Author: Allegra

Born when atmospheric carbon was 316 PPM. Settled on MST country since 1997. Parent, grandparent.

food and people

for supper last night I made stir fried pork with garlic and ginger, greek salad and very well cooked acorn squash, mashed with a teaspoon of maple syrup, a squirt of lemming juice and a very small pat of butter, also salt and cracked pepper.

Saw Paul and WE WENT FOR A WALK IN OAKALLA for the first time since March and that 2.5 k nearly did me in. Nobody wearing masks, including Paul, who INSISTED ON TALKING TO EVERYONE including mofos who were trying to fly drones in the park (specifically forbidden by signs) and walk the wrong way down the one way path.

The russet thrushes and the towhees sounded like they were in a competition for loudest. In the entire time I’ve been going to the park I’ve never heard the birdsong that loud.

Also saw a bald eagle and a great blue heron; couldn’t figure out why the heron was garking up a storm until I saw the eagle spiralling.

Then, in a miraculous outburst of friendness, Mike dropped by after Paul dropped me back home and there was an exchange of food etc.

While Mike was here Buster caught a young starling and tried to bring it into the house. Since Jeff mentioned that he was not happy about birds in the house, I literally grabbed Buster and turned him around by his shoulders and britches. He opened his mouth to remonstrate with me and the bird, quite naturally, fucked off with prejudice and stayed in the dogwood yelling its fool head off so loud that Jeff was perturbed and went indoors. I went inside to get the ukulele to play Mike the song I wrote for him (I’ve played it before but it was a truncated version and I’ve been practicing hard) and just after that, a parent bird came back and stuffed junior’s gob so the little mofo finally shut up.

much more chipper

I have definitely turned the corner. Strangely, this improvement may coincide to going back to sleeping under a weighted blanket (I was using my battered old ‘white’ duvet instead) but I definitely sleep sounder.  I’m also taking a slightly different path on pain management, so I hope my activity level will naturally rise in consequence.

Weather continues not great. This week the temp isn’t supposed to crawl much above 20 and we’ll get a little bit of sun, but June-uary continueth.

Jeff and I went for a lovely social distancing walk in the rain yesterday at 12th Avenue school grounds; wasn’t a soul else on the grounds and I wore my shield instead of my mask. Jeff, since he didn’t actually encounter anyone else, went mask-free. It’s very nice to be outside without a mask.

Watched a fair amount of our current range of TV yesterday; Castle S2, Time Team 1999, Vera S5, New Tricks and Jeff’s started watching Elementary, which I sat in on and proved quite entertaining.

Seven people arrested at the Viaduct BLM demo yesterday; Twitter wants white people down at CRAB park. CRAB park is where the homeless encampment moved to and fictionally it’s where George and a couple of his children are when the earthquake strikes.

 

Staying calm and kind

Yesterday I got to see Katie (she brought sourdough bread from Costco) and we had a LOVELY LONG CHAT and my god it was wonderful. I also spoke to my mOm and pOp, went for a walk with Paul and watched a lot of Time Team. I also had a bath, carefully cleaned my feet, washed my hair, and did a whole bunch of old lady maintenance, which left me feeling physically much better.

Weather continues quite overcast and really cool for this time of year – it rained yesterday but not all day.

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Today my only task is writing a 2500 word essay for Keith’s birthday, to accompany a picture I want to give to him. Oh look, it’s 10% complete already. I know what I’m like, if I don’t finish it today I’ll be writing myself into a coma on his birthday morning.

My fOlks have with tremendous timing given me some funds and I intend to spend them both intelligently *and* foolishly. so there.

Buster has the best object permanence of any cat I ever met. Also, he demanded to be trained HARD this morning, and I was about to run off and tell Jeff all about it…. I mean, he did FOUR PAW CLAPS FOR TREATS, including flipping the treat onto his wrist and eating it….

when I realized his food dish was empty, he was hoping I wouldn’t notice so he could eat the rest of the treat bag. Li’l scam artiste….

I had a single piece of sourdough toast cut into three pieces this for breakfast. One piece had fine liverwurst, one piece a ten cm thin slice of brie, and one a hefty chunk of smoked salmon. I recount this not to brag but to allow my mother to experience a ghost of their gustatory charms as part of her morning. Also to brag. The sharing was more meaningful than the bragging, I assure you.

 

Temp grex

We’re having lots of fun watching Time Team. Mick Aston, a working class landscape archaeologist, wears handmade stripey sweaters and is a vegetarian anarchist atheist naturist polyamorist, so I loves him, and Phil Harding says OOO AARRR with an Oxfordshire accent so thick it’s like he’s a parody of himself and Jeff and I DIE every time he ‘makes a find’, or talks about digging, or wears those incredible digging booty shorts, which could provoke mirth in a heart of stone.

Funniest bit so far was when the courtly and soft spoken farmer is sitting round a table with the team at the end of day one and they all whine and he says, “You’re always like this at the end of day one.”

second season of Trapped

Was so sad and violent, but also very watchable. After sleeping until 2:30 am I went back to bed around 9:30 and woke up again around 1:30 pm. I watched some TV and now I’m back in bed crying. I’m overdue. I very very rarely cry, rarely cry for more than a couple of minutes because it does horrible things to me, but even so I can only go so long without emotional crying. It’s a fine balance.

I’m a lot more fucked up about yesterday than I can publicly speak of, and of course it’s coming out in my body. The random stabbing pains are not much fun and my feet hurt a lot; my orthotics are giving up and I have to buy new ones, these can’t be reconditioned a second time. It’s four hundred dollars though, so now I have to communicate with my dwindling finances man and tell him to loosen more money.

I’m very glad I took taxis most of the way rather than transit (I took the Skytrain to Edmonds, since Chambar is rather providentially next to a station).

The taxi driver from Edmonds accepted the Capshield as his fare. He was desi, more than that I couldn’t tell you. I told him exactly what I paid for it and it was within 50 cents of the fare. Twice I offered payment, because I want cab drivers to be safe, given how much they ferry little old ladies around. He wouldn’t accept, deflecting me most politely. Contemplate the stubborn hospitality of poor people, their ability not to count cost.

 

It’s 8:30 in the evening and I’m feeling a little better. This too shall pass.

political action of the day

MAILED IT TODAY June 10 when Jeff and I went for a walk. Then we ordered pizza and watched Time Team.

 

June 9, 2020

Gina Nicoli-Moen
Superintendent of Schools
Board of Education
Burnaby School District 41
5325 Kincaid Street
Burnaby BC V5G 1W2

Dear Ms. Nicoli-Moen,

Please listen to your Black and Indigenous students and remove the RCMP from their current roles, including attending career days, in Burnaby schools.

<—– my request

I would support this action as a Burnaby voter, parent of two former School District 41 students who commented frequently on racial tension at their school, and politically curious person who is speculating why it is that everyone on the senior management team of your organization is white, when Burnaby is not a majority white city.

<—– my cred, with a boot to the ass in the last sentence and there’s NO FUCKING WAY I’m telling you which school, although ten bucks says someone who reads this letter checks the records

With my hopes you and your loved ones will stay safe during the pandemic,

<—– despite my distaste for cops in schools, I bear you no personal ill will

 

 

Now I have to print it and find an envelope and sign it and post it so this is a draft until I actually move

 

she gets a star trek stamp, I’m thinking JANEWAY … fuck I love myself sometimes  ha ha used Sisko instead