Author: Allegra

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

Missing women

I honour and mourn for all the Indigenous women and girls taken and murdered.

I long for justice and for the hearts and minds of the police – who are not seriously investigating these murders – to be cleansed of racism and bigotry.

I hope for healing and strength for the survivors.

I acknowledge my role in dismantling and eradicating power structures of violence and colonization.

I uphold Indigenous joy and rage, not just their oppressors’ narrative of sorrow, and the lands and living cultures Indigenous peoples embody.

Visit

Jeffrey and Jeri Lynn are visiting from Seattle to see Tom.

I am glad they’re here in town but the circumstances are hard.

Let us love each other while we can.

Spoke to Mike yesterday. Strangely he and I both had a horrible night’s sleep, night before last. Last night was much better. Even so my mood is somewhere between spiky and sad. Perhaps coffee? We actually purchased ground coffee so maybe that’s what I can do to lift the mood.

 

Feed the bears

Early each day to her Whistler back yard
The little old bear woman comes
In her own special way to the people
She calls, “Come, feed the bears, all you bums!”

“Come feed the local bears, show them you care
And you’ll be glad if you do
Their young ones are hungry, their dens are so spare
All it takes is two grand from you.”

“Feed the bears, two grand a pop
Two grand, two grand, two grand a pop!
Feed the bears!”, that’s what she cries
While drones from BCCOS fill the skies.

 

 

Based on the news item which stated that Zuzana spent a bomb on feeding bears human food in Whistler and got fined 60K. Her male co-conspirator skated.

 

As I was compos(t)ing this parody, some witless asshole drove up and down Kingsway on a motorcycle wound up to about 9K. This town needs an enema.

Half an hour after that (it’s one in the MORning people) a chopper buzzed the house.

 

supply chain woes

Cars can’t get chips.

Brexit is grinding food and gas supply in the UK.

Experts say DO YOUR HOLIDAY SHOPPING EARLY. Thanks, but no.

Many companies which manufacture the small small things that go in other things are experiencing labour shortages due to the pandemic, which adds to the mess

Transportation costs for goods is skyrocketing.

Weak investment in gas and oil is making it easier for weather events to further disrupt supply and impact demand.

Power supply issues in China are ongoing and will not get better. The problem with industrial power supplies to factories etc. is that when you need power to melt plastic into molds and it stops, you lose the entire run of plastic. I mean you can melt it down again with a little shaved lead – lead is a great plasticizer ha ha – but the colour and the finish will change and then you have to resell it in a different market where there isn’t as much fuss about how much lead there is in the plastic. Or you have to scrap it. And prices go up.

War between Taiwan and China is getting closer – 38 Chinese jets made an incursion into Taiwanese air space recently and the Chinese are making it clear that the South China sea is theirs and other claims will be ignored with prejudice. Alas, that means a global war, and it will be really strange to see American Pumpkin Spice moms getting upset when they can’t get their Christmas Chatchkes thanks to war in the South China Sea.

Shipping containers are scarce, because after the shutdown, when demand started up again– thanks to economic stimulus packages — it started up so fast that the supply chain has quite literally never caught up from 2020. Fewer containers are in circulation because NO ONE WANTS TO PAY the diesel to get them back from where they carried masks to Africa. Nothing is being shipped back so they are still in African ports. I can’t believe this bullshit, but there you go. That boat getting grounded in Suez didn’t help and something similar is almost certain to happen again as the conditions that caused that grounding have not been corrected and very large boats are still being allowed into the canal.

Shipping costs for a SINGLE CONTAINER FROM CHINA TO THE US WEST COAST HAVE GONE UP BY 13 TIMES SINCE 2020. This is making it cheaper to ship empty containers even if there’s demand because companies with capacity can’t afford the offloading time (many ports are hopelessly snarled because COVID killed or reduced their staffing levels at the same time that the jolt provided by the stimulus happened); they’ll get more money at the Chinese end if they dead head it. So eventually those empty containers in Africa will be worth the cost to transport empty but that hasn’t happened yet.

