Category: Deaths & Obits

Happiness is coming home….

…. and having a home to come home to. I hear through the net that a filker (not somebody attending Conflikt) just died in a housefire. If the tributes now pouring in are anything to go by, Greg was much loved and will be much missed. The condo is a write off – the cats didn’t make it out either. I imagine the people left at the con will be pretty much stunned by this. I light a candle for Greg’s surviving family.
I light a candle for someone I know who has suffered a miscarriage.

I light a candle for daughter Katie, who is having a very rough go right now.

I light a candle for my granny, who has needed 24/7 coverage as she recovers from a minor but debilitating ailment.
I light a candle for Lady Miss Banjola and Shaddyr, and hope the rest of the con goes smoothly.

I’m going to be performing at the congregational dinner – again – and this time I’ll be providing percussion, who knew!? I’ve got a busy week coming up.

Candle of memory

The Dorothy Dunnett Readers Association (of which I am a semi active sort of chapter member) is frequently hosted by my friend Janet. It is my sorrowful duty to report that her mother Millie, with whom I have had a number of entertaining chats, succumbed to heart failure during breast cancer treatment.  She was an awesome old lady and will be much missed by her large family and circle of friends.  I was talking to her not two months ago.

Love each other while you can.

comedy/candle

Kopper, pleading “I’ve heard those jokes so many times I could type them in my sleep, and I’m bagged” did not join me and Daughter Katie.  We had a good time despite this sad gap in our complement, and it was good to see that the Laff Riot Girls were in fine form.  So I am in a damned fine mood; one episode of Deadwood more and then I’m off ta bed.  It made me want to write more comedy, but given how I feel about audiences, I think I’m more inclined to tape something and post it to Youtube.
I light a candle for the women slain in Montreal 18 years ago today, and for all the women engineers I know.

Why you can’t REALLY trust Wikipedia

youcanttrustwikipedia.JPG

There is a Wikipedia tradition of stampeding for the bio of anybody who just croaked so you can mess with it.  I checked Evel Knievel’s bio, and then I hit this clanger and just about whizzed myself laughing.

It’s NOT TRUE.  It will be gone the next time you look.  But it’s pretty funny, in a classically sick way. 

 

So then I go back into the entry, and sure as sugar it’s gone, but then then THIS gem turned up.  A fistful of lies in every refresh!  Get ’em while they’re hot.

 noreallyyoucanttrustwikipedia.JPG

 

Polish taser victim

The more I hear and read about the international incident which ended in the death of a legal immigrant from Poland, the more disgusted and angry I am.  He’s being buried today in Kamloops.
Here’s the email address of the mother’s lawyer. waltk@te-law.com

And check this out the Chair of the Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP has initiated a complaint against the RCMP, and did so on November 8th.   So the watchdog is digging in as well.
I will be emailing the lawyer to ask if I can crosspost a link regarding where to send money to support her efforts to get redress from the RCMP and those incompetent louts at YVR. Man, would YOU like to not speak English and come through Vancouver Airport now???

RIP Robert Dziekanski.

Death in the family

Cousin Rawd passed away yesterday.  My mother writes,

Rawd died at noon today.  He had been in the hospital palliative care unit since Thursday and Graeme had hoped to get him home Friday.  He was so tired, Graeme said; he had no fight left in him.  Graeme said it has been grim the past few months, with Rawd fighting so hard, and day by day failing.  He was conscious and alert until the last few minutes.  Graeme was with him.

Graeme and Rawd were the first gay couple to marry in my family.  They are the most gentle, courteous and intelligent people; Rawd was a pillar of his profession in Saskatchewan; he fought the cancer with humour, wit and an abiding courage that has served as an example to the rest of us as we have been personally tested by this same scourge.  I’m crying as I write this, because I have one luminous memory of Rawd; he came to Pride Day in Vancouver two years ago, and he was SO happy to be among friends and participating.  Even then he was quite frail and ill, but I’ve never seen anyone so lit from within. 

I hope that genealogy programs change to accommodate gay and lesbian marriages. 

And today is All Souls. 

