Month: May 2022

Good morning, morning, blues how do you do

not all pigs are beautiful (sus barbatus)

15010 words Brad is such a weirdo I love him.

It’s another beautiful day in Vancouver.

Yesterday the winds in Toronto were turning trucks over on the highway; I was talking to Dave and he reported nothing like that in his end of Toronto. As he pointed out it’s a large city.

However parts of Toronto are without power for 24 hours and the sound of chainsaws in some neighbourhoods is pretty much continuous.

Liz from London says they experienced darkness at noon and the wind blew something terrific.

I will get Alex next weekend for an overnight, hoping the crick don’t rise.

it was so good

Suzanne in the morning, washed most of the upstairs throw rugs to put on nice clean floors. Dejunking for next time

Buster is healing well.

I made and kept an appointment to donate blood yesterday. It was a temporary clinic at Bob Copeland rec centre. I took a cab both ways because I didn’t want to take the bus there and was figuring on being too bagged to get home on the bus afterward and it was all fine. It was a good stick, no bruising, and I dropped a bag no problem.

I am not completely useless yet, somebody out there is going to stay alive because of me.

Then I asked what Jeff might like for dinner and suggested burritos; and I’m getting two meals out of that Chronic Tacos burrito! I got the Al Pastor AND OMG IT IS SO GOOD. Jeff got the chicken burrito and ate every scrap. On a whim I ordered churros; UNBELIEVABLY sugary and greasy, therefore as one can imagine AMAZING. I love eating burritos because your body tells you you’re getting something wonderful, all those beans and flavours of lime and cilantro and onion and HEAT.

14719 (I removed as well as added.)

I miss Ryker so much I feel weird. Alex hugs are missing as well.

Finnish Nato Beer.

 

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Continuing to make slow and steady progress on “totally boned”. I believe Suzanne is coming today, and I am going to talk to her about some more severe dejunking. Marinated tofu salad for supper last night. I crashed really early and woke up really early and now I want to do absolutely nothing all day…. Which is not on the plan sigh.

Dishes have been washed, rugs are downstairs being washed. Waiting for Suzanne.

SPENT HALF THE FUCKING MORNING BOOKING THE VAMPIRES. The Canadian Blood services site is a ghastly ordeal; took almost an hour to book a pint and change my password. GHASTLY I TELL YOU.

fried eggs on sauteed veggies

That was lunch yesterday and candidly it was quite tasty. It was leftover veg from the camping trip, hooray for it not melting into compost in the fridge.

Mammogram was fine, and swift; when complete I caught the 119 at the building where the clinic is and then walked home from Highgate, after taking a cab to get there. I seem to be having more trouble than usual walking, but some kind soul put a park bench exactly halfway home (Kingsway and Stride or thereabouts) and since I’d been thinking I’d end up sitting on the wet grass just to give my legs a rest it was most welcome! That’s 1.2 km on concrete. I was quite out of puff when I got home since I was trying to walk, not amble.

Wonderful phone call with mOm; I love offering her advice on family history projects because it continually forces me to think about what family history is FOR. It’s for us, so we don’t lose our memories; it’s for our ancestors so we honour them, (even the jerks) and it’s for our kids so that they know where they are from.

 

 

glamping

So the Delica was wonderful to sleep in, thanks, after Mike sorted out the storage issues. He packed tent pegs, he swears he did, but he didn’t find them so the SUV tent extension never got put up. That hiccup aside, I got to camp:

In a new place (Sxótsaqel, Chilliwack Lake PP)

RIGHT ACROSS from the pit toilets, which were clean and unsmelly

Drank not a single whisper of anything alcoholic

Found out about recent generation camping equipment that’s most useful

with a cat and two dogs (Ninja, Zaya and Jasper)

with a raven flying through the woods

listened to the other people at the campsite play Mölkky which is a deranged Finnish version of skittles invented late last century

and three little chipmunks so we kept yelling for Alvin

with new people and old (Stephanie, the long term girlfriend of Erik (all camping trips should have a meltingly beautiful young couple to admire, she’s one of those women who without being too much into herself can put her hair into a messy bun in 1.5 seconds and then look gorgeous) and her beau Erik who instead of being Jarmo’s child at Baumfest, conspiring with Ville to lock me in an outhouse LOL LOL is in fourth year med school prepping to be a radiologist and who probably saw Tom on rounds when he was dying at RCH, and Päivi, whom I hadn’t seen in easily 15 years; and Samppa her oldest whom I hadn’t previously met and Matthias who turns out to be ANOTHER Finnish extraction med student. We got into the prolapses folks, it was intense, also hilarious)

Not having to prepare a single meal, cup of coffee, pack except for myself or do any driving. I wiped some stuff up, cleaned the small trash off the campsite, got the chairs out of the rain, that kind of thing; told stories and sang songs

—very nice gig frankly

With a view so intense that if you want to see the mountaintops through the trees you have to tip your head back

and a beautiful beach

and it’s only two hours from here, less if you maniac it down highway 1.

