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!
I am so congested! I started coughing last night and I am really glad that whatever this is I didn’t get it until a couple of days after I hurt myself.
Hand continues to improve. If I’m lying down and take a deep breath it no longer pains me but rolling over, standing up, sitting down, and bending over still hurt rather more than I think is fair.
Going walkies (locally) with Paul today after lunch.
after a lovely visit and a calm sailing
woke up at 4 am gasping for breath … I feel like I can’t get fully oxygenated. My nose is blocked and I feel dehydrated and gooey in the breathing apparatus, so I’m going upstairs to make myself some tea.
I am seven chapters in to Halliburton’s Royal Road to Romance (1925) and while many queerer books have been written I’m sure this is the gayest one I’ve read yet. His descriptions are so delightfully over the top, florid and memorable, but also one gets the indelible impression that half the shit he’s reporting never happened. Anyway, he ran away from uni in his early 20s, and fetishized his own youth for as long as he could, eventually drowning on a ghastly sea voyage in a thoroughly unseaworthy vessel at some point in his 30s. Content warning, typical American ethnocentric racism.
at Foreshore Park; it was just before the car park and I now have what is probably a cracked rib and a sprained hand, as well as the usual assortment of roadrash. I am going to leave off going to the hospital just for the time being – unless I’m worse off than my current assessment, and plan to load up on painkillers. I was okay to drive. Finally mailed Tom’s letter. He has pneumonia.
brO’s heading out to Timmy Ho’s (guess Katie had an effect) and soon COFFEE SHALL BE MINE. We don’t keep coffee beans in the house any more, because if you have coffee you need cream, and so on.
My list of stuff to take to Victoria is as long as my forearm and I still haven’t figured out which instrument(s) to take.
Much editing (and did it need it, what was I THINKING) on Best roommate in the world this morning.
Mike’s weekend got rearranged by something so that made me sadface. But it also means I can take my time packing. Now that everyone (except Alex) has been vaccinated, Katie and Alex and I are off to see the grands tomorrow. I can hardly wait. And I really should make sure that everything that’s migrated here goes back to them, lol. 7 am ferry here I come
Paul’s coming over and we’ll walk in the school yard.
I’m going to mail a letter to Tom, as well. Whoops, better get dressed lol.
At the moment I am thinking about plotting. I am now thinking I want to compress the new trilogy about a white scientist playing Johnny Appleseed in Canada’s north into one longish book called oops redacted, and then I can introduce a whole bunch of ideas at once.
LOL THE BORDER’S CLOSED UNTIL SEPTEMBER congrats we did it again, we’re having to defend the world’s longest undefended border.
First, have a bear from the Capilano neighbourhood of North Van, as of about last week.
AND we don’t deserve dogs. Nor cats. (Buster when he see WOMBAT he CRAZY). NOR ORANGS.
Yesterday Paul and I walked in Fraser Foreshore. I had a dizzy spell coming out of the house so I didn’t drive, and thus nagged Paul freely the entire way back and forth.
Virtually no birds singing, none of our usual animal companions, not very well attended, nobody but us and an Asian couple bothering to wear masks. I told Paul the Delta variant is like cigarette smoke and even outdoors on pathways where we have to pass close by to people you can can get a whiff…. also I’m getting REALLY MIXED PRESS on how good Astra Zeneca is on suppressing Delta. Apparently, the word is now that it’ll keep me out of hospital if I get a breakthrough infection but I’ll be more likely to be contagious to other people if I’m asymptomatic. Not exactly the shit ya wanna hear when you’re going to visit your parents, who while not frail are elderly (sorry guys but you are over 80 after all.)
We bailed on pho as soon as I mentioned Schnitzel, by gar, and I got three takeout schnitzel dinners from Balkan House so Jeff could enjoy our celebratory meal too. Paul took exactly the same amount of time to get beer from the Oliver Twist, which faces Balkan House (I suspect he actually used the crosswalk, since jaywalking across Edmonds is something only silly young people do) as it took for the food to arrive. It was fantastic… much better than the last time, although the food portions on the rice and potatoes were smaller than I’m used to. The breading though… always a classic.
