Settler words&music in S'ólh Téméxw, (leanpub.com/upsun) living where privilege meets precarity in MST country. she/her/they———– Novels: Midnite Moving Co., Upsun; Sweep Off Those Waves coming soon, Hair Sinister after that. —Restore All Indigenous Lands!
We got two kinds of Japanese takeout (far too salty, but oh so tasty) and ate at her accommodations, which included a view of the Science Centre. She was half a block from a taxi stand, and I got home just as the temperature was dropping and it was about to snow. I haven’t had the courage to look outside yet, but I need to pee so…
Yup, there’s another 3 cm out there, just as the prophecy foretold.
Tom’s memorial service is today. I gave him that hat. Yesterday we gathered at Peggy’s to rehearse and eat Chinese food (I brought home Singapore style noodles) and I got home about 8:30. It’s almost giddy making to be experiencing SOCIAL INTERACTION and then I got home and had a panic attack for about an hour (thought I was having a heart attack until I realized that the pain went away when I was breathing properly). Talked to Brooke about how to wean off of Inderal, which was super useful.
Jeff C GAVE me his dulcimer capo but I got him back by paying for dinner. It’s so lovely to be able to sing in a group again.
The tide was highest at noon yesterday and the water in the Fraser River was quite high. Paul said we were expecting rain and it was JUST GORGEOUS – a beautiful golden peach sunset, and quite warm. I took my cane and had no trouble with the usual length of walk.
CBC local news reports that Large Marge the Barge will not be removed until December 6th 2021, the date of the next King tide. Lazy bums eh.
Made lentil soup yesterday. Hoping to make Banana Cake today.
(Yes I did make banana cake.)
Keith had a Battlestar Galactica games night at his house and nobody knew there was a new baby.
Came up with another fanfic idea. About four hundred words on the ‘starlight’ story. Found an absolutely delightful fluffy 70k fanfic I haven’t read before yesterday, it was exactly what I wanted.
it’s apparently the second biggest pumping station in North America
and if it fails
surrounded as it is with 150 volunteers packing sandbags as fast as they can
Sumas Lake will reappear after 97 years
50% of the eggs and dairy for BC will be gone, possibly never to return
and collectively we will have lost one of the most critical pieces of farmland in BC history
you need a million calories a year and 5000 litres of water
anyway the mayor and chief of police in Abby have reported that the pumping station is holding but it was a near thing
We went to Lougheed Mall for a mall walk, and I bought Purdy’s chocolates (Sweet Georgia Browns) and choc croissants for Jeff (okay I had one). Paul finally collected the bouncy exercise ball for Katie.
The rain, which has been unceasing, has caused landslides and flooding all around Abbotsford and Agassiz. Power’s out in loads of places and there’s a evac centre that’s been opened. Hundreds of cars are stuck on the highway between landslide points.
For the middle aged woman sitting on the roof of her car waiting for rescue just this minute, I’m thinking of you and hope you make it.
LOL someone said something enbyphobic and (essentially) transphobic at lunch yesterday. I said, as loudly as polite, “That’s bigoted speech,” but no one heard me. At least I didn’t say nothing. I won’t repeat what she said but it’s the standard VARIANT on ‘please make up your mind about your pronouns’ and when I think how hard I’ve mentally fought to have a genuinely gender fluid character in my stories without all my icky cis assumptions on them maybe I should have been more gritty… but what good would it do? I mean when do you get a white woman to change her mind.
The meal was delightful (jerkwad comments aside) and I admired Ingrid’s amazing wine coloured hand knitted alpaca dress (she let me fondle the hem, thank goodness, because it was like an enormous red cloud of patterned softness) and listened to Jan burble (she is a burbler, and a damned good one) and do you know what, she took my sf recommendations AND SHE’S READ ALL OF MARTHA WELLS’ MURDERBOT STORIES and we all talked about how much we love the Expanse (book and show)
and instead of going to bookstores afterwards like a realio trulio Dunnetteer I headed to the weed store to buy CBD gummies, because pain management is real, you know.
