Author: Allegra

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

Listing

Today I have been to the physio, replaced the batteries in the label maker, worked some more on both Midnite and Tarot, confirmed my next doc’s appointment, vacuumed and washed the kitchen floor, and beaten out and washed and dried the kitchen rugs.  This represents a rather larger commitment to physical labour than has been the case lately, so I’m preening.

Physio was awesome.  It hurts like hell but I ALWAYS have more mobility when I come out of there, so I am pleased.

I think I’ll get myself another cup of tea and do some paperwork now.

New show!  We started watching Hell on Wheels, which is starting a third season; I’m quite liking Anson Mount as the lead, and the commentaries on racism, capitalism and the role of women are very interesting.  The only thing that pisses me off are the consistent anachronistic items that pop up in dialog.  I’m having to watch that in George’s dialog – he learned English in the 70’s and so his speech should reflect that. I do like Christopher Heyerdahl as a villain though, he’s damned good at it, (he was Hollin and Todd in SGA) and it’s filmed in Alberta, which is nice, and all the people playing Indians are actually native people.

Showing of the shop yesterday will likely come to nothing, but the gent in question was a stunningly tall and gorgeous Russian man in his late twenties, with a very pleasant accent and lovely manners.  So I was not unhappy to show it.

 

 

Lists

I have started making lists again vs. the overwhelm.

Wrote some on both projects this morning.

This made me laugh very very hard.  It’s a combination of the clothing and the locomotion.

Slept at least a  couple of hours in the cpap machine last night.  I don’t remember waking up and tearing it off, but I did.

Today, more laundry.  Really what I should do is get rid, mercilessly, of every piece of clothing that is too tight or ugly or stained, but I get super attached to clothing.

I show the shop again today at noon.  Heavy sigh. At least the last time I went in I got rid of the last of the stuff that was going bad (I hadn’t been able to see it, unfortunately, and this last time I crawled around on my hands and knees until I saw it, removed it, bleaugh).  So it will smell a lot more like a restaurant thankfully.  (Added later… another person wants to see it.)

I think in about two weeks I may be able to handle a tray of cookies, so if I don’t sell it, I will be going back to work.

I forgot my physio appointment yesterday – how, I have no idea.  However I get another on Friday. I am getting stronger, but sometimes things ‘catch’ and it hurts A LOT. There’s a huge divot in my shoulder where all the muscle attachments fell away.  Or whatever, I am not one hundred percent sure about what is going on except I sheared off my greater tuberosity.  I have to check on my next doctor appointment, I sure don’t want to miss that.

I am reading Thomas King’s The Inconvenient Indian and it’s making me REALLY REALLY MAD about policy toward native people in Canada (and in the US, because like most First Nations people he considers the border a willful chimera, and so deals with both nations).  I mean foaming at the mouth mad.  His metaphor to deal with the constant refrain of  ‘get over it’ is miraculous, and I will be using it whenever I talk about intersectionality and civil rights in future.  He also makes mincemeat of the whole sad and tired trope I HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH THIS RACIST STUFF AND I’M NOT RACIST SO QUIT CALLING ME ONE.  It’s certainly not an academic work, but there’s plenty of followup reading.  I had NO FRICKING IDEA that there were first nations film documentarians (including a woman??!!) in the 20’s in the US, whose work of course is so far out in the margins I’ll be lucky to ever see it.  We get Nanook of the North instead.  Tanks Mr. Flaherty.

I am going to – definitely! – read more Will Rogers.

 

 

 

Yesterday….

I got up late … for me … roasted a chicken and made new potato salad.  Then I showed the shop.  Then I went to a church potluck followed by a workshop about leadership, about which I will say no more, except that it kind of brought home to me that I’ve known more about religion since my early twenties than a lot of people, the major takeaway being that the only thing all religions have in common as a precept is ‘don’t gossip’, and then I came home and watched some TV and then Katie came over and removed some more of her stuff to her place and then I went to her place and met her relationship partner SG (who does not own a vehicle or he would have dealt with it) and his two cats Ara and Stig (two mostly black females who are very entertaining and energetic).  He seems a pleasant enough individual, with a lustrous beard.  I was supposed to go to Newton Wave pool with Peggy but the prospect of meeting SG was too much to resist.

So I guess my Labour Day had, you know, labour in it, of diverse kinds.

