Author: Allegra

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

Kyiv is still Ukrainian

Putin’s a month into his war and he’s achieved so few of his original objectives that some commentators, while not exactly mocking him, are starting to worry that he’s being thwarted, which makes him prone to lash out and be dangerous and threaten nukes, repeatedly. He’s already put at least two hundred children in the ground. Why, if it wasn’t for the wars on the populations of Yemen and Syria, which Russia’s armed forces have helped to prosecute these past many years, and previous Russian outings in Ukraine and Chechnya, I wouldn’t have anything to compare it to.

Learned about SKIF’s, the Ukrainian country/urban tank killer, whose name literally means ‘Scythian’. They’re ferociously effective in modern warfare, cheap like borscht compared to the arms it can kill. It’s a modern day crossbow in terms of its asymmetrical warfare effects – it can take down a person, a vehicle, a tank, a chopper OR – with luck – a jet.

Two kudos overnight, very surprised by one of them; one of the stories I posted to AO3 is a complete outlier because the central character dyad is not destiel, it’s a three person triad that turns into a polyamorous household full of kids, and all this while the lead character is dealing with CRUSHING depression, new fatherhood, and coming to terms with being bisexual. So it has a million feels and some very dramatic and technical sex scenes and it’s not like anything else I’ve posted. (SO it doesn’t get much love.) The other kudo, from another person, is for my most popular fic, which has more than 6000 hits now, and a 4% kudo to hit ratio.

Weather kinda miserable and damp.

very complex ‘tholian web’  migraine imagery just now. It’s probably pollen triggered, it’s just been HORRIBLE, how crappy the allergens have been making me and Jeff feel. I feel brain dead, and then I perk up a bit, and then there’s another puff of cedar pollen and BRAIN DED AGIN. Now it’s a square full of vibrating chevrons; now it’s fuzz. Now it’s fading. dammit I need coffee.

Report has come that one of the Dunnetteers from Toronto has passed of cancer. The kind words are coming in and people are speaking well of the dead; she sounds like she was a superior sort of person and we’re also told she was well cared for, and having been through sitting with Tom (even though it wasn’t much and I didn’t materially assist, not really) I am glad that she was, and that no one stinted on the morphine.

Wordle in three this morning. Somebody I follow on twitter made a hint, that the word seemed apropos today, and that really helped. Didn’t hurt that I guessed the first letter of the word right out of the gate.

R value across Canada has dipped way below one. We’ll still get another surge as the new variant comes through (BA.2) but it won’t be as bad. I feel safer and I’m not as worried about my loved ones, especially my immunocompromised loved ones, but you have to watch the numbers…

Laundry’s all done, now I have to haul it upstairs and put it away. The rug survived being laundered, thank god, often the plastic backing comes off and then Jeff has to disassembled the machine to clear it out.

Time to go back to the world of Omar and Brad and Blossom.

Katie’s making plans to go back to work; I think childcare is going to be split between Suzanne and the (humph, advised not to post this descriptive but possibly offensive soubriquet) other grandma, with me as a backup I guess. There are many advantages to this as one can see, and one can only marvel at Ryker’s good fortune that when so many kids have no grandma’s he ended up somehow with three.

March Madness continues, and I’m adding new words to my conlang, admiring the hairdos of the contestants and their ability to pluck balls out of midair, steal them from each other and otherwise perform feats of athletic magic.

Ted Cruz the douche extraordinaire, brandishing a book which he very obviously has neither opened nor read, repurposed by the lovelies at Working Class History (on finer social media platforms everywhere):

This was a possible Hair Sinister cover:

odds sods bodkins

First, someone has a great eye and an even better sense of humour:

second, the story is now 3400 words long and I know how I’m going to end it

third I have a very reasonable roommate and while I can’t supply any specifics (but mOm already knows the details) (it involves a rug, and extra laundry) I must insist that really Jeff is a very reasonable fellow and I’m fortunate.

I’m doing lots of research for the story. I like learning new things.

 

Daily roundup

Paul and I went for a longer and faster walk than usual yesterday. The chickadees (probably just one bold chickadee) ate sunflower seeds out of my hand. (they also rocket overhead to get your attention, and the chipping sparrows and the towhees and flickers and crows all get interested. Still as a tomb – the Fraser was like grey glass. We managed to get out during a break between episodes of rain.

mOm got the Among Us art from Alex that I mailed to her.

