Category: Domestic Life

Mochi

Jeff and I were exposed to mochi for the first time (frozen, chocolate ice cream mochi which is apparently available at Saveon) last night, and I forgot to mention it as part of the meal.

Paul phoned, insisting that I drive the car to come pick him up so I advised that I’m not taking it anywhere until it’s fixed and I don’t have an appointment yet. Then he demanded to be told what to do with Tom and John’s ashes (they are not mixed together in case you read that with horror) and I said that he has two other siblings and their opinion counts for more than mine. He apparently got on the phone to Peggy too, I can only wring my hands over how that convo must have gone because he sounded quite pugnacious. The problem is, once he has a problem in mind it stays there until he’s distracted, so he’ll probably be stewing about this.

Anyway, having reviewed everything that happened last year (haw as of two days ago) I can now understand why I am having crying jags every day and feeling terrible – not depressed exactly but grieving…. I have felt a lot more energetic of late, but it stops at the door of the house. Shopping tomorrow – I’ll get out of the house whether I want to or not. AND BUY MOCHI nom. As you get older, food becomes the only stalwart….

clean house

Feeling calm and rested. Suzanne’s car is toast so she paid for a cab here and I back – it all worked out.

mOm and Suzanne exchanged phone greetings via me, which was awesome.

One of Suzanne’s youngest son’s friends overdosed in jail this past week. This makes three people who have died of toxic drugs, known to our family, in the last two years.

I was going to have insomnia, so at 10 pm I took a Robax and slept until a little before 4. Done with my brain exercises. Time to face the day and run the dishwasher.

I want to cuddle Ryker and Alex but I am patient.

another fine morning today

I did absolutely nothing yesterday except

one load of laundry

production of two meals, both of which involved standing and cooking, which miraculously I am now able to do after weeks of having trouble standing for any period of time

calm avoidance of invitation to Jerome’s (Mike called around 4 and I told him to drop by after if he went). I just thought my lack of social contact would turn into me autistic gabbling for hours while being worried about COVID and RSV and I couldn’t hack it

creating that L.M. Sacasas quote from yesterday using the absolute stinkpot software ‘paintbrush’ although it IS simple enough for my grandchild to use, so…

training, cuddling and brushing Buster repeatedly over the course of the day, including holding paws with him when his feets were cold (he genuinely likes holding paws with people, it’s adorable)

realizing that the balm from the bee place did actually heal the crack in my heel (I’d started bleeding, most distasteful) and now I need to reapply to the dry bits (face hands elbows etc.). It spreads well and smells lovely. Looking forward to getting more, stuff’s miraculous.

Realizing that it’s time to do Paul’s feet again. I’ll call him today and try once again to find out what he wants me to do about the car.

Checking if I have enough money to pay Suzanne, I do. However her car has been totalled thanks to this fucking weather we had last week so we may need to go get her.

continuing to produce coughs/mucus – substantially noisier than yesterday though I feel no worse, and in fact my mood continues to trend good although I had quite a crying jag yesterday evening thinking about how I’m likely to survive Buster and HOO BOY but I def. feel better today.

a complete review of Part II including copy edits and clarity edits

bringing the mail in… hey, there was mail!

Talking to Dave on the phone, and how lovely to hear his voice. He awaits word of a launch for his book. It continues to emit its own vibrations in this ever renewed universe.

posting in multiples to facebook, tumblr, twitter and dispensing goo on reddit

cheating to get the Wordle of the day after four guesses(Suzanne never cheats but she has a better starter word and doesn’t just guess, she has a system)

doing my Lumosity training, my scores have risen dramatically thank goodness

rewatching Here There Be Dragons (Expanse S2E11) which has SO MANY OF MY FAVOURITE LINES AND SCENES from that show

falling on the treats that Jeff brought back after his dental appointment with the savoir faire of a starving seagull           I M SNAKKY