I have more notes and more details later, but I’m home, and happy and I can hardly wait to tell Katie about it but I bet she already knows about this campground. Maybe pics later if I can liberate them from Mike.

All hugs and kisses to Mike for underwriting basically everything

the atomization of english

I was laughing very circumspectly this morning (I went to bed at supper time and woke up at one, having missed my evening meds AGAIN) when someone on reddit autocorrected ‘arrangement’ into ‘arraignment’ and you have to admit that depending on the context that could be a typo for the ages.

Elon Musk (whom I refer to on twitter as zibethicus the dishfaced) is reconsidering buying twitter. That’s a nice way of saying that twitter shareholders, the regulators, and the banks holding Musk’s IOU are all getting itchy, plus he’s finding out that 5% the site is fucking bot accounts.

I am currently the proud recipient of 50x the average number of karma points on reddit. This is PROOF POSITIVE of a misspent decade trying to give advice and comfort to other women. Up until recently I bought karma points to give to other people but I quit doing that as being a ludicrous expense.

Fucking Israeli police were beating the shit out of mourners at Shireen’s funeral. THEY MADE THE PEOPLE CARRYING HER COFFIN DROP IT.  May they receive the recompense they are owed for their crimes.

HEY MAMA YOU TELL YOUR SIS THE FUCKING RUSSIANS STOLE ALL THE SCYTHIAN GOLD FROM THE MELITOPOL MUSEUM, YES, THE SCYTHIAN GOLD THAT SHE SAW IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM IN THE 80S I am so fucking mad right now I could blow up a tank with my mind

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Laundry and walk

I did laundry! I went for a walk in Fraser Foreshore! 14389.

The woods were full of leedle yellow birds. I am convinced that I saw a Wilson’s Warbler almost the instant we got to the park (it was flitting about in the shrubs below the stand of cottonwoods at the western end of the western parking lot) and the two of us were stunned by the joy of all the leedle birdies’ mingled songs; it was amazing. No eagles or herons; but ducklings and small birds. And someone left a hawk feather on the path…

It was a SUPER pleasant day in the park. Paul was in fine form. After we got back we all watched a Burn Notice and then when I stood up I put my back into a spasm and the pain was so bad I mistook it for a heart attack. I staggered out to the car and as soon as I sat down the spasm cleared and I realized it was referred pain. Total elapsed time less than 5 minutes.

I apologized most sincerely to Paul and Jeff (I won’t lie, the pain terrified me and I didn’t want to go to a hospital in the middle of the plague anyway). Now I feel fine. We’re going to do a shop this morning after Jeff does the trash.

I am so lucky I have people to look after me when I’m feeling crappy.  I really feel cared for and not everybody, not even close to everybody, gets that in this modern variable hellscape.

 

Hope to keep writing and doing laundry today

Also hoping to get out for a walk.

My new fan left five kudos overnight, sweet lady.

14187 on ‘Totally Boned’

I have lots of opinions on many subjects this morning but the major things on my mind are:

from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free

and no, it doesn’t rhyme in Arabic.

I mourn the death of Shireen Abu Akleh, murdered by IDF. State armies murdering journalists is so 21st century…

the 170K people in Mariupol who can’t get food in and can’t get people out

the way Russia keeps trying to arm up Snake Island and keeps getting punched in the nose

the way China continues to build up its military forces in a pretty obvious push to remove Taiwan from the list of democracies, plus how it’s arresting people in HK

Tony Hawk doing skateboard stuff in 1/6 G (in the vomit comet)

The fact that you’re expected as a disabled person in BC to get by – rent food etc on 1400 bucks a month. I COULDN’T DO IT. It terrifies me.

