So Mother was rushed to the ER yesterday.  She was complaining about being quite dizzy.  When the EMTs came, she said she had very low blood pressure.

She got stabilized at the hospital close to us.  I had work, but she looked like she was stabilized, plus, thank Buddha, my sister was there with her.

Mother got out four, five hours later.  Side effect from her medication, not enough water, constipation ... it looks as though it was a combination of all those things.  She seems fine now, but that reason seems a bit too vague for me, and I'm scared that she will have a relapse again -- especially today, since sister is out with family and took my car (again).

I hope Mother is getting better, because I can't tell.

My Sister Knows Too Much

So my sister Thursday night busted me for not putting aside the bathmat.  My Mother is using the upstairs bathroom because for now she's confined to one floor and she should where the food is.  But she's still using a walker, which means that any loose object on the floor can trip her up.

My sister had warned me to put the mat away once I was done in there, but I forgot after I took my shower.  She told/admonished me through my bedroom door, and she specifically told me that she was just going to leave the mat there for me to put away.  I guess I can't complain about her move too much, but in the context of siblings calling siblings out, I'm still quite peeved.

---

Just to blow off some steam, I tried to look at porn Thursday night, too.  But the damn pop-up ad started off with a woman moaning in ecstasy as the guy stuck himself inside her, and I was listening to Halloween music on YouTube when that fucking happened.  And my sister's bedroom adjoins mine; we share a wall, and both our beds push up against that wall.

Did she hear?  I assume she has, even though she may be asleep.  I turned the sound down on my computer as soon as that porn star screamed, but it may have been too late.  My sister's smart and observant; she hears everything.

I love her, but I'm getting to the point where I wonder when is she leaving.

Turns Out I'm Doing Nothing For Halloween

I always go out on Halloween.  I don't go out for Halloween, mind you; I find something to do to avoid the trick-or-treaters.  I've done it so long it's become routine to just stay out after work.

I was making plans to go out tonight/Friday night/Halloween when I asked my sister if she wanted to do anything.  She decided she wouldn't go because she feels she needs to take care of Mother, who is still recuperating from surgery.  And you know, that totally makes sense.  We two can't just go out and do something on a Friday night three days after our mom went under the knife.  So I then thought I would just do something by myself, like get a massage or go to a movie.  But then I realized Mother still was hurt, so maybe I should come back home after work -- you know, just because.  And so I will.

Won't enjoy it.  Beyond not having a Friday night to myself, I am scared that trick-or-treaters will still ring the doorbell at my house.  I assume that my parents make sure no one comes knocking by turning off all the lights and staying in their bedroom.  But My Mother can't do that.  She is supposed to walk around the house to build up strength in her new knee.  That obviously means the lights in the house have to be on, and I'm scared some dumb or overeager kids will see that as a sign we have candy.  I would rather not be around for that awkwardness, but alas, I will be around in case that happens, unfortunately.

Disappointing Son Didn't Do What He Said He Would Do!

So Mother had surgery Tuesday.  Sister went with her.  They had to stay at a hotel overnight and be seen by a nurse who was also at the hotel tending to Mother and another patient.  Never heard that before. Anyway, that meant that Tuesday night offered up a situation I dread: Being alone with Father.

Dinner was fine because it was quiet.  He brought up stocks.  His portfolio is doing blockbuster.  Me ... I work and am tired all the time, so I'm not doing as well.  He asked me what companies I have.  I don't remember.

What I hoped he wouldn't bring up he brought up after dinner.  Of course he said, "Hey, every night you take a shower, right?"  And while trying to hide my frustration that he would belittle me with this same bullshit again, I go, "Yeah, yeah, yeah, sure."  "You brush your teeth too, right?" he replied, and I can't fucking believe he asked me if I brush my teeth every night.  I don't, but that's none of his goddamn business.

Just there and then, while I was also yeah-yeah-ing as to whether I brush my teeth, I resolved to leave the house.  Since I worked early I came home early, and that gave me the opportunity to exercise.  I then thought I wouldn't because I didn't want to leave My Fucking Father at home.  He's healthy, and as you can see he's as goddamn insufferable as ever.  But My Fucking Parents have pretty much been attached at the hip.  My Fucking Mother has taken girls' trips in the past, but Tuesday was the first time they've been away from each other longer than a trip to the grocery store.  I hate this fucker, but I would be sick to my stomach if I worked out only to come back and see him dead on the floor in front of his computer.  And yet, after he used the opportunity of being alone together to infantilize and lecture me once again about proper fucking hygiene, I decided that fear didn't fucking matter to me.