taking a call from Tammy at the airport. It was an absolutely lovely conversation, she was SO sweet to me, and helpful too. That convo was everything about why I love her so much even if we slide past each other once in a while in terms of understanding – we talked about the book she gave me (about Henrietta Lacks) and the rest of the visiting she did, about what she’s going home to (she never takes ten days off so she’s expecting… a lot of emails, overflowing cat litter since the housesitter won’t have done it etc.) and she told me about the last hour of Banshees of Inisherin after I told her that brO and I bailed on it and you know what??? I’m not sorry we did; as much as I ADORE the two principal actors it was just too fucked up for me. Colin Farrell can do shit with his eyebrows that funambulists drool over.

Calling Rex Murphy a ‘harrumphosaurus’ on various social media platforms. I mean I could call it a day just with that one comment, I M JEENYOUS

Emailing my mOm a picture of a parrot perched on a bird identification book and looking with interest at a picture of a conspecific.

This morning I’ve done my Lumosity, cheated once again on Wordle (I should just stop doing it, it’s morally hazardous), mentally congratulated the Ukrainian forces for fending off every single fucking rocket the Russkys sent toward Kyiv yesterday, made coffee and consumed it, made peppermint tea for Jeff, shuffled stuff in the kitchen and started thinking about eggs and toast (again) for brekky. It’s easy and the cast iron pan’s perfectly seasoned now; how I love hearing the snap of eggs in butter on a nice hot stovetop.

I’m thinking of ordering more no-drip undies today. I don’t have much planned, but do I really have to? Do I?

 

 

 

A word or two

We tried to watch Mad Heidi and the first ten minutes were quite funny and then the script turned up its toes and it slithered itself into a misogynistic ragoût. However, if you want a ridiculous pastiche of what Switzerland would be like if it was a fascist dictatorship based on CHEESE, watch that part because Jeff and I laughed quite immoderately.

For the first time in weeks I feel well rested and cheerful, waking up. All the things I was sad about yesterday are still true, and nothing has improved, just my brain not giving me such a hard time. It’s all good.

Anyway, the proof of my improvement will come from some kind of productivity, but Oh Look I have an engagement in my social calendar…. AM I GOING? I have to call Mike and see if I’m getting a ride….

Heard from Tammy

I’m about to leave to go get her.

And I’m back. We had a lovely Vietnamese meal on Main Street. I drove like the granny I am. Even so, the check engine light came on on the way home. Paul is using this as a reason to get his car back. I have no further public comment.

I am shrugging. I have no control over this situation and I know it. I got home safely before dark, that’s all I care about. I saw more bad driving (lane changes, violent u tURNS ACRosS free lanes I mean three lanes AFTER SIGNALLING THE OPPOSITE WAY. Fuckt, absolument.

Just ordered chicken and ribs. I have control over that. I also get one forkful of Jeff’s dessert, I can’t eat the whole thing, it’s enormous. Also got warm potato salad and a nice big caesar salad. It is coming.

Christmas

I’ve heard from Tammy and have a rough idea of her itinerary. Hopefully she’s able to fly from Seattle to Vancouver with no difficulty.

It is unbelievably slippery out there and the rain keeps falling in bucketloads. It’s well above freezing on the ground.

We’ll be staying home again today, except I still have to get my prescription. The inderal is out of stock until April… or February, so I guess some discomfort is to be expected.

China

There are very few painkillers left on store shelves; children’s painkillers are virtually unavailable.

and it’s all going to get dramatically worse. Although the Chinese government is not reporting the death toll from COVID after releasing the lockdown, hearses queued in front of funeral homes tell no lies.

President Xi had a terrible choice; let millions of people die, or sit still for the largest wave of civil unrest in decades. So he let the pressure off the population, and now they’re too busy getting ready for CNY and, you know, dying, possibly of variants whose existence will be as a direct result of the end of the lockdown, to give him any grief domestically.