That plus beer (Red Racer Vanilla Stout, a total rip off of Granville Island Winter Ale) and a blueberry turnover for dessert, and we had a lovely meal.
Finished Swan Song and loved it. I think it’s a one-watch but it was a lovely, heartfelt movie with lots of great bit performances, the young gay bartender being a standout. Wish I had his name but imdb is oooooosssssssslessssss.
We’re really feeling the Lack of ‘Wanted’. They made three seasons and stopped, like sensible people, but we are not sensible people and want more. As always, we are salved by Elementary and the inhuman perfection that is Lucy Liu in that show.
Danny DeVito’s been locked out of his Twitter account for supporting the Nabisco strike. LOL
Paul’s arriving shortly for masked walkies and pho.
Jeff and I are halfway through “Swan Song” an Udo Kier film. I’ve already cried six times I’m sure I’ve got some left in me but GAh I’d better take water in a bottle.
Gene Roddenberry would have been one hundred years old today. He was a massively imperfect human being and sexist af and Star Trek is an important cultural inflection point. We can think these things at the same time, because imperfect beings are always thinking about imperfect beings, and think they can still get it right.
Uncle Fester, Bloedel Conservatory’s titan arum or “corpse flower,” bloomed on Wednesday, Aug. 18, 2021. (YouTube/Vancouver Park Board)
Well my brief burst of energy has imploded. I’m feeling small and tangled-up and misanthropic, but many things, including Buster’s training schedule, are exactly as they should be. But…. blueberry turnovers, for the first time, so that was tasty.
Slept from 9:30 pm to 6 am this morning! I am well rested but not energetic, what gives, body.
Heading to Victoria next week with some descendants, unless something hinders. Fingers crossed for a good visit.
This is for me mam.
Still LOVING “Wanted”, coming up on the end of the show, 3rd season.
And from the JOSUS FUKING CHRIS IT’S A PANDEMIC PEOPLE department…
OTTAWA — The Public Service Alliance of Canada president says he “will not stand for the termination” of federal public servants who refuse to get vaccinated, after Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau warned of “consequences” for those civil servants.
In an interview with CTV News, Chris Aylward said “it’s very concerning to us when national party leaders are making statements around discipline around terminations when it comes to these vaccinations. That is totally unacceptable to us.”
Aylward, who represents more than 160,000 federal public servants, stated that he supports the government’s stance that all federal public servants should be vaccinated. But he said unvaccinated employees will require accommodations to keep their jobs.
- CTV News, from website 10;08 am PST 18 Aug 2021
An Alabama doctor is tired of helping people who refuse to protect themselves and others – so he’s no longer taking appointments with anti-vaxxers.
Mobile, Ala., physician Dr. Jason Valentine posted a photo on Facebook in which he’s seen standing in front of a sign that reads “Effective Oct. 1, 2021, Dr. Valentine will no longer see patients that are not vaccinated against COVID-19.”
from
I am not going to spend a lot of time yoinking your chain about Afghanistan. The politics of exploitation and colonization stretch into pre-history and I’m not a pro. Therefore I will stick with the present.
SO HAPPY about the legitimate steady, not warm, not windy rain, but Mike is growling way back in his throat because he drives a convertible and the lower seam on the back window is verkockt. He drove me home anyway because he’s funny like that and we are walking distance apart, haw haw.
Yesterday I stepped out onto the balcony at the Aerie and Mt. Baker (Nooksak Kweq’ Smánit white mountain) was looming on the horizon, bigger (against odds) than I remembered it. It was such a blessing to see it after all the smoke.
