Month: April 2022

background work

side by side a ukrainian soldier defends a pram, a russian soldier shoots at one
48 days into the war

Still adjusting to the meds change; I appear to be somewhat more diurnal, as I slept from 8 until 5:30 this morning. Jeff and I are going to go see the mini vampires at some point this week, and then I’m spending the day at Caspell Junction on Thurdsay, and also at some point we should shop as we are actually OUT OF some things and there’s always more toilet paper. (Constant readers will note that I buy more toilet paper than is required because I’m afeared to not have enough in a true emergency.)

IT FUCKING SNOWED yesterday it’s all gone but even though they warned us it was most unpleasant, and Buster was unimpressed as hell.

New word: Nexterday for tomorrow, invented by some kid whose parent reported it on twitter.

Now that we have CRAVE we’re getting the ads for show renewals and Jeff was so happy to see the ads for the Flight Attendant, which is a show he wouldn’t have watched if Dave hadn’t recommended it, so that was a nice little frisson of connection.

No kudos, no progress on the story. All my mental work on the story is managing the “I’m more into you than you’re into me and it’s breaking me” part of it, plus working the ‘gay guy’s straight friend’ into it because the idea of a fairly uptight gay man getting romantic advice from his sassy-pants straight friend is too much for me to dodge, it’s just so up-to-drip and tropey. Also I want two men who aren’t romantically involved to talk about sexual assault. I mean I’m not going for maximum damage but our hero is pretty messed up and he needs someone to tell him that a very common response to sexual assault is hypersexualization. The first time I heard that I went BULLSHIT but apparently it’s a mechanism whereby you reestablish control over, and agency over, your own body and while it just seems wrong from my lived experience, thousands of hours of research don’t lie.

Got wordle in three today, I’ll post it for tomorrow because I found the word combo weirdly funny.

Have some ice, from Iceland. It was just above freezing, the rain was coming sideways, and the biggest of those chunks of ice is about four metres across. And yet the curlews were on the beach trying to make a living. Four years ago now. I occasionally remember aspects of this trip as if I were still there. How I wish I could go again. It felt like part of my home on earth. But as mentioned I’m never getting on a jet again.

Maybe I should leave the house today

I just can’t be arsed. It’s horrible out there, and so nice in here, although I probably need to do a schlep.

Ran the dishes; it was mostly pans that had been sitting around waiting to be fitted in. Once they were all in… dishwasher was full.

Peanuts are all gone, the crows will yell at me. They got the last of the moldy cheddar yesterday MAN DO THEY LOVE CHEESE. Haven’t seen Curvebeak. I am starting to recognize one of the bold ones; I think I’ll call them Fluster.

I need to get some bloodwork done and I don’t want to do that either, although I don’t mind blood draws.

Apart from feeling a little less alert than usual the change up in the medication doesn’t seem to have done anything. A benefit is that I’m taking meds twice a day now, not three times.

Where I sit most of the time I can see the photo cousin Alex took and had matted and framed for me; a yellow tulip standing out against a mass of purple tulips. I can also see a piece of map/squid art Mike gave me, a piece of quilting my mOm made, and roses cross stitched my pOp’s mOm.

Sheets and the bolster need a wash…I hate changing my bed so much because it’s very hard work and it reminds me how weak my hands are and how hard my knees yell even if I kneel on a soft surface.

I wrote to the jury duty people on line and told them exactly why I can’t serve. No dramatics (like I threatened, because I’m dramatic) just … I can’t and here’s why. Within half an hour I was excused duty. What a freaking relief. It just makes me sad to admit that I’m too disabled to work and too disabled to serve as a juror. I feel weak and old and useless and my fOlks will read this later today and go WHAT THE FFFF GIRL ADD TWO DECADES ONTO THAT FEELING !! Yes, I know. But this is all relatively new.

No kudos, word count stuck.

unequivocal

I want my support for Ukraine’s people to be unequivocal.

There comes word that Russian forces have used chemical weapons in Mariupol. If governments can decide to kill people with chemical weapons in the Soviet era (as Lenin did in 1921) they can do it a century later. The chemical weapons appear to have been phosphorus bombs.

All of these weapons could be turned against me. What happened to the Kurds could happen to me.

sleep is plentiful

slept literally 7.5 hours last night; I should feel like I can lick my weight in wild bunnies or something. As it is, I have risen, made tea, made coffee, skritched Buster and fetched him some treats, and now I contemplate the morning.

Three incredibly loud bangs of thunder in the late afternoon yesterday.

Two different people read the chicken story last night; I have to wonder if one of them messaged the other and said YOU HAVE TO READ THIS, IT’S ABOUT DEAN, AND CHICKENS or whether it was just one of those magical coincidences. So, two kudos last night and 9375 words so far.

Watched a bit more of Story of Yinxi Palace (our heroine has now met the Empress, who is amused and impressed by her rhetoric and smarts.)

Took Jeff out for breakfast yesterday and now I’m eating my leftovers and drinking coffee. Jeff got sammies from Big Star for supper; half of mine is still in the fridge downstairs. They are very good! Very highly recommended.

Paul tried to coax me out of the house for a walk but I just jellied. As in, turned into a jellyfish incapable of outside perambulation.

Okay, time to get up, prep a week of drugs for the pill holder, (I’m changing what time of day I take a BP med and reducing the dose so this should be innarestin’) and maybe write a few words on some subject or other. The shootyness I was referring to will happen off the page – but it will impact Our Heroes (and Heroine), and lead to further action later because right now? if I get rid of the bad guys then story tension has to come from somewhere else. Maybe some snarky dialogue lol.

another day sleeping

After a beautiful night of sleep – I slept the whole day away. Woke up at 4 pm, made a couple of phone calls (finally called Keith when we were both awake and not working, he’s fine, and it was lovely to hear him plan a visit to the grandparents), watched TV with Jeff until 9ish, slept again, awake at 2 am.

