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!
1034 of them to be exact, plus 1.5 hours on cpap.
Paul came over after supper with beer and he, Jeff and I watched a documentary about the sun. That man sure knows how to cheer me up. I baked a cake as soon as I heard he was coming…. just one of those things.
I have an appalling craving for Indian noms.
So I’m off to get a CT scan of my unstable pelvis, and the tooth Dr. Katz fixed is now completely perfect in all respects, plus he ground just a smidge off a cuspid and now my mouth feels normal again. The scan will be booked and they’ll call me, and then I back to see the bone doc about ten days after the scan to give them a chance to read it.
3.0 hours on the CPAP. I feel very refreshed and not particularly in pain, which is pleasant. No words yesterday.
I am ashamed to say I bailed on Paul last night, he wanted to go swimming, but I biked to and from the dentist and had a rather trying day in other respects, sitting in cold rooms waiting for doctors not being one of my oh doodie moments. Went to bed early, went to sleep early. For some reason the mask felt very comfortable last night, although I still took it off. I think I was contemplating getting up and yelling at Buster since he was making so much frikkin’ noise.
Jeff is home, and Buster is much, much happier. (With Margot, you can’t tell; her baseline temperament is so incredibly calm.) He is a daddy’s boy.
I did the math; if all the people who live in Vancouver, Victoria, Nanaimo, Kamloops, Kelowna, Abbotsford, White Rock and Chilliwack were homeless, that would still only be half as many as have been rendered homeless by the earthquake in Nepal.
Sometime in the next two hundred years Vancouver will get its own rumble. If it’s a megaquake it’ll be felt across Cascadia. I’m starting to keep extra water on hand.
This sweet little piece of satire is from a filking buddy.
Continued drug gang related violence (or so one supposes) in Metro Vancouver.
Chipper sends me this hand flute playing virtuosity.
She also sends me this cute panoply of chordate behaviours.
I will endeavour mightily to get back on track today. Except I have to do something for church.
I have survived one specialist appointment – I now have to get a pelvic CT scan – and I have been given a range of exercises after I burst into tears and said, “Hey I’m unwaged and I can’t just cough up 75 bucks twice a week for physio!”
The exercises are not hard. They are stretches and “Kegels in interesting positions”.
This afternoon I get my incisor fixed. Oh doodie.
217 words and 3.1 hours (my back feels very good today!). Sadface about the low productivity but I’m feeling kinda blerggy and with all the goldinged scotch broom blooming it’s like my eyeballs are scraping themselves against a concrete wall.
Other projects are calling me away. The biggest one is for church, but I shouldn’t put it off any longer and it’s only about 2 hours of work anyway, plus the fidgetty bits once it’s actually updated.
Anyway, much love to those who deserve it and the rest of you can quit thieving my spoons.
I’m in cleaning mode, so I’m skipping church (hey, it’s a miracle I feel like cleaning, church would only interrup’ things.)
.5 hours last night, 1.2 the night before. No writing. Day cards are the Devil and the ten of Pentacles.
HTW dowsing…. Found out about a woman named Hannah Adams who wrote a book of comparative religion in 1817 in which she deliberately avoided pejorative terms in describing heathens (haw haw), Muslims etc. No surprise that a man who would find such a book interesting would have Quakers, Baha’is, atheists, agnostics and Unitarians among his descendents.
laundry
chocolate cake GONE
Jeff putting up the clothesline! yay.
497 words and no hours
applying for jobs
asking if somebody on facebook can get me into a wind tunnel lab at UBC
and tomorrow in Victoria for a conference. Paul and I are leaving tonight and crashing at the fOlks.
Apropos of nothing “I perceive it as a demonstration of the categorizing power of the academic hipster essentialist”. Man o man, when feminists trash talk….
