Category: Family

next two days will be hot

  1. Things are still very bad in Ukraine and a global food crisis is all but assured.
  2. Things are terrible in Sri Lanka – food and fuel costs have soared and that’s why people kicked in the door of the Presidential palace and set it on fire.
  3. There’s ANOTHER BA4/5 variant out of Hong Kong (but, racists beware, it could have been anywhere) and we’re basically creating variants across the planet because our public health people and leaders have decided to just give up.
  4. I’m not travelling anywhere until I have a handle on how bad the new variant is in BC. I’m certainly not going anywhere without a test first.
  5. Katie says she got COVID but tested negative all the way through. Some people do.
  6. Worst cognitive effects of COVID pop up 8 – 10 months after you get it. How the hell do you clear this illness? It freaking lingers! The idea of COVID settling into human beings as a recurrent fever is freaking me out.
  7. Despite everything I had a good visit with Alex and he drew some LOVELY monsters, we recorded belches, he was very happy to have sleep cuddles (I have never seen anyone rip bedclothes off like that kid, a tornado twists less. (I was very tired after the housefilk how on earth am I going to do one day a week of childcare for babby Ryker, I am freaking out about how tired I get doing childcare for Alex and he’s a manageable pet of a child.)
  8. Alex mentioned that he got to meet a cousin he’d never met the other day (from Dax’s side of the family). I think he was most impressed over the fact the meal was at Red Robin.
  9. We tried to watch ‘Sea Beast’ on Netflix and bailed after 10 minutes since it didn’t make a lot of sense and Karl Urban having a Kiwi accent when his character was adopted by a Brit jammed me hard, lemme tell you.
  10. It was lovely to see Katie yesterday even if Ryker was at his dad’s. She got some sleep with both the boys being gone. So glad she slept instead of doing housework. She said I have to get used to Paul being a different person every time I see him. That’s … kinda terrifying. We all have quite a few decisions in the queue.
  11. Alex is playing Among Us non stop. I have to say that he’s already learning what group play is like – full of trolls and people who swear continuously. He mocks them, which is better than being upset by them.
  12. He’s still very happy with me for finding the CBC kids website and he plays those games all the time. Personally I prefer Disk Rush – it’s a twitch game – and Waffle – a word finder game and I double dog dare you to beat my top score of 1703. Good luck with that!
  13. I did my Lumosity workout this morning for my BRANS and got top 5 scores in 4 out of 5 games, so despite feeling a bit sludgy cognitively okay.
  14. No change on word count for Totally Boned. I did lie in bed and cry about the scenes upcoming when the lads are parted by (spins spinner) bad communication, and I finally figured out how to frame it so it was plausible.
  15. Finished the palak paneer and now there’s just one meal left out of the Indian food I ordered last week (daal and aloo gobhi). The rice I think I’ll turn into breakfast fried rice.
  16. I couldn’t finish my Big Star small #27 so Jeff et it. That is one damned tasty sandwich, but I think I’ll skip the hot sauce next time.
  17. Buster is being driven mad by either fleas or allergies.
  18. Mosquitoes are really bad in Vancouver this year.
  19. I really should do the lawn and have ZERO DESIRE.
  20. Katie wants to steal the canoe Paul put in our back yard and give it to inlaw Steven from 70 Mile House (That’s where she was camping with Alex – and they’re still covered in bug bites). Paul says he wants to go but Katie is literally terrified of having to manage him if he wanders during the night. There are bears everywhere up there, no ambulances and maybe 20 cars on the road every day. I do not blame her for being concerned. Paul was having difficulties managing himself on Saturday and put another lovely ding on the face of Smokey, although I am hardened enough about damage to my musical instruments, given that I do it a lot myself, to avoid commenting.
  21. I should really do some laundry and I really don’t want to do that either.
  22. And make my bed up.
  23. At least I’m keeping on top of the dishes.

