Month: July 2009

The official story vs what I saw

Last night’s storm.

From my perspective, it looked a little different.  It lasted three hours; at its height, lightning strikes were happening 4 – 6 times a minute; I had an unimpeded view of all the clouds across a 180 degree arc; the closest to where I was standing on Mike’s 14th floor balcony was a thousand meters, possibly less (an air strike and that was the point I squeaked the Lord’s name in vain and booked it back into the living room); Mike recorded the second hour or so before his camera battery packed it in.

I grew up in Ontario so I am pretty blasé about thunderstorms. This one was completely different, spectactularly beautiful – like, MYTHIC – and very very quiet.  There were only two or three loud cracks.  Often times spectacular strikes, less than a couple of miles away, would be accompanied by no sound.

We saw a lightning strike hit the cement plant.  There were a number of ground strikes in Surrey, and the lightning strikes over downtown were pretty much continuous around 10 pm – right when the fireworks were supposed to start.

As Mike remarked, who needs the fireworks downtown when we can drink beer on the balcony and avoid the rush?  And happy birthday to you, Mike, and a spectacular start to your new year!

Anyway I’m sitting on my own back deck right now in the beautiful fresh breeze and having coffee and full fat yogurt with Tom’s delish blackberry jelly mixed in for breakfast.  The cats seem to have withstood being alone for the worst of it with no probs.

Everything is deeply intertwingled

I got a sudden urge to look up Big Rude Jake on Wikipedia.  The article mentions that he’s recorded with Gary Justice.

So have I!  Isn’t that a strange coincidence? Dr Filk, who was a fan of Big Rude Jake’s, would have been amused.

I really liked working with Gary, he was very sympatico, and he told cool stories about working with Daniel Lanois.

Yellow-Yellow goes for the gusto

The story of a clever bear.

What happened yesterday?  I wrote down two songs (Home on Derange and the Pirate’s To-Do List).  Lost my purse for about half an hour – found it where I left it, in a shopping cart outside Rona.  Lucky me. Got replacement keys to the landpeer and Paul and the kids.  Got my massage table back, w00t. Purchased a mirror which I can’t actually use in the bathroom, so I’m going to hang it in the bedroom instead.  I also viewed Paul’s new apartment, which is much smaller and much darker, so I’m very glad he and Dan got in to paint the new place off white (it was slate grey green and the kitchen was red, if you can believe it).

I learned that both the kids have job interviews… join me in wishing them success.

Watched The Emperor’s New Clothes. Very enjoyable costume drama and Iben Hjejle was awesome.  The whole “we will assault the melon-selling bastions scene” was very enjoyable.

Today I help Mike celebrate his birthday.

video and audio

I found a tape of me and John singing, at a coffeehouse or something.  Don’t know how old it is.  He starts off singing Demon Java.  Jeff is going to transfer it into more easy media for me.

The house is a LOT more secure (good luck trying to kick the doors in) now that the locksmith has done his thing.

I forgot to mention that one of the really amazing things about the Cavalcade of Cheese on Tuesday was the soundtrack.  Patricia’s friends make AMAZING mix tapes.  I’m so old I still call them mix tapes.

Butter chicken, height-of-summer salad and rice pudding with strawberries and nectarines last night.  It was a darned good meal if I do say so.  Height-of-summer salad is purple onion, peppers of various colours, mango, and tomato, all chopped into even(ish) pieces in a raspberry dressing.  For the rice pudding, I cut up the fruit and briefly soaked it in rum, allspice and sugar, then turned it into the pudding and cooked it.  Jeff om-nom-nommed like a good thing.

Jeff predicted (but I note in my blog of April 29th that I don’t mention it was his idea) that NCIS LA would come to pass, and so it has. The new series debuts 22 September.

Here’s video of the Wednesday night fireworks.

so much is happening!

Or nothing, depending on how you look at it.

Last night I went to the opening fireworks (Canada) and it KICKED ASS.  The theme was the Wizard of Oz and they did an amazing job of synching up the fireworks, and the colours and patterns, to the music.  I recorded it on my dinky camera; looks like shite but at least I have a souvenir.

The ride downtown last night was difficult; the ride back was scary.  I am SO glad Keith came with me because he was the only thing preventing me from having a full on anxiety attack, so quiet and calm and martial artsish was he.  Suffice it to say that I came a micron from getting backwashed in bear spray.  I didn’t, but it was a near thing.  The cop presence was beyond anything I’ve ever seen in Vancouver. If this is what the future looks like, it can kiss my ass.  I was deaf after I got off the Skytrain – the noise level was incredible – and I had had to ask one particularly lungworthy native chick to kindly please stop yelling in my ear.  (“KAYLA YOU STUPID BITCH BRING ME THE CAMERA I WANNA SEE THE PICTURES!” over&over&over).

It was great to see Alex and Rob and get the benefit of their roof deck once more – unimpeded view and lovely company.  Darwin made little happy bird noises all the way through the display, which was civilized of him; Alex was concerned he might scream through the whole thing, having been so rudely awakened and hauled upstairs.  Alex put on a lovely spread as always.  Cheesy, cheesy goodness! Paté!

Today, I SLEPT IN.  I was supposed to be at Suzanne’s for 9 and woke up at 9:35.  What to do?  No change, no bus tickets; didn’t want to take a cab, so guess what, I rode.  (Thanks Keith for the tire pumping).  The trip there was a breeze, being almost all downhill, and the trip back I took in stages, stopping off to get foodicles for dinner for Jeff and me.  Thanks to Leeanne and Patricia for getting me more inclined to ride; I was amazed, given how out of shape I am, how good I feel now. I mean, I feel really good.

Anyway, Suzanne and I had a good old chinwag and caught up about  the kids and their various interesting life frolics, and then I found out she’s never been to Wreck Beach. This is an outrage!  I immediately called Mike and he agreed this is a problem we should immediately fix, like maybe tomorrow.  I will call her and give her a head’s up.

I rode (okay, that hill above Royal Ave I walked) home, stopping off at the bank and Joe’s Farm Market and Farm Town Meats, getting a mango, a tomato, a red pepper, and orange pepper and a purple onion, and also chicken breasts and pork chomps, and coconut milk for the rice, as when I called Jeff I offered him the option of bbq chomps or butter chicken, and he immediately said butter chicken.  That’s gonna be yummy.  I already made the salad, and as soon as I get off here I’m going to finish cleaning up the kitchen and maybe start running a load of laundry, and then I am going to rearrange my room so I can have all of my recording equipment and musical instruments out at once without difficulty.

I missed the locksmith by literally 7 minutes but that’s not too surprising given that he said he’d be by on Tuesday, and does today look like Tuesday to you?  A good tradesman is hard to find.

Tanya is thinking of dropping by with babby again today.  Happy me.  I have to be here for the rest of the day anyway, visitors would be so nice!