Being There For Others

[Ed. note: Most Tuesdays I’ve been sending out a newsletter to my email subscribers. As a sample–and because I’m just really, really tired–I’m posting the latest newsletter here on the blog. If you want to keep in the loop, I’d really, really love it if you were to subscribe].

Well it’s Election Day here in the US [Ed. note: it would have been if you got this on time]. Go vote if you haven’t already.

It’s also yet another day of increased COVID-19 cases. We’ve been lucky enough to have a school district with a transparent and scientific plan to stay open…but it looks like we’re tripping over the wires that will require the schools to shut back down.

Or, as we like to call it in 2020, just another normal day.

All this craziness made me think back to a time in college. It was over the summer, and I had a good full year part time job that wouldn’t be enough to get me through the next year financially on it’s own. So I took another part time job…a janitorial position that started a 4 in the morning.

So it was up at around 3 am, work until 8 am, back to home to sleep, then work from 1 pm to 5 pm. The schedule was wearing me down, along with some other personal things that were going on at the time.

Then, one morning, while I was vacuuming one of the creepiest buildings on campus, my supervisor asked me how I was doing.

And I broke down.

I can’t remember what the supervisor said–or even his name–but I remember that he listened to me go on for at least 15 minutes. He then helped me finish my work.

On the way home, I felt a million times better. Like I could actually keep on going.

That’s all it took. Someone listening to me and showing me that he was there to help me out as much as he could.

This is a really weird year, one where we can’t always physically be there for others. But I would encourage you to reach out to others, show them that you are there for them, even if they have a complete meltdown at 4 in the morning.

Sometimes, that’s all they need to get through.

The Links

• My latest: I’ve been on the search for new personal budgeting software. Click through to see what I’ve learned.
• Good news, humans: at least some of your jobs are safe for now!
• I know I’m like 3 days (and about 4 years) late on this one, but for our Halloween movie session, my wife and I watched One Cut of the Dead, a Japanese horror comedy. And it was really fun! If you get a chance, it’s definitely worth a watch.

Service Dog Update

Not all is well in Sherman-land.

The dog is doing great on a lot of things. I’ll usually walk him to the school with the kids in the morning (another thing that’ll be screwed up if the schools close), and he does better every time. He stays at my side, has stopped jumping at passing bikes, and is just a plain good doggo.

If only we could get him to sit.

For some reason, he’s decided to ignore the sit command when he’s out and about. Sherman will stand there staring at us. We are working with trainers, and they’ve given us some suggestions, but so far, nothing’s working.

He’ll sit fine when he’s at home. But that will only get him so far in service doggy land.

[Ed. note: yes, that’s also my cat. Yes, her head is through the plastic bag. She seemed happy about it.]