Supper consisted of sous vide beef tenderloin, garlic shrimps and blackened peppers, rather more beer than I should, mango ice cream for dessert, evening show Suicide Squad #2; breakfast was coffee, smoked salmon with capers, buttered toasted bun and scrambled eggs with garlic and scallions, lychee fizzy to drink. Got toasted on shatter, ayoille. My back feels better than it has in ages and I pounded on those sad hip attachment points that cause Mike so many an ache, had a dizzy spell, sat down, drank some fluids, got up and finished (his shins always need work as well). I admired his new gaming set up (he three d printed much of the attachment grips in a lurid dark cherry red) and hand-wrote a letter to Tom (I didn’t bring any devices so I was looking for non electrified means of entertainment) and cleaned out my purse and wiped his stovetop and dusted a couple of his swords hand washed all the fussy glassware and updated my to do list, which thanks to my mental mobility issues, as in, I ain’t got none, looks virtually identical to the one I made the last week of July…. at least I have friends, Katie’s pregnancy is okay, and I have a safe and comfy place to live with a most congenial housemate.
Above noted needlework rondel of two skeletons looking at each other and shaped like a heart from @AnythingSews on twitter.
Mini turkey patties on breakfast muffins this morning. The sweet Walla Walla onions are in season now so that plus a slice of havarti cheese and it’s food! Hardly any effort, and the turkey mince got to mingle its flavours for a day longer while I got ‘round to cooking it.
The 2021 Heat Dome Round II is now over. Hopefully 500 senior citizens extra didn’t die this go round.
I’m working on writing and interspersing that with watching the Keith and Kate show, transferred 8mm video from the 80s….
Sign says MASKS REQUIRED . If you are standing either inside or on the patio, please wear a mask. Once seated (drinking or eating) we do not require you to wear a mask
If you cannot wear a mask due to a medical condition, ask yourself if you should be going to a bar\restaurant during a pandemic. If you are making up a medical condition to avoid wearing a mask, please don’t, none of us have the patience to deal with your crap.
This graphic has no relevance to my life right now, things are akshully okay.
I made a lovely couple of turkey patties yesterday for supper – made fried mushrooms and chopped onions and lettuce and tomato to go with and toasted the buns first. It was restaurant quality, although way less salty; I used ground cumin, black pepper, a tiny bit of salt, some cayenne/paprika spice mix, a couple of drops of Worcestershire and a fuckton of garlic powder for the effect. Very pleased with the results. I shall cook some more up today as well for luncheon.
This morning I got up and put a load of laundry on just to prove that I’m not a total slug. Haven’t heard from Buster yet this morning. (That was an hour ago; he was calling in the hall at (just now) 6:15, probably wanting to complain to management about the state of the sky again.) He’s really gone off training, I don’t know whether it’s because he’s feeling punk from scrapping, or he’s otherwise distracted, or I’m failing him in some way, I’ve been a little off myself. The anxiety paced the AQI yesterday, which went from a comfy 44 to over 100 in a six hour period, and with each rise in the particulates the anxiety, which is physical because the air quality impacts your breathing, spikes.
I’m also working on what I hope will be viewed as a funny, newsy letter to One I Love. Around seven we’ll go shopping, now that we know we’re not going to Bowen Island for a portion of the weekend. I am peeved, but not enough to whine about it too much.
250 words so far this morning on Honey on the Moon Redux, which is my second attempt to write Honey on the Moon, and which is now separate from Best Roommate in the World. Quite a bit of it is changing Musqueam to MST and it amazes me how much the verbiage around things changes when you’re actually trying to be sensitive instead of assuming that you are. I mean, I still assume I am more than I am, but it’s interesting.
Buster trained after I brushed him. Order of operations issues ??? hoo noze, iz cat.
We’ll be visiting friends this weekend and I’m so looking forward to it!
Tomato lentil soup for brekky, I think. Or maybe a toasted egg sammy. I’ll see what I’m up for.
LATER THAT MORNING
Al emailed Jeff. They can’t make it. WAAAAAHMBULANCE RIDE REQUIRED.