"I think I'm going to work out later," I said.

"OK," he said.

---

And then I didn't.  The downside to attempting to work out after I started out my day so early is that I might want to catch up on sleep instead.  That was a possibility; I allowed myself a chance to rest once I got done eating at 5.  And I woke up at around 7:30, way too late to go out and work out.

I was curious about whether My Fucking Father could tell.  So I just moseyed out to the top of the stairs and looked at the front door.  It was all locked.  I told My Fucking Father I was going out later.  He may have forgotten.  Or, he could tell I was asleep and knew I wouldn't be going out after all.  And knowing how his negative, derisive mind works, he knew I wasn't going to do what I said I would do.

I have to admit that pisses me off, and I am as angry at myself as I am at him.  He has seen me fail to come through on things I said I would do all my life.  This is a small thing, and again, maybe he just locked the door out of habit and totally forgot about what I said after dinner.  But this one galls me, and I think it's because I lashed out after he insulted me over stupid habits he shouldn't be concerning himself with.  It was I who wanted to, in a really vague sense, "prove him wrong" (even though exercising has nothing to do with getting back at him for asking if I shower and brush my teeth, I know) and then I absolutely did not do it.

I have known for a long, long time that My Fucking Father had dreams for me when I was born.  That's the problem when you ascribe to your progeny your dreams for them; they don't come through for you because they're not their fucking dreams, they're yours.  So yeah, I have a feeling My Fucking Father was disappointed in me just because I didn't exercise like I said I would.  But I am just as disappointed in him as a father, and probably moreso.

The Weekly Minnesota Sports Survey

Before I begin, I have to acknowledged that, even though by record it's probably not true, this past Week feels like The Worst Week In Minnesota Sports History.  The teams in the survey below went a combined 5-12 between Wednesday the 22nd and yesterday.  God knows the Twin Cities most likely has seen shittier screening Weeks, it just doesn't feel like it:

#-1: Gopher women's hockey (Last Week: -3).  And as it has felt many times in WMNSSs past, leave it up to the Gopher women's ice hockey team to redeem the sports community again.  They went up to Duluth and swept the Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs by scores of 4-0 and 3-2.  Remember that that isn't as impressive of a feat as the "4" and "5" next to the Bulldogs logo and name might connote.  The Gophers are ranked third.  And overall, the U. might be the third-best program in women's hockey ... but they are light years behind the two best in the sport, Wisconsin and Ohio St.  The gap between those two and Minnesota probably is bigger than the one between the Gophs and Minnesota-Duluth.

Lord knows we need to bank the Wins when we can get them.  But there are only eight important Games for this club, and two of them arrive this weekend -- they travel to Madison and play top-ranked Wisconsin Halloween and All Saints' Day.

#-2: United FC (Last Week: -7).  At least when it came to ESPN.com, which has a cadre of reporters and pundits that I have overlooked, I saw that all six of them predicted The Seattle Sounders to spring the 5-Seed-over-4-Seed upset over our Loons.  Well ... shit, it could still happen, but it won't from a sweep, because MNUFC beat Seattle and remains undefeated against them this season!  OK, it was a scoreless Draw after 90 Minutes.  But while the Sounders had their chances, I've got to say that Minnesota's Defense was very good and even spectacular at times.  (There was one scramble where Seattle would've taken the lead if not for Nicolas Romero standing right where he needed to be to knock the ball away from point-blank range.)  Dayne St. Clair, probably (?) The MLS Goalkeeper Of The Year, did his part, but after the Match went straight to Penalty Kicks, it was more of a matter of two Sounders hitting woodwork and a third trying a panelka that didn't fool a kneeling St. Clair at all.  When the final Seattle PK hit the post, St. Clair responded by kissing it.

