Month: October 2023

I try not to be angry

but oh well, it’s kinda chronic

Today’s the day Alex is wearing coloured contacts as part of a family costume set (he’ll be a zombie, he loves zombies). They’re going trick or treating in Burnaby. I’d love to see them but it’s unlikely.

We won’t give out candy this year. We don’t want it in the house actually. However if it goes on sale after I won’t be responsible etc etc.

Must put away laundry.

Tomorrow Paul and Keith are coming over for lunch and Keith’s going to make lunch. I was over at Suzanne’s yestreen to clip Lucky’s claws. (I showed up, looked at him, pulled out the clippers I brought with me and did all ten front claws so fast he scarcely had time to ding me (I got a miniscule scratch on the palm of my left hand, which healed up overnight) and then we had tea (her new teapot is wonderful, and she always puts out Yorkshire Gold when I arrive) and chatted. Suzanne wryly predicted we wouldn’t actually be eating until 3 o’clock. (Keith pontificates while he cooks, which slows things down considerable and he also said he’ll arrive at noon and walk to the market for fresh ingredients, so you do the math LOLOL) At least I have two beers in the fridge leftover from Leo and can offer them to the boys.

Tonight Jeff is using his Magic Tickets™ and going to a Canuckleheads game, Canucks are 5-2-1 and the Nashville Predators are 4-4-0 so it should at least be a contest rather than a snorefest. He’s taking his friend Rob and I hope they have all the fun, it will be an excellent break.

Editing on Totally Boned is quietly taking place in the background. I am a wordy sumbitch, so I’ve been taking out words.

 

 

i am disgust

Just woke up in the middle of my usual sleep cycle, wide awake.

Hopefully I can tire myself out. Did manage to remember that I’ve got wet laundry, so maybe that’s what woke me up (I dreamed the doorbell rang, actually) – I sprang to full consciousness. So I trudged downstairs, Buster mewing at me, to swap the laundry.

Speaking of Buster, I figured out how to ask him to make a choice between two activities yesterday morning. I put the brush down on the floor next to the ‘birdy’ he likes playing with and I said, “Kisses brush, kisses birdy?” and he walked forward RIGHT AWAY and nosed the birdy so I played with him for a while. It was amazing how fast he did it.

 

 

disgusting thought (you have been warned)

I just passed wind of such malign pungency that Jeff begged for a new air supply and threw his mother’s ancient quilt over his head in a futile bid to maintain the desire to keep breathing. His distress was so great that I was obliged to turn the fan on, full blast, but the room is small and the stench recirculated with great speed. I then bid him adieu, glad that I had shared my bounty.

 

a trifle of luck

Jeff has won two Global Privilege Levels™ hockey tickets so I am thrilled he will be able to share this bounty with a friend and eschew the cheap seats. I basically told him I’d be happy to go if everyone else on his list was busy, but this is too good not to share with a hockey-loving friend.

I am feeling lucky meself. I got to talk about my grandchildren at lunch yesterday but I said, “Sorry, no pictures, I think it’s gauche, especially when you can look for grandson goo on my vanity site and fill your boots.” THE RELIEF ON THEIR FACES I am going to write a song IT WAS SO INSPIRING, three relentlessly childless-by-choice people not having to deal with interminable grandson pics LOLOLOL. And of course, I’ve known most of them for 20 years as acquaintances so I know to the eyebrow raise just how little they want to see those pics. I’m so glad I lost my phone, at least for now. It was also a good day to be a well-masking autistic, believe me, because if I’d brought my 11 year old inner self to the party I would have had so much more to say, to less happiness among the attendees, equal parts LOL.

Because I have a minor child in my on-loan car 8-10 times a week, as a responsible adult I should have what the current technology supports in terms of safety, to wit a phone. Who wants to give me a phone and I’ll get going on that. Yes I know I said something different in the last paragraph~ what are you, the thought police. Tsk, tsk. I want a granny phone, only as much access as it takes to text and phone.

Bsky continues to be fair winds and strong engagement. People are much more accepting of my content and I wander around ‘liking’ things and occasionally commenting but I have zero urge to land on people’s necks and scold the living crap out of them like I had for the entire last six months I was on Xitter.

