Posts by Joseph Rivera75

Any chance I can get this ban lifted...?

quietbadger11 is basically driving a bus full of coworkers to the office 😵

Noah Moore61, I love that idea! 👍

amberviper70, I don't think quietbadger11 would actually do it just because of a buddy.

quietbadger11
Just because she said yes doesn't mean anything for the topic of the day.
The point is her friend made a move on her, you get me?
Would you lose your mind if someone told you your girl was hitting on them, or would you just buy him a drink?
Or would you actually distance yourself from the guy, which is what any sane person would do?

quietbadger11
Alright, you finally get the point.
Way to go, genius.
You’ll probably be kicking yourself when you're 80 for passing her up, but hey, at least you're happy now.
One thing I don't get, though: would you actually pay for the drinks, or just tell off the buddy who was eyeing your girl?

P.S. Would you even tell a friend if his wife was hitting on you?
I'd love to know... though I doubt I'd ever hear the truth from my current husband.

Drew Perez15 said:Everything is completely different nowadays...

That is very easy to see.

Are you looking at this as a kid or a parent?
Fashion changes, sure, but the need for love, acceptance, and respect? That stays exactly the same.

Drew Perez15 said:And there we have it—the eternal debate. On one hand, isn't it ideal to just let a child decide their own path without interference? But then again, as a parent, don't you constantly worry they might stumble onto the wrong track or fall in with a bad crowd, leading you to try and steer them through endless extracurriculars and structured activities? It’s a bit of a minefield, isn't it?

They won't end up on a bad path if they aren't even out doing any activities.
The real danger is when they lack a sense of security at home, so they go hunting for it in that "bad" crowd instead.

I don't know what the trendy vice is these days; back in my day, it was heroin.
By seventeen, people were already joining communes.
Nobody offered it to me, and honestly, I wouldn't have taken it if they had.

"Too much freedom" versus "not enough" is totally subjective.
I had the freedom under the old school system to pick my own path.
To speak my mind.
But I definitely didn't have the freedom to roll in at dawn when I was fifteen.

So, what, you’re telling me if I want to play music, learn French, and join the drama club, I have to pick just one?
Nah, you can do all three if you actually want to.
If you don't feel like it, then don't do any of them.

Cheers.
Don't live with regrets.
People aren't machines.
And even machines break when you redline them.

Let kids be whatever they want to be, as long as they've got the talent for it.

Not cool
If someone had forced me into sports back in the day, God knows how much of a disaster it would’ve been...🕺

Whatever the kid wants is fine by me.
If that's what they want,
I never asked for anything.
So I didn't bother showing up for anything either.
Even when other kids used to come over for guitar lessons... I never even touched a guitar because I just couldn't care less about it.

George Kim13 said:And what exactly would trigger such an eye-roll?

Are you just exceptionally stunning and magnetic?
Do you believe others simply don't measure up?
Or is this all based solely on a screen name?

Amazing...

Nah, my eyes are just spinning😵

There are actual humans behind these handles
The kind of people I'd probably roll my eyes at in real life, but here? Most of them are alright with me.

Cycles
Life just moves in loops.
You can try starting over a million times... but you always end up right back where you started... with yourself.☕

I can't really get into it, mostly because I've had a much better vantage point than you over the last couple of years, plus I've been keeping tabs on other stuff too.

P.S. It’s pretty hard not to notice the trail you leave behind.

dustymarlin10 said:... honestly, I still don't get how people can even question if getting vaccinated makes sense when you test positive after three doses?

I'll give you an answer.
It’s not an issue being positive when the illness is asymptomatic or just mild.
But we've finally reached this point now.
With this mild, asymptomatic virus called Omicron, you've got people dying who probably wouldn't have if they were vaccinated.
Do you realize how much easier it is when you have an elderly relative at home who's vaccinated and a kid brings COVID home from school? Or when someone tests positive in the hospital, but all the other patients in the room are vaccinated?
You feel safe knowing they won't catch anything.
Is it better to die with 65-70g on your deathbed over what's basically a cold for most people, or is it better to get three shots and stay asymptomatic?
From what I see, you'd rather just die. And yet, you were whining about those liver enzyme levels hitting 150—which is just a temporary spike while you were in the hospital.
Honestly, I don't get it. A 55-year-old guy completely obsessed with vaccines and COVID.
At least it's nice that someone has zero other problems in life at 55; it gives the rest of us hope that one day we might be that carefree.

Walter Davis said:Well, if they're so happy, maybe you should help them deal with all the parental headaches. 🤷

Doesn't help, because you're already burnt out and old.
I remember how it was the first time, and I know the massive difference by the second time
I barely recognize myself compared to who I was two years ago.

When an older person has kids, the only thing they're helping with is whatever energy they didn't waste earlier in life.
plus the chances of conception drop while health risks skyrocket.
And babies from older moms? They often seem more fragile, plus there's a higher rate of premature births and low birth weight—placental issues and all that.
The sweet spot for starting is around 21.

Anyway, since we aren't in the off-topic section, let's stick to the topic of the day: marriage. It’s never too late for that.

A friend of mine is 46 and single; his grandfather remarried seven times.
Even my own relative wanted to tie the knot at 80.