Sure, the Loons could drop the next two.  But for our purposes here, they eked out a victory not even I was confident they would earn.  And now they have the upper hand and can eliminate their longtime oppressors in Game 2, which will be played in Seattle and is scheduled for Monday at close to 10 p.m.  Note that if this goes to a third and final Match, that will be next weekend.  This series might stretch 11 Days.  That is ridiculous for a series in any sport, let alone soccer.  And that scheduled doesn't make sense when you see the other First Round MLS series.  NYCFC upset Charlotte last/Tuesday night; they play Game 2 Saturday.  Those two clubs started their series after MNUFC and Seattle started theirs but will play their second Game before those two??  I need to wait a Week to see my team play, but supporters of The Crown and The Pigeons will get to see two Matches only five Days apart??

#-3: Gopher volleyball (Last Week: -5).  The term "reverse sweep" has caught fire in the volleyball community.  That describes a five-Set Match where the winner drops the first two Sets and then wins the final three.  I don't hate it as much as "walk-off" (and I don't know why I hate the term "walk-off" so much), but the term "reverse" isn't precisely what is happening here.

At any rate, the Gopher volleyballers failed to prevent a reverse sweep in West Lafayette at the hands of then-eleventh-ranked Purdue Sunday afternoon.  Two days prior they beat then-#23 Indiana in Bloomington in three Sets, so maybe this is an accurate gauge of how good (or not) this still-injury-ravaged team is going to be.  Nevertheless, I haven't seen Minnesota lose to the Boilermakers much.

Home this Week to play Illinois tonight and my alma mater late Saturday night.

#-4: Timberwolves (New Season!!).  I do not believe that teams are built for sustained success.  I don't believe that a team that falls short one season "will have their shot next season."  Injuries and instances of bad luck can and will happen.  A season is its own thing, unaffected by what came before, and I mean that knowing teams have a nucleus.

What the Timberwolves have done is manage to reach, and lose, in the Western Conference Finals two Years in a row.  That's it.  Yes, they have the same people, but if you're a Minnesota sports fan, you know in your heart of hearts that this team easily could backslide and miss the playoffs.  That makes the failure to capitalize in either of the past two Years much more bitter pills to swallow because, even though we're in the first Week of NBA action, the Wolves are 2-2 in yet another loaded Western Conference and will be without Anthony Edwards for about two Weeks.  They play about eight Games over the next two Weeks; lose them all (and that's conceivable) and they might have dug themselves a hole they will never get out of.  And yet this pro team is the one closest to given us the championship we so thirst for.  Fuckin' great.

They finish a homestand tonight against The Team That Was Stolen From Us v.1.0, then play at Charlotte, then travel to New York City for Games versus Brooklyn and New York.

#-5: Gopher football (Last Week: -1).  They weren't getting the pig back this season, dammit.  And I think several people could see the ass-kicking coming.  But a 41-3 emasculation to sworn rival Iowa Saturday is still breathtakingly bad.  This is P. J. Fleck's ninth Year rowing the boat in Dinkytown.  No, it's far-fetched to believe Minnesota can be like Ohio St. or Michigan (even though Indiana's doing a damn good job of acting like it especially this season).  But you would think they have become respectable enough to put up a fight against the Hawkeyes, a program with whom you fight over Floyd of Rosedale.  This is a rivalry Game.  You are supposed to care more about this contest than pretty much all others.  And you don't even pick up a goddamn First Down until the Second Quarter when Iowa is already up 31-0???  How is this allowed to happen in a Head Coach's ninth season with a football team?

Well, at least we're not completely insane like Penn St.  A Loss like this and Fleck would be out on his ass.  And hey, they host Michigan St. Saturday afternoon.  Their Coach, Jonathan Smith, might really be out of a job at the end of this season.

#-6: Vikings (Last Week: -6).  Maybe the reason sports feels so shitty right now is that football sets the tone, and the two local football teams completely shit the bed just two Days apart.  But the entirety of the Vikes getting curb-stomped by The Los Angeles Chargers is quite mind-boggling.  They had their chances against Philadelphia, but the Offense came up short deep in Eagles territory too often, and that's why they lost.  They were completely fucking unprepared on four Days' time in Los Angeles.  (I should add here that I was at First Avenue watching Purity Ring.  I thought about not going to the concert and watching the Game instead; I made the right choice.)  The Offensive Line, patchwork as it already is, completely went to shit.  The Defense was carved up so bad that Vikings fans might sue Brian Flores.