I did consume one glass of Glenfiddich in Dunnett’s honour. AND I have pain behind my right eye today in consequence, it’s my standard response to alcohol consumption.
I love how the background TV was formula 1 so I got to watch Lewis Hamilton get interviewed with the sound off.
Everyone in the restaurant was an old, like me. Like, without exception. Made me wonder about the local demographics.
Took a taxi there, came home via transit, curled up, watched TV, remembered to completely dry my laundry, put the split pea soup away.
Saw one of my all time fave “Vancouver interactions” –
Yay! went for a walk in the Byrne creek parks yesterday with Mike.
Boo! nearly passed out from the effort of staggering up the hill back to his place.
Nets out as: No benches or places to sit, no walkies; do not leave house without cane. (I can’t FIND the one Mike bought me and I bought a new folding one.) I told Mike that if I had known I was going to be so out of gas I would not have suggested the walk, but we GOT OUT OF HIS APARTMENT.
Yay! got to watch the weird weather from the Aerie!
Boo! the fucking elevator was crapped out when I left yesterday!
Yay! I was well enough to walk down 13 flights of stairs!
BOOO my legs shook for half a fucking hour after I got home.
YAY! JEFF filled in the edges of the jigsaw puzzle I got last week while I was away (He needed things to do while BC Hydro turned the power off.) The rest of the puzzle will be even harder now but at least I have the edge.
YAY! I have ART for struggling Great Grandparents who have insufficiency of AMONG US FAN ART DRAWN BY A SEVEN YEAR OLD in their lives and on their fridge.
I have been looking for a substitute for Red Deer Lodge in my life and I thought I might have located one. It’s about 3 hours with the ferry to get there. Then I realized they only book through Airbnb and I said fuck it, I want to stay somewhere that isn’t ruining rental housing and messing up the economy.
I have learned that early in the new year there will be a proper bus from the Carvolth Station to Chilliwack, which means I don’t need to drive to the ‘wack to see Jarmo and Susana!
I think I’ve posted this meme about reincarnation before…. in a previous life perhaps??
the wind was just HOWLING yesterday and we’re apparently going to get 110 kph gusts today… the wind came so hard again Mike’s SW facing windows I thought it was hail
there was a fucking WATERSPOUT recorded offa YVR yesterday and translink says it will be days before all the fallen trees at UBC are removed so there was really localized meteorological mayhem yesterday
welcome to your new age weather
salmon, shiitake mushrooms, gai lan and spaghetti squash with lemon and garlic for supper DAMN IT WUZ GOOD prior to that yummy veggie snacks with hummus and salsa and the best damn corn chips I ever ate. (Fresh is Best brand)
Peggy said the other day that she doesn’t have a dress suitable for her husband’s funeral and she and I may go off to Village de Valeur to acquire one after she consults with her fashion guru. She didn’t know about the big store on Annacis Island.
Jeff found the last of the whipped cream to go with Peggy’s lemming pie.
After she dropped off pie the soup I had recently started was finally done. I kind of ignored the recipe on the package so it was basically a pound of split peas (rinsed many many times), half an onion (the other half of the onion that went into the salad so I felt all housewifely thrifty cuz the onion half didn’t languish for two weeks in the fridge before dying), about ten thin slices of double smoked pork loin cut fine, two teaspoons of bouillon paste, and ten cups of water. Plain af but Jeff pronounced it exactly what he needed so that was pleasant. I may have it for breakfast.
I wonder if Jeff ate both pieces of pie.
I called Peggy to ask if now was convenient to deliver some food.
Peggy said, “It’s remarkable that you called.” Peggy had a dream that I made her some fruit bread and I had to apologize because what I actually made her as soon as I got home this morning from the shop was shirazi salad (one container for her, one container for me and Jeff and probably Paul because he loves the stuff). I offered to deliver it and she counter-offered to pick it up because she has a lengthy car appointment and will be by later this afternoon. Technically tomatoes are a fruit. Isn’t the message on the wind the strangest thing?
