Month: September 2022

coffee and toast

The day has commenced. My cognitive capacity has crashed. Doing my brain exercises the last two days has been horrifying – it’s like there’s a hole where my brain used to be.

Suzanne’s coming today.

I get my next booster shot for COVID this afternoon.

I did manage to wash and dry the towels, run a load of dishes, make tuna salad, work a tiny bit on Totally Boned, and watch some feetsball with Jeff. Had a sudden urge to call Katie just to hear her voice; she reported that Paul has safely returned and that things are well at her place (still no sign of a fridge with a functioning freezer though.)

Kim the landlady has been around a lot. She’s convinced that water damage is what is making the retaining wall next door sag. I don’t know…. Jeff says she wants us to talk to the the next door neighbour’s landlord and we are very leery of that. She dug out a lot of weeds from the dirt expanse known as the front lawn.

brain fog

The brain fog and easy irritability are really bad today so I think I’ll just quietly try to not worry about anything and find something entertaining to watch. It really doesn’t help when the first thing I clap eyes on in the am is Putin nuclear bomb rattling and declaiming the need for a mobilization. Apparently the most common search in Russia right now is ‘HOW DO I LEAVE’.

Forgot to get probiotics when I went shopping yesterday. I may commit more shopping today. Still no sign of the kids turning up for their frozen goods. They are still waiting for a new cat to deal with proliferating mice.

The pizza place turned out to be as good as advertised. It’s a bit farther away than most but the wings were fantastic – much better than the chain brands of pizza – and the pies had delicious crusts, not overcooked, and plenty of cheese and veggies. For Jeff’s gut health we won’t be ordering more than once every six to eight weeks but at least pizza’s back on the menu. We also bought soy cheese yesterday and when the temps drop a bit more I’ll make some soy cheese pizza.

Two cups of coffee did not help. I don’t feel physically bad, just slow. Time for time.

ticking boxes

Got my hairs cut this morning. Love Kimiko at B-Bombshell. Taxied down, transited back. Definitely got my steps in, got there early and there was no place to sit down unless I wanted to spend money, eyeroll.

Shop went reasonably well. The bathroom code for the save-on is 1141# if anyone cares.

My 4th vaccination is booked for Thursday this week. It will be my first mRNA shot.

Just ordered pizza from a new place. We still don’t have a regular decent pizza place since Roundhouse (of sad and blessèd memory) so we’re trying again. They are highly rated, but if they’re short staffed all bets are off.

One load of laundry washed and dried.

some accomplishments

Alex got picked up around noon; Katie drove me to the eye place and I picked up my new/old glasses (old Vogue frames, new lenses); walked home after picking up four veggie samosas at Baba Sweets; I fixed the broken glasses with Sugru. So I did get a fair amount of walking in yesterday and my ankles are telling me all about it this morning.

No comments on the new story on AO3 but 135 hits since I posted it yesterday, and it seems to have spawned interest in the other stories.

Started watching Gentleman Jack. Anne Lister was a piece of work.

Today: we shop at seven and I get a haircut at nine am. SO MUCH INTERACTION I’ll prob’ly come home and collapse, har har.

update

14522 final count on Landslide; I just posted it to AO3.

pOp fell and doesn’t want to go to hospital and I don’t blame him. Getting old sucks but he’s not alone in feeling that way. mOm’s going to try to take his bp with the new machine.

Mike’s been having a terrible terrible time with insomnia. He went on an apartment cleaning spree to try to feel a bit better in hopes he can sleep.