And maybe above all that is the situation regarding Carson Wentz.  He shoulders a lot of the blame for the Loss to the Eagles.  But he was just downright ... nothing against the Chargers.  He was deposited on his ass several times, and he couldn't throw worth shit.  And it turns out that he couldn't throw worth shit because his shoulder and pectoral muscles are fucked up; he will have surgery that will end his season.  So why was he not pulled for Max Brosmer until the Two-Minute Warning?  It is shocking to see Wentz go from whipping boy to sympathetic figure over the course of two Games, but it happened ... and the reason for that narrative is now the fanbase's new whipping boy, Head Coach Kevin O'Connell, who, even though Wentz was almost trampled to death, kept putting him out there, even though his O-Line wasn't going to protect him.

They have had ten Days to prepare for their trip to Detroit on Sunday.  That most likely will be a defeat, a heavy and embarrassing one, one that you don't want a rookie Quarterback to experience without some playing time under his belt.  The Vikings sure as shit won't have that.  It looks like J. J. McCarthy, whose ankle might have been good enough to play vs. Philadelphia will be fed to the, uh, Lions.  All told, this season is about to spiral out of control.  And the reputations of O'Connell and Flores may be stained permanently after this.

#-7: Gopher men's hockey (Last Week: -2).  The men's Minnesota-Duluth hockey team did the opposite of what the women's Minnesota-Duluth hockey team did: They went down to Minnesota and swept the Gophers on the road over the weekend.  And how: 3-0 Friday, 4-1 Saturday.  Ah, so this is a rebuilding Year, isn't it?  I still get pissed over a tweet by the admin for team's Twitter after they choked and lost to Minnesota-Duluth in the 2023 NCAA Tournament Final.  It said, "We'll be back."  The fuck you are.  They're not making the tournament they way they just fucked the pooch this past weekend.  More like Shame On Ice, amirite?

Like the women's Minnesota hockey team, the U. travel to Wisconsin to play the Badgers this weekend.

#-8: Wild (Last Week: -4).  Kirill Kaprizov's record signing has evaporated off of the news faster than Trump's latest plan to make money off the government.  In its place is the sickening realization that the Mild are pretty much a shit team.  They went 0-4 for this Week.  They have begun a six-Game homestand by losing to The Bastard Winnipeg Jets/Phoenix Coyotes, an ass San Jose squad, and The Bastard Atlanta Thrashers.  The Mild picked up loser Points Sunday and last/Tuesday night, but "loser" is an apt term to call a team that can barely roll out two lines and can't score five-on-five.

I don't know if I should derisively refer to them as the Mild anymore.  They should be the Mid.  Because they've been mid since they were born here in 2000.  So I state my case, once again, that the reason Minnesota pro hockey has been so forgettable here is because none of us here have the balls to fight for the history, logo and colors of The Minnesota North Stars.  Bring all of that back and maybe we'll have the swinging dicks to finally be better than mid.

This Week they finish the homestand playing Pittsburgh, Vancouver, and Nashville.

#-Infinity: Gopher soccer (Last Week: -8).  I have typed out a very, very long Minnesota Sports Survey.  It'll happen when everyone starts playing this time of year.  So I just want to wrap this up by stating that the U. lost 2-0 to Purdue Sunday afternoon, and with a Big Ten record of two Wins, three Draws and six Losses, the University of Minnesota soccer club has finished its season.

The Really, Really, Really Long World Series Game

I was going to talk about ****e standing me up Sunday afternoon, but it's now past 1:30 a.m. Tuesday morning as I type this, and Game 3 of the World Series is now in the 18th Inning.

I have railed (maybe not here on WAF) against Penalty Kicks in soccer and the Overtime rules in college football to determine a winner after regular time.  I hate them because the formats are so unlike how the Games were played up till then.  It's gimmicky and just a way to get the thing over with.  Well, this ain't over, not by a long shot.  I have to admit that I don't think the players playing now are playing well now that the Game is approaching the length of two Games (and I hope that sentence makes sense).  But this maintains the integrity of the baseball Game, no doubt.  Hey, at least there isn't a ghost runner like there is in the regular season nowadays.  And I have to say that I want to know, for my own self, that I stayed up till the wee hours in the morning to watch arguably The Longest Postseason Baseball Game In History.  And like I complained about before, I have to wake up at 5:30 because I work early today!

This Week Has Sucked/Is Going To Suck

Asked my co-worker yesterday/Sunday about my schedule.  I'm going into the lab weekly now, seems like, goddammit, and I do that tomorrow/Tuesday.