Got to see all my descendents

It’s always very wonderful to have all of your descendents in a single room. I only held bubs once since he’s teething and enraged about it (I AM SPOSETA BE HAPPY ALLA TIME WHHHYYYYYY) and I’m getting Alex for a sleepover tonight so we just had a brief conversation about his most recent art project (his horror drawing is LUSH AND IMAGINATIVE and getting better all the time) and CBC kids games and we’ll catch up more tonight. I had one single beer. Slept like a rock in the arms of a rock.

Keith was in fine form. The meal was sushi and tempura and we et it all, all 85 bucks of it between the four of us (Jeff has been slammed by work and equally by the urge to do nothing about it, so he stayed home and tried to play whackamole with his task list. Katie had a bad day with Ryker so she was less than communicative, just tired tired tired as one gets. Keith got off to a board game meetup.

Paul had asked me to help with something on the computer and when I got there DESPITE THE ROGERS OUTAGE THAT IS ENSNARING our entire country he accomplished it. I’m impressed.

There’s a reason we have copper coming to the door.

Today, despite my misgivings about gatherings, HOUSE FILK hopefully the weather will let us do it outside. We’ve been promised buckets of chicken soup.

I have managed not to get too outraged on / by social media today so I’m going to hopefully write. 31796 so far. Yes, I done got graphomania again. Omar and Mr. Toth are eating a Fran’s takeout meal in the waiting room on the ward where Brad is and Mr. Toth just told him that he’s been diagnosed with dementia so Omar’s feeling shitty about calling him a demented old bastard and Mr. Toth doesn’t want his kid to be mad at him so he’s making nice with Omar by feeding him, always a plan.

Graphomania part the manieth

29862 29900 words I keep slipping over there and writing.

Poor Jeff, I end up being very non verbal and weird and vague when I get like this.

Today Keith is 36 can you believe it. When I was 36 I had school age kids and kept getting stupid admin jobs when I should have been going back to school. But the economy was okay and there was no pandemic; comparisons to Keith’s life are pointless. The future is bright but in all the wrong ways.

 

good day

28711 words, super productive day yesterday, fifteen hundred words. Brad got medical attention but they’re still exposed at the hospital and need to find a place to go to ground. I am currently engaged in a coin flip. Going to baba’s sweet shop? Calling Steve’s dad and asking him to collect his boy? Asking Nima to give over his Airbnb for a couple of days? something else?

Off to Caspell Junction tomorrow for supper to feast Keith for his birthday. I may or may not sponsor a clothes buying expedition after.

 

challenges

Off to Paul’s this morning (later… after a negative RAT), sometime, to help him with various things; 26861 words, burritos for supper last night but they were really terrible so we don’t know whether we’re ordering from there again, and this morning hopefully we have a Dark Winds and a Westworld.

Received word from Jan that Jim’s in hospital in Victoria. He’s doing better that he was when they choppered him down there, that’s for sure, but no further details were authorized and we are ALL of course quite concerned for him.  Jan’s with him. All skill to the hands of his doctors, all love and patience to him and his family.

Absolutely fucking hideous breakdown of what’s known about BA.5, the latest variant of concern.

And more.

And more. But I can’t find the link. You’re safe for now.

My mood right now is pretty dark. I’m trying to keep myself right side up with a reminder that I’m not responsible for the happiness of other people, and only responsible for controlling my own reaction to people and events.

I’m going to start treating July 4 as the International Day of Mourning for failing Democratic States, and Canada’s looking like one.

sad reminder

Ten years ago or thereabouts Lois and Bob lost their child Kaitlin to suicide, and I’m holding those two and her brother Jesse in my thoughts today. Keith attended the memorial service for us all. Please reach out to your friends and family even if you think they’re doing okay. Young women right now especially are really feeling the news quite personally and may be feeling desperate or unheard. The most attentive family may miss signs; it’s part of the grief and self-doubt that follows this terrible event, that we’ll ask ourselves what we could do, what we could have done. Sometimes we don’t get that conversation.

