Author: Allegra

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

Why I blog

Take that, people who say it’s nothin’ but narcissism.

Also, I have a terrible memory and a blog helps me remember when things happened.

Also, Katie has used my blog to help her remember when distressing and horrific things, as reported by me, happened.

Yesterday Paul and I drove up-island to visit his cousin Ruth in Nanaimo.  She’s living on an acre of land and she got it for a steal of a price, and she and her fisherman spouse are living very happily.  She has to walk fifteen minutes to get her mail, and another ten to get her eggs, but she’s a five minute drive from a yoga studio and she has her own well, so there.

She made us a fabulously warm welcome, and soon we were deep in talk about cob houses and straw bale houses and the Cuban 5 and the amazing local arts and politics scene, and after Paul re-strung her guitar I said I’m getting my mandolin, and she hauled out her Indian drums (sounds like tablas but they weren’t) and we had a fabulous 90 minutes of jamming.  I kept nervously checking the Malahat webcam.  Long about 4 we decided to head back.

And it snowed.  Paul and I were bemoaning our lack of cameras, because the snow slid down the road signs and just hung there, and some of the visual effects were quite funny.  The snow was worse in Victoria than up the Malahat, go figure.

Paul went off to hang with Dr Filk for the evening (more music, somewhere, and a meal in there too) and I grabbed some Mayan Chocolate Haagen Dazs and a small round of Brie (my god, they fell on it like animals…. well behaved, queuing animals) and Darwin had a noisy bath and went to bed and we ate pizza and I started reading The Caryatids by Bruce Sterling and at 7:30 I collapsed.  See what a day without coffee can do to me?  Also I did all the driving, since Paul has come to the realization that he can tolerate my tailgating and random lane changes way better than vice versa.  A couple of hours in the car also allowed us the opportunity for an airing of the grievances (or was more usually the case, the bragging of the amazingness) re the kids. Sometimes it’s good to have a chance to bash away at this stuff so we can present a united front when the next issue comes up….

Woke up at 4, edited the sound files I recorded yesterday of Darwin’s charming vocalizations, finished the Caryatids (three stars but I still want to know where the food of the future will be coming from), showered, and now I’m looking forward to a meal at my Granny’s place of residence and a nice ride home on the ferry, probably late in the afternoon.  And I can haz new quilt, which is actually a quilt that my mum made when I was tiny, so I am extremely happy about my ‘haul’.  Oh, also my grampa’s memory book (two thick tomes) has been delivered to me in duplicate for Jeff.

So far an AWESOME weekend, and watching Katie motor her way – reading, my god, she’s reading! – through the Sookie Stackhouse books is making me very very happy.

In Victoria

Paul and Katie and I made the crossing – my new boss, may he be praised and adored – another Finn, what is it with the Finns anyway? – let me out early enough that we could easily catch the six o’clock.  It is one of the new boats, the German ones, and it shudders and groans like it was a twenty year boat needing drydock.  Paul of course went and talked to a staffer and learned that the screws don’t submerge deep enough and the damned things burn fuel like a Viking funeral.  Argh, what the hell is wrong with this province?  Didn’t we learn about this kinda crap with the Fast Cat?  Argh I say again.

Work ended, amusingly enough, with me going to my new boss, who is, as far as I can tell, a man who prizes his ability to keep his facial expression under tight control, and saying, “Hey, somebody is going to come by you and say that I’m lazy, incompetent and a menace to the company!” “Which somebody?” “Really?  When she comes to complain can I ask her about the 15 emails I’ve sent her that she’s never answered?” Then his face twitched, and I burst out laughing.  What happened to Patricia?  Alaaaaaaaaaas, she went to the dark side and into Inside Sales.  LTGW said, tersely, “A good fit for her skill set.”  Well, duh.  Anyway, I have to come up with a good nickname for my new boss, because he richly deserves one and I am not going to use his real name because he does not have the same sprightly approach to life, work and all that as my previous (and much missed for the joy of her physical presence, I have to say) boss.