They need money, and if they provide a couple more robust in-app services (thread unroll, good CHRIST, mebbe DMs tho I’m onthefence about that, better list curation, GIF SUPPORT SEE EARLIER BLASPHOOMERY, block lists of words) I’m all for a $5 per month subscription. It’s that much in entertainment, news, self-expression and validation, and that indefinable sense of community that makes you adopt a chaos bi expat Scot in Anchorage because he’s ABSO HILARIOUS and then stop following him because you really are not that interested in him emitting an extended oops chronicle of the married women he’s boned because he was too drunk to ask for life stats first. Farewell, you know who you are, and please don’t drink yourself to death even if you think it’s mandated.

LOOONG discussion about earthquakes in the vancouver subreddit. Got some good ideas, shared some. My song about Vancouver mods will soon be a memory. Maybe I’ll go back and delete it har har. (No. I mean it will disappear when the site goes down later this year, although I’ll have a backup.)

apologies if the site is slow

Yesterday was wonderful. We got to talk. Because there were only four of us. I will remember! Out again in a week with more of the gang, at the Faux Bourgeois. I just reviewed the menu and I’m a puddlodrool.

Got there late, of course. Bought an outfit to wear on the way, more or less, because it had occurred to me that I don’t have an uptodate or comfy or hole-free dress to wear to a formal occasion or funeral and good lord I’m 64 I need to be able to dress for a funeral on a moment’s notice. (My long black dress from eShakti is full of holes and going grey and frayed.) However, only Susanne was on time (no surprise there since she ‘carries polish and precision’ into everything she does). Jan was her usual bubbly self, including a hilarious and useful stream of consciousness narrative about hearing aids. Simon himself is a complete pet, with the manner of an enthusiastic guest archaeologist on Time Team with a hush hush job. We didn’t get into Dunnett, but it was lovely to hear of everyone’s travels in Dunnett country.

Anyway Jan was not trying to convince me that after I get back from Portlandia I need to get my hearing tested but I will, since the test is free after 65.

The SUN WAS BLASTING and the swimmers were swimming in the bay and the mountains and the sea and the boats. The food was divine – worth the expense in my view – and I washed it all down with a cup of tea. Very pleasant to sit in the Boathouse and love the world.

Got gas into the car at the station at Clark and 12th, which is easily one of the worst gas stations in the city for how many people want to use it vs how big the goddamned lot is. Managed to get out of there without hitting or being it by anyone.

Completely rewrote the Vancouver Mods song on the way home in the car.

Back again to Vera and a pleasant evening quietly at home.

off to kiss the ring of the poobah of Dunnettry

Lunch with the head of the Dunnett society as arranged by Jan J. It will be a small but convivial gathering at an upscale chain restaurant downtown. Haven’t seen the folks in ages, should be fun.

I wanted to clean out the fridge but I didn’t want to bend. I got Alex to do it for me by telling him we were going to do a podcast of the clean out and how gross it was. We were hoping that poor Jeff would come back from the dentist and give us a hard time about the smell in the middle of it all but Alex WAS TOO EFFICIENT. That kid is somethin’ else, lemme tell ya.

Internet and power are completely gone in Gaza. The ground assault begins, and it can’t actually be considered anything except an extermination. A genocide.

Hundreds of Jews were carted off to jail in NYC yesterday for protesting.

various, the 21st post of that name

Leo and Linda successfully and with only a slight delay safely ensconced in Victoria with les unités parentales.

Alex thanked me SO SWEETLY for letting him dodge school yesterday. “Thank you for letting me stay with you yesterday” was how he put it and honestly how can you resist such a child, I can deny him nothing. Still think it was a stroke of genius on my part to take him to his mom’s work. He ran his hand over the marble samples ($5 a pop) and marvelled at the arrays of colour. IN PERSON they are well nigh overwhelming in their scale and beauty. Verde Fantastico and Maui were my faves. abso gorgeous.

In Indigenous news, I want to slap and verbally abuse the racist dunderheads who are telling Buffy Sainte-Marie that she isn’t Cree. Hands off Indigenous family structures!! SHE’S CREE BECAUSE THE PIAPOT CREE SAY SHE’S CREE, GET FUCKED RACISTS. Buffy represents every person who was able to rise above being stolen from their family and return to roots and none of that would have happened OR BEEN NECESSARY if Canada wasn’t a seething pit of racism today and in the 40s when she was born.