I am really lucky that when I’ve been right on the ground with depression my family and friends have rallied around me. We’re all different and need different things. I want to believe that I’ll reach out to my friends and let them know how much I love and appreciate them. Kaitlin was a vibrant, lovely human being, and she has stepped into eternity, and we remember her.

much foreshore

Foreshore Restaurant for breakfast w/ Jeff, Foreshore for walkies with Paul, then off to the weed store in New West for YES THEY HAD TRAINWRECK I’M SO HAPPY and also gummies, because I’m out. All in all a very nice day. Woods were full of birdsong and the weather is so splendid (and the sky so beautiful, filled with ripples of clouds) it’s just … lovely.

I complained about Beyoncé’s new video (to my friends on Social Media) having migraine/epilepsy triggering flashies. A technology journalist asked me to comment and I told her that it was my preference that affected Black people comment, I’ve said what I needed to say and don’t need to further grab the mic. Got my own platform (pat pat) right here.

feet

Second last time I spoke to Katie on the phone she said could I please do something about Paul’s feet, so I took him out on the deck (it was GORGEOUS here yesterday, just a hint of the heat that will fell us on Friday) and trimmed his nails. We none of us bend all that well. I can still do my feet but it’s hard and I sort of have to wedge myself into the bathroom in a particular way so that if I have a fainting spell I won’t kill myself falling over.

Beforehand we went for a walk in Hilda “It Says I’m an Avenue but Actually I’m a Street” Park. We listened to the crows and talked to a nice lady and her easily perturbed pooch. And we actually talked about Paul’s medical condition like adults for the first time ever. This probably has something to do with how the kids lowered the boom this week. I told him that for his own longevity, comfort and safety, he should get a diagnosis. He’s unconvinced anything can help him. So I tried to be encouraging.

After the walk, he sat on the deck and I brought him sugar free home made iced tea (using the carton of Splenda I got from Mike) and a nourishing, light lunch. (Smoked salmon, red onion, capers and garlic cream cheese on sourdough muffin with a side of the last of the cole slaw.) THEN I did the feet. Anyway, I try to help look after him as best I can, and it will be easier when he stops pretending everything is fine.

Katie and Alex are going camping Canada Day weekend. Ryker will be with his dad. Ryker’s no longer eating at mom’s (it’s not a problem; there never was a child more interested in solids in the history of getting fed).

There’s other family news too but it’s not for public consumption. Age is reflective and brutal, should we live so long and have the brains to think with.

Got my bloodwork and my meds, thank you Jeff for the boost of energy required to do it. Jeff got us fish and chips for early supper and SO GOOD. I’m going to turn the leftover chips into Really Bad Poutine Imitation. Since I have neither gravy nor cheese curds.

a couple of changes

I made minor changes to Extracurricular Incoherence.

Blood work today, probably picking up scrips.

Got the corned beef sandwich from Big Star yesterday. It was fantastic. The woman who delivered it wanted to buy this house. I get asked once a week if I own the house or it’s for sale.

Lovely phone call with Dave yesterday. This was followed by an equally lovely letter from Lois. That woman is a family treasure.

24029. I’m letting the steam build up, more progress is coming.

 

low key day

23828 is the count.

Yesterday I wrote 870 words ran the dishwasher did my brain exercises got the Wordle in 5 played waffle half the day (it’s a game on the cbc website) watched a Burn Notice (season three summer finale, Michael finally shoots Strickler and joy was unrefined) gave someone 30$ on Paypal to honour my Settler Saturday commitment so she can get away from a bad domestic situation, skritched the cat and talked to Dave on the phone.

He’s got a book coming out and his description of the difficulties involved with punctuation was (probably not to him) quite comical. (Once upon a time I had an Anelia font Brother printer and I helped lay out one of his poems and let’s just say it’s better left to experts. And I don’t think he’s overly fussy about any of it, it’s a component of his greatness as a poet; I’m just not as particular and definitely not as internally consistent, go go Allegra ADD.) I spent rather more of the conversation than I should have telling him WHICH social media platform he should be on, of course twitter, and how he should go about ‘developing content’ for it now that he’s a luminary of Canadian letters. I even told him that if he felt like paying for it I’d jump on a train and come visit him (but he’d also have to pay to get rid of me, ALAS TIS THE ALLEGRAGELD which considering how I eat shouldn’t be too hard a sell) if he wanted to do a reading or (bless) won an award. He even riffed on an account name, which I won’t repeat in case he decides to actually do it, and I nearly laughed my lungs up through my nose.