Today will also be busy, but in different ways.

Keith and Paul dropped over and it was lovely to see them, however briefly, this morning.

Two of the people I’ve known the longest since I got here (a couple in WA state, former coworkers both) have announced wedding plans after 14 years together.  I am so happy.  I’ve been following her posts about him for years now on FB and she has said many times how amazing he is, especially since she has been quite hampered by health issues subsequent to a car accident in which she should have, by the physics, died.  And she’s had a lousy couple of years, what with her brother dying in a car accident leaving young children, and there’s been other stuff.  So I told her “I couldn’t be more pleased about this if it was happening to me!” and I meant it.

I think I need to get another foam mattress; this one is four years old and starting to feel rather lumpish and flat.

Miss Margot had an enormous eye booger the other day, and she started purring when I pulled it out.

I have ONCE AGAIN had to encourage Eddie to stop teasing the dog next door.  I politely asked him to return inside.  Otherwise he sits on the concrete pad when Creamy is on the back balcony and the poor dog barks himself to distraction.

Saw Plunkett & Macleane, and loved it.  I can understand why it got lukewarm reviews, but believe me it has improved since it was released.

 

Visits and writing

We are through Cadfael and well into The Good Wife.  It is a very well acted show.

I am up to 10K words on my Tarot thingee and enjoying it immensely.  I have to set up a spreadsheet to try to deal with the interrelatedness of things.

Today I think I’m going to have a mushroom and spinach omelette for breakfast.  Cause I really need to use up the spinach and mushrooms, yo.  Also, must go to veggie store… all the veggies I pre-prepped so we could have INSTANT HEALTHY SNACKS are, like, gone.

Sue came by yesterday to borrow my fascinator.  I have two- the steampunk as opposed to headband one.  She is in no fewer than THREE shows this fall, which given she’s fifteen years older than me is a big old YOU GO GIRL. Her energy and acting ability continue to be a joy.  And she was wearing me mammy’s scarf whot she knit for her, which cheered me no end when I greeted her at the door.

Paul has taken me out for a couple of walks recently and it’s always nice to go to Deer Lake Park.  A couple of times he has providentially gotten me out of the house during the only two hours of the day it wasn’t raining and blowing.

Night before last the thunder and lightning at midnight shook the house on its foundations.

Two more sleeps for more Breaking Bad.  The race to the finish is enthralling.

I updated my google plus profile to make it link back to this blog.  Or try to.

My shoulder really hurts off and on (I am at an awkward stage of how strong and mobile that joint is, constantly reaching too far and doing too much) and I’m having meshuggas with the cpap machine, but I am letting neither of these things spoil my mood.  I do have a new hose for the cpap after my whining. So go me.  I’m out of pain pills but it doesn’t seem to be affecting how little or much sleep I get.

Not being able to practice mandolin is making me NUTTY.  I mean, nutty.

 

 

Physio and other matters

I am enjoying physio, in that I enjoy greater range of motion with less pain when Luc is done with me, but I am hating being told I still can’t play a musical instrument.  Double Grr.

I am absolutely loathing and despising the cpap machine.  I did sleep with it for a couple of hours, so yay for some progress.

Spoke to Tammy this morning.  She is doing reasonably well.

Patricia was over the other day!  We had a lovely time chatting about TERFs vs Transwomen (and other stuff of course) and she helped me get my feet under me as far as where things are in the political geography of contemporary feminism and forwarded me some reading.  I fed her rosemary chicken chunks over salad with a side of sweet corn. Nommers.  Very glad to hear that there has been some progress in one of those troubling areas of life we don’t talk about to be respectful to people we love, that married life is still suiting her, and that her job hunt is going well.

 

Margot asked for a lift

She came into my room and stared at me, and then stared at the top bunk.  I picked her up, and she immediately settled into a valise and started washing herself. What a weird weird critter she is.

Jeff says she made a noise identical to a tribble the other morning.  See previous comment.

She is now cleaning herself with such vigour that she’s making my bunk beds rock back and forth.

 

King of the forest

King of the forest is SMALL.

Today a friend is coming by for a visit.  I have been feeling mighty low, and knowing that whining isn’t attractive has prevented me from pissing my woes out against an uncaring world.  So I am very much looking forward to having a girlfriend visit and getting caught up with the smoking hot gossip etc.