Marriage, huh... honestly, being married feels pretty surreal to me...
It’s one thing when you wrap up high school at 18 or college at 22 and tie the knot, but it's a whole different ballgame starting life after graduation like this...
We always planned on having kids.
But the marriage part...
Maybe we just spent way too much time stuck in isolation studying, because by the time he popped the question on our first anniversary... I felt like I hadn't been to a decent party in forever...

Walter Davis said:I know plenty of folks who became parents in their late 30s or even early 40s, and honestly, I don't see them struggling or regretting not jumping in sooner. I mean, it’s mostly people who don't exactly view hitting 40 as being ancient.

Yeah, obviously. Of course they're happy when the baby arrives. Just last week, a friend of mine—she's 42, he's 50—was talking about it.
But wait until you're dealing with someone jumping around all night... I was holding my kid every single night until they were two, sleeping maybe 2 or 3 hours at a time... man, during maternity leave I thought I was okay, but by the time I got back to work, I was a total zombie.
And once the stomach bugs and colds start hitting... I was sick non-stop for ten years. Once you hit 20 and haven't had contact with kids in ages... you just can't bounce back from childhood illnesses like you used to.
Then there's that moment when everyone else is talking about all the places they traveled... while you were just hanging out at Central Park.

Ashley Vaughn79 said:I feel the same way about this idea. It really hits home now that I'm in my 40s and the kids are grown and independent; it stems from the fact that they didn't have those wild experiences in their 20s, so now, in their 40s, they don't even have a clear sense of what they actually missed out on. 😁

Yeah, sure, you can still stay up until dawn in your 40s, but it just doesn't carry the same weight as it did back in your 20s. 😁

Having kids in your 20s isn't everything...

Kevin Gomez10 said:Never. 🙂

Vita Maslacak?

P.S. for the guys planning to propose... just pick a ring yourself. Don't let your mom make the call.

Austin Garcia said:I’m honestly not following your persistence here; perhaps you don't care which authority sends kids home, but I never said I didn't care, nor did I suggest a janitor was making these calls...
I simply pointed out that while the school follows the protocol you described, my child was only kept home based on my own word...
To reiterate, they told us a rapid test would be sufficient for their purposes, so there is absolutely nothing recorded in the official state database since I performed the test at home myself...
Furthermore, I still wanted a PCR test, so I went ahead and got one...
But even then, there is no record of the initial symptoms in the system because, as I have mentioned three times now, nobody called us to ask about symptoms or to mandate isolation. Yet, you keep insisting that this information is already filed away...
Given how inconsistent recent testing results have been, it was entirely possible for a PCR to come back negative. If that had happened, what reason would be listed in the system for the children's isolation? We couldn't exactly tell them, "Haha, sorry your kids had to stay home for five days for no reason"...
If I haven't made it clear enough why this doesn't add up, I'm really not sure how else to explain it to you...

No need to get worked up. You already said how it went down, and that’s just not how things work—either there are actual rules, or it's just total chaos.

We had this ridiculous paradox the other day. A kid wakes up with a fever on Monday before school starts. Mom calls the principal to say he's staying home, and the principal decides the whole school needs to shut down—even though, by the book, contacts from Friday don't even count.
Because officially, you only count contacts with someone positive within that 48-hour window before symptoms pop up or before an asymptomatic test comes back.
Sure, we can sit here and guess the kid caught it at school, but if nobody else in the class reported being positive, you can't trigger isolation based on Friday's contacts because that was way more than 48 hours ago. End of story.
I don't care about the principal's "gut feeling" or whatever.

And I'm certainly not burning through my sick days or PTO just because someone has a hunch.
It's black and white according to the CDC guidelines, so that's what we follow.

Then again, a few months back, a brother and sister both got sick at school—lower grades. One doctor sent the entire class home, while another doctor looked at a second-grade class in the exact same situation and only sent three kids home. Nobody was wearing masks anyway.

Samuel Barrett33 said:I honestly can't wrap my head around why some people are being told to isolate the second they feel even a tiny bit off, while others are basically living their lives until that PCR test actually comes back positive. Is there some kind of logic there, or is it just random? I'm wondering if those folks who only start isolating after the lab results come in are just getting a pass because they aren't showing any symptoms at all.

For someone showing symptoms, day zero is the day the symptoms start, and the clock begins tomorrow.
For someone without symptoms, day zero is when the test comes back positive.
How else are you supposed to pin down when an asymptomatic person actually turned positive if not by the test itself?
The time since exposure is just the incubation period, which lasts about 10 days. Someone might get sick or test positive on day 3, or they might be waiting until day 10.

Alex Roberts4 said:This is what they've done to us: It's not "official isolation," but the kid isn't allowed in school. I mean, where am I supposed to take them? Who decides this? Where is it written down? If there isn't remote learning available, they won't let them work from home, but if it's not an official medical isolation order, there's no basis for sick leave. So, what is the teacher supposed to decide? What right does she have to tell kids, "Stay locked up and wait"? There are real consequences to this that clearly nobody is thinking about... What happens to a parent who can't justify an absence because they can't just leave a little kid home alone? Not to mention the paperwork... This matters to me! If there's no online option, where am I? If it's not an official mandate, where am I supposed to be? I have to justify this to my employer. My boss won't hear a word of it. I have to prove it. Things have gotten way too out of hand.