I sure would like a regular sleep schedule.

2 kudos, 9060 words. Things are about to get shooty.

overslept – late post

It was a lovely day to do laundry yesterday so I put the kitchen mats back down and did three loads, and got them back upstairs, yay. Got up this morning and Jeff had filled the dishwasher again, which was a great feeling. I’m slowly eating the leftovers from yesterday’s breakfast at the Fraser Foreshore. I think I will see if there’s any coffee left.

8953 words, two kudos overnight, Wordle in three, and did I mention I had A GREAT NIGHT OF SLEEP!?

Dave D. has finished editing the poetry mag he was asked to guest edit and apparently the poem I wrote for the occasion has been neatly fitted into all the others. I will have a contributor copy eventually, mOm so you’ll get to see it.

Brekky from Foreshore this morning

We haven’t gone to get it yet, but we will. They open early, so anytime after Jeff gets up we can go.

Got Wordle in 4 tries (it’s been brutal lately); 1 kudo overnight, currently standing at 8823 words. mOm has been enjoying what I send her.

Suzanne was here yesterday and took care of the Buster fur, and I did three loads of laundry, starting with the rugs in the kitchen, so the kitchen floor is lovely and clean. The rest of the kitchen looks like a bomb went off in it, sadly, but I’ll get to it eventually.

One of the things I found out while at the parental units’ was that peyote plants are no longer illegal in Canada. Mescaline still is, but not peyote. That means that I can talk about peyote, so I will. Just not right now, I have to organize my thoughts about it first.

I found a free legal busking place one bus ride from the house!!! so pleased. That’s Bully’s.

another lovely day

Briefly:

a shopping expotition; the longest walk Paul and I have done in months; a lovely meal at Phó Edmonds.

Re: the shopping expotition DO NOT LIKE SHOPPING WITH NO MASKS but at least it’s an environment in which one does not experience harassment for wearing one, so that’s a plus. Also, we go first thing in the morning and we don’t both go in. It’s annoying that we can’t get the Ritter Sport MINT chockie square any more but they support the Russian invasion, so NOPE.

Jeff made sliced roast beef sliders for a snack in the evening, they were so good.

Midmorning Paul called and wanted to go for a walk, and it was an exquisite day, so Paul said he wanted a change of scene and to go back to Deer Lake Park. I wanted to go in case the snakes were out. It took quite a while to remember where the hell we’d seen them before but after scrambling up the bank I remembered… and then in my triumph I stomped too close to where the little beggars were and three of them all raced off back into their den. Biggest was maybe 16 inches, the rest smaller, all garter snakes.

The brilliant yellow of the skunk cabbage was everywhere in the low lying parts, and the birds were making a wonderful racket. Too early for frogs, no interesting mammals.

After, I had the number 32 at the Phó Edmonds (it was absolutely succulent, and the egg was perfect – and I don’t know how they make the vinaigrette for the carrots but damn that was good too) and Paul had a wrap and an order of their really nice spring rolls. We tried to go to Mezze, the relatively new Uyghur restaurant first, but they don’t open until 4 (and stay open until 8 – I have to assume that they do a roaring catering trade!)

The rest of the day I was quite lazy because hey I walked 2.5 km (we rested plenty)

No kudos, word count now 8131 so yes, I also wrote yesterday.

I spoke to Katie and she approved the pics, so….

Yes, that is the debris from a Mickey D’s brekky that Katie had delivered so my mother got exposed to her first egg mcfuffin and apple pie and hash browns and my father got a mocha and an apple pie for breakfast. For reasons best known to themselves they sent an additional pancake breakfast and that got et, too. I have to say that McDonald’s coffee has achieved an unlikely inversion of glory. From having the worst coffee of any chain, it’s now damned close to being the best and it’s definitely on a par or even better than Timmy Ho’s. I wouldn’t have thought it possible, but there you go.

I have to respond to the jury duty summons that appeared in the mail on Tuesday. GRRR GRRR. I’ve been joking about appearing at the summons half naked (I’ll get arrested even if it’s legal) or declaring that it’s MST land! and the justice apparatus has no legitimacy here! but I think I’ll just get a note from my doctor saying that I have holes caused by strokes in my cerebellum and I’m not fit for service.

Jiggety jig

Excellent night of sleep. Ryker’s teething but didn’t hear a peep out of him all night so that was good. My auntie Mary arrived by cab with a book of Scythian grave goods and I hadn’t seen half the illustrations and photos so that was amazing. She also gave me a copy of all the newspaper clippings from when I was seen by the Queen of England at Pionera in Saskatoon in 1959 and the biography of an archaeologist.

We went after that to the Country Bee, and then after that mOm and pOp peeled off to go home after a simply exhaustingly wonderful visit; we went on to the Butterfly house, and then I’ll just drop a hanky over what happens when three people with ADD get trapped in a car. Once again I didn’t acquit myself well but Alex and Katie are still speaking to me so …. yeah. Gentle parenting is very very hard to do. I applaud Katie for her efforts and her success.

Came home, ate cheesies and drank beer and watched Foyle’s War.

I have pictures; after consideration I decided not to post them.

Everybody have a peaceful and productive day! I am back to the salt mines of writing today, and if that doesn’t work out for me, I can always go for a walk, clean things, write letters, and sleep.