I probably should have walked around or biked but I had a lazy day of life maintenance and writing and watching tv. Castle is blah and NCIS Body Count is likewise. Monday night now that Better Call Saul is done for this year is turning gooey. Perhaps I can be braced with some PoI and Daredevil, which is proving to be loads of fun.
.5 hours and 1000 words. Already at 250 words this morning, but this chunk is super fun to write.
Applied to one job yesterday morning. I will do the same this morning.
I have yet another dentist appointment this week. All part of the human panoply.
I can hear Jeff emptying the dishwasher. I’m thinking time to make some coffee!
When the weather is good…. it’s amazing how good I feel. There is a buttload of pollen out there though.
brO and I are waiting for MR2 to come back from the krankenhaus so we can do a proper shop. We went for a walk this morning and I picked up some milk and cream so that if the car doesn’t come back today I don’t have to leave the house again,
which is fine,
cause I’ve already written 500 words today and I think today will be furtherly productive. Kima’s first pregnancy chapter “Someday it’ll keep you” is maybe a couple of pages from done, and I’ve got a good start on Brendan’s first chapter “Check unheard messages” which is all about what happens when you let the Sixer version of nepotism determine who your collaborators are.
And the great thing about writing English goodest is bragging rights.
Ayuh. All I know is that when I think of the ideas I want to introduce and the hearts I want to break MUAH HAH HAHHHH! choke gargle.
Fuel oil spill at English Bay. I’m sickened by it. The province says “It’s a federal matter” and the feds have killed all the funds for boats for oil spills. Harper won’t be visiting I’m sure and the boat responsible can’t even be pinned down and fined f’chrissakes.
The grown child of a friend of mine (and a facebook friend) was metres away (indoors thanks be) from the police incident at 5 last afternoon. Perp got all stabby with two dudes rendered more topologically complex and one woman clinging to life as of this morning; and when bean bag shot didn’t slow him down they gave him summary justice, lead punctuation edition. Vancouver seems to be abloom with police shootings. IA is all over it.
1.3 hours.
ALRIGHTY THEN BREAK TIME IS OVER.
The night before, 5.3 hours, a new record.
Sue is coming to get me for church at quarter to ten, and it’s the Flower Communion, so I am really looking forward to it.
Keith dropped by briefly yesterday and it was lovely to see him.
Lady Miss Banjola’s kitty Toby has crossed the rainbow bridge, and I really feel for her and the Beanpie. They live with us every day, with their moods, and their fur and their appetites, and their surprises, and then the only surprise is how fast they exit, and how our grief pangs us. I only met him a couple of times. He was a fine companion, and he will be missed.
In about an hour I’m going to do something I rarely do. I’m going to get off my duff and go protest something. More after I get back.
1.8 hours last night. I cleaned the hose (I almost wish somebody had recorded my death struggle with the damned thing, it was probably amusing to watch) and although my face didn’t hurt, I forgot to put it back on when I took it off in the middle of the night. I’m usually good for one sleep cycle and then RRRRIP. Must remember to apply eye goop. I couldn’t get my eyes open for about ten minutes this morning.
I thought I’d just untighten all of the cpap straps evenly and see if that helped, and it turned out to be perfect – sort of like a hole in one, since I figured I’d be fussing with it for half an hour. As soon as I settled the mask on, I realized I had indeed overtightened everything to a farethewell. So, 3.4 hours last night.
Paul and I went for a walk and I had a turrible craving for barbq ribs so I bought some (and treats, which was evil of me). Paul is really enjoying being retired so far and headed out to Delta Air Park after we got together.
The ribs were amazing. I boiled them and slathered them with sauce and baked them with tiny new red potatoes, and the potatoes were so well done that the innards were almost liquefied, and so sweet – best taters I’ve done up in an age. The leftovers will serve for another two meals, so that was four tasty meals for $14.
Off to the dentist today.
No word yet regarding the last interview…. but I’m patient.
As is often the case, a happy moment is followed by reflection and droopery.
