The state of things

Right, then...

Things have been quiet of late for a few reasons, at least partly because there's often a fine line separating the depressingly tragic from the painfully amusing and things have been on the wrong side of that line a little too much lately. I also took some time off for a desperately-needed sanity break before The Invertebrate heads away for a month and leaves me in charge, which is more or less a nice way of seeing that he's leaving me to be ignored by the Stress Fiend and Ted E. for a while in his place.

This does not fill me with joy, but fortunately The Invertebrate finally recognises that the two of them are essentially unmanageable (or at least beyond his abilities to do anything with) and the standards I have to meet as Acting Invertebrate haven't been set particularly high.

The big news is that Ted has finally taken the plunge and announced his retirement plans, although it would probably be more accurate to say that he's dictated his plans to The Invertebrate, who's agreed to them without reservation as the fastest way of resolving the Ted problem without having to make any real decisions. In a few weeks Ted will be going part-time before finally (hopefully) leaving at the end of the year. There's no guarantee that he actually will, of course. He may well decide that retirement's not for him, at which point I fully expect the Stress Fiend to murder him on the spot, witnesses or no.

The Invertebrate has gone on leave without really working out what comes next. In principle, I think, we're supposed to have a part-time Ted-in-training through that six-month cruise to his retirement.  Or, possibly, his violent and premature death.

It's going to be a long year.