Coughing has slowed to a crawl

Thank goodness. I’m very dehydrated so I should go have something yummy to drink.

LOVERLY chat with the fOlks last night, pOp got in on the act by saying he didn’t know what to say, which also is typical. We were happy about a dentist appointment being cancelled and rescheduled until when pOp can lie in the arms of Morpheus during the appointment. Yeah, painless dentistry is much preferred.

Other than that the fOlks sound fine which is cheering. They admitted that it’s weird having a 65 year old daughter. But as I pointed out, a 65 yo daughter WITH DAMNED GOOD HAIR. From the video Sunnie Larsen took. I look BLONDE under the lights. You can see Cindy’s back and Miles Vorkosigan in the reflection.

 

wordle and visitors

I used to post my Wordle score every morning on facebook but I’m not on facebook at the moment.

My score for today: Wordle 856 3/6

What timing! I think I did a great job keeping up with everyone! LOL this is a joke for anyone who did Wordle this morning.

On tap for this morning, now that I’m awake.

Mek kafi Make coffee McCaffey

Just letting you know that learning to cope
with my rejection sensitivity dysphoria
means that I make fun of myself so that it appears other people aren’t hurting me
with their jokes, but even if they think they’re joking, and I act like it,
I’m still hurt. Days later. Sorry for this aspect of my humanity.

Kitchen table and fridge; musical instruments out of the guest room; towels into the guest room; night light into the guest room; shower; tek pills; mek salad. Later pick up some more foodstuffs for meals to make at home while they’re here after consulting  with them.

I am still vibrating with happiness about Peggy coming with us to Orycon. We are going to have truly oooootrajjjjious amounts of fun, I can FEEL IT.

There will be a season 3 Goom Odens. Neil sayeth so, it shall be so.

Thinking about the 1996 storm in Victoria. Damn, but that was a lot of snow.

Thinking about having to reduce my kit, going to the con, if Peggy’s bringing her bass. Mebbe two cars? seems not right somehow.

 

 

a few words

pOp is staying at least one overnight in hospital. My poor mother. He’s got an intermittent fever and the docs don’t like it. Her cleaning specialist was there today and (as always) a sweet and gentle Godsend for my mOm. Of course I told mOm to call me anytime. Conveyed Liz’s greetings to her and pOp.

This is Willow

Alex played with his friends for 15 minutes after school and got to see a chameleon!  (I waited in the car; friends are important!) His mommabear supplied him with a sammy for lunch.

I am continuing to train Buster regarding Alex. Before Alex came over I said about ten times; ‘Alex coming, noisy. Noisy Alex. Alex will be here soon.” Then when Alex was here (and playing gaming videos and minding his own business) I took him in to say hello but he didn’t bolt. He went into the next room, and didn’t hide (progress!!! yes!) and then I played with him and brushed him FOR A LONG TIME. He’ll get used to the lad yet. But of course letting him know that Alex is coming will help him adjust.

Buster isn’t complaining at all when we close the cat door. I think there’s a new mean kitty out there.

More laundry; two more loads today and the first three either folded or put away.

No joy whatsoever in getting hold of Paul. I assume since it’s a nice day he’s conversatin’ with the ladies out on the patio at Thornbridge. And I hope he has a lovely time!

Alex is using expensive paints and a seven dollar canvas to paint right now and I can hardly wait to see what he does. Right now it looks like the Eye of Sauron. He just threw huge swathes of copper paint on it this should be good.

 

 

Alex today

Actually I’ve got him all week.

Today will be the longest day, I’ve got him before school and then from 10ish to when Katie comes for him. I’ll be taking him with me on errands with Paul, who needs a battery stuck in his watch. He’ll be here in an hour or less.

466 words yesterday

Put away some laundry and the dishes.

Mike took me to supper at Little Minh’s. I had the Banh Hoi (Vietnamese pork sausages with cucumber and lettuce, fine rice noodles in sheets (never seen it like that before) with basil on top. (He had the chicken, fried egg and noodles.) He showed me videos of the animals he’s seen in Brunette and Alouette – a beaver and a young bear, respectively. The bear came right into the water so Mike was careful to mention that he was yonks away and the zoom function on his phone is crazy amazing. He’s given up all other activities but kayaking, and does that whenever he can. We didn’t really talk that much. Work is bad, but he’s not putting up with anything they throw at him. He’s being locked out of meetings for a product for which he’d normally be required to write customer support documentation. And the rollout is 3 weeks hence. Basically it’s the same shit as 2012, it’s just ten years on. And as soon as the meal was over, he drove me home. I think it was at his outer limit of what he can deal with socially, and I’m just glad he wanted to spend the time with me.