The middle part of work was also amusing.  The new VP engineering sat with my lunch bunch, which freaked the hell out of me.  VPs never sit at my table.  I looked around at the guys and said, uh oh.  New VP sez, What?  “Well I’m not really used to controlling my language,” to which the response was, “It’s okay, I was in the navy.”  “Not like this you weren’t” but of course that just meant that everybody at the table peppered the new VP with questions about life on a fast attack nuclear sub, for which he was the chief maintenance dude.  I should mention at this point that the new VP is in his mid forties, could give George Clooney a run for his money in terms of looks and charm, and is a triathlete.

SIMULTANEOUSLY ScaryClown and I asked if he’d ever been attacked by a giant squid.  Actually I got the question out first, but ScaryClown said, “I wanted to ask that!” Then we burst out laughing and gave each other a fist bump.  Our new squid overlords are turning out quite fine.

The rest of the day I sent angry emails, entered returns, made Tanya laugh, missed Cris, had yet ANOTHER email encounter with the WORST CUSTOMER EVER and wrote one email which triggered another email which said, “Oh yeah, we didn’t actually consult customer service about that.  My meeting, let me show it to you.”  Then I abruptly remembered that I have a new boss, and made a pretence of consulting him, and then he said, “Uh, I think that’s a meeting I want to attend… I have a few questions myself.”  So once again, I poked the bear and lived.  And my boss let me leave early.  And Paul let me drive.

Back to Victoria.  Lexi and Darwin -asleep and thus not evident- were here, as were the parents and Unca Barry.  Unca Barry had brought a really interesting documentary about the last sailing of a four masted cargo vessel around Cape Horn, which I didn’t watch because I was too busy blabbing with Lexi and Katie. 

I had a really good night’s sleep, although I miss wireless, because normally I sleep with my computer (what?  What?) and I just roll over in the morning and start surfing the internet. (Yes, I know that will have to change when the heavens open and I actually have a special somebody to sleep with on a regular basis, in the meantime, it’s how it is in my life.  At least it’s warm.)

Paul went off to stay with his bro, Dr. Filk, and will be back to collect me as we will be flying up the Island Highway to see his cousin Ruth IF the weather cooperates because it’s supposed to bucket snow.

Keith really wanted to come but somebody had to feed kitties.  Also, unlike Katie, he is actually physically and emotionally capable of getting here on his own; thus the requirement to have an adult always accompany her.

 

I can hear Darwin!!!! Time to go be a cousin.

The thing that makes me happiest

I am now faced with packing for Victoria. IDONOTWANTTOCARRYMYPACKTOWORK.  And the mando.

Last night Tom U, Mike and Heather, and Keith and Jeff and I, had butter chicken and barbecued oysters and rum flambéd apples and garlic bread.  Food hit the plates sort of randomly.  Much beer was consumed. I love my friends and I had an awesome time.  What is with me and partying on weeknights lately???

My new friend phoned and told a hilarious story about the ferry line up.

The thing that makes me happiest is the big playground that is my mind.

Singing makes me happy and so does Major Kusanagi

So Keith and Paul picked me up from work last night (Keith was driving) and we went back to their place and at pork chomps and salad and oyster mushrooms.  Then Paul and I sang and played for ages.  Honestly, we should put together a set list and then we wouldn’t have those long headscratching moments when we think “What will we sing next?”

Around nine I went home and found Jeff watching Ghost in the Shell Innocence.  Man, in HD on a big screen that movie is drenchingly beautiful.

food & a brief narrative on narrowly avoiding public mayhem

I cooked me and Jeff salmon fillets poached in coconut milk, with orange slices, pepper, salt and garlic, with a shake of dill, and fresh asparagus and a baked potato.  The leftover asparagus got tossed in with the leftover salmon flavored coconut milk, and then I added in the cooking water, and I’ll rizz the asparagus and coconut milk and then strain it and it will be SOUP.  Nothng wasted.  Tomorrow, many many vegetables, and some mango.

Some teenager is yelling in the alley.

