Month: July 2023

RIP Creede this one’s for you

It’s two in the morning, I just wrote and orchestrated an entire song in my head, and I’m crying so hard my snerking can be heard in the next county.

 

Herewith ‘The Parting Gift’ a bluegrass song for Creede Lambard

Opens with banjo and the bass sneaks in, other instruments following, everyone’s playing and singing together on ‘and now the train is boarding’ to maximize harmonies and audio density

Your voice gone from the room
Your song is a recording
Not much to lift the gloom
And now the train is boarding

bass really booms, all the other instruments wire weave; the voices on top are angry and desperate

I’m glad, I’m glad
that the batteries are dead
the times we had
always better in always better in my head

Instrumental break, starting with the bass, then to mandolin, then to octave mandolin, then to banjo, then a polyphonic explosion as they all try to outshout each other.

Much sparser accompaniment and vocal arrangement, with the voices taking turns.

I lost my final home
Soon after you had left us
And now I’m doomed to roam
With the dark songs that you gave us
Only my voice I lift
My mandolin is gone
It is your parting gift
I remember you in song

Much longer and more subdued instrumental break, everybody calming down and being sad and politely taking turns.

I’m glad, I’m glad
that the batteries are dead
the times we had
always better in always better in my head

 

 

for banjo, mandolin, octave mandolin, upright bass and at least four voices, all tenors and altos but if there’s a true ‘black hole’ bass voice I’ll allow it.

sadface

Spent the afternoon to evening at the Junction covering off childcare and hanging with the folks.  Tuned John’s old twelve string. I want that freaking guitar but someone’s going to have to mess with the action because it is ahem a manly guitar.

Katie is not having much luck finding a place but she’s working hard on it. She keeps apologizing to Alex about it and it’s breaking my heart. She won’t move in here.

Keith cooked a fantastic meal, souvlaki style chicken with the fixings.

I am trying to work on my writing projects but I can’t get settled. Errands today. Coffee God, boot me arse.

some progress

3300 words so far on TB in July. Schlep this morning.

I hope to leave the house today. I am at quite a low ebb and exhausted with worry but somehow I manage to do a few domestic things a day like run the dishwasher and make iced tea.

Another woman relative has been diagnosed with add. Yes it runs in families.

UPS Pilots are going to go out on strike with UPS drivers in the US. You wanna crash the economy, because that’s how you crash the economy.

Paul’s sleeping in his own home now

Keith and Rob are dribs and drabsing their way through the rest of his boxes, may the lord bless and keep them both.

I have an ad for a garage sale to write.

Multi-family garage sale

 

8133 15th Ave, Burnaby 

 

SATURDAY JULY 22

7 AM to 1 PM

(closest intersection 16th Ave and 2nd St – 101 bus stop steps away)

 

TOOLS

BOOKS

CLOTHES

BABY AND CHILD TOYS

MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS

CAMPING EQUIPMENT including canoes

BIKES including a folding bike with carry bag

Asteroid City

I very much enjoyed Asteroid City but not everyone will, that’s for sure. It is EXTREMELY GAY and worships intelligence and wordplay. It’s also got some stuff in it that makes so little sense but is so funny or beautiful that I think the director (Wes Anderson) stuck it in because he couldn’t leave it out, and that’s a comment too.

It’s about life, death, love, the lies our families tell us, the omissions our families make us live with, and exactly how continuously weird acting is, all set in a heat shimmered pastel palette. All the stuff about an alien is a McGuffin disconnected from the plot.

The speech the General gives is one of the funniest and most subversive things I’ve ever seen. If I ever make a goodies reel, it will be there.

I HAVE SATISFIED MY PARENTS’ INTERESTS IN ONE PHOTO

THERE ARE TENTACLES

THERE IS A USEFUL POT

Also it is in pleasing colours not outside the range of their admittedly eclectic ‘décor’.

Rose Schmits says this is ‘tentacle pot 081’. She is a ‘trans kiln witch’ according to her bio and apparently she’s on TV somewhere too (the great pottery throwdown I have learned) in her capacity as a ceramicist. She has a site under her own name where there is more.

First meal at the seniors residence with Paul

It was very pleasant. Paul learned where his mailbox is, I picked up some items for his new apartment (something to boil water in, cutlery). Saw Anne from church. She literally bolted when she saw us-  (got up from reading her newspaper and fled) – I have no idea why.

Returned him to his home and Dax and Justin were working on Dax’s car which is not drivable at the time and they needed to do a parts run. I am not getting in the middle of that, so I said Paul’s right here, ask him to borrow his car, and Dax and Paul did a parts run out to PoCo. I may need to help with that continuing repair job tomorrow so I’m holding myself in readiness to provide transpo this morning. (By staying sober, I told Paul I’d never drive high and of course I don’t drink anymore, unless you’re counting that mouthful of beer I drank yesterday just so I could remember what a Sleeman Honey Brown Ale tasted like and get a little taste flashback to when I was happy and drinking with my pals at the Golf Course.)

So I may be picking Justin up (I drove him home last night, he lives across Royal Oak from Deer Lake park the lucky young dude) this morning but he’s probably going to be able to borrow his mother’s car, and so I’m going to putter in the kitchen and do laundry and try to stop crying from writing the first part to a song.