I got a thousand karma points on reddit yesterday by saying something uplifting about someone’s stepdad for father’s day. Happy father’s day Paul: you were a good one. Things change. We get older and less useful to our children (in some cases) but the gratitude for the experience of having been a ‘working parent’ remains.

Happy father’s day pOp, you are one of the sweetest men ever. You were a little crusty when I was growing up and Liz was scared of you remember when I told you she said of you “King Fear gripped my heart with icy fingers” which is (truth be told) a quote from a Lobsang Rampa book (and DID YOU KNOW that after being hounded out of England as a goddamned phoney he moved to Calgary and died there in the 80s?, I mean what would an Allegra father’s day greeting be without a completely parenthetical comment?) but honestly, with mOm’s help you were the best dad out of all of the dads of all the kids I knew. I did have a few minutes when I thought you and mOm must have adopted me because you – ¿ARE YOU KIDDING? – set reasonable limits on my movements and what you spent money on for me but other than that, it was pretty clear you were . the . best . dad, and your continuing kindness and support for everyone in your family, is but one external token of how wonderful you are.

Did you know that there isn’t a single googleable picture of him on the internet? if I post pics of him I don’t put his name in the alt or the metadata

ALL PRAISE THE MASTER OF NOT CARING WHAT THE WORLD THINKS.

I’ve been laying off posting about Ukraine, but check this out, open in new page if you can’t read it:

armed fucking standoffs between officers and troops on the white blue and red side? g’damn.

mini trip

As a responsible adult I called Katie yesterday morning to let her know that Jeff and I were heading up the sea-to-sky highway to check out a provincial campground and park north of Squamish, to be back in the afternoon; I’d call her when we were home. In other words we drove all the way from Kikayt (New Westminster) southeast of K’emk’emeláy (‘place of maple trees’, aka Vancouver) all the way to Skwxwú7mesh Temíxw (Squamish Territory). The number seven or the special question mark is a glottal stop.

I had one job.

Only one job.

That was to tell Jeff when to turn off for Alice Lake. Could I? Did I? No. I didn’t see the sign until we were on it. Jeff turned around. There was a sign saying turnoff in one kilometre and we didn’t see the turn off. Going back north again from Squamish we saw TWO SIGNS for Alice Lake and finally managed the turn off. The campground itself is lovely, heavily treed and with two little beaches. Anyway, I marked the damned turnoff on the map with the kilometres and paid for Jeff’s gas (I hardly ever pay for gas, so I was due anyway).

It was a gorgeous trip, however brief, and if someone ever transcribed our joint running commentary from the dash cam we’d probably have to flee the province.

Jeff got us McDonald’s afterwards – I got my fries with no salt and they’re surprisingly good.

And I wrote a thousand words yesterday, 17865 is the count.

It was a good day.

I’d like to thank pOp

For bringing Leo, and then Linda into my life. (And setting me up to be pro Suomi for all my life!!!) Leo and pOp were one-two in terms of marks in their Ryerson class, back at the dawn of time. So to honour that I noticed that Jackie H posted this on facebook (yes, after all my posturing, I went back) and POP MUST SEE IT as part of my thank you.

Jeff and I went for a walk yesterday morning so I didn’t go walking with Paul, but he came over and I cut his hair just like the old days and fed him an early lunch and tea, and then he watched Nürburgring with Jeff for a while.

16788 words.

Blood pressure has been EXCELLENT every time I’ve taken it of late. I am very relieved. Young master Alex loves taking his blood pressure. Which is normal.

Cooked up the last of the young spuds yesterday morning. I do like them roasted with rosemary and a little salt. Trying to find something that Jeff can comfortably eat since his stomach is being crass.

Hullo to my ten daily readers! the numbers have gone down again, but that’s good news – I can quit trying to cater to that brief weird influx of people who actually prefer me on twitter.