Category: Church

Cooperative play

Jeff picked up an instrument and played Rock Band last night.  Now I will relate to you a story of such …. well, I’ll just tell the story.

The boys (Jeff, Keith and Mike) were crashing through the final chords of Creep by Radiohead and….phhht.  The power went off.

There was no reason for the power to go off.  The inevitable – the inescapable – conclusion was that their playing was of such total awesomeness,  they rent the space time continuum enough to make the fuse go. Is that not amazing?

Apart from my home made cole slaw I didn’t actually do any cooking, Mike did it all.  But steak and chicken and home made french fries?  And cole slaw? That’s a meal.

I attended the baptism of Darwin this morning.  He was angelic.  That’s always nice. I briefly spoke with Unca Barry and Ontie Jackie, as well as the happy parents, but alas my excesses of the night before caught up with me and after I woke myself up snoring during the service I realized I should go home.  Fortunately, an IGA was on the way to the Skytrain, so I could buy yummy snacks, and the Granville cold beer and wine store was awful handy, so I’m now stocked up again for the rest of the day.  This is a good thing, because I’m going to be watching Army of Darkness.

I am thinking that I’d like a steam or soak though.  I don’t know whether I’ll go all the way up to Hastings Steam and Sauna – I’ve never been there stag, which is funny when you think about it – or just to nearest rec center, which would definitely be cheaper and closer.  Hell, I may even walk.

Wreck Beach on a Tuesday

I was talking to a friend on the phone late last night.  The vitamin D blasted me out of my winter doldrums (and killed my joint pain stone dead… who knew?) and I was sharing my good fortune with him.  Then he axed if I’d written anything lately. I was so disappointed with myself for saying no that I wrote an instrumental called – as you see above.  Jeff will, if I ask him nice, once more try to make me understand how to FTP something bigger than 2 megs…. I will post when I can.

This is a candle for the safety of a friend at church who is going through a very scary divorce.  I mean, really scary, like I’m scared to read about her in the news scary.

This is a candle of thanksgiving that I have money to help my kids as they establish themselves, and the support of Paul and my folks in that endeavour.

This is a candle of hope for Unca Dave.  My mOm is with him now, and I think she and Unca  Barry and the rest of Unca Dave’s kin who are visiting him are really wonderful.

This is a candle for Kopper at the turning of the year.  And one each for her unique and remarkable children.

This is a candle for Mike and his new apartment *yay*.

This is a candle for Keith, who for his recent demonstrations of manturity, leaves lights and appliances on as if he wasn’t a day over fourteen.  Typo intentional, yo.  Just in case you were wondering if hip hop is dead.  Not, just on life support.

This is a candle for Tammy, who’s back from France.

This is a candle each for my trio of friends/family in Kanata.  Brother James, a big shout out for the happiness you gave just by sending postcards to me at work and given Karen a smile from me.  Leo & fambly, thanks for sharing the pictures of your travels – and that porcupine, which made me burst out laughing when I saw it.  Deb, big warm seasonal inflected-with-cinnamon hugs for you, Jim and Jenn, and your companion animals….

This is a candle for me.  I feel human again.  Hurting, but able to think about something else besides me for a change.  It’s pretty good right now.

Too Long; Didn’t Read

One of the many useful internet acronyms is TL;DR.  That’s when your truncated attention span decides to step out for a soda.

Continue reading Too Long; Didn’t Read

Everybody, as one!

Allegra, you are bleeding crazy!

I spent most of last evening with Dax, and then went to Suzanne’s.  I didn’t argue with him.  I didn’t give him any money.  And we worked on cover letters and talked.  I also met his dad.

Why the **** would I do that?  Well, I have a number of reasons.  First, I wanted to be very clear with him what my rationale is for going anywhere near him after all the horrible stuff that happened with Katie.  I want him to be working, not in jail.  If he’s working, he can pay rent, help his family, think about getting some money together for school, and have something resembling a life. If he’s in jail, not so much.  Second, I am wanting to shed my reputation as an evil cow; I got to hear some of the stuff Dax said about me second hand, and I kinda want to prove it’s not really true.  One can say, “But if he’s in jail he can’t hurt Katie!” but I would really prefer he was paying taxes.  Third, it’s really hard for me to model forgiveness and getting on with your life if I refuse to do it because it’s hard.  Humans is apes.  It’s easier for the ape to do what it has seen being done.

Tammy said that the biggest difference between poor people and rich people is that poor people don’t get a lot of training or practice in deferring gratification.  There is no next year; there is no tomorrow.

Except, unfortunately, there is.

Am I most of the way through a full bore meltdown?

Check.  I’m being very relaxed and restrained about my mental meltdown, but I just lost my cell phone, and that’s about as crazy as I like to get.  Losing things is what agitated, preoccupied and outright loony people do; I misplace things relatively frequently but outright lose them, no.