Mary is still on the mend, with all the tubes, and pOp had a fall and will likely be home from hospital today. I know I’m all blithe about it here, but I’m really not; I’m just letting my feelings be guided by my mother, who was concerned but not frantic.

Jeff of the Miracles

So someone decided to say on the internet PRONOUNCE POPSICLES THE GREEK WAY

and the following story appeared

Popsicles said to Spectacles – ‘Can’t you see what’s going on here?’

Spectacles replied, “Vehicles is trying to drive away, but Tentacles won’t let him go, Barnacles keeps trying to come along and Obstacles is in the way. You don’t have to be Oracles to see what’ll happen next.”

At which point I had to stuff my fist in my face not to howl with laughter.

35 words yesterday

Got a lovely comment on my most recent fic the other day.

Jeff of the Miracles got all the data off Paul’s old phone onto the new one AND got Gmail onto the new phone. We none of us deserve him. I fed Paul lunch and tried to help him run an errand but the shop was closed for repairs.

mOm talked to her sister Mary on the phone yesterday and words can cover the gratitude and relief. She’s still gravely ill but recovering.

Not awake yet

Mary is not fully conscious, still in hospital and has a long recovery in front of her.

1355 words yesterday.

Paul came over and I clipped his toenails and Jeff ‘fixed’ his current phone and needs the passcode for the old one, so I imagine I’ll be running over to his place and getting that info.

I have completely paid off my credit card for Keith’s IKEA bed-desk. The last time I saw him I told him I forgave his debt.

My head is full of thoughts I do not wish to share….

 

Auntie Mary

my glorious aunty is in hospital on the Island having fallen and not been found for a number of hours. A head injury (she’s not speaking) and a broken femur are among her injuries. Despite the gravity of the situation, her kids are optimistic for her recovery. Fingers crossed. mOm is keeping us updated. I can’t imagine her worry – Mary despite various lifelong health conditions has always been as spry as anything and how does one not worry about it even when knowing she’s cared for. Her surviving kids are on the case.

1750 words yesterday.

Absolutely must renew meds today I’ve been putting this aside and today’s the day. Think I’ll make coffee now (it’s 2:am) since gosh I’m up.

dang this coffee’s good. Off to the salt mines of laundry errands and writing. Errybody have the best day possible.

later.. coffee on and in, laundry commenced, 1100 words of writing and it’s only 6 am

crying my face off

about my life? no
about the lives of my little carnivale of characters, that would be an affirmative

So I wrote 2000 words, and that’s enough for today. It includes Blossom’s call to the boys, and some really emotionally intense conversations. Like holy shit. Crying like a baby. Now to do something useful.

 

l8r

Have paid for 4 l of bowel cleanser. The life of an ex is not an ‘appy one.

sent the woards off to mOm I think that’s it for section II

 

weird you want weird you get

So… apparently, there’s a company called Prestige Biotech, and it, apparently, is owned by Xiuquin Yao, and sometime in March of this year it was discovered that this company is renting a ‘storage facility’ in Reedley, a town SE of Fresno CA, which was jam-packed with infectious agents, moribund mice (almost a thousand were euthanized).

From Beth Mole’s Arstechnica article from three days ago:

Local and federal authorities have shut down what seems to be an illegal medical lab hidden in a California warehouse that contained nearly 1,000 laboratory mice, hundreds of unknown chemicals, refrigerators and freezers, vials of biohazardous materials, including blood, incubators, and at least 20 infectious agents, including SARS-CoV-2, HIV, and a herpes virus.

A criminal investigation is ongoing. The tenant of the warehouse is listed as Prestige Biotech. Prado told KSEE that the company’s president, Xiuquin Yao, was not forthcoming with information. According to the court documents, Yao told officials that his company had moved assets belonging to a defunct company called Universal Meditech Inc. (UMI), to the Reedley warehouse from another Fresno location where UMI had operated before it was evicted. Prestige was identified as a creditor to UMI. But, Prestige allegedly failed to provide any licensing or permit that would explain the laboratory activity at the warehouse.

