Author: Allegra

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

The barbarians are inside the gate

I was reading about the Australian wildfires. I light a candle for those who died and those of their relatives who are left to mourn for these senseless deaths.

And as much as the 20th century taught us about senseless death, the 21st century will be the worst ever, and maybe the last in human time.

The unemployment statistics in the US are the stuff of horror; the US is engaged in two simultaneous foreign wars, and at least another half dozen by proxy, including Israel/Gaza; the world is full of angry, disaffected, poverty stricken men and their numbers are going to swell.  There are pundits predicting that the future will be determined by them….

When the barbarians came to Rome, they had military leaders.  When the new barbarians strike, it will be from within, and they will have no more conscience or self-governance than a drunken teenager high on meth.  Over the next 15 years, we are going to see barbarities undreamed of brought into our living rooms, and then into our daily lives.

See the lyrics for Leslie Fish’s No High Ground. I wish I could, the damned things aren’t anywhere I can locate on tha interwebs.

Fabulous evening

So I went with my/an “I-met-him-on-line-so-I-don’t-know-what-to-call-him” to a dinner party last night and I had more fun than I knew to predict, that’s for sure.  I mean any evening that starts with “Bring your mandolin, they’ll love it” is shaping up to be okay.  I drank a lot of beer, and two shots of Grand Marnier (when did that stuff become so yummy?), ate perfectly cooked prime rib, laughed until I cried about three times, sang and harmonized my lungs out, listened to Pete Seeger’s greatest hits on the stereo, stood up to play Spinal Clinic and got hijacked into playing backing instrumental on Heidi singing/improvising “Border Collies are smarter than you” and got called outside to see the ring around the moon.  I met some wonderful people, I mean really seriously wonderful folks, and now Jeff and I are consuming waffles and trying to figure out if we really need to do any running around today.

Feeling better

Jerome and Shannon came over last night and GUESS WHAT!!!!

Yeah, well, what news would you expect from a couple who got married last summer.  They are progenizing, and Shannon looks glorious and Jerome looks pleased.  I hope they have a hundred fat children.  No, actually, I hope they do whatever they want and have fun doing it, and that seems to be a) how it’s been and b) the continuing plan.

I fed them spaghetti and they watched The Road to Guantanamo with us.  As we said to each other after we watched … Going to Afghanistan 3 weeks after 9/11 was their first mistake, and it got mistakier from there.

The crowd consisted of Paul (who had to leave for work at 7:30 and thus missed the movie, and brought the bread I made french toast this morning with as there was otherwise no bread in the house), Keith, me, Jeff and the developing duo.

I suppose I should say that after the best part of a year of saying, “Aw, c’MON – where do you get your goofy ideas about movies anyway??? Don’t you trust me?” Jeff talked me into watching Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.

Yes, I liked it.  Now, cleaning and tidying and working on Valentine cards and getting read to go to a dinner party tonight.  I’ve been asked to bring my mando.  Yee!

Supplemental 02

Yeah, well.  I got off the bus this morning and experienced searing chest pain, pain radiating into my back, and my vision greyed out for about ten seconds.

Panicking, I called work and got the First Aid attendant on the blower, and he came up with another coworker and met me halfway down the path.  The pain quit pretty much as soon as I got the oxygen, but I feel really strange and I’ll be talking to the doctor today.

I got into an ambulance but assured the attendants I had perked up, went to work and promptly got sent home again by a very stern and uncompromising version of Patricia, who hand delivered me to Jeff, who came and got me. I’m glad she sent me home, ’cause I do feel off colour.

I’m still having waves of discomfort, but I’m  thinking this is either radiating back pain, a pinched nerve, some new and entirely weird variant of a migraine, or just plain who the hell knows.  I know it isn’t my heart – they ran a tape on me in the ambulance and it all looked fine.

The paramedic asked me if I’d been under stress lately.  I don’t know how to answer that.  I don’t think a LOT of stress.  Like I said, who knows.  It was embarrassing though, and next time I think I’ll wait until I can’t move to ring the baloney alarm….

I would very much like to publicly thank John V. for his professionalism and for the relief I felt when I knew he’d be dealing with it.  And I’d like to thank Sandy C for calling the ambulance, and the folks who responded.  I feel very cared for today.  Although it seems there wasn’t anything wrong with me that being fondled by an ambulance attendant (joking, joking!) and supplemental oxygen couldn’t fix….

Ick, hormones for Valentines

Despite it all, my TMI meter still seems to be working, so I won’t bother with the deets.  I just feel wrung out and not particularly brainy at the moment.  On the positive side my back and leg aren’t hurting me too much at the moment; I’ve been getting by without painkillers.

I wish my phone hadn’t died just as I was coming home yesterday.  The sunset was so glorious, so spectacular, so awe-inspiring, I wanted to phone Jeff and tell him to step out on the back deck.  Also, he’d picked up beer that day so I didn’t actually have to go into the mall.  But I’ve got beer, so really, wherefore the plaints?

I started writing my Valentines day cards today.  More after the cut.  Please note that I am using my just freshly created font so the appearance on this blog of those staves will look very different from how it will look when I print them out.  I have no idea what font they will appear in.  Also, they all run together because Google docs knocked the formatting out.  But I think I’m doing very well with the office coworker valentine’s this year – I won’t be doing individual ones but I think I’ll be able to keep everybody reasonably happy.

One thing that troubles me…. Should I give any to the new squid overlords?  I’m going to go talk to HR about that.  I mean, I’ve been giving out office Valentines for YONKS now, and if they tell me I have to stop I should probably do it anyway, but only give them to the people who are a) expecting them – because at this point, they do and b) really don’t give a roasted rat’s tuchis what HR thinks. then OR now.

