Author: Allegra

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

quiet Christmas

Apart from making steak and eggs for breakfast and mac and two cheeses for elevenses and two buttered rum toddies (a strong one for me, a weak one for Jeff) and shovelling the walkways, I had a very lazy day. My unputaway laundry is glaring at me, and the drawers I have to empty out to accommodate its spread is glaring as well, and two more loads at least await.

It amazes me how fast (now that I’ve learned to stay hydrated, pushing fluids all day until 6 pm whether I feel thirst or not) that I get DEhydrated; I didn’t get up and drink tea yesterday first thing, and in fact had nothing to drink until midmorning, and then spent the rest of the day trying to catch up. What they say in the health articles about not feeling thirst as much as you get older is totally true. I don’t know if Jeff has to remind himself to drink something but I sure do. My problem is that I want to drink tea all day and a) bumping caffeine all day is not healthy and b) it irritates me pipes.

I know things aren’t really much better but I feel much better. And because I’m feeling better, I’m trying to spend some time each day trying to process sadness about Tom and Ville. Two such different circumstances, and so tragic in their own way. I have names to put to two of the biggest public health related tragedies in BC history and the idea that their deaths are enmeshed in this greater social history is making me thoughtful. To me their deaths are tragedies and not statistics, but in the end they’ll just be statistics, and that makes me feel a little blank.

Today, Christmas movies (we didn’t watch them yesterday) and some yummy leftovers, and I’m thinking PUDDING RICE PUDDING but that means I have to make rice, LOL. Wonder what happens when I add butterscotch pudding to rice pudding, will it be a Frankentreat?

Laundry started, dishwasher running, kitchen counter tidied, coffee made and consumed; remembered to take mah meds, stole a picture of Jeff quietly working on Alex’s computer and now I have to find the cables to get it onto my computer gigglesnort. It’s only 6:30 and I’m well into my day.

Buster interaction

I think Buster is almost ready for OAC speech buttons on the floor. I had the following postural conversation with him today:

Hey  Buster, would you like skritches (this is specifically when I take a fork to his face. Yes, I know this sounds outrageous, but he loves it.)

I offer him a choice of forks – plastic or wood. He chooses plastic.

Since he’s sitting in my chair (my half of the LaZboy we picked up at a neighbours’ house) I just barely touch the blanket (I usually pull it out from under him) and instead of it being a tussle (he usually calls and is very reluctant to move and must be coaxed) he steps out of the way, I sit down, and give him a nice long skritch with a fork. Practically took longer to describe than to happen.

I love being able to communicate with Buster. He’s an admirable cat.

IT’S A CHRISTMAS ATHEIST MIRACLE

You’ll never guess who’s back!

CURVEBEAK!

Yes, the crow with the distinctive honker has returned to the railing next to the back door, and how? and why? On Christmas of all days?

It’s all Jeff’s fault. At this point Jeff is reading this with a faint frown and thinking WHY DO I ALWAYS GET BLAMED FOR EVENTS THAT HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH ME but he was the instigating event.

Because I had threatened to make mac and cheese, and didn’t yet, he was saying well I’m not pressuring you but if you’re not going to make it I’m going to order something, but I don’t want to order what you can’t eat. I said “Order for one, if you really want something, problem solved,” but really that’s not problem solved that’s not how we do things, we family order to get additional meals, otherwise the cost per meal and delivery gets to be too much of the food budget.

So I finally (I forgot to take my bp meds and metformin at 6 this morning, didn’t get to them until 8, so I crashed hard and didn’t really shake off the doldrums until noon) got up and watched a little of the All Madden Christmas Day special (I saw him in his hotel in California shortly after John died but didn’t actually make the connection until I was back in Canada, which makes me snicker) and then even more finally dredged up the energy to make the ham and caper mac and two cheeses but in so doing I had to assess the current larder slash cheese situation and it was acceptable, except for that one fucking piece of moldy cheddar. You know how there’s aaaaalways one fucking piece of moldy cheddar. Anyway I figured it’s bright orange and crows like bright colours, mebbe they’ll see it and eat it, and if not I’ll trash it.

