreciated. Even our own families often don’t understand that this is just how it’s gonna shake out most of the time. My in-laws get annoyed that we just won’t be able to visit at the same time as everybody else, but they just don’t really think about the power they’re relying on for their holiday at home. They’re weekday office workers, and they could probably do more than half of their work from home.
Thankfully my wife very much understands it and we schedule all holidays based on actual availability instead of expecting me to try to cram things in before or after my 12 hour shifts plus 1 hour commute each way on the day of. A lot of people in this industry wind up divorced, and I think the schedule is mostly what’s to blame.
The paycheck will be great, but it’s still nice to hear that appreciation for the time we and our families are sacrificing to provide for the rest of society. In this way, I sort of get to be one Santa Claus of many. We are making sure that Christmas comes to everybody.
Not OP, but with the aforementioned schedule, there are still weekends before and after that are still very valuable. The weekend before vacation could be used to catch up on chores and errands that would be nice to get done before the vacation, plus maybe pack. Then when you get back, your coming home to a clean place and not having to deal with running around straight away. Just be ready for only two days of work. Then another weekend to get rested up before a full week of work.
Two weekends bookending two half weeks of work bookending a week off from work is very nearly the same as a week of vacation and a week of staycation for only 5 vacation days. Sure you can’t go out of town for an extended period with that plan, but I’m kinda ready to go home after 4-5 days away anyway.
I appreciate the nuance and detail of your comment. I wanted to make sure I started with that so you don’t think I’m just here to shit on your comment. I’m upset that we’re here and slapping bandaids on this shit instead of actually thinking about solutions.
Congress can’t pass a budget, but they can raise their own pay. They haven’t passed any meaningful legislation in two years, but they can raise their own pay. They can’t raise our minimum wage, but they can raise their own pay. Idk about you, but I’ve never gotten a raise for pisspoor performance at any job I’ve ever held. I’ll be receiving a 3.5% raise in a couple weeks, and I’ve very much earned that, and it’s thankfully a bit higher than the ~2.8% inflation over the past year so it’s an actual raise. Not everybody has been so lucky. I’m completely on board with paying Congress well so that it’s not gated off for only the wealthy elite to have access to, but let’s not pretend that passing a raise for themselves right now is eradicating all semblance of corruption once and for all.
Why does Congress actually need to be in DC anymore anyway? Why not have an office in their district and securely remote vote? Having them in DC maintaining two residences is costing them more, keeping them physically distanced from their actual constituents, and making corporate lobbying significantly easier since they can easily talk face to face with dozens of reps/senators in a single afternoon. We could also raise the cap on the House since it’s been undersized for proper representation for decades; no need to cap it to a number that can regularly gather in the chambers anymore. I’d rather they just stay in their district and lock their pay to their local inflation rate. If they want better raises, then they need to actually help their district.
No, this is the long term effect of voting for “eLeCtAbLe” politicians in primaries. Putting a centrist in the general to run against the right in hopes of pulling voters from the right DOES NOT FUCKING WORK. Can we please finally accept that and move on?
Media is desperate for a distraction from people collectively being at least not upset about the CEO getting killed. If they don’t jingle some keys in front of our faces asap, they risk us finally putting aside petty differences to band together over the actual class struggles that we all face together. Together we stand, divided we fall.
It’s not too difficult to buy a pack of boneless skinless chicken breasts, prep them, throw them into the oven, cool them, and slice them up. That’s an option if you want a new little project to master which is also serving your function of healthier, fresher lunch meat.
Easy rundown: trim off and discard fat. Butterfly the breasts. Spray a sheet pan and put them on there. Either put Italian dressing or custom seasonings and white wine on the chicken. Throw the pan into the oven at 325°F until it hits 160°F (165 is food safe but residual heat will get it across the finish line). I’d set a timer for like 20 minutes and then temp and assess. It’s easier to slice up without tearing if the chicken has had a chance to cool down.
I have been taking more or less the same sandwich to work for about ten years now. Whole grain bread, mayo, two slices of cheese (different kinds), and a bunch of lunch meat (usually turkey or chicken). Rarely, I’ll sub a good mustard in for the mayo. Or I’ll add tomato slices or avocado. A while back, my wife pickled some cucumbers so I had homemade pickles on my sandwiches. For a good while now since then, she’s been pickling jalapenos for me to put on the sandwiches.
If I didn’t have that, I’d probably reach for my spicy BBQ sauce or Sriracha from Underwood Ranch. They’re not paying me, but I really want them to succeed so I can keep buying their sauces. They got fucked over by that green cap rooster brand that makes Sriracha, so now instead of supplying their peppers to them, they just make their own shit and it’s amazing. They have a garlic pepper sauce that I blew through really quickly. That shit would probably slap on my sandwiches too, but it didn’t last long enough to try lol. It was good in mac and cheese though. And stir fry.
Is it weird that I try to make sure to say fuck somewhere whenever I recommend any specific product just to avoid any accusations of it being an ad? This isn’t an ad. Fuck Disney. Cum on a Big Mac. Shit on a Bugs Bunny plushie. There, now no corporation would want to be associated with this comment.