Don’t blame tech for sibling’s rudeness
My twin sister moved to another state years ago. We always kept in close contact through telephone calls. But since the invention of caller ID, call waiting, cellphones, texting, etc., things have changed.
Examples: She’ll cut off a conversation to answer another nonemergency call. She frantically texts that she needs to talk right now, then doesn’t call and won’t answer when I try to call her. She doesn’t return calls or texts for days.
When we do talk, she complains nonstop, and if I try to chime in about what’s happening in my life, she cuts off the conversation. Also, we have a two-hour time difference, so when she does call, it’s either super late or the dinner hour. If I can’t talk long, she gets mad and blocks me for days.
I don’t want to be the etiquette police, but something is off. Advice? — Just About Had It in Illinois
Has your twin always been this self-centered and rude, or is it relatively new behavior? Do not blame advances in
DEAR ABBY technology for it. Accept that she may have a low level of tolerance for frustration and little interest in what is going on in your life.
If I were you, the next time she blocks you, do not repeatedly try to reach her.
My husband and I are elderly. We live in a renovated shack I inherited from my family. The neighborhood is degrading, and I’m trying to decide whether to build a new home out in the country on property I own.
If I do, my family, which needs a better place to live, could live in my current house. But I’m worried about the physical and emotional toll it will take on my husband and me to improve the wooded property. I also worry about issues like potential dementia living nearly 30 miles from town.
No matter how much I weigh the pros and cons, I can’t reach a decision whether to build or not. Can you please help me decide? — Stumped about the Future
You described your husband and yourself as elderly and expressed concern about the physical and emotional toll building a new home far from town could cause. It might make more sense to consider selling your current home and/or the rural property and using the money to buy a place in town in a neighborhood that isn’t degrading and is near medical facilities should you and your husband need them.
This is my annual reminder to all of you where daylight saving time is observed: Don’t forget to turn your clocks
one hour tonight at bedtime. — Abby
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trusting 60 Titled
16 Dash 62 Cambodia 17 Swing’s neighbor
support 64 Norse deity 18 Uses a 65 Stage
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cover first Tarzan 20 Microscope 67 Mental
parts faculties 22 Hit 68 Nutritional 24 Purchase supplement 25 Feminine 69 Multitude
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37 Pacino and 6 Calendar
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41 June honoree 8 Big party 42 Liverpool nights
poky 9 Does up 44 Whole bunch differently
(2 wds.) 10 No longer 45 Grace enders existing 47 Javelins 11 Sir —
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laundry 29 Indicate
direction 30 Diving duck 31 Faculty
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music (2
wds.) 40 Spouses 43 Reduces 46 Kinetic art
forms 48 Contented
murmur 50 Beat an
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——
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filler 57 Brazen
boldness 58 1899 gold
rush town 59 Oath 61 Sheep’s cry 63 Scatter seeds