Month: May 2023

Pulse check

Spoke to Dave and Keith yesterday.

Dave’s bathroom ceiling caved in yesterday morning. It’s possible a poorly installed bidet in the upstairs apartment is the reason but let’s face it the building is not new and it could be other leaks as well. I asked him how close he came to getting killed and he said about ten minutes. A miss, as they say, is as good a mile.

Keith told me to hang in there, to keep working on not taking Paul stuff personally, to thank me for my efforts and to invite me to go look at the next care facility.

Did not dress or leave the house yesterday. Updated my care sheet to include that I’m due for a mammogram. I made flower rolls (white bread buns) and they came out just spectacular (the texture is pure pillowy softness) and I’m irritated now because I am not 100% sure exactly which recipe I followed or whether I jammed two together. ADD, ADD, polishes as it cleans, ting!

Jeff’s day has started and he is drinking tea.

Buster has hairballs and refuses to let me dose him with hairball remedy.

Other than that, it’s hot in the house and I’m going to ask Jeff to turn on the aircon.

 

errands

Accompanied Paul for a meal and errands yesterday. It was a beautiful day again and I kept my temper for most of it, but learning that he had received a new bank card and just thrown out the last one without calling the number and getting it authorized meant that we now had another errand, meaning going to the bank and stooging around for half an hour while the world’s most patient bank clerk dealt with Paul not being able to enter the same pin number twice running and not being able to remember his own home phone number that he’s had since 1996 and laughing about it. Then we learned his credit cards were buggered up too, and the clerk squared what he could away. Two children from a five child family screamed and moaned right next to us the entire time this was going on, just to give you the true, “If it’s Thursday this must be the third level of hell” feel to the occasion. Anyway, I paid for the banker boxes he bought and he paid me back at the bank.

I got him lunch at Nando’s at Market Crossing and realized that Paul is having more and more and more trouble handling food and I should have gotten him something less knife and fork to eat. The meal took almost an hour and he had a beer too. I was shrugging it off so I asked him to sit in the car while I got more babby plant pots and some embroidery hoops while I poked my head into Michaels.

While we were picking up banker boxes, something funny happened. We miss Jim, of course we do, and in Paul’s case the missing him comes out in song; it was Jim who told us about Buddy Wasisname and the Other Fellers and gave us our first few cassette tapes, which we listened to constantly. One of them, a traditional song, is called Sarah, and has the following chorus:

Sarah, Sarah won’t you come out tonight,
Sarah, Sarah the moon is shining bright,
Put your hat and jacket on, tell your mother you won’t be long,
And I’ll be waiting for you round the corner

Except that when Paul sang it, it came out, “The moon is brining shite,” at which point I laughed helplessly for about a minute.

BRAINz working okay today, tiny amount of writing, but the real big cognitive news is that I got eight hours of sleep.

Some positive movement

Absolutely gorgeous day. Stunning. And we’re going to have a mini heat dome for Mother’s Day, la la la!! Emailed the kids and said I want nothing but a phone call for Mother’s Day.

Paul, Keith and I went to a local (walking distance…) independent living manor and it had many, many amenities and conveniences to recommend it. It’s a swingeing amount of money per month but all the food, internet, cable and cleaning is included so it’s actually a pretty good deal, and there are tons of activities and many different rooms to do things in. The org that runs it is a non-profit and the building itself is almost brand new (our family watched it being built.) We will be visiting other places this month as well, or at least the menfOlks will.

Paul was engaged, communicative, task-oriented and equable throughout the visit and continued to contribute to the conversation for about half an hour after the tour was over (they let us sit in an absolutely gorgeous common space to talk, and of course because the weather was perfect and there were floor to ceiling windows along the corner walls looking out into a courtyard completely surrounded by mature trees, it was a nice place to chat.) He liked the apartment (we saw the show suite and a vacant mirror image, both on the top floor and looking into cedars and fir trees) and the three enormous closets and was pleased to hear that the two malls that he is most familiar with in terms of amenities and layout are also the two malls that they bus folks to twice a week. The food looks fantastic and residents are served restaurant style with servers taking orders at the table.

Dax dropped by in the late afternoon to collect an air compressor from Paul’s Echo’s trunk. Why? Because the grandsons have deflated balls. Many, many deflated balls. All the deflated balls, apparently. There will be some vigorous kicking in their future I imagine.

