Month: June 2020

poem: ageless

Some live to name the virtues, and some live them

spread across the gaps of time as dust

and those of us who hold ourselves wholly still and listen
feel those dust motes, who knows how
and reproduce them

something more subtle and lingering than DNA
assists us in perception
in the fog bank of the daily, that flash
that deke across directionality as the light itself dies

It dies unto itself, this light, and is born
and that is why the baby’s cry is so damned lingering
and why I don’t hate people who hate children
it’s a gift to see this line carved across humanity
before you take it on, and after the work’s mostly over, you say ah,
that was instructive

I was lucky and I kept my expectations low.
It was enough. Soon I will be an ancestor.
If I am lucky, I will remember her words.

hermitting

stuck pretty close to home yesterday. I appear to have stopped with the passing of stones and the having of pain, so staying home and pushing fluids was the correct response.

Worked a little on some fanfic; worked a little on a couple of tunes.

Buster, while training, did the most amazing maneuvre.

  1. he stood on his hind paws to reach for the treat.
  2. I dropped the treat
  3. he swivelled his body and his right paw on the way down
  4. he moved through 180 degrees while maintaining the treat, balanced in a single paw
  5. he settled to the floor on three paws and ate the treat from his right paw
  6. & this was all one unbroken maneuvre and the treat never touched the ground

I would kill to have pictures, it was like watching Tony Hawk land a new trick

the indescribable parking meshugas at Burnaby Farmers Market

I’m not even going there; I got out of the vehicle to make faces at the dash cam about how ludicrously inattentive, rude and incompetent the other drivers were and we parked and then immediately trotted back to the car and left due to the lines. Good thing something so bad is free, ‘s all I can say. Stopped off at the equally sloth-tastic experience of the Save-on at Liquorgate and now I can console myself with a medicinal amount of Pepsi (a 2 litre bottle usually results in colonic blasting so we go for the small one) and apple turnovers.

 

accomplished

Took Jeff out for breakfast (a treat), talked to my doc on the phone and got a requisition for blood and urine work (that’ll be Monday, I guess) and drove in rush hour traffic to the pedorthist and got underway for new orthotics.

Allegra presents with a history of custom orthotic use and requires an update. She is significantly overpronated left>right with hindfoot valgus, medial ankle shift and forefoot abduction. Custom orthotics will help realign the hindfoot and control overpronation. Supportive footwear with a stiff heel counter are recommended.

Translation: the top of of my right foot hurts like a mofo, my left ankle bulges in when I walk on the inside like it’s going to just collapse, my left great toe joint is really stressed and I should never not wear orthotics when I’m upright evar again.

I think it’s possible some more grit came down the pipe this morning.

Then I had a simply splendid night of sleep only to wake up with something moving shit around in the yard. Sadly I had to stop in the john before I went out on the deck and by the time I’d finished washing my hands whatever it was had scarpered.

I’ve donated money to Pivot in the past. Herewith, some success.

So I’m actually feeling like I pushed that peanut today.

 

a letter

26 June 2020

Provincial Agricultural Land Commission

 

&

Hon. Lana Popham

Minister of Agriculture

 

 

Hi! I hope you and your loved ones are staying safe or recovering well.

 

My name is Allegra Sloman and I’m a science fiction writer, musician and blogger/essayist, living on Coast Salish land in Burnaby. I believe that fertile, well-watered land that is put aside by the Province of B.C. for agricultural purposes should stay that way.

 

Earlier this month I learned from Cedar Isle Farms that a small chunk of land in Agassiz, (the ‘Teacup Properties’,) which has been earmarked for residential growth for almost twenty years, may be removed from the ALR, since there is tremendous housing pressure on the entire lower mainland. This is in part thanks to the naïve / corrupt succession of provincial governments, which, ably assisted by the Harper Government and the absence of any credible federal investigative oversight, enabled a multi-billion dollar property bubble to develop hereabouts.  Of course there are many, less provocative, reasons why building-lot land is scarce and expensive in Agassiz and why the city government would want more of it. 

 

In 1948, Agassiz, indeed the very part of Agassiz which concerns us today, was underwater for a month, during what is referred to as a ‘century’ flood of the Fraser River.

 

If residential land is flooded, especially for that period of time, all the houses must be razed or remediated at extortionate cost. If farmland is flooded, next spring you plant again. Farming is the appropriate use for this land, if we’re using a risk/reward model.

 

Given the climate instability staring us all in the face, is it possible that anyone charged with making the decision to build on this land may be subject to legal action for knowingly allowing residential or business construction? We can expect that ‘century flood’ any year now. It is a reasonable thing to both foresee and wish to mitigate.

 

Was the permission of the local Sts’ailes people to change the use of the land from reserved to development asked? 

 

Until these and other questions around food scarcity and sovereignty are answered, I believe that changing the land use is unwise.

 

Best regards,

angry beehive

Yesterday an up and coming sff writer, on her own blog, accused (I typed accursed at first, lolwut) a major sff writer and her major sff writer husband (they married during this débacle) of grooming and abusing her.

This morning the twittersphere is jam-packed with accusations and bad form.

The most irritating thing about this is that all of this bullshit was started by the husband’s pursuit – off the polyamory books, tsk tsk, well there was your first mistake – of the young writer. But it’s the women slinging mud in public. Take from that what you will. The second most irritating thing is that it’s stirred up all kinds of bs about the breakup of my marriage. Quite triggery, I’m shaking my fool head.

ha ha ha the best thing about science is that it’s self-correcting

 

 

orthotics and doc appt tomorrow

what a life. I’ve written about 200 words on my latest fanfic story but seriously all I want to do is binge Elementary until Jeff begs for mercy

either that or I’m going to jump on a ferry and go see my parents since I just cannot stand this at the moment (tomorrow will be better)

lovely long convo with Keith just now, some of it was quite emotional but it was all positive

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I laughed my ass off when I read that, because you’d think no sane Black person would ever adopt a raccoon, you know, although I understand that there is video of a Black guy playing with a somewhat domesticated raccoon on youtube.. This gent is Jay Jurden.

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