Ha ha

like crows are going to pass up cheddar cut up into half an almond sized chunks when it’s ass freezing cold and in between snowfalls and that, of course, is when Curvebeak showed up, sizing me up through the window, at the back of the queue, and I almost died of joy. He is a reallly odd looking crow- his head is a funny shape, it’s not just his beak.

happy Christmas everyone

Yup, a day whose importance has deflated like a cluster of birthday balloons blown into a ditch has arrived again. I haven’t wrapped a present or done any running around. I haven’t prepped a turkey or assembled the mass of vegetables to peel that oppresses the groaning board. The dining room table remains covered in filk memorabilia, craft cruft and a thousand piece puzzle (Jeff finished the edge). I don’t have to work, be responsible, be hospitable, put on a spread, worry about snax, worry about entertainment, worry about a gathering during a pandemic.

Rob W showed up briefly yesterday with firefly and snowpiercer comics! We mourned for his coworker, killed while moving poles for an electric bus (by another worker in their bus). translink is OF COURSE being remarkably silent about it and Rob, who drove bus in this part of solh temexw (remember? pronounced Sole te mawk) said he always hated doing it because you’re outside the bus and even more vulnerable than usual. I gave him a piece of Sugru (rubber moldable glue, incredible stuff I’m sure he’ll find a use for it) and two KN95 masks, one of which he promptly broke, so I’m glad I gave him two. I provided him with the address at Caspell Junction. Then he mentioned he’s got heart surgery on the docket but not scheduled yet (ablation, ouch). I warned him that COVID is severely fucking with surgery waits. Then we mourned for Tom for a while, exchanged a couple of flying anecdotes  (mine about writing a fanfic with soaring in it, and him about ‘landing out’ as in right out of Germany (he was paragliding) and walking home from France, somehow without attracting the attention of the gendarmes) and parted on friendly terms. We were both masked the whole time he was here and Jeff closed his door. Yes, I know showing up unannounced during the plague is not optimal, but what is in these parlous times and I did immediate upgrade his mask.

We both spent a minute just flapping our gums over the last communique about the plague from the government and Doc Henry. Like who the fuck cares, the hospitals are full, N95 masks are unavailable except at ‘this is what is charged during wartime’ prices, people are lining up to be tested using inadequate masks, test kits are unavailable, disabled people are left at the side of society to die unimpeded and thousands of people are at risk of freezing to death on the streets of Vancouver this week. Yup, Merry Christmas we get wished from a bubble of vacuity. Nothing she says means a fucking thing as long as universities and schools are forced to stay open. Maybe she hopes this omicron wave will burn out in six weeks like it did in Gauteng province. I’ve long since given up trying to understand the rationale for the bs.

I picked up a few treats yesterday while I was out getting my BP meds at Guardian (jammed past pandemic standards with anxious people seeking booster shots…) which included FLORENTINES four of them, strangely available at the butcher shop on 6th, Jeff asked for something caramelly and that was as close as I could get, a beefsteak for a steak and eggs brekky this am, six Timmy Hos donuts, and two handpies (strawberry rhubarb) for Jeff. So that obviously means that I walked two k in the slush and muck yesterday but the traction wasn’t bad and I was having a good balance day so walking home a bunch of groceries while I got a little out of breath was certainly manageable. I leave the walking stick by the door in case I’m having a wobbly day, but I’m getting a lot fewer of those…

Okay, time to get the steak out of the fridge and bring it to room temperature. I think I’m just going to bake it, the idea of standing to cook it for any length of time simply appalls. I’m about to blow through two days worth of salt consumption in one go, better make it worthwhile….

¯\_(?)_/¯

how lucky

  • I still have parents
  • I like them and I’m still talking to them
  • They’ve been married, as of today, 65 years.
  • Isn’t that ludicrous?
  • They certainly think so. Where the hell did 65 years go?
  • And I’m lucky that I have the technology to pick up a phone and call them and felicitate them on 65 years of happiness.
  • How lucky is that?

that’s quite an obit

check it out

Snowed about three cm last night. The world is blanketed and quiet, like it should be at 4 in the morning. I will shovel, Jeff will salt.