Today I’m taking Paul to get boxes at the Staples down the hill and hopefully finally getting that watch fixed. I also want to pick up some more veg (I like the veg place in Market Crossing and maybe the Cobbs has reopened YUP just checked, they were renovating) and maybe a treat or two if the winds are propitious. And maybe a visit to FISH to get some halibut, always a welcome basis for a meal.

Finished the run of Endeavour. Abso loved it, it’s going in rotation, and thank you Dave SO MUCH for recommending it. Desperately seeking something of equivalent volume and quality to replace it!

129 words on the fic, brain is sort of working, towels washed and put away, one load of laundry done but sitting around downstairs.

what a day

The Moscow Victory parade had a single tank.

LOL.

George Santos has had criminal charges filed against him under seal at a federal court in the eastern district of New York.

LOL.

Trump was given a five million dollar fine for sexually abuse of E. Jean Carroll. He should have to be registered as a sex offender. He was told by the judge to keep his flipping mouth shut, but as usual he went to ‘Truth Social’ and stretched it out another yard.  He’ll probably be assessed a fine for THAT, too.

LOL.

 

lovely lunch and walk

We went to the Fraser Foreshore after going to the Crest and sending Ruth a bucket of documents from Paul for her to sort and analyze. We were supposed to go to the Fraser restaurant after for lunch but it was JAMMED I mean the entire parking lot from one end to the other was jammed and the outside tables were all jammed too. So we went to our fallback, Phó Edmonds, and had a lovely meal; then visited the bakery next door for treats for Paul and Keith (picked up flower bread for Jeff) and went back to Casa Caspell, where I googooed at both Oreo and Ryker and picked up ten bucks worth of beef stew, frozen, from Keith, which is now defrosting in the fridge.

The birds in the forest were in full spate – we saw the usual brace of songbirds and ducks and great blue herons, and walked at least 2 k, so we really made an effort after weeks of my being a lazy bum.

It’s turned out a simply lovely, warm sun/cool breeze sort of spring day full of dappled sunshine.

Tomorrow we’re doing a tour of one of the local homes for eldercare. I’ll be heading over to Paul’s for about 9:30 am and then we’ll run some errands afterward. Keith will be joining us.

Paul was quite sour when we first started walking, making many comments that nudged up against “EVERYBODY IS BLAMING ME FOR EVERYTHING” and I did my best to not take it personally until walking enough and eating put him into a better mood. He says that any time he talks to Keith, Keith ignores him, and I hate to be a contrarian, but it just ain’t so.

I promised if he went into care I’d see him Tuesdays and Thursdays and take him for walks and run errands. No weekends cause that would be for the kids and grandkids. Yes I’ve been terrible about this since the weekend of Jim’s memorial. I have not been 100%.

Just got a forward on twitter from Michael Balter about this. What a HORRIBLE TRASHFIRE ABYSS OF SUCK that woman is.

Anyway, my day is back under my control so I’m going to run a load of laundry and check my mail and I’m finally well slept enough I don’t need a nap.

apologies

This site was briefly down.

I have eaten all the shirazi salad, so I made more. I drank all the coffee, so I made more. I brought Jeff black tea this morning (I usually give him a choice of coffee, black tea or peppermint tea so that he can stay hydrated while he’s doing things like encouraging my site to come back up and beating his customers’ sites into submission).

I hope you all have a lovely day filled with hummingbirds and butterflies and clement weather. It will be seasonal and partly cloudy here today. I intend to have an entirely brainless day, since both wordle and lumosity tell me that I have no brains whatsoever this morning. So brainless I am! brainless I was when I awoke, and brainless all day I will be! I cheerfully predict it, and it’s okay. One kudo overnight, so I re-read the story thus adorned and found it a pleasant diversion. I mean, that’s what fanfic is for, right? I got in maybe two words on the new one and while I think non stop about Totally Boned I haven’t had any movement as far as pushing pixels is concerned.

Had a simply SPLENDID conversation with pOp yesterday about pOOping. (I never talk to pOp on the phone so it was a pleasant surprise.) I greeted him thusly, “Oh what a terrible thing it is that you have been forced to answer the phone. Has anything fallen off you lately?” (This in keeping with the family lore that pOp has quietly become a very well-behaved not-eating-mOm’s-brains zombie.)