Dementia song

I open my mouth to reply
can’t remember why
I know that the sky is blue
and then it’s grey
and then I think of you
I was talking – I remember my own voice
but it sounds different now
choked somehow
And I try to swallow and I can’t and I’m sputtering
And I try to stand but I can’t my feet are stuttering
and I freeze in place
in space
and what I’m looking at is gone
I thought that you were here and now you’re gone
and I thought I remembered your name but you’re gone
and then I remember you were mean to me that time
and I tried to get out of the car is that a crime
and I tried to get back where I was is that a crime
and I think that maybe I should nap

No bruises and only my legs are sore

The move went as smoothly as one could expect or hope. We had a slow, panicked start (Keith and I fucking near died of having our eyes pop out but Keith maintained) when we learned that the move couldn’t happen because Paul didn’t have insurance for his studio apartment and Keith had already rented the truck. Fortunately Lois and Ruth are back in the country after their amazing trip to Portugal and they GOT ON THE CASE, and all was well, and we started loading the truck pretty fast after that. Dax helped get one of the ugliest pieces into the truck (he didn’t help with loadout because he was working on his car).

Alex volunteered and rode shotgun with Uncle. He was of material assistance the whole way through. (off topic aside to mOm – Maybe Richie seems like an unrealistic character but when I have kids like Alex in my life he’s easy to imagine!) Paul bought we four lunch in the Wendy’s on 6th and I asked Alex if he’d ever been misgendered because of his hair – his brilliant hair – and he LAUGHED and said “Once, an older new kid at the school. So yeah I have been misgendered.” And continued to dip his fries in his frosty, as one does.

I told Katie that night that Alex was so helpful and hardworking it was amazingly wonderful and balm for my wounded nerves.

Anyway, the rest of the move is up to cars moving boxes and this is me being happy because he’ll be safe.

I got very hot, but I was very consistent about hydration and Keith helped me manage how many times I took the stairs. Needless to say Keith performed heroic service and I love and respect him right now more than I ever have, which was a lot.

Came home and there was Rocky Point Strawberry ice cream in the fridge. One word. Exquisite.

Love y’all, more later.

 

Finger much improved

Everything else is a disaster. Housing most especially.

Paul is not really packed but the truck is rented, it’s basically going to be me and Keith, and I’m probably going to be a wreck by the time we have to get the truck back. I’m going over around 8 am, no sense going earlier. At least he’ll be somewhere he knows the neighbourhood and can get around okay to this point and transition to memory care is within the facility.  Rob is down the street, I’m five blocks away (literally), he’s blocks from Peggy.

There’s no way for Paul to interpret what’s going on as anything less than an interpersonal disaster. He hasn’t lived alone in his entire life, as far as I can tell; he’s either lived with family, lived with a girlfriend or lived in a co-op with friends/acquaintances/family. I’ll be having to figure out how often I go see him for a cuppa and walk around for errands; I said twice a week but I don’t even know at this point if I’ve got that in me. The car stays with me for the time being but it’s the spare car for the kids if anything goes wrong with theirs and that’s an anytime thing, Keith hasn’t really been maintaining his car because of money, and Katie has an ongoing issue with her vehicle which could brick it overnight. And in fact, since Ryker had the choice between tossing his mother’s wallet in the toilet or her keyfob and picked the wallet, she’s already had one helluva near miss as she most entertainingly recounted yesterday.

Katie’s located a possible rental in Sapperton but the rent is more than half of the total rent on the place she’s in now, and she’s splitting that 3 ways. She is not moving in with Dax as she doesn’t think they’re getting along well enough right now. The heat and constant drumbeat of dread around housing is very hard on relationships and my own eyes tell me Dax has been working hard to make it better but what can I say, ADD women are a challenge to ‘go to housekeeping’ with. (American expression circa Rev. War)

I used to think I’d go back to Ontario, but DoFo took away rent control and I’m on a fixed income, so unless someone wants to put my name on a lease for below market rent I’m sitting it out.

The Humidex will be 30 today at the height of the move. Oh well, at least my finger is well enough to assist.

head like a whacked hive

350 words on TB yesterday (note to mOm, infill, not new SO don’t expect an installment until after I’ve recovered from the move)

Bluesky is inimical to Black creators, BEEG SURPREEZ

Okay day

Took Paul for a walk at Fraser Foreshore yesterday, then brought him back here, where he demolished two soups (gazpacho and ramen) and one stir fry, and half a glass of unsweetened ice tea.

He does not really understand that he’s moving out tomorrow. After Suzanne comes today I’m going to go help him pack. I’d prefer to go earlier in the morning but life is what it is.

Ron Desantis saying that the insurance companies will ‘come back to Florida’ if there’s a light hurricane season is like saying that I’m going back to Paul if he apologizes. Did someone sit ALL of his university exams for him?

open vein, commence rant

Finger still hurts like hurt fingers do. Typing that ‘o’ hurt. That one Ow too. Shit.

All the energy I had this time last week is gone. But I am committed to having energy until after the garage sale.

I was hoping to have rant energy, but sober consideration of the matter leads me to think not.

I put away a load of laundry and there’s one load left. <— ha ha accomplishment

walked two circuits at the school with Jeff<— ha ha accomplishment

Made an art (Typeface is Klitschko vs Illiteracy obtained by dipping boxing gloves in ink and punching the ink into walls until it’s a letter)<— ha ha accomplishment

The 'G' in GIF is hard because life is hard