Author: Allegra

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

Bees.

I have walked by the bees clinging to the underside of the first of the Scotch Thistle for the last three days, and every time I walk by they are thinner and less mobile.  There are dead bees all over the campus.  It’s making me very sad.

 

Damn the lad

I asked Keith how I looked in the dress I bought for Katie’s Grad, and he said, and I quote, “It looks fairyish – if there is such a thing as a lumpy, lopsided, over-the-hill fairy.” Then he tried to make it up to me by telling me I looked like something out of Neil Gaiman. Gee, thanks…. I must git vingince. Keith is staying the night but I don’t know if he’ll see the morning at this rate.

How to drive your pastor wacky & get the spice back in your spouse

Fortunately, since I’m not a Bible believing Christian, I don’t have to bug MY pastor with any of these questions.  Actually today was the last day Beacon meets at Place Maillardville, so I kinda sorta had to go.  Twenty five years! 

 But what I like the most about the list shown in the previous paragraph is that it was developed by a seminary trained former pastor, which means that there are inconsistencies here I haven’t heard of before – not having spent years poring over the text.  And I don’t have a problem with Jesus.  I have a problem with there being some kind of a code that says that I have to hand my brain over to a bunch of people who don’t act as if they like me, let alone love me, to follow Jesus.  Jesus himself lived his principles, and damned few of us can say that.

And now for something completely different.  I’m reading a book called Mating in Captivity, and it is one of the best books about how domesticity and sex duke it out in married life I have ever, ever seen.  It is nuanced, humane and accessible and I highly recommend it.  You can’t miss the cover.

News roundup

Hurricane forecast accuracy is reduced, but you’re not supposed to complain about it.

Pride has two faces. 

Alcohol protects against rheumatoid arthritis?  I’ll drink to that !!  Ooh, and further down it says that breastfeeding longer than 13 months protects against rheumatoid arthritis as well!  (May protect, anyway, according to preliminary research…)

Junk DNA isn’t really junk?

Monty Python was wrong…. there is no Universally Funny Joke.

The majority of mammalian genes tick to a circadian clock.

Erm…

Why on earth would I dream that Oprah and I would work on a cookbook?  I’ve never even watched an Oprah show all the way through.

It was wonderful seeing both of the kids yesterday.

I haven’t had tea and toast for breakfast in so long, I think that’s what I’ll do this morning.

The minister of my church sent me a Facebook invite.  I’m on livejournal – if you want my moniker I’ll forward it on upon request – but I’m sitting Facebook out.  I’ve been severely reducing the amount of time I spend on line because on line time is not an appropriate use of my lived time – at least in the amounts I was doing it before I left the Augur Inn. Also, and it’s easy to predict doom and destruction, but I don’t think Facebook is going to last.  Smart people are opining that the regulation (by which I mean self-regulation and monitoring) issues will doom it (Livejournal just went through a horrorshow/storm about ‘the incest journals’ and is a sadder but wiser internet locale since). Also, I believe that Facebook belongs to younger people.  I know that’s stupid, but I’m 48, I already have my own vanity blog and I carn’t manij the social network I have, if by that one means “taking care of the people who like you and staying in touch with them in appropriate and life enhancing ways”. Also, if the only Facebook invites I’ve received are from my daughter’s buddy and my minister, it means the collection of wise and anarchic individuals I hang with is staying away in droves.  Ya mon, I’ll sit this one out.
I know a guy who is on every social network thingee that blows through the internet.  As far as I can see, the stated reasons “staying in touch, looking for work” are bs.  He’s just pulling tail.   I am sure that my minister and my daughter’s girlfriend are doing it for legit social networking reasons but when I heard this guy was an early adopter that also encouraged me to let go of the rope.

I have one last reason to avoid Facebook, and this is even more stupid and trivial than all the foregoing reasons.  www.fark.com makes BRUTAL fun of Facebook at every oppo.  Erm….

Quiet Day

Today I thought it was my hair appointment but I was wrong by a week – fortunately I was also after seeing Katie and Keith for lunch in uptown New West (overate, of course) and getting a new outfit for Katie’s Graduation, and visiting the New West library (oldest in BC) for the latest Aubrey Maturin book.  I read Desolation Island and I have to say I didn’t like it much except for the end.

Keith brought along the first two digests of Fables, and, while no Strangers in Paradise, it’s very entertaining and quite well done.  So I’ve done nothing but read and buy bread and hang with the kids today, and by heaven I needed to.