I lost my bank card.  I have to report it now.  I don’t want another one, but oh well.

Healing is itchy work.

I’ve been re-reading George Carlin.  That man was a genius, and he left us too soon.

Continue reading Ick, hormones for Valentines

Wonderful day, be careful when you open the links.

Katie rescued me from my plans yesterday (who needs to clean out the junk room, meh) and we hung out and watched the movie that dare not speak its name, which Katie really enjoyed (and I don’t need an excuse to watch anything with Lenny Bruce in it) and I made french country style apple pies using the mechanical apple corer peeler thingy that Jeff has, and I finally threw out the lard that he moved here to Vancouver after ten years (I opened the package, I counted three kinds of discoloration in the contents of the package, I smelled the package, I closed the package, I threw out the package) which was still not as old as the chickpeas which bore the legend ‘Arva Flour Mills’ which I s-canned about six months ago, which meant that I had to make the pies with pure butter pastry, and they were amazing.  Why the Joy of Cooking says pastry has to have lard in it I have no conception.  Also I made her listen to a couple of tunes on Thirteen, Vixy and Tony’s CD.  I love Apprentice…. Also, yesterday I bought me and Katie a pound of prawns and we cooked and ate most of them.  We also went for a walk and bought candy at 7-11.  We also shared a couple of videos, like this HORRIFICALLY RUDE rap tune, which made me laugh very hard.  I walked her to the bus stop and gave her a big hug goodbye.  After she left (with the smallest of the pies to share with Dax, and a couple of oranges) Jeff and I watched Forgetting Sarah Marshall.  Also, yesterday, I used yourfont.com to generate my own font, with Jeff’s help, and I’ve even installed it already.  Then I went to bed, after a perfect day perfectly misspent.

Things I learned yesterday:

I will be making more apple pies.  Because DAMN THEY WERE SO GOOD, and I only got half of one, out of the four I made.  I based the recipe on something Tom U. made for me and Paul once, and Paul and I literally talked about that pie for months.  You know the kind of pie, where you wake up out of a sound sleep to find your partner looking dreamy, and you think, what up? and the other person says I’m thinking about that apple pie Tom made.  That good.

Homemade meatball pita wraps are awesome.

I prefer prawns cold with dipping sauce.

Russell Brand is simply too cute.

If the sun is shining I must go outside.

watched the last half of the Super Bowl

That was really good football.  It was exciting, it was close, and there some aMAZing plays.  That Holmes touchdown catch was simply stunning, as was Harrison’s 100 yard run.

I didn’t see the first half because I was driving back from Renton (and yes, I was driving, and yes, I enjoyed driving that Prius with big happiness) with the Tom and Peggy travelling stringed extravaganza.  Conflikt II was great and I’ve already pre-reg’d for next year.

Today, more singing and playing. But first, unpacking, grr.

Feeling lazy… cross posted from Facebook

Since Rob H and Lexi have both tagged me….
Here is a list of 25 things about me….
1. I talk and sing to myself all the time. Bugs the crap out of Jeff.
2. I can see three of my mother’s quilts from my bed. Uh, actually that’s four.
3. I am uneasily unreconciled to being committed to rationality … and liking the Tarot. That ‘for entertainment purposes only’ sticker goes only so far.
4. There a couple of people who are still alive and contactable but they’ve gone to a place where I can’t reach them, and I miss them every day.
5. I love Wreck Beach.
6. I’ve written at least 200 songs, and of these have sheet music for about 25, lyrics for about 140, and of that pile maybe 40 are good enough for posterity.
7. All of my close male relatives loathe my singing voice.
8. If I’d married and stayed married to the first man I was engaged to, we’d be celebrating 32 years of marriage this year.
9. I’m really happy I didn’t marry him.
10. I have obscenely self-indulgent requirements for privacy, sleep and down time, which motherhood did little to dent.
11. Is deleted, so as not to offend gender warriors.
12. Is deleted, so as not to offend friends of friends on Facebook.
13. Is deleted, as being TMI. And kinda icky.
14. I started blogging at allegrasloman.com in April 2004. I lost the first couple of months of posts so the archives only go back to August 2004.
15. I am entertained by the fact that my daughter has used the blog to track the various events that have led her to have PTSD.
16. I love my parents and wish everybody had parents like them.
17. I love my kids and am thrilled that they are really close to being finished school AND that they are turning into wonderful adults.
18. Is deleted. Because Facebook is forever. But it was funny!
19. I give money to fellow bloggers doing primary research in fields I’m interested in, my kids, my church, Medecins sans Frontieres, Breast Cancer Research, the BCCLU, Americans I like who don’t have health insurance and have dirty great medical bills, the Salvation Army, BCSPCA, International Red Cross/Red Crescent, Gaza relief, and street musicians.
20. I love giving homilies at church.
21. I am in constant pain.
22. I think free speech is more important than how people keep using it to hurt my sensibilities.
23. I think freedom of assembly is even more important than free speech and that participating in mass demonstrations is very empowering, which is one of the reasons I love Pride Day so much.
24. I often say what everyone else is thinking but is too smart to articulate.
25. I feel anxious if there isn’t at least a week’s supply of toilet paper in the house.

It is 4:16 in the morning

and there are still 35 filkers up and singing.  I left the big room just now and Cindy was singing John’s Song (about Shepard from SGA).  Anyway, the biscotti fairy has been through both filk rooms and I STILL HAVE BISCOTTI LEFT.  Just goes to show how much I made and how many people are allergic to nuts and wheat.

I had just enough energy in me when I woke up to do the rounds, and now I am going back to bed.