Usually, by the time one parent speaks up, five others have already tested positive.
Only three didn't realize the kid was just running a fever or was asymptomatic, the fourth wasn't paying attention, and the fifth one finally pipes up saying they actually have a positive test.
That's why the CDC guys usually "cover" the school.

Parents aren't exactly geniuses either.
You can't take one kid who's coughing to get tested while simultaneously dropping their sibling off at school.
Then, when that second kid shows symptoms the next day, boom—an entire grade level is trashed.

We see it all the time: people stay home just long enough for the positive family member to finish isolation, then they head right back out. Five days later, they show symptoms. And once again, an entire classroom is stuck in lockdown.

Austin Garcia said:It all sounds quite lovely when you put it that way, and the official government websites explain everything perfectly, detailing exactly how it should work and who holds the authority...
But I am speaking from my own experience. I reached out to let them know my children wouldn't be coming in because of a positive home test, promising to update them once our doctor provided the official PCR results. They responded by saying the school trusts parents and would treat a positive home test as an official case immediately. Then, they sent almost the entire class into isolation, except for those who had recovered within the last four months. They mentioned the PCR was mostly for our own records... and honestly, it just didn't feel right...
In any case, the school nurse is the one who officially mandated the isolation, likely just taking my word for it. As I mentioned before, no one ever called us or formally notified us of an isolation order, so I highly doubt they even contacted the school or our other contacts...
It feels so disorganized and unnecessary, especially since my child has been sent home to isolate multiple times just for being a contact at school...
It really lacks any sense of order or proper organization...

Exactly. The school keeps them isolated on campus until an official diagnosis comes in just to stop the spread, but the final call actually comes from the school nurse or the CDC.
Maybe you don't care about the bureaucracy behind it,
but I really do.
Because the school janitor or the principal shouldn't be the ones deciding who goes into quarantine and when.
They track when symptoms started and which specific contacts need to be flagged.

Austin Garcia said:It all sounds quite lovely when you put it that way, and the official government websites explain everything perfectly, detailing exactly how it should work and who holds the authority...
But I am speaking from my own experience. I reached out to let them know my children wouldn't be coming in because of a positive home test, promising to update them once our doctor provided the official PCR results. They responded by saying the school trusts parents and would treat a positive home test as an official case immediately. Then, they sent almost the entire class into isolation, except for those who had recovered within the last four months. They mentioned the PCR was mostly for our own records... and honestly, it just didn't feel right...
In any case, the school nurse is the one who officially mandated the isolation, likely just taking my word for it. As I mentioned before, no one ever called us or formally notified us of an isolation order, so I highly doubt they even contacted the school or our other contacts...
It feels so disorganized and unnecessary, especially since my child has been sent home to isolate multiple times just for being a contact at school...
It really lacks any sense of order or proper organization...

They won't call you. The school just notifies the health department, and then they're the ones who look at when the kid first showed symptoms, define the "contact window," and send over a list of every student present during that time.
The system shows immediately who tested positive and when their symptoms kicked in.
It's all tracked.

Austin Garcia said:Since when has it been this way? I personally reached out to my kids' teachers to let them know they tested positive on a home kit and wouldn't be coming in, mentioning that we still need to schedule their official PCR appointments. My school told me that was more than enough information and put them in isolation immediately, even before the official results came back. As for the health department, they haven't reached out to us at all, so I can hardly imagine they've contacted the schools either...

Exactly. If multiple kids test positive, they set up remote learning and send the list to the doctor (school nurse or the local health authority)... but they don't just unilaterally mandate isolation.
To an outsider, it might seem the same, but it's factually wrong to say a school can just decide who goes into isolation.
A teacher, a daycare provider, or a nurse doesn't have the power to dictate isolation or "put" a whole class under quarantine.
They can accept a student's excuse for being absent.
And they can recommend staying home if several students report positive tests and arrange for online classes.
But everything the school does is coordinated with the school nurse or the public health official, who is the one actually deciding if the entire class needs to isolate.
The school gives the health official a list of students present during the exposure window and then emails the decision regarding isolation back to the parents.

To a layman, it probably doesn't matter who calls the shots, but rules are rules.

And isolation isn't just some vague concept like "not showing up" to school and doing things online. You might do remote learning because your classmates are stuck at home testing positive, but you could still be officially ordered into isolation by the health department.
If you're in official isolation, you're stuck at home, in your room, by yourself—unless we're talking about a toddler.

That's where the paradox hits. A health official can't legally mandate official isolation based on a home test; they can only do that once there's an official PCR or rapid test from a clinic. And everyone knows how long you have to wait for a PCR (though the clinic's rapid test is faster).

Great idea if you think walking into a hospital surrounded by sick people is fine—you'll spread it just by breathing, and for someone already struggling, Covid could be the final nail in the coffin.
You might end up infecting some random guy who goes home to an elderly mom fighting cancer, and then she's the one paying the price.