Category: Friends

how does he plan to pull the pin

this is the picture of a man who threatened to blow up a casino with a grenade he had previously secreted up his ass…. The face of a man who conned a policeman into giving him a free prostate exam…

Brian Gower, 46, faces one count of making threats of conveying false information concerning an act of terrorism after the incident Friday morning.

According to police, Gower was arrested at The Strat Hotel and Casino after threatening to “blow the building up,” officers wrote in an arrest report.
by: David Charns

Posted: Feb 7, 2022 / 05:54 PM PST / Updated: Feb 7, 2022 / 11:21 PM PST

 

Got the absolute longest, sweetest and most detailed message about one of my fics this am… great way to start the day. Still no letter for Mary.

Got to feel chickadees landing on my hand yesterday. I am not supposed to feed wild birds in parks but I was feeding them ORGANIC Styrian raw unsalted sunflower seeds at 20 bucks a bag so NO COMPLAINTS AND THEN Paul and I got to watch seven mountain jays appear screeching out of the trees … in their breeding plumage AND THEN we got to see one of the local red-winged blackbirds from two meters away and the sun was on it as it grabbed millet from a stump and it too was it its breeding plumage, and the world is better than it was yesterday.

Came up with another fic idea, this one about a part time driving instructor and his socially awkward adult student. I think this one may be 25 -40 k… I have lots of ideas.

Speaking of lots of ideas Jarmo has tons of them now for businesses and products, now that he’s retired. Some of them sound massively wacky, but one in particular? THAT ONE I want to bankroll, because it’s an accessibility idea for computers…

two loads of laundry yesterday and fed Paul lunch of lentil soup and cole slaw. Got fish and chips delivered for supper.

Jeff and I are thinking of actually going out for breakfast, which is insane, but we got told about a new breakfast place by Chris Campbell at the Burnaby Now. I want him to stop being an editor and merely do restaurant reviews. If you go to r/Burnaby people hate on him so fucking much, but I love him because he has an honest and distinctive human voice and BELIEVE ME not all local journos do.

RIP Monica Vitti

Even though it’s a simply terrible movie, I loved Monica Vitti in Modesty Blaise.

Suzanne should be all moved in to her new place. Still working on Mike to hire her as a cleaning specialist. And why not? they’re living 4 blocks away from each other now. I am so fucking happy she’s not on the other side of the bridge although I totally understand why it pained her to give up her beautiful little house with the stunning north shore views.

I’m about 2-5K from the end of the fanfic story with the BC flooding setting. Lots of kudos on the newly posted story last night.

I’m …. I don’t know how to describe it. Pandemic brain got me hard. I’m so ditzy, irritable and lazy I feel gross.

Gorgeous

 

Multum in parvo

(much in little)

Wordle got bought by the NY Times, so I’m not doing it anymore.

Still no letter for Auntie Mary. She’s owed one since October but I’m a bum.

Still processing the four of us getting together on Sunday. It was a lot of feels and it felt almost like group therapy, or more accurately, like the group meditations that we used to do through Beacon. I feel seen, and I listened with intent. I’ve said many times how amazing Jarmo is (he just is, okay, trust me) but Susanna is absolutely amazing and so kind, given her trials.

Thandiwe Newton reported as referring to Sean Penn as a jibbering fool made my morning (he was decrying the ‘feminization of men’ poor sod).  Sean Penn being a freehold scumbag is pretty much a given but her shade was a touch of perfection.

Rehearsed a tiny bit yesterday. Music has pretty much died inside me. I’m listening to music on line, but there’s no music inside me, and I read incoming emails about on line filking with no emotion at all and just delete them.

Pandemic brain is real. Jeff and I went out for food pickup yesterday and WE HAVE NEVER SEEN IN 35 MINUTES OF DRIVING SUCH AN ASSORTMENT OF CLUELESS AND ACTIVELY FUCKED UP DRIVERS. Broad flipping daylight, zero problems with traction and visibility, and drivers were all the words you use when you don’t want to say they’re mentally ill, chemically altered or just dgaf.

The DaVinci Drone

Straight outta Compton ruined by white people

Perdikomata

Above noted is a song by the Greek band Villagers of Ioannina City, a shoegaze/indie/folk band. The lyrics are a dreamy love song to ‘my partridge eyed one’.

 

 

like a poem

Just bragging about how I got wordle in three this morning. If any of you play wordle I am sorryunsorry. You can cheat if you like I won’t tell.

My heart is full of mixed emotions, but chiefly joy at seeing my friends, grieving and battered as they are. Ville’s death was the model of an unnecessary tragedy.

The RCMP who attended the scene were absolutely foul.

We spoke of many, many other things besides Ville’s death and Jarmo stood us all our meal, and the sauna was incredibly relaxing and I should not have drunk that beer, but I was feeling convivial.