It’s five in the morning and I can hear a snowplow. At least Burnaby HAS snowplows.

Madison Cawthorn, a recently minted US Representative, who announced to a bug eyed world that women are EARTHEN VESSELS as far as MAKKING BABBIES and GOD is concerned, is getting a divorce after 8 FUCKING MONTHS.  FUCKING CHRISTIANS AND THEIR ETERNAL MARRIAGES AMIRIGHT??? His wife appears like a Fox news twirlybird with an instagram full of 2 hours of makeup and exercise with every photo, and he is a narcissistic misogynistic shitheel/freeform bag of dicks. Anyway the schadenfreude on twitter yesterday was balm for my wounded soul.

Kitchen floor is a glorious symphony of cleanliness, what with the floor swept and the rugs washed. It won’t last, Buster will scoot across one of the rugs within the next couple of hours, but it did exist, however briefly.

All of my clean clothes are put away or on hangars, but I still need to rearrange some things and put more books away and … like that. Denny’s desk is cleared off and ready to go to Alex.

…. and I already need to do more laundry. LOL. Two more loads at least, cleaning rags and regular clothes.

FCKING SQUIRREL came to where I feed the crows and tweety birds. pOp is rolling his eyes, having lived this for decades…. If you put out food, HERE COME THE SQUIRRELS! this one was big, fat and glossily black. Christ, I’m expecting a raccoon and a bear at this rate.

Crows really like pecans. I gave them pecans as a treat and the NOISE THEY MADE it was most entertaining.

I didn’t fetch my Inderal yesterday; I’ve got until 8 pm tonight to get more. I HAS A CHRISTMAS EVE MISSION. Get BP drugs so I don’t blow a hole in mah brain, whoooooeee

The handyman now has pictures of where the railing is loose at the bottom of the stairs at Caspell Junction and he’ll fix it sometime between now and New Years, and then I’ll pay him I guess. I was beating myself up a little for paying for something the landlord should be doing, and somebody else’s landlord at that, but I realized that it’s something that needs doing and if I can make it happen through someone else’s labour, I will. Paul is walking slow (he can keep up with me no problem) and his gait has changed a lot in the last couple of years and I’m just terrified of him falling. I was also thinking about Tom and how he REALLY had a bias for action, for being up and doing, for being productive and ready to help people and it was one of the things I loved about him most (ha ha since I benefited so much over the years) but let me tell you, listening to everyone talk about how he helped them….. that’s how I want to be remembered, as helpful. A little weird, but helpful.

 

what a fucking arsepick

I know, I know, talking about cops like this is so stupid. There’s no opsec. Under my own name, with all the skilsaw I can muster I’m saying that A SPECIFIC COP a REAL LIVE HUMAN COP as if those words aggregate meaning in any meaningful way IS AN ARSEPICK.

Y I SAY THIS

y i say this

I SAY THIS BECAUSE IS TRUE, COP IS ARSEPICK

This arsepick, this noted and particular arsepick, chose to ticket A WOMAN WAITING IN LINE FOR COVID TESTING.

for operating a vehicle while using a cellphone

WHILE SHE WASN’T IN THE VEHICLE because she’d stepped out of the car.

I’m not arguing that he had the right. BUT I HOPE TO CHRIST SHE FIGHTS THE TICKET AND THE COP HAS TO FACE A JUDGE FOR DOING THIS.

I HOPE TO FUCKING CHRIST SHE FIGHTS THE TICKET.

BUSY DAY planned

Once again, woke at one. I have an endodontist appt at 8 am. Holy Crap cereal with greek yogurt for brekky (then I broke down and had some banana bread too). All washed down with lashings of Yorkshire Gold (thee best) tea.

I’ve got about an hour to put clean clothes away, and I’ll probably need all of it. (It’s now about half done, everything that goes on hangers is put away.)

