Author: Allegra

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

No dice.

I went home like a lady in a walker, so sore in the back (and suffering from another ailment that my father will thank me not to elucidate) that I could scarcely lift my feet.  LTGW showed up later for a beer and to fill me in on the days of his lives (good, bad, and yowch!) and then very kindly offered to take me to a walkin clinic which was full and another clinic, which was closed (and then dropped me off at home which was more than decent of him).  Since the notion of spending six to eight hours at RCH waiting to be seen for a non life threatening ailment was more than I could stand, I’ll be down the hill at 8 tomorrow morning when the clinic opens.  Meantime I’m pushing cranberry juice and feeling very sorry for myself and covering myself in blankies, because I’m so cold I’ve got the shakes.

But it’ll be fixed soon, and in the meantime I have the warm and fuzzy feeling of having been looked after by a friend.

Lost mail

It appears I haven’t been receiving mail at two of my different addresses.  My apologies for not responding to any mail which I didn’t actually get to read.

Ran into cousin Laurel in the Granville Station the other day.  When she told me she’d emailed me I went, “Hunh?” because I certainly had no recollection of receiving anything from her, and it would be a red letter day if I did.  I’ve also sent mail out in the last week that never got to the recipient, so it’s good not to assume malfeasance in these cases….

I’m heading to Jericho tonight and Victoria on the weekend, and hopefully somewhere in there I get to see daughter Katie.  So I have a nice week in prospect.

Work continues to rapidly improve.  I wish I could say the same about my back.  Other parts of me are grumbling too, but the back is loudest; I’m doing my exercises, including (since I couldn’t sleep anyway) getting up and doing them at 4 in the morning.

I had one of my favourite coworkers say to me yesterday, “What the hell am I good at?” so I wrote him a paean of praise (disguised in the dreadful, eviscerated language of “the resume”) which outlined exactly what he does that is SO bloody amazing; I am looking forward to his comments, especially the last line, which was, Holy crap! after rereading that even I was impressed, and I’ve seen you plastered.

Ah, workmates.

Today is the all staff meeting.  I found out from the CEO that somehow my email outlining my questions for the townhall had disapparated, so I re-sent it (lot of that going around), only this time I took thought to include one of Scary Clown’s questions.  We shall see if anything comes of it.

Despite everything that’s going on (some of my rellies are having a hard time with one thing and another, and I’m up to four painkillers a day, again, after not being that bad for a year) I’m actually happy.  And I’m working on a tune, which I think is going to be an instrumental, and I’m using chords which I don’t know the names for.  I love the mandolin, but it’s still very much a foreign language.  Oh, and I sliced myself in the kitchen on the weekend, so I bled all over the fretboard as I was practicing for Jericho tonight.  It doesn’t really hurt, but it was a surprise to see the blood.  I immediately started riffing on “Ya gotta suffer if you want to sing the blues.”  But really, I haven’t, and I don’t.

During one of my internet Drunkard’s Walks

I found a devotional singer called Sada Sat Kaur.  I have been listening to her version of Adi Shakti and really enjoying it.  There’s something about the way she sings, and in particular the last harmony on the track, which is very energizing and uplifting.  Also, she uses dobros with tablas, and you don’t get to hear that every day.

Impressionist and post Impressionist art

So Katie K and I went to the Vancouver Art Gallery (odd to go there when there’s no zombies, protesting or dope smoking) and saw the current exhibit which I highly recommend. I almost started crying in front of a Van Gogh – it was SO EMOTIONAL and the difference between the painting and any reproductions is very startling.  I spent a LONG time in front of Tissot’s Specimen of a Portrait and ended up buying a print of it in the gift shop.  The lace on the dress is unreal.  Picasso’s “Life” is worth seeing in life.  There were some Rodin sculptures that just had me shaking my head.  After all this time, his Balzac is still an amazing bloody feat.
Then to Granville for sashimi and Asahi beer and Katie K had plum wine.  Then we poked our heads in to a couple of clothing stores, including Bedo, but there’s no goddamned way I’m spending 40 bucks on something so poorly made!!!  It was a cute top but the seams were a disaster.  I bought a couple of nose thingies for daughter Katie from a street vendor.
Lots of ear flapping.  Katie K is going off to see her mum sometime next week… who is rapidly recovering from a stroke, out in the wilds of Maine.

I did my back exercises this morning but I hurt worse now than I did then. That probably has more to do with standing and gawking at pictures than the exercises.

Peaceful day.

I had a nice slow start, and then Paul turned up around 11:30 and we hacked away at the separation agreement. I’m fine with it – Paul has to go away and think about one last issue, which is not a deal killer in my opinion. Either way, I’m ready to sign. It was embarrassing to realize we didn’t know how to spell one of daughter Katie’s middle names though – good thing the birth certificate is here.
After that we went into New West and got my name off the joint account (I’ve not touched it since long before I moved out, except to put money in it, but it makes sense to stop having a joint account) and then had a nice shop (more batteries, epsom salts, that kind of thing) and I left a message for the woman I want to do a video of me doing the Tapioca song so I can get it on Youtube. Tapioca belongs to the world! I kinda went nuts in my old butcher shop and dropped about $40 on meat, but Paul didn’t complain when I cooked him an early dinner (I MISS COOKING) of pork souvlaki, rice and greek salad (which he mostly prepped) rounded out with that lovely McAuslan Apricot wheat beer.  Strawberries, blueberries, powdered sugar and cream for dessert, and we ate out on the balcony, with Paul occasionally wincing as the buses went by – he really hates bus noise.
Then we worked on each other’s feet and he napped on the Dreaded Sofa of Morpheus. He told me to wake him up about 10 to 7 but he looked so peaceful I let him snooze another 10 minutes. It was a very odd way way to spend the 25th anniversary, but we’re plenty odd people, and it was very peaceful. And productive. And hopefully quite typical of how things are going to be in future.