I realized last/Sunday night while exercising that today/Monday I have the MNUFC Playoff Match, and that starts at 8.

That means that I am getting home late from a soccer Match being played late, very late, on a school night, and then I have to wake up early for work the next day.

It's out of my control when I have to report early to work in the lab; it just happens it's the morning after a late soccer Match.  The soccer Match usually isn't played on a Monday night, let alone at fuckin' 8 at night, but it is, and it just so happens to be the night before I have to report early in the next morning.  This constellation of bad timing didn't have to happen.  It took a lot of bad breaks for this shitty situation to occur.  And yet it has.

I fucking hate everything right now.  I'm worried for Mother's surgery, my sister accused me of not flushing the toilet when I did, I didn't get to fuck my sex worker (I think I'll save that for another blog post), I'm scared I'm overworking my car, and most of all, pretty much every single Minnesota sports team got fucking embarrassed, from the Vikings Thursday through the Gopher football team on Saturday and the Gopher men's hockey team this weekend.  And Losses by the Wild (yeah, the Timberwolves won last/Sunday night, but they lost to The Bastard Minneapolis Lakers over the weekend), and I have been in a foul goddamn mood since Thursday and I will be at least until I get to rest tomorrow/Tuesday night.

Till then, everything fucking sucks.

Looks Like My Fucking Sister Doesn't Trust Me Now

So my sister used the bathroom after I washed up my sweaty bits and, in a fit of petulant passive-aggressiveness, she texted me, "Flush the toilet!"

OK, go beyond the fact that she didn't say this to my face even though I was in my bedroom and my bedroom is three steps from the bathroom we use.  (I've been texting her about stuff even though I could just as easily walk over to her bedroom, which is about 20 steps away.)  I did flush the toilet while I was in there.  I used it once, I washed myself, I dried myself, and then I left.  But it's obvious that after I got busted for not flushing the toilet just one goddamn time, she is going to suspect that I would do it again.  So, if she saw something in the toilet bowl she deems amiss, she is going to accuse me of not flushing the toilet.  And being accused of something I didn't do really pisses me off.

And pulling back on this shitty situation, it's clear she no longer trusts me.  If she is going to keep up being suspicious of me ... well, that's a third person in this house who thinks that way.  It is very hard to have peace in a home where no one believes you.  I can confide in her about family things I would never bring up with anyone else.  Now, after this bullshit she pulled on me?  Maybe I'm ready to see her leave the house and go back to where she lives.  Don't fuckin' accuse me of something I didn't do. ...

Maybe I Should've Switched Dates

I wanted to see ****e tomorrow/Sunday because I didn't have lunch yesterday/Friday and I wanted to have lunch at home with my family today/Saturday so I could skip lunch with them again tomorrow/Sunday.  But last/Friday night my sister and I decided to watch the leaves fall, like I said in my previous blog post.

The trip wasn't great.  It rained nearly our whole time there, which I think we shortened because of the rain.  At least we didn't leave after, like ten minutes, more like an hour, which was totally fine.  The leaves weren't falling.  Most of them hadn't even turned.  I think it would've been better to watch the leaves next weekend, when they probably would have turned and the weather possibly would have been better.  Still, this excursion was enough.

But I can't help but think that if I flipped dates, if I saw ****e today/Saturday and if we went to watch the leaves tomorrow/Sunday, when I think it wouldn't have rained and it possibly could've been sunny, things would have been perfect.  Would have been even better if I stayed home today, like I originally wanted to.  I would have one day this weekend where I'm woken up by an alarm, and the weather was so rainy/gloomy that it would have been the perfect day to just stay in bed.  Alas.

The Car's Gonna Have A Massive Workout This Weekend

I was going to give it a break today/Saturday, but instead my sister and I are going to watch what is left of the leaves on the trees.  Then tomorrow/Sunday I want to fuck ****e at her place.  That's two long drives on a car that is getting worked over ever since my sister came home.  Add that my sister will be using my car thrice over next week, an important one for Mother, and I realize that I have not used my car a whole lot this year, and maybe for past years.  I have been just driving to and from work most days because I've been working like a dog.  But ever since my sis came home, my car's been everywhere -- too much, I'm afraid.  But until my folks get on out of here, my car will be racking up the miles.

It's still working, for now.  But the trauma from dealing with my old car makes me scared that this new one is breaking down because we're overworking it.