I have been eating enough fibre and things are good amidships, with occasional Metformin induced explosions, but he reports much sadness with various tubes and wishes that they would behave in a more reasonable fashion. Blessings ON ALL YOUR TUBES AND WIRES pOp, I hope you can get them to do their thing without being so troublesome.

I carry no brief for John Cleese as I believe I’ve made clear in past posts, but him mocking the living shit out of Chuck & Cheesewit getting crowned was balm to my wounded soul.

 

Mike came over!

He brought us Chicken Roti and … other things. We nommed.

We watched Beavis and Butthead (a new tradition) and Bohemian Rhapsody (which I hadn’t previously seen). It was pretty impressive given that the director was fired about three weeks before production wrapped and an actor wa threatening to quit because they clashed with Singer (the original director) so much.

Coffee’s made. Time to fold laundry and think limply about running an errand or two.

I was supposed to liveblog it

LOL slept through the beginning of the Coronasplodation so I will not be doing that. Fucking Camilla in Queen Mary’s crown is making me bark and bark.

Leftover tacos and shirazi salad and lashings of coffee with cream (just this once…bought a small container) for brekky.

Keith came by yesterday for a brief lunch and a chat about his housing situation and that of his housemates. Jeff was very clear on two points (about which I agree) – that Keith could bunk with us if no other options came available, but that it would be a very tough accommodation FOR ALL OF US (mostly because these days Keith is all about the sleep hygiene (10 pm to 7 am quiet times) and Jeff and I are more or less being active between 4 am and 8 or maybe 9 pm). That said it was a good meal and a civilized discussion so all is good.

I send my love and solidarity to all the English Republicans who’ll do jail time for peacefully protesting the Media Colonization.

Glory peace and victory to Ukraine.

Fuck Putin, whose apparent response to the head of Wagner complaining about no ammo is to advise him that for the money he’s being paid he can buy it on the open market.

My brain appears to be working okay this morning. Tiny bit of writing yesterday.

Someone on nextdoor asked for where to buy a first communion dress for a little girl (the catholic supply place on Main most probably)

Time to run the dishwasher and line up my errands for the day. Peggy got her little bag of biscotti and said that it’s amazing how the flavour survives being tossed around in the back of the car for two days LOLOLOL.

full free and frank

Keith’s coming over for lunch today. I plan tacos (meat and veggie options) and shirazi salad. He offered to cook but I thought I’d do it. We’ll be talking housing plans.

Buster is wandering in and out of my room like he is hearing rats in the walls. Burnaby is having a HELLA BIG YEAR for rats, and big rats too. C’mon down coyotes.

Loooook! what someone did to the lawn in Bath. For the Coronation you know. I am planning on live-blogging King Chuckles’ Magic Grease Anointment Do. I have no idea why, probably because I didn’t get to see the most recent Coronation and because I’m hoping –– like I rarely hope for anything –– that this is the last one that ever happens. The idea that Camilla, one of the cruellest, most grasping and graceless women to ever wear a racist pin to meet her new daughter in law in, (yup, she wore a family heirloom Negrohead pin to meet Meghan, if you can credit it) will be (deep nauseated breath) ‘my queen’ is EVEN WORSE than Carolus Wrecks being (deep nauseated breath) ‘my king’.

A PENIS MOWED INTO THE LAWN AT BATH IN PREPARATION FOR THE CORONATION OF CAROLUS WRECKS THIRD OF HIS ILK SHORT AND UNCOMFY MAY HE REIGN

I wrote this for him this morning:

Famous for lying ’bout love and sex
Carolus Wrecks, Carolus Wrecks
Less famous than his gorgeous ex
Carolus Wrecks, Carolus Wrecks
They hand him his pen, they hand him his specs
Carolus Wrecks, Carolus Wrecks
The laughing stock of his ‘subjects’
Carolus Wrecks, Carolus Wrecks

it’s before 9 am

I have schlepped, gotten money for the cleaning specialist, delivered biscotti to Peggy (just emailed her to advise) and tried out my new N95 mask at the Save-On. Thanks to Jeff for moving things along so ably and dealing with my mutterings / ‘turn left right here’ as I attempted to ‘alligate’ him through the Burnaby New West borderlands.

