Author: Allegra

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

Weigh in

I hadn’t weighed myself in a while, but my clothes were getting tighter, so I was delighted to see from the scale this morning that the weight I lost after I broke my shoulder has stayed off.  Now I’m getting ridiculous amounts of exercise, since I have to walk a minimum of 2 kilometres a day through terrain plus two sets of transit stairs just to get to work, so I expect the weight will stay off.  My hips and back are better; my knees and feet are shouting things ungodly at me.  I’m sleeping better and staying up later.

Jeff has commented that he’s getting interesting pings from various muscle groups now that he’s back exercising regularly with his new rowing machine.  One of these days I’ll check it out but I’m never wearing shoes when I’m downstairs…

Many hugs to Jeff for letting me borrow the car yesterday after my phone freaked out and I ended up being late getting out the door in consequence … I brought home some treats.

The family that ________s together…. 

In one of those bizarre coincidences, I mentioned the cave of Chauvet in my last homily, and until she broke her ankle, our speaker this Sunday was to be a woman taking as her text Werner Herzog’s unbelievably amazing Cave of Forgotten Dreams.  Since she can’t do it, we’re subbing in three church members talking about their creative paths, and I helped one of them since he was being put to it on short notice and he said he was feeling apprehensive and I gave him some advice.  He appeared happy to get it (my enthusiasm is a substitute for skill sometimes) and I await with pleasure how he will deal with the creative challenge of a minihom. So I would have enjoyed the booked homily and will definitely enjoy the substitute homily, and that’s pretty much how she goes at church.  Which reminds me, I should scare up a ride.

Benedict Cumberbatch will be taking on Hamlet in 2015, live somewhere in England.  Sigh.

Currently watching: Archer Vice (interesting, but no longer quite as funny), Rick and Morty (most recent show? the last two minutes took me to an unanticipated height of awesome), Justified (Boyd Crowder, how you do blow things up!), Downton Abbey, NCIS, NCIS Body Count, CSI, Person of Interest, Castle, plus the occasional Frontline and 60 Minutes.  I’ve pretty much given up on White Collar, mostly because those whackdoodles at Netflix don’t appear to want to stream it to my profile, and Jeff’s burned out on Burn Notice (ha!) although I still want to finish the show.  Person of Interest continues to be the show that Jeff and I are most likely to halt on the PVR so we can talk about the issues they are raising.  It’s a show that demands close attention and thought, and Root walked the dog Bear last episode.

Jeff is trying to get caught up on March Madness, otherwise known as the Squeaky Squeaky show from the sound of all those basketball shoes squeaking on those nice wood floors.

I wonder if two zone bus passes are available yet?  I’ll need one of those.  I do think longingly of getting a car, but I’ll be better off in at at least three ways without one.

Happy Friday to you all!  The port strike is over, although the drivers are still plenty choked.

 

Chubblies

Chubblies is Lady Miss B’s name for the cherries which are blooming in such profusion in Vancouver right now… to the point where I curse every time it stops raining, since the pollen count is grievous whenever they get a chance to start pushing out their nasty tree sex stuff.

I have a morning routine now, always pleasant. It’s an hour door to door now, with lots of lovely exercise. When the weather is crappy I will get off at Main because it is both safer and flatter.  Currently I have to cross two two-lane roads and two sets of train tracks with no level crossing, through a bramble bush, all in rapid succession, to get to work.  I am a determined older worker.

I spent thirty dollars on tea and tea related items yesterday, as I am tired of drinking crappy tea. And Friday Afternoon Tea is far away.

My new welovecolors.com order came!

Brain training doesn’t work, says a crappily researched article on the internet today.  I subscribe to Lumosity, and it has done two things that I can see for sure.  One is that my field of vision is huge now; I can see what’s going on in front of me with proper attention, to the point when I will catch things on tv shows and Jeff will run it back to look, and Jeff is an attentive viewer.  It made driving easier, too, I felt more confident that I could see the full picture. The other is that my short term memory is definitely better.  Not improved to the point I am happy with it, but better.  Anyway, as long as I see benefits I’ll keep training.

We have weekly staff meetings. Happy sigh. With Skype, even.

 

Shorter commute

I was only an hour door to door getting home last night so that was pleasant.  I’m going to try to work something a little different this morning going in as well.  There will be a ‘sweet spot’.