Pollen count is insanely high.

I don’t know whether it’s the allergens but I’m so itchy and dull-witted it’s annoying to me and everyone around me.

After, I picked up croissants and went to the bank and Paul got Cape Seed bread for Keith, and then we came back here for me to snip THE WORST toenails I’ve ever seen offa Paul. Yes I still perform acts of personal service for Paul, why not, it’s solidarity.

Watched Black Crab (MAN WHAT A BLEAK MOVIE and about a quarter of it is scenes that look amazingly like escaping from Mariupol so that’s kinda disturbing. Noomi Rapace was, as always, fantastic. BUT BLEAK MOVIE don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Today – return book to library, take Jeff to breakfast, wash two-three loads of laundry, empty the dishwasher and try to write at least a thousand more words on the story.

No kudos today, but that’s the difference between Sunday and Monday in a world organized around 5 day weeks.

Medvedev is threatening Poland now how charming

2876 words. Very frustrating, had to delete about four hundred words because I was backing myself into a corner. However I’m in good shape now.

Rained nonstop for a day now, but not too heavily.

Three kudos overnight, two for the most recent and one for the one about crashing a glider in a cornfield.

It’s 5 am… think I’ll take a break (I’ve been writing, playing games and cruising Twitter) and consume some terrible media (Taboo.)

Called Mike last night, no answer.

Russia has demanded Ukraine turn over Mariupol this morning, which is a smoking shell of a modern city. Blowing something up and then demanding it, so adult. They’re preventing people from leaving, but at the same time word comes that they’re kidnapping UA citizens and transporting them to captivity in Russia. The spectre of nuclear war or a nuclear exchange flows over us.

from the Kyiv Independent (a more or less accurate news source) on twitter just now:

Greek diplomat after returning from Mariupol: ‘What I saw, I hope no one will ever see.’ Manolis Androulakis left the besieged city on March 15. He said it was joining the ranks of places known for having been destroyed in wars such as “Guernica, Coventry, Aleppo, Grozny.”

wonderful couple of hours in the pool with Alex

Ryker was with his pop. It was just a lovely time. Suzanne came late but she was having A DAY so no problem.

Total 2721 words… sent the first lot off to mOm who I think is quite pleased that I’m writing mystery romance without leaning on the TV characters quite so hard. Omar is a nice guy with a terrible step family and ‘Brad’ or whatever the hell his name is, is kind of a piece of work. I have to story logic my way through the first porny bit (now kisssss lol) and that’s going to take at least another 1000, mebbe 1500 words. We’ll see if I’m this productive tomorrow.

Now to finish off my Big Star Sammy.

immobilized

Slept most of the day yesterday. I think my eyes are so itchy from the incredibly high pollen counts that I slept in self defense. Once again missed the chance for a walk. Sleeping during the day is not a good sign when you’re my age – dementia is calling! However I do run cognitive tests on myself every day and I seem to be about the same.

1368 words so far, rum has entered the chat. Two kudos this morning.

Russians have started deporting Ukrainians to Russia. Just in case this wasn’t clear, deporting civilians during wartime RILLY looks a lot like GENOCIDE.

Clean sheets really are a beautiful thing. I also washed the cover for the bolster. I am so happy I figured out how to keep both ends of the bolster closed without having to do any sewing. I tie a knot in both ends, it’s that simple. If I don’t, the pillows the bolster is stuffed with come barfing out, usually in the middle of the night. waaa what dat noise… oh.

I am adding words to Bih-Bah, my conlang made out of basketball hoop noises. I always add words during March Madness, when it’s nonstop games for days at a time.

I should go downstairs and let Buster out. He asked to have the door locked last night but he prob’ly wants to pee.

A Katie halloween costume from days of yore

My what big green eyes you have

productive day

Should have gone walking with Paul but I was writing and didn’t feel like driving.

2 kudos overnight, one for one of my faves and the other for the most recent story.

895 words total on the story. I have a grip on the characters and the location and now I am wondering how much rum they should consume. Weed’s illegal there so I can’t rush sociability with that. LOL.