I think I invented a new area of economic inquiry yesterday. It combines stealth feminism, libertarianism and a new way of viewing productivity data. I’m going to cruise around the web and see if anybody is actually, like, already doing it. I’m betting not.
Somehow, in adjusting my cpap mask for tightness I fixed it so it doesn’t actually feel comfortable and it pinches my nose like crazy. So .4 hours last night. I am so bleary this morning (and I slept nine hours) that I made coffee for the first time in weeks.
Buster just jumped from the tv stand to the top of the tv, balanced precariously on that while my brO and I dropped the air pressure in the room by a couple of kilopascals, and then leaped up to the shelf above the tv where lurketh the handmade Cthulhu stuffies. For a second we thought he was going to jump onto the secondary screen, in which case I’d still be cleaning up glass and debris. Must figure out how to anchor that!
Keith has done his download. Paul and I broke up years ago, but that doesn’t really set a timetable for when Keith processes it, so that is what it was about. My final comment to him was, “I understand it takes a while to process things, and you might wish to consider talking about it sooner than later.” So, all good.
No hours logged last night. I honestly think I forgot to put it on, which is weird, because I loaded in more distilled water. So I feel a little sludgy this morning.
I think I will make waffles.
Saw Louis Malle’s Crackers with Keith and Jeff yesterday – it is a most wonderfully strange movie. Many aspects of the script you couldn’t get made today. Wallace Shawn as Turtle is amazing. Donald Sutherland as the would-be supervillain is hilarious. The scene where he’s expertly blowdrying his hair had my eyes popping. The film is not very highly rated and I enjoyed it anyway, mostly because I had no idea what was going to happen next. Also, a young and sizzling Christine Baranski wears a startling array of lovely lingerie, and that by itself is worth seeing.
Keith is coming over today sometime.
2.8 hours last night, but it was an entirely wretched and unsatisfying night.
Jeff took me to breakfast, yay.
Paul and I went for a ride yesterday and I FINALLY got a kickstand, installed for 16 dollars.
I have to say, Patricia really found a great bunch of people to work with, and I’m glad I had a chance to interview there. I would say that I am at least being considered for the position, but I suspect they’ll hire somebody they have to train less, being quite practical people. I actually enjoyed the interview process which is … you know, unusual. I don’t know when they are likely to call back but I am not concerned. If I get the job, I’ll be happy and if I don’t get the job I’ll be not quite as flush, but still happy.
1.8 hours last night and it would have been longer but I had to get up and boot Margot out of my room, and I couldn’t fall back asleep until I took the mask off. Sheesh. Still, much better rested this morning, har har.
X Company continues to be really entertaining and full of moral quandaries regarding spying and working behind enemy lines. I am very much enjoying Evelyne Brochu’s performance and was interested to hear she’s in Orphan Black. Jeff didn’t enjoy it so we quit watching but I’m thinking I might like another crack at it.
There is a new Belgian Style brewery with taphouse up Production Way and Paul and I are going to inspect it for worthiness at some point soon.