 

Dead junco

I found it going in to work the other day, and I love these birds, and it bothered me that the only way I could really honour how amazingly beautiful it was involved taking a picture of its corpse.  Anyway, it’s thumbnailed so if you can’t bear to inspect it closely or are one of my bleaders (that would be Blog Readers)  who is yucked out by birds you don’t have to look.deadjunco.jpg

Another loverly day

My passport’s here already!  I get to pick it up tomorrow. Katie says hers has turned up but she has to take time off work to pick it up so she’s some choked.  Oh well  ….NOW I CAN BOOK OUR VACATION!!!!! WEE.

Keith watched the Happy Feet segment of King of Jazz and he loved it almost as much as I did.  If anybody cares….

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Keith reports that he was on a Skytrain that got struck by lightning.  He said the car went deader than a doorknob and when the repair guy showed up (4 minutes later) he said the car disappeared off the screen at central like it wasn’t there any more.  To be anywhere in Vancouver and see lightning at all is unusual – to be in a Skytrain car that gets hit is downright freaky.

Went to Planet Bachelor tonight for a cooperative dinner and to pick up the camping gear.  I will not be posting unless my cell phone works up there, which I doubt, and I don’t feel like paying $30 in internet charges just to log onto my crummy site.  So I’ll be away from Friday night to Sunday night.

I am really looking forward to it, although a lot of my fave folks will be no shows due to other commitments.

Spoke to one of the Beacon young adults today about getting cooperative ministry set up at SFU.  We will see what happens.  I loved small group ministry when Paul and I were hosting – I have so many happy memories of that time.

Kira JUMPED INTO MY LAP when I was at Planet Bachelor tonight – that was a lot like getting struck by kitty lightning.

I must with sadness report that Speck, a companion animal in Chipper’s family, has gone where all good dogs go.  He was a lively critter – he loved to run.

three dreams and a sadness

Having a fever gives you spooky dreams – in my case I had three marvellous, technicolor dreams, loaded with symbolism and humour.

1. I am standing on a stage in a tight white light, singing a U2 song a capella in three part harmony with Jim E and Brian C. All of a sudden Jim E and I quit singing and starting looking around wildly. Without our having seen or noticed, Brian C has grabbed a stage rope and slid up into the rafters. After a minute we hear him killing himself laughing and as swiftly as he disappeared he reappears on stage and we resume our song.

2. I am with a bunch of friends (which includes Mike M and there may have been others but I don’t remember) visiting a Cosplay Superstore in Northern Ontario. (Note, there was a Cosplay/Anime convention here on the weekend and it got downright visual around these parts). I say to the incredibly fruity, over the top, fetish laden and IMMENSE German guy who runs the place why Northern Ontario and he doesn’t answer me, but he says you can find us on the internet at www.pauuuuuuuuunch.com and don’t forget the umlauts over the u’s. I leave the rooms full of costumes (which are JAMMED with people) after looking longingly at the hippo costume (there’s a mother and baby hippo ensemble which is beyond words cyuuute) and find a room with really tall windows and very beautiful drapes, which have floral patterns. There’s a steady breeze blowing in and I play with the drapes for a while, flapping them around. Eventually Mike M loops back and picks me up – he has an immense bag of purchases and looks quite pleased.

3. I am cleaning up a bunch of potsherds and dirt, trying to recover what is useful, and I find a magic seedling. I take it to a friend who has since moved to the States (LJ) to ask her for her advice about repotting it, which she helps me with.

All in all a splendid way to pass a night.

Jim E’s dog Lucy has gone to Doggie Heaven. Life is full of transitions and the sad ones are part of it. I light a candle for him.

On this day last year

The Maori queen died.

What I didn’t know last year, when I posted about it, was that she would lie buried in an unmarked grave, as a sign of equality with her people.  I find that very affecting…. economical, too.
Also, I didn’t know that a large chunk of Maoridom thought she was not their queen, and that she was a bit of a glory hound.  Whenever we borrow from another culture, the questions start.  What is it to be Pakeha?  What is it to be Maori?   If she was really a hereditary chief, why was she called a queen?