I am just dying for a cup of coffee, which is weird.

I’ll be dropping into the shop today to pick up supplies and check fridges.  I will be re-running the ad again, as there is no activity currently and the shark has to keep moving.

 

If I keep my options open I may ask the physiotherapist to come into the shop and show me how I can go back to work if I have supporting devices, etc so I can get stuff in and out of ovens.  The bottom oven working properly now is probably my best bet until I can raise both hands.  I can hold up to fifteen pounds with my right hand but not lift it.  Dishwashing is still hopeless, which means I have to get somebody in to do that OR install a dishwasher, bleaugh.

I also need to figure out packaging – the Uline catalogue had some individualized packing tubes that look like they would be perfect for singles and doubles of biscotti.  It would only cost about three hundred bucks to get started on that.

Okay, time to find out whether Jeff wants to watch Newsroom or Ray Donovan.  Love, love, love that man.

Hanna kissing Hedy / writing matters

dawwww.

Saw Despicable Me 2 and loved it.  Some of the physical humour is right up there with Warner Bros.

We’re most of the way through the first season of Good Wife and Jeff and I are quite enjoying it. Except when a corrupt member of the legal establishment does something, and then Jeff fulminates. It is terrible having had an honest judge in the family; everything else, real OR imaginary, suffers so by comparison.

I got my running around done yesterday.  It was horribly exhausting and it’s fucking hot out there so I came home and collapsed.  I should have gone to Andrew’s Pennywake, but I am good for One Big Thing per day these days, it seems, and have to quit overbooking myself.

I am up over 6K words on my new project and once the sun comes up I think I’m going to go find a library to work in – research don’t you know.  LTGW recommends that as a working style.  I’ll be working on Midnite Moving.

No Cpap last night, I was just too hot and sticky to think about putting the mask on my face, and it smelling like ass doesn’t help.

I had a problem with a technical aspect of Midnite Moving and be damned if the internet didn’t help out.  There is now a nanomolecular substance called CARBYNE.  Isn’t that cool?  Look it up, it’s awesome.

Not another project, cheezy Pete

Yes, I am now working on a number of different projects.  I’m trying to concentrate on stuff I enjoy.  Anyway, the most recent one is called Tarot for Atheists, and it’s a radical revisioning of the Tarot in light of contemporary life.  For entertainment purposes only.  It’s loads of fun. I have already invented a pi layout and a Fibonacci layout and an x bar layout and a delta layout and will find other mathematical and scientific layouts I’m sure.

George and Kima also continue to chew thoughtfully on my brain.  Kima just ran down Denman street like a Catherine wheel in octopot form.  George is chasing after her apologizing to the pedestrians.  The next day signs appear all up and down the street Beware of Runaway Squid.

Margot is suffering dreadfully from allergies, her eyes are getting gunked up every day.  Eddie pulled a Margot last night and did something he’s never done the entire time I’ve known him … he got under my feet when I took my eyes off him.  I’m lucky I didn’t boot him across the room.

Used the cpap loaner for the first time last night.  YUCK.  It’s supposed to get easier, but it smells like ass and I can only sleep in one position or the mask shifts.  This will hurt my back.  Shoulder quite sore today, but I will press on through the exercises.

Today I go deal with business winding down things, hopefully.  We shall see.

I have now read a substantial portion of the Benedictine Rule to support my learnings in watching the Cadfael mysteries.  St. Benedict was an interesting dude.

 

Crad Kilodney is back.

Crad Kilodney is one of those people you have to file in the part of the Venn Diagram where ‘literary treasure’ ‘full bore pain in the ass’ and ‘exceedingly rude bastard’ meet. Author of Lightning Struck My Dick, Pork College and World Under Anaesthesia, he used to sell his little chapbooks on the street in Toronto, where I first made his acquaintance on Yonge Street when our Saviour was still commuting by T. Rex, after he had escaped from New York City. Now he has rewritten the 38 canonical Shakespearean plays for the ‘don’t stop me from texting just cause the Royal Vic is performing’ crowd, and I’ve read portions of several of them…. Okay, you’ve been warned.

Margot made a tribble noise this morning, which is where cute meets alarming.

Physio this morning was great. I walked back, picked up some groceries, and feel much better about my recovery.

No joy on the shop sale.  I have a lot of work to do but at least I’m feeling a bit more like doing it.