All biological materials were secured by July 7.

I’m begging you

Mother Dear Mother

I cannot find the slender black binder which contains the ‘Tales of Grampa”. Please either send it to me in printed or electronic form, or acknowledge that everyone else involved but Grampa is dead now and publish it for the world to see, because Tales of Grampa is one of the best things our family ever wrote.

Alex is the right age now, I NEED THAT BOOK.

Okay technically it’s not required for my physical survival but gloryoski I shore would plumb like that.

Spent a LONG time at Lougheed Mall yesterday with Keith as he acquired a new phone. If -and this is a big if – I need a cell phone I’ll go to Walmart for the flip phone and go to the Bell kiosk for the sim card and activation. Keith also acquired a shower curtain and some other items for his dad and I fed him at Cazba. Lovely food but takes forever. I spent so much time waiting for him that I put together a 125 item generalized list. I also picked up a beautiful new pen – Oomomo has wonderful Japanese pens – and some mini whiteboards with markers – and a pack of Pocky. Managed to stay away from Cobs Bread and the Purdy’s Chocolate. The mall keeps changing stores and it can be quite disorienting.

Keith desperately needs to get some work done on his car, it’s not starting very well. Honestly thought we might be ‘stranded’ (it’s one bus ride home, la).

Had an unbelievably frustrating conversation with him about creativity. He spends all his time worrying about not writing instead of digging in to understanding his creative process and finding tools to support it. I mean, I only found Scrivener a decade ago and before that I didn’t have an app which supports my creative writing the way I need it done. He’s always so infuriatingly vague when he talks about anything personal so after five minutes of flailing, I shut up, assuming he was finding my ‘solutionizing’ patronizing and demoralizing and candidly useless. You know, like the ‘just cheer up’ advice you get from someone who doesn’t understand depression and anxiety and finds your gloominess rude, antisocial and disrespectful.

I checked someone’s name on line after they advertised their cleaning and organizing services on Next Door and they are…. let’s just say whoever the hell she really is, someone with her exact and unusual name has a set of resumes on line which…. er …. don’t line up. They can’t all be right, but they for sure can all be wrong…. so I’m just going to skip over that part where I pay for her advice.

The red canoe is gone out of the back yard, thank you Jeff for making that possible.

I’ve gotten wordle in three tries three days running, I don’t think I’ve ever done that before. There’s been a run of words with ‘B’ in them though, I don’t think that’s unrelated.

Ah, that coffee. Milk and sugar. So good.

And in spite of it, do you know what my bp was this am? 117 over 79. That is absolutely perfect blood pressure and that’s 1.5 hours before my meds so you can understand why I feel a bit weird for an hour after I take them. (But it doesn’t stop me from doing things, I just take it easy.)

I owe Dave a phone call, hopefully it will migrate from my list to reality sometime today.

Zibethicus changed the logo on twitter. Long time nesters there are saying things like ‘EVERYTIME I SEE THAT X INSTEAD OF THE BLUE BIRD IT REMINDS ME TO GO SOMEPLACE ELSE’ Yes Elon, you dun fuct up

I’ve written 773 words over the last two days on TB.

I really wish my energy level wasn’t so variable; but that I guess is the single biggest reason I can’t work full time any more. Plus I’m actually listening to my body and peeing at first recognition that my bladder is full rather than waiting until explosive decompression is imminent.

My pOp said something HILARIOUS to me on the phone yesterday, so I am saluting him this morning WITHOUT repeating what was said. Thank you kind sir, I have been chuckling occasionally ever since. He’ll read this and think, “What is she going on about?” and that too is part of the humour.

I miss Ryker, I need to see that boy.

 

Pics as promised

Okay this one is not promised but I think my characterization of my mammogram as a ‘tittysmash’ appointment is CLASSIC.

I had literally just jumped out of the shower and not brushed my hair, but the all black outfits with Astronauts on them is pure fam and I make no excuse. Mine says “Earth to the Dandy Warhols” and Alex’s says Off to Space.

Barkeep, he seems to be saying. The soother comes into and exits his mouth on the basis of some arcane baby logic. He is STANDING ON THE CAT TREE which is lying on the ground because he kept climbing it. The cats KEITH VERY SAD have gone back to their original keeper.