What are you doing this weekend?

[Secret Chief]

Sundays are better; my friend comes over, and we bake a cake from a different country. This week's cake will be from Cape Verde.

Hey, you've forgotten to send my invitation.

Saturday - going over to the new house to do whatever and see how things are progressing. Annoying evening as half the country terrify the non-human animal population with fireworks. Trying to stop my partner from going outside and actually killing somebody.

Sunday - a friend coming round who has recently lost his wife. He'll hopefully have a little respite from being in an empty house.

 

[dybmh]

I would never have thought that about you, since you have a wife and children and a strong faith belief, but people can be depressed for many reasons.

Yeah, i hide it pretty well. and I'm mostly chipper here on RF. That's one of the reasons I like to hang out here. For whatever reason, I'm less mopey when chatting with y'all.

Regarding the wife and kids and faith, each kind of have a life of their own. My oldest started college this year, so the house is significantly quieter. My son is practically all grown up, he's super independent ( which is great ). But that also means he doesn't need me for much anymore. I do the shopping and the cleaning and the cooking, and he spends most of his time in his room or with his friends. It's the way it's supposed to be, the kids grow and move out. It's a little sad seeing them go and grow and I need to go and grow too. It's a transitional period, I guess.

My wife is also super busy outside the house. She works a lot ( I work from home ), and even though we try to hang out on the weekends, it often feels like we live seperate lives a good portion of the time. Also of note, she's not religious at all. Jewish, but not practicing and not a "believer" like me. So we don't really have that common aspect to bond around.

The other issue keeping me a little down is I haven't been connected to my faith community since covid. So my own religious practice has suffered quite a bit trying to do things solo. I'm nervous about joining up with them because a good portion of them don't believe in vaccinations and I don't want to pass them the virus unknowingly if I don't have symptoms. It's getting to the point I should probably just stop worrying about it and reconnect with my friends. They've reached out a few times, but, I've declined. I'd probably feel better with a little more real life social interactions.

I am not really depressed anymore, not clinically, but I am very downcast about my living situation. I felt that way before my husband passed on this year but now it is 100 times worse. That is one reason you don't see me wanting to debate about religion much, because I am just trying to stay afloat and not fall into a clinical depression.

smart. I'm sorry that things are so difficult. It's completely understandable.

 

[Audie]

Hey RFians,

What are your plans for the weekend?

For me, my son is having a birthday party sleep-over. 8 stinky middle-school boys will be invading the house. Scary. well. hopefully they won't be too stinky.

Gambling in Macau

 

[Revoltingest]

Leafing is a lot of work. Sadly, my leaf blower is on the fritz. Hopefully it just needs an oil change. Do you use a leaf blower, or is it all "revolt" powered hand raking and such?

I use all of these...
- Battery powered blower.
- IC engine powered blower.
- Many rakes, brooms, pitchforks, & shovels.
- Wheelbarrows.

 

[Revoltingest]

I understand, because you live in the Midwest where it snows a lot. It rarely snows here and when it does it melts soon thereafter rather than freezing, so the leaves just stay wet and slushy.

The underlined part sounds erotic.

 

[Trailblazer]

No, I can't say I have. There's a pretty big one that saunters across the top rail of the back fence every once and a while. But we haven't been formally introduced, if you know what I mean.

I haven't been formally introduced either but do you think they care?

You know you are in trouble when you are trying to take a photo of the raccoons on the deck playing in the leaves and a raccoon gets up on the table and peers in the kitchen window at you. Now that the racks know I am awake they are going to expect food, but I am not going out on the deck until after noon so they will be mad. Who knows how many chairs they will knock over on protest? Then I will go out and feed them and the birds and get my feet all wet walking through mushy wet bird food.

 

[Trailblazer]

The underlined part sounds erotic.

Well, now I know where your mind is at.

 

[Trailblazer]

Sunday - a friend coming round who has recently lost his wife. He'll hopefully have a little respite from being in an empty house.

Well, your friend is sure lucky to have a friend like you. I recently lost my husband but I have no friends to come over, and I would not want anyone coming over here given how disheveled the house is. My house feels empty but it would feel even emptier were it not for my eight cats.

 

[JustGeorge]

Hey, you've forgotten to send my invitation.