Overseas Chinese are mailing tylenol home. China makes 40% of the world’s medicine supply. I’m sure you can see where this is going; a complete collapse of the global medical supply chain. There will be one style of hospital care for the rich and another for everyone else. COVID outbreaks in China will also slow shipping globally for everything else.

Pray you don’t get sick. This will be a hard, harsh winter, and a dubious and inauspicious spring.

Apparently Ryker ended up in hospital last week with a breathing problem; he was nebulized and went home. This was when he was with his da. Apart from being maybe 5 percent crankier than normal Katie didn’t notice that he was doing poorly, afterward, which is why I didn’t report it earlier. Scared me though!

So much snow

Yes, we got some. Ten centimetres, more in some spots. We’ll get wind today to blow it around. The house is like a meat locker; when it goes down to Minus Nine that poor little furnace can scarcely keep up. I got out of the house around 10 yesterday and shovelled a path through the back deck and I shovelled the front walk way but I was completely winded at the end of that. Jeff took over and did all the rest of it including the salting, which so far has prevented further accumulation.

Found my crampons!!! so happy, they are now hanging up in the front hall. Never know when you’re going to need the soddin’ things when it’s slippery underfoot.

And after me saying I haven’t heard from Katie, she phoned me that day, just the lightest checkin.

Alex (in front of Suzanne and his mother) was asked what he wanted for Christmas and after seriously considering the question gave a little frown and said, “I think I have everything I need,” and Katie and Suzanne were narrowly restrained from bawling their eyes out, I sure did when I heard about it.

I sang to Ryker through the phone and he smiled…. according to his mammabear, I doubt she’s fibbing.

I tried to watch the World Cup and left after the second goal. A small amount of ‘you missed an amazing game’ ensued. LOL I always leave things too early.

I am trying to move from Twitter to Mastodon and I probably should wait until my brain is no longer swimming in glue.

Lumosity scores continue very poor.

My scores have crashed

I’m either suffering from the after-effects of a small stroke or I’m still too sick to concentrate on anything. I’m pretty much back to where I started. (This is for Lumosity. YES I am aware that Lumosity has had their legal troubles and have overrepresented the benefits and handwaved some of the science and I am not convinced they don’t still jimmy the scores from time to time.)

I’m going to take the uptempo view and decide to believe my brain will get better.

I don’t have any NEW news because I’m staying the hell away from other human beings since the plague situation has been crashing down around our ears. Without Jeff around I’d go completely feral, I reckon. It’s a good thing we all have phones and can at least talk to each other instead of scowling across the vast distance between here and where the kids live. Haven’t spoken to Katie in ages, but the great thing about that woman is I can leave her alone for a couple of weeks and she is still there, and still loves her mOm, she’s just busy.

It’s very hard to believe I was once that busy, flying around with kids under my arm and no vehicle. Yup, I took kids to daycare on transit in Toronto. Hours and hours getting to work and getting home, every day. Paul had to have the car because he worked shifts, you see.

The world cup final is in a few minutes and while we haven’t watched the rest of it, we likely will this am because it is global sport on a very high level and likely from all accounts to be a memorable corker of a game. I should stop what I’m doing and make brown buns to nosh while we’re watching. (LATER damn I didn’t get started fast enough. I was feeling very queasy and I’ve learned that I should eat into my morning queasiness, and then it’s gone.)

Tea, leftover Japanese food for breakfast. Those gyoza were evidence for God, sorry I ate them, jury’s still out now.

Metrotown parkade (THE WORST –– THE FUCKING WORST –– THE ABSOWORST) was BLOCKED for an hour last night, people were literally prevented from leaving by crummy driving and the parking attendants did bupkes. I learned of this from r/vancouver.

2023 is about learning to live with other people’s shitty epidemiological decisions and still finding joy.

I wept when I read Nita’s post on facebook about how she misses her dad. Me too kid; like me you have an awesome dad who filled my life with fun, food, music and art (also discipline, expectations and feelings of security.) Your loss is harsher to bear than mine, and the world lost an amazing man the day Jim decided to walk on.