Anyway. It isn’t time to start hoarding, that never helps, but the baloney alarm is really close to going off. Pandemics have always made for violent social and political change and this one’s no different.

 

Matt Buckley sculpted this octopus

stone sighting

There is a dive bar in Charlotte
North Carolina
and to that bar a man went to drink
and the photo of him that hit
next morning on the internet
made the owner yell
and the patrons cuss
it was fun for the rest of us
Cause that man was Mick Jagger (aetat 78)
and he drank a beer and left.

The owner a man whose name is
(of course) Brian Wilson
was putting his five year old
daughter to bed
Now I may be a hapless simp
for men who do their duty
by their children when they’re missing
a chance to meet Mick Jagger
….But I have to say he
comes off pretty good.

I once drank a brand of beer
called Thirsty Beaver
which is also the name
of the dive bar of this song
and everything about this story
makes me happy
It’s unlikely that I’ll ever go
to Charlotte but you never know
and after I will say like Mick
I drank a beer and left

Based on a photo Mick posted on his twitter which since I’m not on twitter any more I can’t see to verify and this.

restless anal syndrome is now a thing

THANKS COVID.

I ordered mask braces today, including a size that will fit Alex.

I am a happy girl, somebody vacuumed the games room. Someone named Suzanne.

I hope to a) do a shop and b) visit Tom today. We shall see.

I try not to comment on shit Trudeau does because mine is not an informed opinion but I literally and honestly believe that him holidaying in Tofino for Truth and Reconciliation day was specifically and vindictively aimed at JWR (Jody) for having the nerve to not be his house NDN.

I wore an Anishnaabe design on my chest for yesterday. I want to uphold Indigenous joy as well as sorrow. It was solemn for me, seeing how many people of different racial backgrounds were wearing Every Child Matters gear at Lougheed yesterday when I went walking there with Paul.

Paul is … more like Paul than ever. He spent ten minutes trying to get his vaxx card up on his phone and I asked him to print it out. Watching him deal with his phone at all is extra crispy difficult.

 

 

BUGATTI WITH THE BUGATTI ROYALE IN 1932

JABBERWOCKY IN WELSH

USEFUL IF YOU’RE MAKING NEW PASSWORDS

Siaberwoci

Selyf Roberts

Mae’n brydgell ac mae’r brochgim stwd
Yn gimblo a gyrian yn y mhello:
Pob cólomrws yn féddabwd,
A’r hoch oma’n chwibruo.

‘Gwylia’r hen Siaberwoc, fy mab!
Y brathiad llym a’r crafanc tynn!
A rhed pan weli’r Gwbigab
A’r ofnynllyd Barllyn!’

Cym’rodd ei gleddyf yn ei law
I geisio ei fanawaidd brae–
A gorffwys ger y goeden Taw,
I feddwl–fel pe tae.

A thra pendronai ymhlith y coed
Y Siaberwoc a’i lygaid fflam
A ddaeth, mor wallgof ag erioed
Gan ffrwtian gam a cham!

Un, dau! Un, dau! drwy’r awyr oer
Aeth min y cledd ysgiw, ysgôl!
Fe’i lladdodd, a chan gludo’i ben
Hwblamodd yn ei ôl.

‘A lleddaist ti y Siaberwoc?
Tyrd yma, hapllon fachgen!
O jiwblus ddydd! Hwrê! Hwroc!’
Gan wenu arno’n llawen.

Mae’n brydgell ac mae’r brochgim stwd
Yn gimblo a gyrian yn y mhello:
Pob cólomrws yn féddabwd,
A’r hoch oma’n chwibruo.

rainy blowy weather

I think about getting up, but the house is freezing – we try to wait until the beginning of October to turn the furnace on, but if the wind keeps blowing as is, where is, I may cave earlier. So right now, tea is a hunnert miles away and I want some brung to me.