This is an entertaining comic.  Human sexuality is weird, but what the animal kingdom gets up to is amazing. Very mildly unsafe for work.

Indian food for dinner last night.  Desi Turku (2020 says THAT’S DESI TURKA AND WE ORDERED FROM THEM LAST WEEK)  is a new restaurant but I don’t think we’ll be ordering from them again, their food is all too salty for Jeff’s taste – I can tell but I don’t mind.

Sandy is calling me this morning for a tarot reading.  Wonder what’s up?

 

Payday!

They pay up to date.  Amazing.  I love working for a small company.

The commute does not have any stinky people on it, on the basis of three days’ worth, although somewhere around Fraser somebody gets on who smells so strong of dank (in the marijuana sense of the word) that my eyes pop open and I wanna yell, “Where’s the party!?”

I have made a listless and ineffectual stab at the laundry.  Right now I want to write. (and I did, 250 words).

I’m doing coffee in church tomorrow with Sue.  I am bringing cheese and crackers.

No comment

Katie is feeling so crappy she may be visiting the ER today.  I hope she takes a minute to text me.

I won’t be commenting any more about work unless something really interesting happens.  And since all I’m doing is working and sleeping I suspect my blog will be even more boring than it has been lately.  Unless you hear otherwise, I’m happy.

Schnitzel for dinner yesterday.  The greek salad that came with was full of moldy vegetables.  Sigh.

There’s a Cuppa Joe’s café in the complex where I work.  I now have a place to go when I’m early for work, which, when the weather is inclement is a big deal, because there’s no shelter from the bus stop to the office.

Jeff looked at me yesterday and said, “I guess the laundry is winning.”

It’s a new day

I have a  long commute and work right next to the Fraser River (as in, if there’s a century flood, goodbye office and possibly job and life), but I am really happy with their offer and my decision to take it.  I’ll be happier when I have my own log in so I can own my own mistakes (I made a doozy today, but we quietly tidied it up.)  Also, no tea.  There’s coffee but no tea.

I’m doing honest work for an honest day’s pay.  It’s all good. They made me work yesterday!

The office will be moving to larger quarters in the next couple of months.  Ah, office moves!  I survived two at Statpower, and I changed desks about once a year for more than a decade, so I’m an old hand.

Breakfast for supper last night, made French toast.

What happened?

I am really nervous about going back to work.  What if I screw up something major on my first day?  I know we’re talking almonds, not arteries, but even so…

They gave me a signed employment contract with a list of my duties.  I have never had that.  It’s like a miracle.

I’ve been reading and watching all the speculation about what happened to that Malaysian flight 370 and it’s like watching the media lose its groupmind 24.7.

It appears this is the single political act of an angry relative of a Malaysian politico who got stuck in jail on trumped up sodomy charges.

What a world.

 

From Lady Miss B’s blog:

 

Customer: “This photocopier is so expensive!”
Floor manager: “Why, I remember when it was just a farthing!”
Customer: “Are you sassing me?”
Floor manager: “Yes ma’am.”
Customer: “That’s why I shop here.”

Another customer: “Are you eight feet or nine feet tall?”
Floor manager (who is 6’2): “3 and a half, sir, plus Pharmasave-brand insoles.”

I love my co-workers.

 

Art as Spirituality MP3

After a late breakfast cooked by the birthday boy D, I got a ride back in to town where I was supPOSED to meet up with Keith and Paul and Katie, but Katie bailed because she was sick.  So I got to hug my son and listen to his tales of Australia.

Luc pointed out the MP3 is on line now.

I was supposed to get Naan last night for Jeff but the new Desi Turku restaurant is not open Sunday.

Funeral and party

Janice L is about to pick me up to take me to Maple Ridge to Partay! which is funny, because we just came from Ralph Greer’s memorial service.  What a splendid brace of families he made and came from!  What a solid, hard working, unassuming, gentle, intelligent, straight forward and loving guy he was!  It was a privilege to be there.  And 99 when he went!  A long life well lived. Thanks to Franci for safely conducting me to and fro the UCV which is where the service was, ably led by Rev Debra.

I have wrapped up Otto and now I’m gonna find a sweater. Hopefully I’ll get back from Maple Ridge in time for church tomorrow. I’ll figure something out!!!