Something really annoying happened to me this morning on the way in to work and it was 15 minutes before I could stop thinking of things I should have done to that motherless wastrel.  I thought of ripping his earplugs out of his ears, knocking his hat off his head, taking his picture, punching him, kneeing him in the groin, getting up in his face and saying Your ancestors would die of shame if dey saw you like dat, and… then I remember that the bus driver saw me interact with him and HONKED HER HORN AND GESTURED IN SOLIDARITY.  Even so, even despite that, “tell it, sister,” all I could think of was how badly I wanted to injure that guy.  All he did was drop his newspaper and refuse to pick it up and take it to the trash.  I ended up doing it for him.  Fuck!

Some teenager is yelling in the alley.

Behind the scenes

I have taken all of the songs I have written off 3 x 5 index cards and entered them into an Excel spreadsheet.  This gives me a much better idea of what the hell I’ve done and what remains to be done, and by the blessed Virgin, it’s a lot of work.  But I can sort things more easily now.

I have my T4 – actually my choice of T4’s – so my taxes may or may not get done soon.

I am thinking of taking a year off work, but it will have to be no sooner than about six months from now. Why?  To learn valuable post collapse skillz and then be able to turn around and teach them.  Also, to do a bunch of travelling and other stuff that we won’t be able to do so much in future.

The friend I was worrying about so much with respect to her divorce IS DONE!!! The decree’s been granted, hallayluya!

Jeff is still trying to get a picture of Eddie doing something very cute – nesting in his underwear.  Weird, man, cats are very weird.

I think my bank card is finally working properly. Me happy.

I am pressuring Loki to let me post his ‘Tales of Grampa’ and he has at least agreed to consider it.  He just doesn’t want to get anybody in trouble.  Including himself.  Poysenally, I think that his stories BELONG TO THE WORLD, but Loki always has had issues with that concept.  I don’t blame him, really. 

I’m going to visit Victoria soon and hope to have progeny, at least some progeny, in tow.  We shall see.

I’m thinking fish for supper, it’s been ages.

I made fun of my mother’s list of projects.  I have since talked with her about it, and it was only because IT IS SO ******** BIG that it looks like Obama’s to do list crossed with the logistics of D-Day and a royal wedding.  flargle!

One of my coworkers crept up behind me and blew on my neck last week.  I yelped, leaped about, and then poutily said  that that was the closest I’d been to sex in many long periods of time, which caused him no end of amusement.

The guy who gave me oxygen a while back says it was all stress.  Why should I have stress?

I have a big long list of all the things that are currently bugging me and I’m working my way through it.  A lot of it involves me changing a lot of behaviours, and I guess I’m all hissy because I’m still coasting on quitting smoking, and much remains to be done.

Big dog

Samantha is a mastiff cross, and small, dainty and elegant do not describe her. What she is, is big, although as we slogged through the rain and mud at Trout Lake yesterday there were bigger dogs yet at the offleash part of the park.  My companion was amazed that there could be an offleash park where there were nesting birds, and I asked, somewhat rhetorically, if he’d ever been to Trout Lake in the summer time, when it is a warm green hymn to avian fecal material. Given that human beings also swim there (I have seen it, although you wouldn’t catch me in there unless the person next to me was encouraging me with a semi automatic) I don’t imagine the city fathers care if a few birds get harassed.  The fewer nesting there the better, and none of them are exactly what I would call endangered species.

While we were there, the tree next to the parking lot was full of birds, all singing as loud as they could simultaneously.  The light was crappy, but it sure sounded like starlings and red winged blackbirds having a smackdown.  It was so loud that I just stood gaping in the rain.

Samantha got in the water and got very dirty.

When my companion came to pick me up, we attempted a greeting kiss. We both ended up kissing Samantha’s nose.  I can’t remember laughing that hard in quite a while.  After the park we went to Burnaby Palace (Jeff got the leftovers, so apart from waffles on Saturday morning I dodged cooking every meal this weekend), and had a lovely time.

Church was great yesterday morning, Marci Green did the service, which was about the Grandmothers to Grandmothers campaign.