I find it entertaining to review what I’ve lost in my life, like the watch my grandparents had given me LESS THAN 24 HOURS PREVIOUSLY …. I took if off in a restroom in the Dorval Airport to wash my hands, back when I was, like, ten years old and left it there.  Oh, I shed many a bitter tear over that loss, I’ll tell ya.  I lost the first guitar I was given when I foolishly gave it to Daxus.  I guess I wasn’t expecting him to smash it.  I’m still kinda irritated with him about that; it’s like there’s no percentage in forgiving him if it turns me into a sap the next time. I guess it’s a XXXXsight harder to live my Unitarian Universalist principles than I thought.

Did you know that Unitarianism was almost a STATE RELIGION in part of Europe?  Trust Unitarians to get excited over the Edict of Turda.  Couldn’t they have named it after anything else but what sounds like Turd’s twin sister’s name?  I’m sure it means “Land of Stunning Trannies” in Hungarian or Romanian but it does, as the saying goes, sound like shit in English.  Then a Catholic came back on the throne and Unitarianism gotsked itself persemacuted.  That old timey stuffed looked ZIP like contemporary Unitarianism except that durned tolerance thing we’re so notably noted for.  North American Unitarians adopt 2nd and 3rd world Unitarian churches because they are so cute and old fashioned, and in the case of the Transylvanian churches SERVICES ARE SEGREGATED BY SEX which is just like, freaky, and I’ve only seen that in real life in a Russian Orthodox Church and an Ahmadi mosque so that’s kind of a triple whammy on the freaky for me.  I only go into these ‘other peoples” sanctuaries once in a lifetime and yet it reminds me of the old fashioned Unitarian churches in Transylvania (actually northern Romania, out Kobatfalva way). Not that I’ve ever been there, but I know people who’ve gone.  There’s video of kids driving critters down the main drag.  And the services. For me it’s all about the singing, those mournful Hungarian tunes.  I much prefer the livelier contemporary hymns for myself on an ongoing basis, especially anything which sounds like the attenuated and timid version of Gospel singing as performed by U*Us.

Google, entertainingly, knows where Kobatfalva is on the map, but is unable to provide enough of a close up to demonstrate there’s even a cowpath where the arrow is pointing, and it and the surrounding countryside is made up of rocky vertiginous hills split by rivers which in spring can swell in no time to floods that come right through town. You have to live in the valley bottom cause it’s the only place you have a fond hope of growing food and raising most critters.

Of course, to loop elliptically back to my opening comments; of all the things I’ve lost, I miss my mind the most.

Special thanks to Jeff for dinner, it was yummy.

Hymn Sing

So we made with the churchy ballads at Tom and Peggy’s last night, and it was wonderful fun.  Paul and Keith had come over earlier to have a low key birthday celebration for Paul; we watched The Bucket List and I made tortillas.  Then I made pork fried rice for Jeff so he’d have some dinner, and I made lentil soup to take to the hymn sing.  Keith came along too… I nearly lost my eyes when I saw him eating lentil soup.  He really is pushing the envelope on food these days, which makes me extremely happy.

Katie is here, boiling up eggs and making a healthy lunch.

It’s bizarre to be watching the Civil War documentary at the same time as following the American election.  I feel like a whole bunch of people need to be reminded that it was a Republican president who issued the Emancipation proclamation.  Democrats are talking about Republicans as if they are brain dead traitors, and Republicans are talking about black people as if the Civil War had never happened.  It’s disgusting.  It has nothing to do with the glory of the Constitution.  Oh my neighbours, a house divided… will you never learn?

I am really glad I’m Canadian, and I learned how to seethe gently without taking up arms.

I did all my laundry this weekend, and put it all away, and cleaned my room.  It’s completely changed the acoustics in there.

Pride

I’m off to Pride for 11:30. Mike came over last night; we swapped bodywork and drank beer and my shoulders FINALLY feel good enough to hold a banner for however many hours we have to for the parade.  The rest of my back is also so much better, but I am very much hoping I don’t have to carry for the whole three hours.  Somewhere around here is the “Queen’s Fluffiest Pillow” t-shirt Keith designed and had made for me.  It’s amazing how good life can be when your kids grow up and get money and start buying you little gifties.  I am still stunned that he did that for me.

The new downstairs tenants didn’t stop running the dryer until midnight last night. The buzzer went off under my head just as I was dropping off to sleep.  I will have to go have a firm and pleasant chat.

Shooting at church

There’s been a church shooting at a UU church in Knoxville TN. One man is confirmed dead, two others were treated and released and six other adults are clinging to life as I write this.  The shooter opened fire with a 12 gauge in the sanctuary.  He doesn’t appear to be a member of the church; I would be willing to bet he’s an evangelical with mental health problems, doing the world a favour by shooting Unitarians.

Love each other while you can.

Off to Mission.

I won’t be posting until after I get home from Mission tomorrow; it’s time for the festival out there with my current and previous coworkers, including no fewer than two bosses, and which involves stringed instruments, alcohol and the World’s Best Campfireâ„¢. Continue reading Off to Mission.