Sunday roundup

  • Paul’s in Seattle. He drove himself. There will be a family council (we hope) when he returns.
  • Typhoon Merbok is screwing up coastal Alaska
  • The gyrations involved in getting Trump squared up for his ‘day in court’ continue. His most recent legal beagle asked for three million dollars cash up front and as I said on Twitter, the lawyer is still going to get his ass cheated off his body.
  • Mass graves continue to be discovered in Eastern Ukraine. Putin and his wolf pack have a lot to answer for. India and China are pulling away from him, except insofar as whatever they can pick off what’s looking like a particularly unappetizing piece of global carrion.
  • 13368 words on Landslide, 4197 on Totally Boned
  • I’m incubating a couple of poems, more when I actually figure out why I want to use heavily charged and coded words and even more when I write them. I think one of them wants to be a very dry list of my mental health symptoms
  • Almost 600 Americans are still dying every day from COVID. It’s the second highest reported cause of death in the US this week. BC reported infections and rate of infections are currently dropping, and about 200 people a week are catching it, with a very low death rate. Whether we’ll ever get anything but nonsense and bluster out of BC for the mass disabling event that is COVID is an open question; Keith thinks it’s a possibility and as a family we’re thinking of all getting tested.
  • Alex comes today, still don’t know exactly when.
  • There is a memorial for Queen Elizabeth in Queen’s Park in New Westminster at 1 pm today. I will not be there, I merely note its existence
  • Twitter is full of Brits queuing to file past the Queen. Out of towners who don’t give a shit about the monarchy are also complaining about getting stuck in traffic and the idea of voluntarily driving around London the weekend before they plant the HRH is ludicrous to me.
  • Hungary’s getting subsidy money from the EU cut because they’re a bunch of anti abortion, anti gay, corrupt fuckwits. We’re talking billions of Euros. The poor of Hungary will hurt the most, as always.
  • QUIT FEEDING THE GODDAMNED BEARS North Vancouver I am looking at you; do you suppose the conservation officers ENJOY SHOOTING BEARS I can tell you to your face they don’t, ya collection of buhs.
  • To recap: Buh is the bih-bah word that substitutes for crazy. Crazy isn’t acceptable. Buh covers: disgusting (stop being a goddamned sex pest, I don’t want to see your penis or your ass, or hear about what you want to do to me while you drive by in your best friend’s car), dirty (please maintain basic hygiene), dangerous (please do not jump onto moving cars, please do not drive cars impaired, please do not aim your car at protesters or tourists), bothersome (please leash/muzzle your pet and don’t run air tools at 3 am, please do not pull the panic stop on Skytrain for no reason, please drink/toke/inject responsibly, please wear a mask), noisy (keep it under 65 dB f’Chrissakes), wilfully destructive (seems obvious) and violent (why are you knifing me).
  • ‘Confess Fletch’ with Jon Hamm is entertaining as hell, great script, laughed my ass off. Also sticks the landing in 90 – all action movies and comedies should try to get in at 90. I’ll give superhero movies an extra half for all the eyecandy bloody CGI

the little things

Yesterday morning quite early I got a call from Katie asking me if I had cleaned the counters at her place after Paul’s meal. I laughed and said no, but that I had told Keith *how much I appreciated* him being supportive of his sister and suggested that he’d been energized by this. She went ‘ah’ and that was a good feeling. Then I cleaned my own damn counters.

It’s too early to be thinking about breakfast and besides, we have no eggs for french toast. Maybe if Jeff wants some breakfast this morning we can go to Foreshore.

Can’t work on Totally Boned, don’t know why, worked on Landslide instead. 12987 words total on that so far. I finally came up with an ending. Since the threat is over some other threat must arise and be dealt with and then, SMOOCHES. Life is simple when you’re a romance writer.

I love my family. We are by no means the best people on earth but you’re all my people. Special shout out this morning to Unca Dave, who’s passed but whose bathroom installation LIVETH ON, Onty Mary for general stubbornness/agility of mind, Ryker for his goofulous smiles and SIL Lois for general awesomeness.

Reasonably active day

I got through a mountain of laundry, including not forgetting to put the last load to dry; ran errands to the library and the weed store (for edibles, trying to cut smoke for my health), and went with Paul to fetch beer from the Independent Alcohol Supplier and schnitzel from Balkan House for supper. Why? because it was his seventy-third birthday yesterday AND AS A SPESH BONUS I got to speak to Ruth, his sister, as she called to wish him a happy happy. LOVELY. She got my facebook coordinates and promised photos of her trip (she was calling from Northern Newfoundland!!)

Katie went off to the coparent’s for the purpose of stuffing supper into Alex. Why? Because the two of them realized that Alex was running both ends against the middle in terms of his food foibles, so they’re introducing new food and working on his texture issues with family meals. (isn’t it interesting that Katie double booked herself for the evening – I do the same thing so often, thank you ADD.) As long as the coparent is being civil Katie just rolls her eyes. Also saw Mike Rykerdad and greeted him, and I don’t know where I got the idear that his mum’s name is Isabel, it’s Christine. Ryker pretty obviously likes his dad just fine. I did get to dandle and play with Ryker, who was in splendid form, and interacted with civility with Alex about Plants vs Zombies and other subjects, including school. Alex is trying is mother’s patience quite a bit these days, but his haircut is awesome.

The fucking landlord over there STILL HAS NOT PROVIDED A FUNCTIONING FRIDGE. The freezer doesn’t come to temp. Knowing that is enraging, we’re going for two weeks now of this bullshit.

Anyway, sorry for that ill-tempered outburst. So it was just me Paul and Keith for dinner over at their place (I made a plate for Jeff from my leftovers and gave him the fresh bread when I got home) and watched an episode of Sean Bean in Sharpe. Then Keith drove me home since Paul doesn’t drive at night these many long years. Keith and I talked about the diagnosis, but no conclusions or action plans resulted.

