Author: Allegra

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

Cables….

I thought I found my camera cables, but I hadn’t, so I paid a flying visit to the Sony Store in Metrotown…$100 and some odd dollars poorer (I bought a spare battery) and poorer in digestion (I bought a burger in the food court) but richer for having seen Mare and Tom U and Brian C, I emerged.  PS I FRACKING HATE THE PARKING LOT IN METROTOWN, WHEN GOD GIVES THE WORLD AN ENEMA THAT’S WHERE THE NOZZLE GWINE GO.

I also got a case for my Blackberry, which will reduce the amount of time I have to charge the poor little sucker.

Must find an alternate source of income, toys are gonna bankrupt me.

Sometimes the broad understanding and the teachable moment do not coincide

enh…. still working on the proper places to shift… which is wearing.  I’d be fcking euchred without a tach… which is a thought I have had many times over the last week or so.  Thank you gentlemen and ladies, for making such a thing as a tachometer.

and sad frown, an accident… upside down vehicle, two cop cars, bottom of the hill, check engine light comes on.  Flashy lights past the cops, don’t look don’t look, can’t trigger a migraine.  Doesn’t look like anyone was injured, as  there are two cop cars and no other emergency vehicles.  Then, at the left turn from Gaglardi onto Cariboo, the guy second in front of me is a pal from work, in whose car I have recently been riding, and he’s clipped the driver of the equally expensive (and tasteful) car in front of him.  The next sentence deleted on the cross eyed and hard breathing insistence of my lawyer.  It’s bad enough that I’ve identified him as my coworker.

That’s my cue.. Keith just came in.

Yesterday

Yesterday we went for a drive in the open-air chaise (ie the Camaro – pOp was wearing his pimp hat, a broad brimmed leopard velour creation, which added to the carnival atmosphere) and we drove in the country, saw THE biggest patch of skunk cabbage I’ve ever seen (it went on for literally city blocks in depth and width) and went to Dan’s Market, where we ingested treats and coffee and where I picked up treats to bring back to Vancouver, then outside where we fed ducks and chickens and goats (and I petted a duckling, goodness but they are soft, and admired the glossy plumage on the chickens, who looked magnificent), then went to an apiary and picked up lovely beeswax candles, including two I intend to inaugurate the next time I attend small group ministry, and then through the beautiful green and undulating countryside to a greenhouse which specializes in lovely smelling and odd-times blooming plants and thence back home.

After some uninteresting bits we went downtown in Ziva to Village de Valeurs, where I got the outfit I’m currently wearing (brown cords and a very nice top for work) and one other pair of pants for myself (stretch cotton with a vibrant black and floral pattern).  Katie got a purse for job hunting (she says it’s not professional to be carting about a skull and cross bones pack), two pairs of jeans and a pinstripe wool blazer so she can have a suit.  I smirk when I think she’ll look like Al Swearengen when she dresses up for an event.

Katie cooked supper – chicken Caesar wraps. I never taught her to cook; somehow she managed to teach herself. She apparently does much of the cooking in her household.  And further to the comestibles, they had yet more Lion Winter Ale at the Hillside Liquor store the day we came into town, woot.

Generally we are hanging out and being mellow.  I have been relieved of doing anything at all for transcription of family books, but will have to work on it back in Vancouver, which is good as I definitely type faster on a keyboard I’m used to.

As you can see it’s excitement central around here, and that is as it should be….  to give you an idea of the parents’ priorities, the pictures on the walls are of grandchildren and pinball machines.

Saturday round up, occasionally unsafe for work

Religious persecution quiz, scanged from a facebook/filking buddy.  Who himself was reposting it.

Statins have much worse potential side effects than was previously believed.

Wretched excess meets explosive cuteness.

I’m not posting a link, but one of the church women posted a youtube link to her toddler doing the Hokey Pokey with her, and I just wanted to mention that that’s what it’s all about.

We live in a culture which has little use for our basic instincts, and is thus breeding / punishing their existence out of us as fast as it can.  One can only wonder what the hell will take its place.  These days I wonder how some people manage to feed themselves.  As long as we are where our instincts don’t serve us, many of us will feel alienated.  I think church is a kind of hamfisted way of addressing that alienation. I can’t help thinking that we’re a step away from ‘customized religious experiences’ and I’m not just talking about going to rural Peru to have a drunken shaman pour ayahuasca down your throat and then count his money while you trip endlessly into a brightly painted bucket of existential horror.  I’m talking about thinking, “I want a religious experience that includes singing and labyrinth walking and drums this Sunday,” and if you live in a big town, actually being able to get it.  Virtually, perhaps.                  but if we do not breathe together…. if we do not conspire….. what are we?  That’s why we live from con to con, from dance to dance, from concert to concert, from gig to gig, from (please do NOT CLICK ON THIS LINK AT WORK or IF YOU THINK Lesbian or BDSM sexuality is icky) hookpull to hookpull, from Sunday to Sunday (or whatever your religiously mandated gathering day is).  Re hookpulls, I personally know two people who have attended and participated in these events, and I like ’em fine, so if you want to remonstrate with me about how sick it is I’m just gonna make a sad face and change the subject. You wouldn’t catch me dead at one of them though, I ain’t going anywhere like that just to be a voyeur and I don’t need any additional pain in my body at the moment, thanks.  My complete incomprehension does not include disgust.

Extra solar planets for the win. Every time I look at it, there’s more.  Everything is on fast forward.

Of course, if I fail to mention the artificial life, people will wonder if I dropped off to sleep.

As I type this I am looking at the handwriting of my ancestor Henry Thomas Wake, and wishing I could have handwriting like that.  Copperplate. He actually made money from designing lettering.  mOm says he would be a blogger if he was alive today.  He records in his diary, March 1859, that we went to Euston Square Station to determine the cheapest way to go visit Carlisle, and also that a friend has kindly lent him a book on double entry bookkeeping.  (He was demoniac about self-improvement).

I’m going to take my chalky and somewhat premigraineous brain out for a drive now.  I want a drum.

Just in case I neglected to mention…

Jeff is a genius.  He re-edited (for personal consumption, ONLY) the film Memento so that it was in chronological order.  I liked the movie the first time, even though it weirded me out, but the real outcome of the edit is that it proved what an amazing film it was to begin with.  And Jeff handled a lot of very interesting technical problems, mostly to do with audio sync, in the process, and I have to say I am impressed as hell.

Back to the krankenhaus

Ziva is running on 5 cylinders, so she’s off to the shop for a compression check and diagnostics.  It is my desire to see her actually functioning for the road trip, but if I have to leave her behind too bad… I’m still in Victoria this weekend.

Mike and Jeff may or may not go see some music tonight.  Me, I’m going to be in collapsing mode, preparatory to packing etc.