Now I’m gonna make shirazi salad. Fuckers at Cazba restaurant at Lougheed didn’t pack the two shirazi salads I ordered – they sent the much cheaper green salads instead – and I paid for the expensive ones…. I left a very hot review on Doordash. I’ve had SUCH A CRAVING FOR SHIRAZI SALAD IT’S INSANE. I am going to make some right now cause I bought ingredaments.

I am in a good mood, moving well and faster than usual and of course it’s May the Fourth Be With You Day. And it’s sunny and warm and the world has intense amounts of suck but I am not getting sucked in. Dave called me yesterday and how good to hear his voice. My brain seems to be working well and I can still see the floor in my room. Today I have no idea what I’m going to do, though. I may just grab the Paleolithic book and sit out on the deck after whining at Jeff to set up the gazebo. LOL. Emptying the dishwasher, washing the rugs and my sheets might just be on the agenda. Back door is open and a fresh breeze is stirring in the house….

Plane crashes and setting the mixture lean

So there was a plane crash in Langley yesterday. I heard about it on the radio. Then I read on line that the airplane – a small private craft – CLIPPED A TRUCK on the highway before coming in for a crash. Ya know friends and neighbours that is most likely to mean that HE DIDN’T SET FUEL TO RICH MIXTURE so he had ZERO OOMPH when he needed it. Since this is exactly like the plane crash I was in I’m of course predicting that’s what happened. Everyone including the poor bastid in the truck got conveyed to the hospital and in true Canadian fashion, lived to complain about it all.

I picked Keith up in his own car from the Ferry Terminal at Tsawassen yesterday. It was a STINKING HOT DAY, much hotter in Burnaby than the records might indicate. I had to drive in traffic. People who drive from east Burnaby to the southern terminal know well that there are a couple of choke points. One is the bridge access southbound on 20th; queued there for 20 minutes or so, cursing most immoderately the entire fucking time. One is the ‘curve’ on highway 91A where the traffic ALWAYS slows down even though there are no on-ramps? Like- what the hell, people. There is no earthly reason for this to happen, so I unscrambled my brains and gave it some consideration and I guess it’s because trucks have to slow down because it isn’t banked properly or something and that has a standing wave effect on the rest of the traffic. And of course another is the run up to the Massey Tunnel, but that was barely a blip because they had the counterflow set in favour of the traffic direction I was on.

After all that, got there in plenty of time to greet him for the ride home, and he thank god did the rest of the driving because I was once again pretty crispy toast from driving with due care and attention in that relentless traffic and heat. I didn’t want to put the air con on because we had less than a quarter tank of gas and I wanted to make sure that I didn’t get stuck behind an accident with no gas.

All was well, Keith efficiently gave me back the stuff I’d left in his car after the trip, and discovered ANOTHER BAG OF BISCOTTI – I told you I made a lot of that – which is going over to Peggy today because she is awesome and could use a break. With coffee, and biscotti. I won’t stay, I’ll just biscotti fairy it over to her when Jeff and I go to errandry later this morning.

Right now, I must dress, brush teeth and watch Endeavour, and then we’re going out. The downstairs toilet needs a part, and I want to get the Marvin the Martian watch I got from John’s stash running again. Curiously, I found the identical watch (right down to the watchband, which is an unusual leather and colour) for sale, secondhand since it was made in 94, in Europa for 339´€ and in the US for $39, so someone’s getting hosed and it’s not me.

Embarrassing as it is to relate, it is entirely possible that I will purchase another cell phone. Spending time with a dementia sufferer and being out of touch while I’m driving him around (he often forgets his phone) has made me understand the value of access. As I was driving to the ferry I kept thinking if I’m in an accident I’ll have no way to contact Keith and it made me unduly fretful.

recovery day

So yesterday was a perfectly fine recovery day. I slept in, got my booster, came back home and we watched TV and ignored the world. I had premade lentil soup for lunch and toasted the chickie sandwich Jeff got me for supper the night before last and it was NOM, so no cooking. I still have some sweetened condensed milk so I didn’t have to do any shopping before I could enjoy coffee. Jeff has been most kind.

Today I’m going to see what I feel up to and then hopefully I can stop meeping.

Spoke with Paul on the phone yesterday. He’s back to telling me I took his drivers’ licence away. I guess I still want to run away from home some days. He said he’s not going to his volunteer job today (I offered to give him a lift.)