even worse. I regularly have to get up out of my chair and go down 2 stairs.

Also this took a while to find, but : https://sourceforge.net/p/shorewall/svn/HEAD/tree/branches/4.2/Samples/one-interface/shorewall.conf

ADMINISABSENTMINDED=Yes

Is an actual setting in the config for the (now apparently unmaintained) Shorewall Firewall software/tool for linux.

If I remember correctly, it always checks on firewall rule changes if there is an active connection on port 22, and adds a special rule at the end to maintain that connection.

They don't build them like they used to anymore.