Month: May 2010

Back to work

Jeff, being a superior sort of brother, suggested schnitzel for dinner last night so we had take out and ate on the back deck in the last warmth of the day.  This was after we went to Iron Man II (I liked it but it’s slower paced than the first one and ScarJo is OSSUM) and then I dragged Keith and Paul and Jeff up the hill to the salamander pond.  The little buggers stayed in hiding, alas.  Then said hello to Tom.

It’s going to be an expensive day, I can feel it.

I had a great mother’s day and I hope the rest of you mothers did too.

That giant sucking sound you hear is car ownership

Sixteen hundred dollars poorer, she emerged.  And I still need an alignment and the car DESPERATELY needs to be detailed.  There’s a lip gloss tube EMBEDDED in the driver’s side carpet like a dinosaur bone emerging from a dig.  I also just realized that the dangly thing hanging from the rear view mirror is a beaded toy flogger, and since I don’t swing that way (pitching OR catching), I should prob’ly take it down. But it’s PURPLE.

Anyways… drove ScaryClown home with me last night and we supped on Swiss Chalet that Jeff brought home and drank beers and watched TV.  At one point Jeff said something so funny that ScaryClown and I were rendered absolutely helpless.  Unfortunately, despite its merits as humour, it is not repeatable, even by me, but please accept my assurances that it was convulsing.

Then the phone rang.  I could hear it but Jeff couldn’t (I answer the phone for a living so heard it over the tv noise which was hockeygamish at the time).  I picked up the phone, but because it was behind me & I wasn’t really paying too close attention I had the receiver upside-down.  Jeff thought I’d gone insane because – well, Jeff thinks I’ve gone insane most of the time, but he’s low-key about commenting – I was picking up the phone and saying hello hello with the receiver upside down – for no apparent reason. He said, brow furrowed, with that crystal clarity people use when talking to halfwits, “The phone is upside down,” at which point Keith and I were actually able to start communicating.  ScaryClown at this point was laughing so hard he lost control of his ketchup.  Keith said, “Ah.  Well, I was going to ask if ScaryClown was still there, but I can hear him laughing, so I’ll be there in 15.”

He and Paul came over (announcing pie and yet another six of Lion Winter, Paul found another source, and commenting that the car looks nice) and we had a very pleasant evening.  The highlight was the scary awesome Mt. St. Helens footage.  You know that this blog started with me commenting about Mt. St. Helens every other day, so I have a special fondness for it, and will stay fond of it if it stays dormant.

This tickled my funnybone

I really have to work harder on the second Unitardian principle of respect for everyone.  But when I’m not feeling respectful, this little squib applies. 

Kids have their own version of the principles:

  • Each and every person is important.
  • All people should be treated fairly and kindly.
  • We should accept one another and keep on learning together.
  • Each person should be free to search for what is true and right in life.
  • All people have the right to speak out and vote about things that concern them.
  • We should work for a peaceful, free, and fair world.
  • We need to take care of our planet, Earth, the home we share with all living things.

    • Fur and tires, man, fur and tires

    Anything with fur and tires gonna cost you.  For reasons unknown, except possibly ubercoolness, my parents are subsidizing my middle aged crazy car purchase to the tune of just about covering the repairs.  Yup, it’s an expensive proposition, maintaining a car, but honestly, I had been looking for a new hobby, and complaining about my car has just zoomed to the top of the list.

    I am happy right now.  The sun is out, I slept well, I’m going to Jericho tonight to drink beer and participate in live music.  Bleat with happiness, spring!

    This morning

    Kat put the plates on the car, moved her brother’s car (with the aid of 4 other people, gaack), and gave me the keys.  Squee! Next up, a leetle more getting ready for guests after I make a carafe of coffee, and then I’ll walk down to Kat’s mother’s, take a deep breath, and then drive a car – which cannot actually turn left – down to the krankenhaus. A call to my boss to advise him of my lateness is queued up on that list as well.

    This morning my eyes fell on the happy news that a woman I know is expecting her first child, and I give her joy of the news.  Her report is that she’s peeing a lot and dead tired, and gosh, how familiar THAT sounds.

    Sundry and various

    Tomorrow I take the car (which at the moment can only turn right) in a cunningly planned foray through New Westminster; then I’ll drop it off at the krankenhaus and with any luck, I’ll have a plated, functioning, air-cared vehicle – my first in my whole life. My dad gave me a car once, but due to a miscommunication Paul registered it in his own name, which I didn’t actually think was legal and squawked about like a sad old hen at the time.  So, technically, this will be the first car ever that’s registered in my own name.  I’m 51, and I’m an idiot for buying a car, but when the thing you hate most about your job is not the job but the commute by bus, a car seems like a necessity.  Also, ROAD TRIPS.  Also WRECK BEACH.  Also, going to the Island to visit relllies, and not just my parents.  Yes, I’m going to put major miles on that puppy this summer.

    My mother is still slowly working her way through the ancestral diaries.  Henry Wake was a fascinating critter, and I’ll be really happy when all of his diaries are where I can easily peruse them.

    Keith is over, and as soon as he’s finished with a boss fight in Arkham Asylum, we’re going to watch Deadwood (me for the nth time) and then I’m going to cook him a pork chomp dinner.  Jeff’s on the Island.

    I’ve put the new song in Songwriter.  So I actually did something creative this weekend.  John would be pleased.