I light a candle for Jeff and JeriLynn C for their successful move (they got hardly any notice, and stressed about it as would I, and as I DID the last time it happened to us) and for Tom and Peggy and their new grandbaby Josie (whom I greatly look forward to meeting) and for Brooke who AS USUAL provides good advice, her second lot in as many months and what a difference taking that advice has made to my comfort, Cthulhu bless the pharmacists. I light a candle for one of my friends who is having an exceedingly difficult time with her current spouse regarding custody arrangements. With permission, he took his children out of the country on vacation. Without permission, he kept them an additional week and said ‘we already agreed on that’ when HOLY DIPSHIT there’s nothing in the emails to suggest he was going to give her a heart attack by pulling this stuff. What he doesn’t know about his current legal situation is vast in expanse, and of course she’ll be elected queen bitch of the universe before this is all over, but I have been watching the situation unfold for many years now and she has lived up to her promise not to prevent access to this crazy ass guy just because he’s crazy. I light a candle for Tammy, who got a glowing recommendation letter (yay…. but the job market does not magically get better, so I light a further candle for her job luck). I light a candle for Chipper, just because I can, and because a couple of times in the last month she’s made me laugh so hard on the phone I’ve nearly sprang a rib. I light a candle for Jeff, who is awesome, and loaned me his car yesterday which improved my mood for the interview, and another for Buster, who has a butt problem of some kind, but hey, those carpets go through the wash, and thank you mOm for making them. I light a candle for Katie, who is negotiating going back to work in May, and for Keith, who still hasn’t talked to me about whatever dreadful advice / scolding he threatened to drop on me. I’m no longer appalled. The longer he waits the funnier this is going to be, and even if the joke’s on me I intend to enjoy it. Okay here’s one for Paul, who gets me off my duff and into the sun, and much the same for Mike, who wrote a lovely recommendation letter for me, the dear lad, and here’s a big candle for all the elders at church, who are my role models (as are the fOlks) for getting old, and for the minister, not that she particularly needs it, and for everybody who’s ever served me food and drink, and for the Fraser River, and for the memories of Grandad, Grampa, Grandma, Granny, Sue, Elizabeth, Dave, John, Derry, Michael and Bounce.
I think today I’ll sort papers and clean out the fridge and if it stays nice maybe go for a bike ride and pick up kitty malt – Margot really needs it and the current tube is just about done.
Paul brought Goose Beer IPA back from the States for me, and we had a lovely long chat about various subjects. He’s OVER THE MOON about being retired, and I’m very, very happy for him. When he first got the job at Air Canada I was very happy because he’d had quite a choppy job history up until that point and I remember saying that he now had a fighting chance of being able to retire on more than a pittance, and now it’s happened, it’s really real. And he so richly deserves it, because that man put a lot of his life and pain and grit into that company and the safety of the people who fly in those aircraft.
.7 hours last night, what’s up with that.
Cleaned my room yesterday! Buster used the opportunity to come in and pee on stuff, but fortunately it was stuff I was throwing out or immediately washing, so Saul Goodman. The beautiful wood floors now shine, I’ve consolidated seven boxes into two, and now I need to move all the filk I discovered (holy MOG there was a lot of it) into the binder(s) allocated for it. BUT I found the Kathy Mar songbook for her concert at FKO which I had been looking for since I went, very happy about that.
I found 33 dollars in change and bills while I was cleaning, netting $5.50 per hour. Just trying the brightside, here.
Next on deck getting the three loads of laundry put away. I suspect my best bet is to s-can 50% of the clothing that comes out of the dryer today. I don’t have enough room, and while psychologically I can never have enough cotton knit dresses in beige, possibly it’s time to turn them into something else, like a donation to a charity.
After that my desk, and an indexing of my craft, cable and paper stashes so I know what I have and can quit buying cute little notebooks. I found so many yesterday that it is not funny, nuh-unh.
I have to figure out which writing I’m going to give the interviewers on Thursday. This is not going to be difficult, I just have to ensure that it’s the correct tone for the task.
I recently had reason to confront how I am a complete frickin’ coward about SJW issues, even when they are in my face. Blerg. PLEASE DON’T SAY SOMETHING TRASHILY RACIST AND THEN SAY I’M NOT RACIST MY BEST FRIEND IS BLACK BECAUSE you will make me intensely uncomfortable and I won’t actually do anything about it. I got some good suggestions from my twitter pals – the white ones. The POCs stayed the hell out my mini meltdown, for which I can only say thank you.
Shaking my head.
Jeff has returned from the land of the fOlks, and they remain bloody marvellous by all accounts. I have received an envelope, for this relief much thanks. And now I’m going to storyboard my day, which has some bicycling in it whenever the rain lets up. And yes mOm I will wear my helmet this time.