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!
Front Street is closed from Begbie to the bridge. I intend to park as close as possible and then walk along where we can.
Fic 14,460.
Washed my bedding, made reaaaally nice cinnamon buns (Paul came by and got two, one for him and one for Keith, Katie’s not eating bread).
Heard from Nadine, everyone’s fine but GAWD the devastation in Oregon is grim.
She’ll send me donation links when she gets a chance.
fic 13,205 FINALLY managed to get through the scene at work. I think it will play most amusingly. Just imagine a guy getting his face teased off by two co-workers, that shouldn’t be too hard.
Trying something different with respect to a daily routine. Even half-assing it yesterday I was more productive that I normally am and scheduled a whole bunch of much needed self-care. All in all I am very pleased.
Made a small luncheon salad – chopped cooked chicken breast, lettuce, onion and olive.
Buster trained well yesterday.
Wanted to go walking with Paul today, but it will be a mall walk, if anything; the heat and the particulates make walking outside a mug’s game. So I emailed him and expect to hear from him midmorning.
I backed up my hard drive this week; Jeff thinks I should be scheduling it more like once a month than three times a year, and he’s right.
Spoke to Peggy on the phone yesterday. She was putting up pears and applesauce when I called; how very Peggy. We had a delightful chat although she definitely is not enjoying this phase of the pandemic, having school aged and toddler grandchildren.
Drone footage of San Francisco, with all the orange wildfires, is…. jeez am I wearing out ‘apocalyptic’ yet?
There aren’t enough public washrooms in Burnaby.
I’m out of bocconcini pearls and it’s making me crabby. SALT FREE CHEESE! ya-harri-hoy!!
They’ve torn down the last of the sets for Supernatural and Baby rides for the last time today. Sigh. End of the show is coming.
Just told someone on AO3 not to give drunk people ibuprofen even in fanfic. I M BITCH, HEAR ME HOWL
Mike, after very kindly dropping off ginger scallion sousvide chicken breasts last night (I gave him a squash) called to remind us that a big blow is forecast for today.
We’re not taking down the awning, but I secured some of the stuff on the deck. Gusts of 70 kph (45 mph) are expected.
BIG WIND CANCELLED cops still assholes
from the WaPo
added later:
So there’s signage at Deer Lake Park equivalent to ‘walk this way’ and no, not like Aerosmith, but nobody seems able to read it. Paul and I went for a walk, saw frogs, got halibut and chips and fed ourselves and Jeff lunch.
Today I’m hoping to mount a small shopping expedition.
Advice from @Maria_Tureaud on twitter for a pitch session:
To write a Twitter pitch: 1. Who is your MC? 2. What is their normal? 3. But when X happens, MC faces *stakes so dire* 4. And then MC will/might lose Y/Z
eh, doesn’t really work for me
10,676 words
I’m continuing to find small areas to clean up and dejunk; got rid of all the kitchen pens that don’t work, always a satisfying activity. Practiced on various instruments; tried to do a small shop but visited the bank instead; hung out with Paul and fed him a toasted ciabatta with chopped cooked asparagus and bacon, jalapeño havarti and sweet onion. He pronounced it tolerably edible and dragged away another piece of bacon like a damned dog to eat separately.
Fic’s up to 9500 words. I’m going to dab every trope on that damned bingo card, see if I don’t.
Finally got hold of the doc, now I have to check the req is there.
Been so long since I replaced my mattress my memory foam’s got Alzheimers.
cowriter, Paul
If you click on it, it expands to a readable size.
Katie and Mike BOTH dropped by yesterday, Mike to pick up lentil soup and drop off sous-vide chicken breasts, nom, and Katie to just lay eyes on me and tell me about her life updates, which include what appears to be a shot at being happy, so, I’m like. YEAH SURE I want you to be happy, why the fuck wouldn’t I. She’s known him since high school, it’s not like he fell out of the sky. I haven’t met him, mostly because I don’t have to during a pandemic, but Paul and Keith have.
We talked about how the world is half mad with grief, and those who show no grief show fear and anger.
No walkies with Paul.
Made more lentil soup, made more dough for cinnamon buns; the ones I made yesterday morning are, like, gonzo. I guess Jeff and I really really liked them.
Finished watching season two of the Alienist. It’s much like the first season in some ways, but they handled a trope about as tastefully as one can, and the man follows the woman to her new job rather than the other way around, so that was a nice break, and there was an extremely satisfying revenge killing, one of the best and promptest ever. You killed my brother, I ain’t giving you the CHANCE to prepare to die, I’m just going to shoot you in the back. YES.
When I was researching the show I learned that the author of the original source material had a family story that possibly affected his writing; his dad committed a murder that was embedded in scandal and served time for it. Then he had a fifty year career in newspapers. I wish I was a white guy.
This is a Balmain dress from the 50s. Dress looks like she was hung by her heels, dipped in white chocolate and rolled in glitter-encrusted dust bunnies.
Victoria trip a success by all accounts.