Jeff and I were still awake so we watched tv for another hour or so and crashed.

heart rate accelerator

Ran my current fave pair of earrings – 75 dollar Lioness Elise gems with Swarovsky crystals and cultured pearls – through the laundry. One embedded itself in a hole in the drum – that took some doing getting it out and kneeling on a concrete floor, calice tabernak – and the other sent itself to the lint trap. Both survived unharmed as far as I can tell…. they’re clean now, I should probably wear them.

A much better day

Keith told me that he went shopping on foot with his nephew Ryker in the chest carrier and he most obligingly slept through it. I wish I had a picture but >snap< you’re just going to have to imagine it. Ryker is enormous for a 10 month old; his daddy’s over 6’4”.

I spoke to my mother on the phone TWICET and also to Tammy, Dave and Paul. I arranged to get Alex for Sunday/Monday. I got a load of laundry (the towels) washed dried and put away. I put down the other clean rug in the kitchen. I transferred handsoap out of the new container into the old one so Jeff has handsoap in the downstairs biffy. I bathed and washed my hair. I walked 1.5 km to the eyecare place, where I learned that Keith is still very fondly remembered by his coworkers. I learned that my eyes show no signs of disturbance from cholesterol, diabetes or high blood pressure; I was enjoined to keep my AIC under 7 and told to come back every year now. I brought a pair of glasses out of prescription and asked them to cut me new lenses and they gave me such a deal you have no idea. I was so happy at the end of the day I ordered steak and lobster again. I want to you to know mOm that I was thinking of you and our last conversation with every bite.

I send a very gentle hug and a wish for the best painkillers that money can buy for dear pOp who had much pain occasioned by the dentist yesterday. I send a very gentle and equally virtual hug to Peggy, who has COVID again and thus we will have no housefilk on Saturday alas.

I send a hug to Dave through all his ‘birthing a book’ efforts. I send a hug to Tammy and she knows why.

For the rest of my dear readers I extend my warm and compassionate wishes for the best day possible and to keep your chin up if you can. Maybe we won’t get better days in plural, but once in a while we’ll have a good day, like Ivan Denisovich.

 

Much better today

AQI is good but may tank later today. My mood is much improved – I went to bed early and it was a GOOD plan.

I have learned that Tammy is coming to Vancouver for Christmas. yay!

The death of queen Elizabeth is forcing the closure of schools and Crown Corporations in BC. Everything else is to remain open. I think I will ask Katie if I can have Alex overnight on Sunday. (I sent the email already.)

Charles III already looks like a clumsy old fool and nothing that has happened since his accession changes anything. Tying the fortunes of his house with a tour of the UK with Liz Truss is ludicrous, he’ll pay for that in popularity.

Jeff has been overheard to wonder exactly how much changing everything affected is going to cost Canadians.

Buster came in screaming (okay, crying repeatedly, noisy for *him*) (I guess the cat door was open last night) and he was COVERED in ants. I picked half a dozen ants off him as he ‘insisted’ on being brushed. (He goes to the place where the activity occurs and cues me.) They don’t seem to be the biting kind but I guess he lay down on some ants. I also learned that he completely consumed the butter I left in a dish on the counter. Jeff, reading this, is rolling his eyes.

Three Thousand Years of Longing, the new George Miller film, is a lovely fantasy drama and I highly recommend it.

Normative af – New poem

Smart enough to be scared
But not of the right things
That is the choke point on
My sensorium
so everything‘s on blast
Until something in par
……………………………………..Ti
…………………………………………Cu lar
Wrenches my attention from
Its customary perch

Chasms got causes
Causes got chasms
Chisel at the word in your brain
…………………………………………………….Fling yourself
At that perfect marble word
And create some content god damn you
Bitter git on it

On this hand I have love, love, love, but not the love of romance, the bordering-on-unpleasant revelation that love with lies isn’t love, it’s just a convenient set of tropes that allows you to behave one way and profit from it whether or not you believe. It’s like religion but you don’t get sucked up to heaven or spat out into a new instantiation, stuck with having to learn and suffer and die again again
Again
Nope, you just hoe this row, this row. Normative as fuck, don’t look at the undersides of things.
Mock the people who know better because their teeth are crooked and their English is no good.
I can’t go back and re-hear those things, the things I heard with my racist ears. I didn’t know I was a replicator of death machines; born to give birth to workers and soldiers, and another breeding body. I didn’t know. I still don’t know.
The language I abhor grips me and dashes me at the world until the inside of my head is bleeding, although it’s probably the grease in my blood that makes it so.

The fridge has arrived

Sent the first half of Chapter 8 off to mOm.

Caspell Junction has a functioning fridge again, they’ll come get the frozen food tomorrow when their freezer’s down at the correct temp.

I am watching the Ukrainian offensive with grim satisfaction, and the fact that there are now over 50 Russian municipal officers calling for Putin’s resignation with solidarity and not a little trepidation.