Updated Paul’s care spreadsheet. As will come as no surprise his next in person with his doctor is not scheduled until November 16, a date that should mean something to some of you. I didn’t even comment. THE FUCKING DOCTORS OFFICE NUMBER APPEARS WRONG IN ALL OF THE ON LINE STUFF EXCEPT THEIR OWN WEBSITE AND YOU HAVE TO DIPSYDOODLE EVEN TO FIND IT. Just tell us you don’t want to talk to us, jfc. So annoyed !!! however I made my point and moved on when I FINALLY got someone live. calice.

Got really good numbers for a post on bsky today, and a fair number of reposts, for a quote meme I actually made this morning, but which I’m not going to repost here since I don’t want to cross the beams between the two on line personas.

HOKAY I POSTED I got wordle in 3 today. Alex is at school. There was ice on the car. Jeff’s back from the dentist. Alles gut.

what a frikkin glorious day

hugged Leo and Linda goodbye and then buzzzzzed out the door to finally do the errand with Paul that Lois tasked me with. Alex had stayed home from school today. But he didn’t just stooge around on his tab-a-let, o nosirree.

First off in the morning before L&L departed, we recorded the first episode of our podcast Alex and GG Make Things Up and there’s an excruciating ad lib about the five great lakes. If I figure out how to post that audio clip I probably shouldn’t until I’ve talked to Alex.

Then we picked up Paul, got a printout of the drugs he takes, made an appointment at a walkin clinic, and then we had an hour and a half to kill so we ate at the Wendy’s on 6th Street and took Alex to run around the playground at the northeast end of Robert Burnaby Park for a while, then we went to the appointment and talked a locum into covering a scrip gap because Paul’s doctor’s office makes it IMPOSSIBLE, like MANY BAD SWEARS IMPOSSIBLE to contact them by phone; literally called the number from two different phones and they said the number’s NOT IN USE. sad mismanagement some fuckin’ wheres I do assure you. Doc L only did it on account of I was going to make an appointment that very day and I haven’t been able to because I either didn’t have internet access or the line appeared to be disconnected. Never mind, scrip’s still good and we filled it, pick it up in three weeks, in blister packs to help the people who are now helping Paul take his meds every day. His blood pressure is awesome though.

THEN we went back to Paul’s and I used his cell phone (37 percent charge YAY) to message Lois that I had indeed done what she asked and then I called Tish who had apparently left a message and so Paul got to get an errand done, see his grandson, talk to friends and relatives, eat out and meander about in the brilliant brilliant sunshine.

and then and then and then, I checked to see if Paul could actually use the thumb drive I bought on his fancy new TV and he can’t. No video files, just audio and photos. Damn. Then I put up his new write on wipe off note on his fridge.

AND THEN AND THEN AND THEN I had a fuckin’ genius idea. I said to Alex have you ever seen your mom’s work and he said no so I called Katie, twice ! I forgot to get the address the first time, and I took him to see how hard his mom works and the gorgeous Italian marble she works with, and the water saws (she’s a sawyer now) and Katie got to take her son straight home instead of duking it out on Canada Way so she probably got home about fifteen minutes faster. ALEX WAS BESIDE HIMSELF with how glorious the marble was, saying every thirty seconds NO THIS IS MY FAVOURITE and he started coughing so it was time to leave… so much dust. You can imagine.

And all that happened in less than 4 hours. I’m still high from how much absolutely down home family fun we had and how thrilled Paul was to talk to his peeps. And Alex…. What a wonderful, wonderful human being. He was helpful and kind and appropriate with old ladies and he said “I want to see a baby” at 8 am because he missed when Ryker was tiny and he got to see a tiny infant in a basket at the old folks home coming to visit and he looked as pleased as if the child was a relation. What an absolute sweetheart he is.

another glorious fall day in Burnaby

I didn’t leave the house except for Alex and to shop.

Have I told you all how perfect and loveable you are lately?

Happy bday Daddy! You have friends coming and they’ll probably make or bring dinner, so double yay.

Jeff’s feeling a bit better. He’s still getting a pile of work done.