There are ten people who read my blog every day. I want you to know that I love and appreciate you, even the lurkers, and hope you have an especially glorious day. Try not to get snowed in, wherever you are.

Trying trying trying

Suzanne has been and gone and the floors are cleaner.

She set off the smoke alarm downstairs and I used my ukulele to wave air over it so it stopped. I wish I had video of this; I must have looked DERANGED.  This was four seconds after I answered a phone call from Keith.

There’s me dropping the handset on the sofa, me and Suzanne yelling, and Keith afterwards saying, “That was like an old time radio show.”

I did pick up my FIT test. POOP IS COMING in the immortal words of Marvin Boggs (from the “Reds” movies.) My innards are calmer but I’m still getting messages from the front regarding standing up too fast. My blood pressure is fantastic but lord, that diuretic makes me dry. Normally it’s just my right eye that doesn’t tear enough but this morning I was forced to start crying just to get my eyes open. These days that is easy enough. I’ve cried every day since Jim died. I have no right to, I just do. I was crying about something else though.

White Spot burgers for dinner last night. Thinking of the barley bowl for brekkie this morning.

Feeling much improved

The pain is gone, normal toilet functions have resumed, I can stand long enough to chop vegetables.

The actual line of poetry I woke up with in my head this morning was “All human history is a glory hole of mimesis” but where in Christ’s name do you go with that? So I wrote about consciousness instead, it was easier.

Absolutely must get to the lab today. Also need to go to the bank. And rehearse on various instruments. And deal with the element I dropped plastic on yesterday.

I am looking longingly at my writing projects but I’m going to continue to play computer games, doomscroll reddit and try to imagine a world without capitalism.

Resipiscence

I got a haircut yesterday. Kimiko is in fine fine form.

If you don’t want to hear me whining about my health, ignore the rest of this.

I was going to walk from Bbombshell to New West Station and the taxi stand affixed thereunto, and I literally couldn’t. I collapsed in a chair and asked the kindly receptionist to call me a cab. I couldn’t walk that distance. This is very depressing because it’s literally two city blocks. A cane wouldn’t have helped; my legs were literally Not Working. My guts kept grinding away, to no avail.

Got home, took my temperature. Normal. Had a hot bath to relax my abdomen because I was SO messed up and experiencing diffuse abdominal pain. When I got home, I was crying because not being able to walk a quarter of a mile is one of those “You’re more likely to die in the next six months” kinda things and I’m freaked out. Stairs were a trial. After a delay I check my blood pressure, which is low, like not even low normal, just low (am I bleeding internally? What in the everlovin’ farce is this?)

Over the course of the afternoon I perked up. I felt well enough to finally run my bed linens through the laundry. Not well enough to make my bed, hope to do that this morning.

The abdominal pain differential diagnosis goes on for miles and miles. I’m still avoiding caffeine and hard food, and I’ve reduced how much I eat to nothing.

I am quite dehydrated. I just don’t experience thirst …. at all. I was forcing myself to drink lime Bubly all day but that’s part of my esophagus problem so I stopped. If you take a litre out of how much you drink every day — and I can’t drink caffeine and keep forgetting to make myself peppermint tea.

Anyway, I’m wondering if I’m recovered enough to go shopping today. We shall see. All of this grot I’m experiencing could just be the diuretic and me getting used to each other, once again, we shall see. I will go to the ER if I have symptoms that warrant it.

Still feel crappy

However I’m working away on fixing it.

Tomorrow I go to the hairdresser and git my head overdid.

Towels are in the laundry.

I have finished the first season of Gentleman Jack.  She has just come from a church with her love Ann Walker after they took communion together, the only way two lesbians could ‘marry’ in those days even if it had no legal standing. Here’s a collection of people talking about what the show meant to them.

Elon Musk got invited on stage by Dave Chappelle and the two minutes of booing I just watched on youtube was balm for my wounded soul.