Fed Paul lunch (beef and cabbage stirfry, which was delicioso thanks) and went for a really most pleasant walk in the 12th Ave School yard. The weather yesterday was so delightful, everything fresh under mixed skies.
For some reason I felt like I should call Peggy, and we ended up talking in part about how the more sensitive among us are grieving for the whole world right now.
I’m watching Hannibal without Jeff. It’s kind of exploitative but that’s the whole point I think.
I donated to Red Cross Lebanon for the Beirut explosion.
This is Jim being silly.
This is beadwork by the stellar Gwich’in artist Margaret Nazon.
While Paul was here I handed him the phone and a beer. It was delightful to see how much he enjoyed talking to mOm, and mOm has long considered him a worthy in-law.
We took two turns around the 12th Ave School circuit and sat in the shade and watched a number of people not wear masks. I wore a mask anyway, the one to support the Vancouver Aquarium, which has turned into my go to mask because it fits well and is comfy.
I had a couple of days, most of a week, of feeling much better, but I’m feeling very jaded and unhopeful at the moment. I despise Trump and all of his minions and supporters so much, but I guess there’re historical precedents for an entire culture of people being so convinced of their superiority that a devastating war is the only way to slow them down.
Buster trained twice yesterday with vigour. Then he flops on the floor and looks cute. Yes Jeff he got his Sunday dinner.
Saved seeds yesterday. Practiced. Watched some TV but not a lot. Watered the garden. Fed a friend. Made soup. Cleaned a few things. Finally used up that cabbage head which has been unprofitably rolling around the fridge, and made fried cabbage with onions and chunks of steak. Only added half a teaspoon of salt as seasoning, but damn it was good, and that was dinner. Also phoned Mike to tell him there’s some really good soooooop waiting for him here.
Basically I started drinking beer when I got there, stopped around 7 pm, started having kidney grit again around 2 am, peed into a cup at one point because I couldn’t make it from the trailer to the house, and man, continence is A WHOLE THING of beauty and you really appreciate it when you don’t have it. I woke Jeff up around 6:30 the next morning and we talked it through, whether we wanted to leave in case I got worse, ended up getting the 9 o’clock ferry, more or less, and was greeted by an exceedingly noisy Buster.
But kidney grit aside….
We had an awesome time, can’t say how much, it was balm for my soul. And Jeff is of much the same mind. Brought a PILE of guest gifts mostly to indicate how grateful I am to have access to a miniature Baumfest. Anyway why take flowers? I brought vegetation of a different kind. Also a plaque showing Percy Saltzman saying Tonight’s forecast: low standards, alcohol and poor decisions. I thought Al was about to lose his mind when he saw that. I also brought them four capshields with hardware.
Drank beer ate fishburgers and other food, listened to the waterfall – they have a WATERFALL you can hear FROM THEIR YARD listened to their incredible playlist on spotify and around ten I got to sleep in their extremely comfy trailer in the side yard. I FELL IN LOVE with that trailer, it’s incredible me-sized.
IT WAS FUNNE!
This little exchange on the internet may NOT GO AS PLANNED for grandpa but he’ll be dead when his grandson eulogizes him as ‘the man who really accepted my sexuality’ LOLOLOLOL
I saw Tammy at her Airbnb yesterday. It’s very nice; hilariously, out of all the buildings in downtown Vancouver she could have ended up with (her booking was changed twice before she settled) she ended up in the same building as Patricia used to live in, in a mirror image of that same apartment.
Her life is very trying right now; as a provider of psychological counselling to half a dozen front line health care workers she’s hearing and processing stuff that’s hard, cruel hard, and the fact that it isn’t happening directly to her doesn’t take the pressure off trying to do her best for them.
Thanks to Justin McElroy for the tip about Chambar, the food was fantastic. also to keep my self honest I had two 5% beers
DUCK AND LAMB, DUCK AND LAMB GOD IT WAS YUMMY DUCK AND LAMB the tajine was mmmmwaaaaaah and the duck was PERFECTLY COOKED also asparagus and olives and pistachios and nomnomnom
but in some respects the visit was a bunch of painful realizations that I’m simply not the same person I used to be. And that I’m a coward.
I’ll see her again on Thursday, she’s going home on Sunday, Paul is apparently seeing her today.
The statue of a people thief was thrown into the water in Bristol and then some witty mofo edited the wikipedia article of the person commemorated
I have to tell you, the video of Colston getting ripped down and tossed into the bay was the best thing about yesterday, except Tammy getting to town.
We’re going to Chambar this afternoon. GAL’S GOTTA EAT
Paul, Jeff and I walked in Robert Burnaby Park; I collected trash (wrappers and butts mostly) and fogged up my shield.
picked up sushi for lunch and then Keith made vodka Caesars for the boys & we had a socially distant meal on the back deck. Keith seemed in quite good spirits and owned as how he’d like to go back to school when all this is over.
later in the day Mike came over and gave me food and I gave him a shield and we hung around and talked on the back deck – he walked over, and it was just so pleasant to hang around and listen to the menfolks quietly talk
In June.