Fish and chips and salad for dinner last night. Leo and Linda got a big bag of fresh fruit for us and now I’m regretting I didn’t do a better job of clearing out the fridge before they got here.

New song – Vancouver mods

Vancouver mods I hate ‘em with a passion
they’re one and all irration
al
Vancouver mods, they do bad things to ferrets
their brains are mushy carrots
I hate them, I hate them
I hope their dearest loved ones all catch hollow heels and die
I hope they get diseases where their torsos meet their thighs!
Spontanyusly combust and thus completely carboNIZE
May all the just and mighty gods
decorticate Vancouver mods
and in conclusion fuck Vancouver mods

vancouver mods

The TwoX mods, those jerks are even worse

The AITA mods please don’t get me started

=====================================

Mike warned me about them but I just cannot believe the rationale for removing my post. My response is childish and quite enjoyable at least to me, and nobody is getting hurt.

Leo and Linda very kindly took us to the Foreshore. Jeff’s got a bug of some description. He crashed hard yesterday afternoon and retired to his room.

Leo and Linda overnight

Wordle 857 3/6

I very much like the effect of having two 3/6 Wordles in a row. It’s a cognitive thing, I trust you understand.

I’ll pass on the hard stuff first. Two thousand Palestinian children have died in the last seventeen days. A thousand times Ryker and Alex. What can one old Canadian granny do?

Leo and Linda arrived. I ABSOLUTELY LOVE that a family elder showed me a new use for google maps – he pinned himself to a map while in the rental car so I could watch he and Linda approach. I figured for sure they’d get nailed by traffic or construction or the utter deranged randomness of Vancouver driving, of which Jeff and I have so often spoken. But no, they sped into Vancouver from Squamish like a rocket sled on rails, got their Bags of Capacity into the basement, and met Alex briefly.

Katie, because she is a complete darling and understands things, BROUGHT RYKER IN FROM THE CAR. That seems like nothing, but Leo and Linda got to at least experience The Cuteness and Whirlwind That Is Ryker for two minutes while Alex chased him around the center of the house, laughing. And then poor Katie had to stuff him back INTO the car and drive home. No pics it was too brief.

HOWEVER Fisherman’s Park yielded this for Leo’s lens:

L&L kindly ordered dins and I have leftovers for first breakfast and after I drop off Alex we’ll go to Foreshore for second brekky and then I have a long and tiresome errand with Paul which Lois asked me very nicely to do and it needs to happen if Paul’s going to comfortably keep living where he is, which he likes, and wishes to continue to do, with support, which, in part, I am. I can grouse but Paul needs the help and I have his freaking car.

IT’S BIRTHDAY WEEK FOR BOTH PoP AND LINDA!!!

I’m sure there will be super low key celebrations across the Salish Sea when the folks head across on Thursday.

I could say something about the loss of the ‘music room’ since I need to practice so much for Orycon BUT I AIN’T BEEN PRACTICING ANYWAY so there’s that.

and some fluff; The Accidental Mr. Right has been added to the Lesser Known Destiel Fics on AO3

wordle and visitors

I used to post my Wordle score every morning on facebook but I’m not on facebook at the moment.

My score for today: Wordle 856 3/6

What timing! I think I did a great job keeping up with everyone! LOL this is a joke for anyone who did Wordle this morning.

On tap for this morning, now that I’m awake.

Mek kafi Make coffee McCaffey

Just letting you know that learning to cope
with my rejection sensitivity dysphoria
means that I make fun of myself so that it appears other people aren’t hurting me
with their jokes, but even if they think they’re joking, and I act like it,
I’m still hurt. Days later. Sorry for this aspect of my humanity.

Kitchen table and fridge; musical instruments out of the guest room; towels into the guest room; night light into the guest room; shower; tek pills; mek salad. Later pick up some more foodstuffs for meals to make at home while they’re here after consulting  with them.

I am still vibrating with happiness about Peggy coming with us to Orycon. We are going to have truly oooootrajjjjious amounts of fun, I can FEEL IT.

There will be a season 3 Goom Odens. Neil sayeth so, it shall be so.

Thinking about the 1996 storm in Victoria. Damn, but that was a lot of snow.

Thinking about having to reduce my kit, going to the con, if Peggy’s bringing her bass. Mebbe two cars? seems not right somehow.