Last night there was one of those lovely overlaps… Jeff played a TikTok video of Ryan Reynolds and Will Ferrell singing the chorus of “Grace Kelly” by Mika in multipart harmony. And I said to Jeff, “Play Mika’s Grace Kelly, then you get some more context.” Ryan and Will were obviously having a blast dragging their singing voices out of the tickle trunk (Will has an eerie falsetto, quite nice but also WTF.) And Ryan made an uwu smile (more slang, means like when a cat smiles with their eyes closed, super cute) at the end that was so unforced I just wanted to pick him up and snuggle him and pat him. But that would be gross, good thing he’s such a good sport about his fans. He was fantastic in Free Guy, which is a very entertaining film.

I absolutely love Grace Kelly, and played it many dozens of times the year it came out. The kids exposed me to it of course… if it wasn’t for the kids I wouldn’t have new music like Billie Eilish in my life.

Suzanne will be cleaning today. I dreamed about the house being tidier last night. Smirk.

Speaking of smirks, Lee Pace’s (as Empire) smirk at Jared Harris (as Hari Seldon) in Foundation was epic. He’s a hateful character, and we’re supposed to hate him, and we do.

YET ANOTHER COLONIZER WANTS TO DO A CULTURAL COMPETENCE READ ON UPSUN. I’m about ready to slap a statue.

Kaossilator: L12, G10, 90 bpm, HeL, top C. Hold left thumb in bottom left corner while moving right index finger randomly through top right quadrant. Evokes the motion of butterflies.

day got better

I saw Tom who was resting comfortably and not interacting and Peggy who had a minute to talk

also my doctor and the RN

also ate in a restaurant but ate healthier

took a taxi both ways

got mistaken for a Mennonite

most of my blood numbers are improved

Spoke to Suzanne about her coming by later to clean tomorrow

shit now I have to go to the bank

I got rid of the medication I no longer require in a socially responsible way

Katie’s lasagne continues to be wonderful, but not for long.

knackered awready

It’s 8:30 in the morning and thanks to a fasting blood test which took an hour longer than expected I’m ravenous, exhausted, soaking wet and I’ve got two more appointments today when I really don’t want to leave the house.

I’d like to fire all the BC health people into the sun for not confirming a mask mandate for school aged children. Get fucked yall

somebody in Burnaby is 70M$ richer this morning and I didn’t buy a ticket….

and they all went away

amazing how when I put my picture up in the top left hand corner the hits drop away to nothing…. thanks I guess anonymous blog visitors! I have heard your unspoken words and will change it to something more appropriate.

Mike’s dinner migrated home with me and Jeff got some of that tuna, plus the brown rice with cilantro plus the green beans and red peppers, so it was very nice to share it.

Going to see Tom today if the fates are propitious. I may call Paul.

Jeff’s car comes home from the krankenhaus today. It’s been a while.

Today biscotti and brown bread.

Saw Tom today

He greeted me, and said a goodbye after my couple of hours by his bedside watching him breathe, (Peggy and Ben were there) but didn’t say much else. He’s essentially in palliative care. We’re all sad, but he’s getting the care he needs, very good care thank you very much, for the stage of life he’s in, and there are friends and family with him pretty much all day.

We must love each other while we can.

Drug interactions

I hate my ADD meds. I’d adjusted to everything else but it doesn’t seem to do anything except make my heart rate 20 bpm faster than normal, my head hurt and it hard to eat anything but yummy carbs …. without giving me any cognitive boost. I’m stopping, it just doesn’t seem to be worth it.

I keep trying to make biscotti for Peggy (Tom apparently can’t eat them) and I just can’t. I’ve learned that if I’m not baking them with love in my heart they don’t turn out properly, at least not to my standards, and I am really struggling with how I said I would do it and now I’m standing around like a fool waiting for a message of some sort or other.

The bright spot (apart from Jeff, the kids the parental units etc) is that I’m seeing Mike today; he and I are finally both well enough at the same time to get together. I can hardly wait to see what diabetes friendly delights he plans on whomping up for me. Last time I didn’t take any of my usual gear, but I’m definitely taking the laptop and the uke this time. I intend to play, “The Friend Who Gave Me This Ukelele” for him, I’ve been practicing.