I want you to imagine how honoured I was that me and Mike were literally the first people they’ve interacted with since he died.

Big hugs to My People.

that wasn’t four hours

I got to help a girlfriend, hang with my daughter, make faces at my grandson and get out of the house. I also got to see that cool house in Surrey Suzanne was living at. THE VIEW OF THE NORTH SHORE MOUNTAINS AS THE FOG MELTED AWAY oh my heart. Apparently Keith is going to help Suzanne with her move.

It wasn’t four hours but we did get shit done and she’s got other helpers coming.

By posting this pic on my blog I’m ensuring I’ll be first against the wall when the Chinese walk whistling into Vancouver…. it’s the SS Olympic Bloodbath.

Just said in a reddit comment I HOPE YOUR CLIENT SUES YOUR ASS CLEAN OFF YOUR BODY. lol

My UK fan worked her way through another two stories last night. The consistency is really getting to me.

 

Socialization report

Yesterday, Keith came over and cooked us lunch, (essentially a super fancy grilled cheese, fresh mozza on a crunchy ciabatta bun) and it was delightful. He mentioned among other things that he’d gone to visit Peggy. Then Mike came over and watched TV and consumed food (fish and chips from Cockney Kings) and I got to look at his Mitsubishi Japan steering Delica. That will be an amazing vehicle for the zombie apocalypse. So I … did not do any cooking yesterday, see this smile? Goes for miles. And I drank ONE 3% beer. Jeff asked me what the other 97% was.

Since I’m feeling well rested perhaps I should work on some projects.

SO GOOD to see Mike recovered from his plague.

Keith and Mike

Keith is coming over to feed me and Jeff lunch,THE NEXT 150 WORDS DELETED. I’m really looking forward to it, whatever he produces!

Later, Mike’s dropping by and we’re going to go for a car ride in his new used Japanese work truck. I am thinking about making up a snack to take with us. I am very interested in where we might go. I’m thinking we’ll end up sort of all the way up in Squamish or all the way down in Steveston and either way I LOVES ME A CAR RIDE and I’m looking forward to it. Mike’s lived in Vancouver his whole life and he really knows this place well. I always see corners of the city previously unknown to me.

He says he did have COVID but he’s two weeks past symptoms so we should be okay. Poor guy was sick as a dog, but not enough to come to the attention of the health-care system.

I’m finally writing letters again, starting with Auntie Mary.

It would be amazing if Mike and Keith actually SAW each other.

Lovely to see Tammy last night

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.

Moar effin precip

Moar shovelling today I imagine. It’s supposed to stop today and start again tomorrow, might be as much as 15 cm but my heart misgives me and I think it will be more. AND STILL THERE IS NO SALT IN THE STORES.

Much horror, humour, excitement and a happy ending –  with the fam over in Victoria – yesterday. To preserve the privacy and dignity of those involved I shall say nothing here except that we are all well, and perhaps some of us collected some bruises. I shall also note that in the midst of my hysterics (yup, cried like a baby on the phone with my mOm), when I was first informed of the precipitating event, that I kept my cheese assembled long enough to provide useful and actionable advice to someone under stress, so go me. Everything came out as okay as it can but I sure learned that I’m a hair from weeping and flailing about pretty much anytime.

Jeff and I, partly because of the effin precip, partly because of the news, and partly because (WAVES HAND OVER THE IDEA THAT A MILLION AMERICANS AND QUITE A FEW CANADIANS GOT DIAGNOSED WITH COVID YESTERDAY) did not have a fantabulous day yesterday. I ran the dishwasher and shovelled and fed the birdies but other than that I can assure you I did not do a thing. Okay, I did write 1391 words on the ‘meet cute in the airport during a snowstorm’ story.

Tammy comes to town today to visit friends and fam on her way to Hawaii. Fingers crossed for her travel luck; there’s a break in the weather on both ends but if COVID knocks too many people off work, that plane won’t leave… Like I said fingers crossed. She’s double boostered. If anyone is safe to travel in a pressurized aluminum skin full of plague she is. She just messaged me to say her flight’s still showing on time. With luck she’ll call me a little after noon.

I observe that when white people stick their noses in the ‘pan-Indigenous’ concept it’s usually about control over, grift from and erasure of distinct nations and persons. Only nations can determine belonging and categories of belonging. It isn’t a single, simple concept or law.