Suzanne of the monstrum vacuum (monstrous vacuum, or empty monster, depending how you eyeball it) is here today. She is continuing to help with my room, which is tidier but still not squared away. Since all I’m doing with Denny’s desk is using it as a ‘junk bunker’ I’m perfectly happy for Alex to use it for his computer and it means that his darling mama doesn’t have to spend additional money, since Alex’s old desk disassembled during the move last January.  I’ll try to let him understand what the desk means in terms of family history. Hard to believe they’ve been in that place a year, hunh?

Buster does not like the vacuum, but he loves Suzanne and always comes to suck up to her after the vacuum stops.

Then after the endo I have to go to the pharmacy to check on something for me and Jeff.

I’m trying to think if I have any other errands I need to run in the middle of this “North Face” of an omicron variant wave. I sure hope not.

 

 

can’t stop sneezing

Is it COVID? Omicron is a sneezy one, they say.

Most COVID infections reported in a single day in BC. There’s only 5 million of us but almost 2000 were diagnosed with COVID yesterday.

All the rest of Alex’s computer came. Jeff is diligently getting it so it will be ready on Christmas morning.

Endodontist appointment tomorrow. Hey, root canals wait for no man.

Ordered on line and picked up yesterday. I AM NEVER BOOKING FOR 4 PM AGAIN FOR PICKUP the traffic was superlatively heinous.

Image

a glorious day yesterday

I went walking with Paul at Fraser Foreshore and a bush tit and a chickadee ate sunflower seeds from my hand. Hullo leedle birdies. Sun blasting down but icy af in a few spots, no falling for us.

MIKE CAME OVER it was brief but it was lovely. While he was here I made banana bread, which is a story in itself, and he bought a Delica 2800 Japanese right hand drive vehicle and showed it off to us. Anyway, I sent him off with banana bread for his coffee this morning and that makes me feel happy thinking about it.

PEGGY turned up with MINCE PIES and TARTS and ENOUGH EGGS that I could make the banana bread. Because I didn’t want to leave the house. So I MANIFESTED EGGS. I said to Jeff who needs magic I have Peggy. DAMN HER PIE CRUST IS SO FUCKING AWESOME (muppet falls face down into food, everything everywhere). She reports taking some to Paul.

This morning I have run the dishwasher and had a breakfast of leftover pancakes and tea. Later this afternoon we’re going to pick up our first ever pickup grocery order.

I booked my booster THE INSTANT I got the email, and now of course everything in BC is going off the rails so Jeff can’t find anything closer than the Italian Cultural Centre (You remember mOm, that’s the place Theo ripped all the tiles off the roof in my novel…) well into January.

I’m buying handyman services for Katie’s household, I hate that railing on the back stair so I’ve contracted someone to fix it for them. The idea of Paul coming a over t down those stairs has very little appeal.

Didn’t he die?

Trust me to sing something cheerful about my grandad dying. Katie sings this every once in a while, at least I’ve heard her once. I don’t see why I can’t sing something cheerful about a dead relative; thinking about Denny, who left us on this day in 1995, always cheers me up, because he himself was a cheerful individual, and he’s a part of a lot of people I love.

The lyrics should be pretty self-explanatory. Didn’t he sounds like didden tee in a lot of Canadian dialects.

Ryker in a pram

Pushed Ryker up and down New West Quay for a good chunk of yesterday morning, as he and Alex and his mother and I got out of the house for some much needed exercise and air. It was ICY AF and Katie and I and Alex all almost fell down at least once, but almost made no bruises, so that was good.

Called my mother, Paul and Peggy; Peggy’s going to make us some mince tarts and she’s saving the biscotti I gave her until Christmas day. Paul’s supposed to drop by this am for a walk in Fraser Foreshore.

Keith is no longer going to Victoria and we’re all really sad about the necessity but I for one am relieved, very relieved.

Started S2 of Witcher, and am LOVING IT I do so love Geralt the Grunter. Henry Cavill has one of the sweetest frames a man ever draped leather over.