Doug Ford acting like he didn’t prepare for the debate yesterday. Autistic child waitlist for care and assessment has doubled on his watch. a thousand seniors died in care and his friends are still allowed to build care homes FUCK DOUG FORD thank you

Gove (who has previously admitted to cocaine use) appearing on UK breakfast television higher than Fearless Freep on cocaine in the same week that cocaine addicts complain about how the new five pound note will scratch your nose when you’re doing a bump and yet somehow Boris Johnson appears in public with a scratch on his nose and everybody in the UK from pundits to punters is going MMMMHHHMMMM could it be that the terrible performance of virtually every Tory minister??? …. naw, couldn’t be.

being sad about not seeing my grandkids for a while since people keep insisting on catching COVID

wondering if mOm and pOp still have the 1963 vinyl album “My Fellow Canadians”

a comment on a story

This was very sweet. ??

The story was ‘The Accidental Mr. Right’ which is one of my personal faves, so that’s delightful.

 

THEN from the same person, later, for a different story…

Cas deserved to hear ‘I love you’ more than any character ever created, I truly believe this. Thank you for this one.

Oh, she must be reading them in rapid succession now LOLOLOL, ‘CAUSE HERE COMES ANOTHER ONE

Have to say this one surprised me, lol Both dreams were…perfect.

 

and I wrote 837 words today on “Totally Boned”

THEREFORE: I am doing fine thank you as of this minute.

INTERIOR, DAY

ALLEGRA sashays downstairs to wait for the Indian food she ordered. SHE IS HUMMING

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Paul must be in the States again, I haven’t heard from him in a week. LATER – PAUL CALLED THIS AM, HE’S BACK.

There are two Disneys: a monster and a storyteller. There’s a monster of megatons of plastic garbage, not paying writers, harassing employees, gleeful racism, social control. The storyteller is a thieving panderer with catchy tunes. We forget the former to smile at the latter.

(the foregoing is my response to a tweet about ‘disney adults’.)

Breakfast was egg salad over regular salad with lashings of tea.

It’s raining AGAIN AGAIN AGAIN. All the dogwood flowers are turning brown so the beautiful shining elven tree now looks like dogs been crapping on it.

My mood is…. not great. But I’m writing and I’m safe and comfy at home, so I will do my absolute best not to make my mood someone else’s problem.

Buster trained hard this morning; I think I’m teaching him to give kisses but we’ll see. Maybe I’m just teaching him to transfer zoonotic illnesses.

 

gorgeous day

I suppose what I should have been doing was mowing the lawn, but if it’s not raining today that’s what I’ll do. Maybe I’ll put my two loads of laundry away LOL PROBS NO.

Tested negative for COVID again.

Putin didn’t mention victory in his victory speech. Nor did he mention nukes. Soft good traitor tyrant.

12623, I think the writing drain is unclogged and I should be able to go. It’s hard to match the 4000 word day I had earlier on this story, sigh, but at least I have all the protagonists herded into one place psychologically for their life changing phone call.

Katie called first thing yesterday and PULLED ME OUT OF THE BATHROOM and then we howled laughing, thinking ‘MY TODDLER NEVER LETS ME POO IN PEACE’ and how that just never changes because THEN WE PHONED OUR MoM and got her away from her exercises so she’s PUFF PUFF PUFF it’s so PUFF PUFF PUFF lovely to hear your – PUFF PUFF oh that’s better – voices.  Katie and I also breathed sad and mad at each other about RvW because what the fuck can you do.

I didn’t hear from Keith but I heard he was playing with Ryker when I Katie called and that was good enough for me. Later in the day, Tammy, bless her, called, and we had a good long chinwag. Trying to time the market is a hard and always potentially expensive game. Paul and I got lucky, is all. Toronto is not a good market right now.

I got amazing feedback about my ‘activism’ from back when I actually was an activist and not just a keyboard warrior yesterday and it was lovely. I’m not going to repost it but to remind myself in future, 1100 reddit karma points for my welcoming congregation post was COMPLETELY UNEXPECTED and I cried at some of the comments. REPRESENTATION IS IMPORTANT and in this case it was an asexual saying ‘thanks for making me feel seen’ and that was a moment that made me feel THIS IS WHAT I WANT FROM LIFE.

So now I suppose I need to be more of an activist. I’m doing what I can given that I never leave my rental. LOL.

I miss my filking buddies. This is the ‘other’ Jeffrey in my life, lol, and what a lovely man he is, married to an even lovelier person, Jeri Lynn (well she makes homemade raspberry soft candies that taste like a trip to the Hesperides so of course I like her better.) Jeffrey gave me his dulcimer capo, can you believe it? what a guy.