I have opened YET ANOTHER PROJECT FILE this one non-fiction. It’s called Common Human Cognitive Issues and What to Do About Them. I realize I have zero experience with that! (actually that’s not true, but it wasn’t peer reviewed, which is a grift anyway) which is why it’s going to be a jolly parody of self-help books.

happy Christmas everyone

Yup, a day whose importance has deflated like a cluster of birthday balloons blown into a ditch has arrived again. I haven’t wrapped a present or done any running around. I haven’t prepped a turkey or assembled the mass of vegetables to peel that oppresses the groaning board. The dining room table remains covered in filk memorabilia, craft cruft and a thousand piece puzzle (Jeff finished the edge). I don’t have to work, be responsible, be hospitable, put on a spread, worry about snax, worry about entertainment, worry about a gathering during a pandemic.

Rob W showed up briefly yesterday with firefly and snowpiercer comics! We mourned for his coworker, killed while moving poles for an electric bus (by another worker in their bus). translink is OF COURSE being remarkably silent about it and Rob, who drove bus in this part of solh temexw (remember? pronounced Sole te mawk) said he always hated doing it because you’re outside the bus and even more vulnerable than usual. I gave him a piece of Sugru (rubber moldable glue, incredible stuff I’m sure he’ll find a use for it) and two KN95 masks, one of which he promptly broke, so I’m glad I gave him two. I provided him with the address at Caspell Junction. Then he mentioned he’s got heart surgery on the docket but not scheduled yet (ablation, ouch). I warned him that COVID is severely fucking with surgery waits. Then we mourned for Tom for a while, exchanged a couple of flying anecdotes  (mine about writing a fanfic with soaring in it, and him about ‘landing out’ as in right out of Germany (he was paragliding) and walking home from France, somehow without attracting the attention of the gendarmes) and parted on friendly terms. We were both masked the whole time he was here and Jeff closed his door. Yes, I know showing up unannounced during the plague is not optimal, but what is in these parlous times and I did immediate upgrade his mask.

We both spent a minute just flapping our gums over the last communique about the plague from the government and Doc Henry. Like who the fuck cares, the hospitals are full, N95 masks are unavailable except at ‘this is what is charged during wartime’ prices, people are lining up to be tested using inadequate masks, test kits are unavailable, disabled people are left at the side of society to die unimpeded and thousands of people are at risk of freezing to death on the streets of Vancouver this week. Yup, Merry Christmas we get wished from a bubble of vacuity. Nothing she says means a fucking thing as long as universities and schools are forced to stay open. Maybe she hopes this omicron wave will burn out in six weeks like it did in Gauteng province. I’ve long since given up trying to understand the rationale for the bs.

I picked up a few treats yesterday while I was out getting my BP meds at Guardian (jammed past pandemic standards with anxious people seeking booster shots…) which included FLORENTINES four of them, strangely available at the butcher shop on 6th, Jeff asked for something caramelly and that was as close as I could get, a beefsteak for a steak and eggs brekky this am, six Timmy Hos donuts, and two handpies (strawberry rhubarb) for Jeff. So that obviously means that I walked two k in the slush and muck yesterday but the traction wasn’t bad and I was having a good balance day so walking home a bunch of groceries while I got a little out of breath was certainly manageable. I leave the walking stick by the door in case I’m having a wobbly day, but I’m getting a lot fewer of those…

Okay, time to get the steak out of the fridge and bring it to room temperature. I think I’m just going to bake it, the idea of standing to cook it for any length of time simply appalls. I’m about to blow through two days worth of salt consumption in one go, better make it worthwhile….

¯\_(?)_/¯

a glorious day yesterday

I went walking with Paul at Fraser Foreshore and a bush tit and a chickadee ate sunflower seeds from my hand. Hullo leedle birdies. Sun blasting down but icy af in a few spots, no falling for us.

MIKE CAME OVER it was brief but it was lovely. While he was here I made banana bread, which is a story in itself, and he bought a Delica 2800 Japanese right hand drive vehicle and showed it off to us. Anyway, I sent him off with banana bread for his coffee this morning and that makes me feel happy thinking about it.

PEGGY turned up with MINCE PIES and TARTS and ENOUGH EGGS that I could make the banana bread. Because I didn’t want to leave the house. So I MANIFESTED EGGS. I said to Jeff who needs magic I have Peggy. DAMN HER PIE CRUST IS SO FUCKING AWESOME (muppet falls face down into food, everything everywhere). She reports taking some to Paul.

This morning I have run the dishwasher and had a breakfast of leftover pancakes and tea. Later this afternoon we’re going to pick up our first ever pickup grocery order.

I booked my booster THE INSTANT I got the email, and now of course everything in BC is going off the rails so Jeff can’t find anything closer than the Italian Cultural Centre (You remember mOm, that’s the place Theo ripped all the tiles off the roof in my novel…) well into January.

I’m buying handyman services for Katie’s household, I hate that railing on the back stair so I’ve contracted someone to fix it for them. The idea of Paul coming a over t down those stairs has very little appeal.

Raining hard today

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.

Fraser Foreshore Walk

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.

walking at Lougheed

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.