I washed and replaced my bedding, compensated my roommate for the money he’s loaned me over the last two months (in the normal course of household events because all the utilities are in his name) and we did a shop.

later in the morning: Spring is truly here, the crows are pruning the dogwood for nesting materials.

 

a few more words

778 words so far on the new story. It’s about a mining engineer kidnapped by illegal gold miners in Guyana and the poor schlub detailed by the company to babysit him in-country until the person to accompany him back to Canada arrives. One kudo on the most recent story overnight.

This is what the haircut looks like first thing in the morning. I didn’t brush it or nothing, it came out my head that way.

I think you all probably know but I super detest Vladimir Putin.

Breakfast at the Foreshore diner

I had french toast an’ swossage and coffee and Jeff had the regular breakfast with bacom and coffee and it was very tasty and lorge. Leftovers in the fridge for pecking on throughout the day.

Horrifying Frontline about Putin’s war. It’s available on line but jesus I’m not recommending it because it put both me and Jeff in a foul and bleak place.

mOm got the story in the email finally. To make reading easier, I am thinking of having a password locked area of the site for people to read stories if they log in but I will leave off thinking of the mechanics for when Jeff is not buried in improvements for paying customers.

Happy St. Patricks for those who drink…

555 words into the new story.

Our old home at Valley Springs Ranch – the cottage Dad built. Roberta, David, Mary – we were visiting from Borden.

lovely walk at Fraser foreshore

Chickadees buzzing us I think I was supposed to have sunflower seeds.

After, quick poke of nose into Cobb’s for MORE TREATS it’s just treats all the way down.

Fixing an email problem, got version 3 of the meet on the beach story to mOm.

Mailed some of Alex’s “Among Us” art to the grands just now.

Now I’m going to eat a croissant, see if I don’t.

The laundry is put away

Jeff said he was off to get Timmy Ho’s and I thought “I bet as a personal challenge I can go downstairs and haul up my three loads of clean laundry in that ol’ Ikea bag and put them away before Jeff gets home,” and I managed to almost change into my day clothes too, before he got home, but not quite. That putting away included the towels, the rags, the kitchen linens and the washcloths so I was running around like a fool there stuffing cloth into cubbies.

I have a whole wheat burrito egg wrap in the fridge for a midmorning snack, and the prospect of Paul coming and taking me for a mall walk. I’ll drive. I should muck out the fridge so I have room for better (ie edible) veg – but the many ways I have been putting off this task now add up to a stench most Plutonic which wafts I tell you wafts in a bad, bad way whenever the fridge door swings open. So the more I have to do it the less I want to and that graph is  looking like the infection rate in Hong Kong right now, which didn’t vaccinate a high enough percentage of its old people plus Sinovax sucks a mop and now there are hundreds of thousands of people infected with COVID at once and old people in care are dying in droves. Source something @crof posted on twitter

Meanwhile the COVID numbers are almost flat here, although they won’t be in two weeks. Up and fucking down. Let’s save capitalism.

Buster was so halfhearted at training this morning I was most perturbed, but then he finally did a pawclap like he’s doing me the BIGGEST GAWDAM FAVOUR. Hrmph.

Anyway, have a gif from Reptilicus. I don’t even want to explain how I ended up finding this gif, it was a drunkard’s walk in 180 seconds across the internet and then suddenly, DIRCH.

 

 

Will the laundry get put away? who cares

six kudos last night, on three different stories.

Like a fool, like a positive fool, I’ve started writing a romance with original characters.

Mariupol is under siege, 300K people are trapped, 1500 civilians have been killed there. Zelenskyy addressed Canadian Parliament yesterday and Candice Bergen sat on her hands. What a (slur/slur) that woman is.

Nazanin is free. 

She got her passport back today. It’s incredible, I wept for joy, reading that. She’s going home to her daughter and husband, who has starved himself and thrown himself at the UK diplomatic apparatus since 2016 when she landed in her predicament. Nobody with a brain or any pull believes that she’s guilty of the spying charges. I haven’t mentioned her on the blog before but I’ve been following her incarceration for at least five years.

We dined on takeout from Big Star sandwiches and it was FANTASTIC. They have a turkey, cranberry sauce and stuffing sandwich (small, which is still large) which I customized with crispy onions and Jeff had something large and equally tasty. Which reminds me, I owe Jeff for that.