My recipe:
five on the vine tomatoes
one English cuke
half a white onion
all the above chopped fairly small
juice of half a lemon
two sprigs of fresh mint chopped fine
two sprigs of fresh parsley chopped fine
The thing I love about this salad is that it is entirely devoid of salt and pepper, and maybe someday I’ll get some sumac (the spice, not the poisonous shit) and make it more authentically. This salad comes from Iran/Persia, after the introduction of tomatoes as a crop.
So there were SO MANY EXPLOSIONS in my neighbourhood last night. Buster basically ASKED to be locked in the house (ask Jeff if you don’t believe me) and he was hiding in various places yesterday, since the bear scares started around 11 am and are STILL GOING off in the distance.
This was interspersed by ratrunners zooming at godless speeds and ludicrous RPMs up and down Kingsway. I thank my heritage that I can sleep through damned near anything once I’m asleep but I kept waking up and thinking you bastards.
Cockney Kings Fish and Chips yesterday. They fucked up the order, but not the delivery and more or less said gee that’s too bad when I complained via phone, so no cole slaw with the order.
First world problems, right?
Started transferring musical instruments around in a bid to get all the instruments I actually play or want to play in the same place so it’s more fun for Alex when he has sleepovers. I’ll bring the two instruments I’m not playing upstairs and take the keyboard downstairs.
Jeff and I have an errand to run today, I’m hoping it’s nice enough to walk over there since it’s very close by.
I haven’t been talking much about writing. I’ve been working on fanfic (the current ones about a bad restaurant review (lots of social justicey side comments regarding restaurant workers and COVID) and a do it yourself spa day for two men, (which is very funny IMO) (pretty skinny structural supports for stories but ah well), but I may actually try to do something for November Novel Writing Month, also called NanoWrimo, in which case I’ll talk about it next month when I’m finished.
Left a message for Mike. I’m hoping he’s okay, but I’m not really in shape to be socializing, so.
Time for some more tea.
Buster has never been so clear about wanting me to keep the cat door locked. He peed in the cat litter tray right in front of me; normally if the weather’s decent he likes to commune with nature while he’s draining the main. So I locked the door again. He can’t stand the noise outside, and he feels protected from it if the door is locked. He’s been hiding all over the house; in the towels in the bathroom, under the stairs, under my chair downstairs, on the top deck of the bunkbeds. Poor lamb. He’s also compulsively licking himself so he may be working on an anxiety disorder.
Paul and I were walking in the Foreshore Park and out by the place we normally turn and come back I noted that we were surrounded by very noisy and active chickadees. They divebombed Paul and I laughed at him and said, “Time for your Disney Princess moment.”
I slowly extended my left index finger and a chickadee landed on it. Then another chickadee booted the first one off in a flurry of wings and chitters. Then I apologized for not having food. They followed us for about half a k, the lil devils.
I asked Paul to take me to Phở afterward and he did (I offered to pay but he declined.)
He and Janice have broken up. He’s very unhappy but quite understandably not willing to talk about it except in very general terms. He’s dating someone in Gibson’s now and I said if he’s going up there to let me know, I wouldn’t mind meeting up with Laurel.
After spending about three hours girding myself up mentally I got myself out the door to see Tom this am. He is thin as a rail and not greatly responsive. I have had my last exchange of words with him unless I am unduly fortunate.
The last thing he did for me was leave food on my porch.
Jeffrey C from Seattle came up to see him. There were already three rellies in Tom’s room when I arrived so I departed after giving him a very hearty and very sincere hug.
I was going to go to Brown’s after but I saw that there were taxis at the stand and said fck it I’m for home. We watched some TV and I ordered fish&chips from Cockney Kings.
Leaving the house is not psychologically easy.
Someone answered my ad for a cultural competence read and while they are a super awesome creative human being with great taste they are alas not what I’m looking for but he gave me some leads which was awesome.
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.
I’m having leftover ahi tuna for brekkie, nope, smoked salmon and eggs, and you’re not.
He’s loaning me a couple of really good diabetes cookbooks.
Watched first two episodes of Foundation last night, I’m loving it so far.