It'll be in the box with the aubergine/barf socks.

 

[dybmh]

Gambling in Macau

Do you have a favorite game?

 

[Trailblazer]

Yeah, i hide it pretty well. and I'm mostly chipper here on RF. That's one of the reasons I like to hang out here. For whatever reason, I'm less mopey when chatting with y'all.

Same here. I usually hide it pretty well by trying to be upbeat, but the pain is just beneath the surface.
I also feel less mopey when I have someone to chat with, it is a good distraction.

Regarding the wife and kids and faith, each kind of have a life of their own. My oldest started college this year, so the house is significantly quieter. My son is practically all grown up, he's super independent ( which is great ). But that also means he doesn't need me for much anymore. I do the shopping and the cleaning and the cooking, and he spends most of his time in his room or with his friends. It's the way it's supposed to be, the kids grow and move out. It's a little sad seeing them go and grow and I need to go and grow too. It's a transitional period, I guess.

I never envision families that way but of course I have never had a family so I just go by what I imagine it must be like. I had a husband but we never had any children so I always envy people who have a family with children. And since I never had any children I will never have any grandchildren, so unless I remarry I will spend the rest of my life alone, and some people wonder why I want to remarry?

My wife is also super busy outside the house. She works a lot ( I work from home ), and even though we try to hang out on the weekends, it often feels like we live seperate lives a good portion of the time. Also of note, she's not religious at all. Jewish, but not practicing and not a "believer" like me. So we don't really have that common aspect to bond around.

My late husband was always home, which is also where I always am, since I have worked from home since Covid, but we led separate lives within the house, like two ships passing in the night. It was that way for years, at least since he retired in 2016. He went slowly downhill after that and lost the will to live and then he got the cancer.

My husband was also a Baha'i, and like me had been a Baha'i for over 50 years, but neither one of us had attended Baha'i activities for most of our marriage. However, we were bonded together in the same belief, although we would argue about the nature of God, whether God as loving or not. Towards the end of his life he finally said that he did not believe God is loving because he finally felt the pain I had been feeling for most of my life, although his pain was mostly physical whereas mine was emotional.

The other issue keeping me a little down is I haven't been connected to my faith community since covid. So my own religious practice has suffered quite a bit trying to do things solo. I'm nervous about joining up with them because a good portion of them don't believe in vaccinations and I don't want to pass them the virus unknowingly if I don't have symptoms. It's getting to the point I should probably just stop worrying about it and reconnect with my friends. They've reached out a few times, but, I've declined. I'd probably feel better with a little more real life social interactions.

Although I was not connected to my faith community before Covid, I have had a similar experience with my faith community. I never even saw any Baha'is or talked to them until my husband passed, but I had to contact them for help with the funeral so I had some connection with some of them during that time, and after they had a hike to Mt. Rainier which I went on, but since then I have not talked to any Baha'is. They do not have any in-person meetings anymore, all the meetings are on Zoom, so I could easily attend, but I have been in no mood to see people, even on the computer screen. They are always friendly and inviting me but they have never pressured me to attend anything. There is a Zoom Feast tonight and I thought about attending, but I have to consider the effect it might have on my mood, which cannot afford to get any worse. My problem is that being around happy people when I am depressed only makes me feel worse.

 

[Sgt. Pepper]

Hey RFians,

What are your plans for the weekend?

For me, my son is having a birthday party sleep-over. 8 stinky middle-school boys will be invading the house. Scary. well. hopefully they won't be too stinky.

I'm still recovering from Halloween and all the paranormal intensity that goes with it, including participating in a séance. So, I intend to spend the weekend relaxing as often as I can because I am spiritually drained. I've been reading an interesting book on haunted places and binge-watching my favorite paranormal shows. As weird as that may seem to some people, that actually helps me relax.

 

[Nakosis]

Hey RFians,

What are your plans for the weekend?

For me, my son is having a birthday party sleep-over. 8 stinky middle-school boys will be invading the house. Scary. well. hopefully they won't be too stinky.

Building a playhouse for my grand kids.

 

[Secret Chief]

Well, your friend is sure lucky to have a friend like you. I recently lost my husband but I have no friends to come over, and I would not want anyone coming over here given how disheveled the house is. My house feels empty but it would feel even emptier were it not for my eight cats.

