Allegra – Page 137 – Allegra Sloman's blog

now that’s a photo

as a wag on twitter said 2020 in a nutshell

Stolen from the instagram feed of @punkrockpastries and further ensmallened by me:

My strongest weapon, my weakest link

That would be my mind, although Jeff might argue that it’s really my farts.

2020 really is something.

Stopped watching Hannibal, it turned out that even if it was network tv it’s giving me the collywobbles.

Walk and lunch with Paul yesterday was most pleasant. Weather continues particularly fine. The Usual Domestic Tasks like laundry and dishes continue….

533 words of fanfic.

The hammered guitar song is responsible for me toasting one set of strings, lol – the bronze wrapping is coming off and making the string buzz

So a chickadee at Fraser Foreshore Park tried to cadge food out of me – twice, and I was still chuckling when an elderly German lady and her daughter/caregiver came along the path and held up a flicker feather, so I identified it for her, and she went along her way blessing me, so that was weird.

SO MUCH COYOTE SCAT, one lot was black as tar and shiny.

Saw a heron perched at the little pond. Went and looked at the mighty StÃ´:LÅ from the Glenlyon observation platform.

After, took Paul to the Pho Hong and picked up some more cactus soil and little pots as the babies all germinated. Like….. all in the same day. Germination rate of over 90 percent for two year old seed, so that was nice. They’re all in pots now and I put them outside after getting the soil nice and saturated.

LeBron’s new hat

r/pics - LeBron's hat says it all. Make America arrest the cops who killed Breonna Taylor.

from the Chicago protests

I came up with a funny word this morning – I called Trump the “Cheetarch” The Cheeto flavoured autarch!

Cousin Gerald sent me this

Check out the lilies! he says they’re the tallest ever. Taken this am in his garden.

Hey pOp which snail are you?

“Open image in new tab” or your OS equivalent will pop this pic larger. Shown is a three by three grid of charming snails from medieval illuminated manuscripts. Some of them look very medieval and some look quite contemporary, although the one with a boar’s head is a bit much.

And here’s a good article about the philosophy of consciousness. Pull quote:

I think of consciousness as a weakly emergent phenomenon, not dissimilar from, say, the wetness of water (though a lot more complicated)

Massimo Pigliucci is the K D Irani Professor of Philosophy at the City College of New York and he’s written about Stoic philosophy

stoic quotes when someone properly grounded life should have look outside themselves approval epictetus wisdom nature

yesterday in bed

Up at 3, back in bed at 8, up at noon, back down for another 4 hours, up at 6:30, back down at 9. What a day.

I don’t know why, but I wuz bagged. I think it’s possible it was some kind of migraine; I got physical symptoms yesterday that were ghastly. Then at 9 when I went back to bed I lay in bed writhing for an hour because I thought I was having a heart attack. It was completely psychological, and really horrible. (Real heart attacks don’t go away *every time you sit up to go fetch your brother to go to the hospital*).

I did a lot of breathing and shifting my position to get comfy, and finally slept.

Now I’m going to get up, make tea and get a freaking grip on myself.

A beautiful blue, white and gold sunset — Sunset off the deck last night

terribly sorry for the late post

I started bingeing Hannibal at 3 am and just surfaced.

Hugh Dancy in Hannibal makes me want to do untoward things to desperate metaphors.

the kitty and the seal

equilibrium

The president of Belarus shut off the internet in his country to prevent the spread of a viral video in which a large audience of workers started shouting at him to resign. (apparently he said the only way you’re getting rid of me is killing me and he got the response he oh so richly warranted.) The tankies are sad for him. What is a tankie? It’s a fascist who wants statist communists with brutal regimes to be perfect and powerful. They defend governments like North Korea. No, I’m not joking, I wish I was.

I have re-achieved emotional equilibrium. I wrote another 700 words after I finished the last edit to my blog yesterday. Jeff took me to breakfast. I wear a mask at IHOP whenever I’m not at my own table. I know it’s not ideal, but it’s better than nothing. My current fave mask is the one I got from Vancouver Aquarium. Next fave is the first one I made, the white one. It’s very comfortable and the most adjustable. Next fave is a standard medical mask. I ordered a bunch more cloth masks from an Indigenous supplier; one of them is a brilliant blue with Coastal art hummingbirds all over it so I bet I know where that one will end up. The other ones I think have stylized orcas, I might be wrong. Kima would be pissed.

There is fresh tea. I make a couple of pots a day and transfer most of it into the iced tea container, once it’s cooled off.

Operation Pee Constantly is still going well. The last lingering wackiness amidships from the kidney stones and the mild infection afterwards is done, thank glob. I’m still getting used to exactly how MUCH more water I have to drink every day to keep this happy state of affairs going, but hopefully I will retrain my body to properly experience thirst.

I am still drinking black tea, but it’s not recommended for a kidney diet, so I’m trying to have at most two cups a day.

Katie recommended bocconcini pearls for cheese and no sodium cheese is a wonderful damned thing, let me assure you. I’m also drinking the low sodium V-8, which tastes weird, which makes me want to put Worcestershire sauce in it, which vitiates its low salt status. La la la. Change of habits continues. Jeff hasn’t minded the not buying treats regimen – we have a whole line of treats we bought pretty much every time we went out to Save-On but I’ll have to make do with home made cinnamon buns, scones and cakes, what a tragedy.

There’s a Buy-Low opening August 26 walking distance from here; they’ll have in house butcher and bakery, among other things. I know people who dislike this chain but they are distinctly cheaper than Save-On, and possibly they will deliver, so we shall see. Anyway it’s close enough to walk. It will be interesting to see where to park for this critter and which roadway one exits from.

Glucose tolerance test on Friday. This will be the fourth time in my life I’ve taken it. This time it’s likely that the DIABEETUS DONE GOT ME although of course I can always adjust my diet (not really, but).

Used the word vitiate in a tweet today. Thought I was using it correctly, looked it up anyway, I was.

bad joke

Been so long since I replaced my mattress my memory foam’s got Alzheimers.

cowriter, Paul

mood crashed again

after a couple of days of feeling better I’m feeling iffy again. I think I’ll force myself out of the house to go to a farmer’s market up at Brentwood this morning. Jeff hasn’t shown any interest in going, so I’ll suit up and take the bus, since it’s just one hop.

The pumpkins and the two surviving sunflowers are doing well, and I did get some carrots. Everything else in my garden sucks because you have to water things. My mOm knows about how to get things to grow but I’m forgetful and lazy and those are two things a farmer cannot be.

Five hundred words on the fanfic. Inexperienced character is being exposed to ETOH, hijinks ensue. (ETOH means al k hall)

Erica Henderson, Eisner-winning artist, made this