Friend like me?! Boy, you've got low standards
Personally, I wouldn't care about the "state" of a person's house. You've got eight great friends, and quite enough of those sort I feel. ...
Do you want more human friends? There's ways and means. Clubs, societies, in the real world and online.

 

[JustGeorge]

Yeah, i hide it pretty well. and I'm mostly chipper here on RF. That's one of the reasons I like to hang out here. For whatever reason, I'm less mopey when chatting with y'all.

Regarding the wife and kids and faith, each kind of have a life of their own. My oldest started college this year, so the house is significantly quieter. My son is practically all grown up, he's super independent ( which is great ). But that also means he doesn't need me for much anymore. I do the shopping and the cleaning and the cooking, and he spends most of his time in his room or with his friends. It's the way it's supposed to be, the kids grow and move out. It's a little sad seeing them go and grow and I need to go and grow too. It's a transitional period, I guess.

My wife is also super busy outside the house. She works a lot ( I work from home ), and even though we try to hang out on the weekends, it often feels like we live seperate lives a good portion of the time. Also of note, she's not religious at all. Jewish, but not practicing and not a "believer" like me. So we don't really have that common aspect to bond around.

The other issue keeping me a little down is I haven't been connected to my faith community since covid. So my own religious practice has suffered quite a bit trying to do things solo. I'm nervous about joining up with them because a good portion of them don't believe in vaccinations and I don't want to pass them the virus unknowingly if I don't have symptoms. It's getting to the point I should probably just stop worrying about it and reconnect with my friends. They've reached out a few times, but, I've declined. I'd probably feel better with a little more real life social interactions.


smart. I'm sorry that things are so difficult. It's completely understandable.

It seems we're in some similar situations here. I still have younger children, but after telling my oldest yesterday that he's going to get to vote in the next election, I've been struck with the fact that my baby is about grown. I mean, that's been obvious for awhile(he has a goatee and mustache at this point), but that really hit home. For so long, I've been used to him being around; who knows where life will take him. And the youngest is just now agreeing to potty train... (for the longest time it was a tantrum and "no potty!", it didn't seem worth the chaos)... This will likely be my last time around with these years. I'm trying to treasure them.

My husband and I were always very close, but I feel he's been going through somewhat of a mid life crisis over the last year, and its been one dramatic event after another with him. He's a good man, but is going through some things... and sometimes its closer to raising 4 children instead of 3... and then it gets lonely. We were both very religious, and all the sudden we've swapped those practices for cars and bling(when those things never had an interest before), and I feel bewildered. He finally acknowledged that he needs to address some of his issues, and has been working diligently to do so, but... well, its been a hard year.

I hope you're able to connect with your friends again soon, and get to a place where you feel you're able to re-establish yourself in your religious community. Having such available to you, I'm sure, will provide many blessings.

Friend like me?! Boy, you've got low standards
Personally, I wouldn't care about the "state" of a person's house. You've got eight great friends, and quite enough of those sort I feel. ...
Do you want more human friends? There's ways and means. Clubs, societies, in the real world and online.

I tell people if they have any complaints about the state of my house, they can either clean it themselves, or watch after Ares on a regular basis so I can tend to it.

They manage to become okay with it rather quickly.

 

[Secret Chief]

@Trailblazer

Moonbear says Hi.

 

[dybmh]

I'm still recovering from Halloween and all the paranormal intensity that goes with it, including participating in a séance. So, I intend to spend the weekend relaxing as often as I can because I am spiritually drained. I've been reading an interesting book on haunted places and binge-watching my favorite paranormal shows. As weird as that may seem to some people, that actually helps me relax.

I wish you some happy relaxing I remember you had posted about the seance and you weren't sure at that time if you were going to participate. Sounds like you did it. Hopefully your friend wasn't an interference?

 

[dybmh]

@Trailblazer

Moonbear says Hi.

View attachment 68138

just look at those "come hither" eyes!!!

 

[dybmh]

Building a playhouse for my grand kids.

Coooool. At your house or theirs?

 

[Secret Chief]

just look at those "come hither" eyes!!!

Yes, he's very handsome