Category: Nature

Immersion

What between getting sleep in two hour bursts (all I can manage with the cpap, which I put on and took off three times last night), donating blood on Friday, and somewhat inadequate levels of exercising, Physio Luce is telling me that my flex is good but my strength sucks.  He totally bought that sleep deprivation has slowed me down… and loaded me up with more exercises.  Ainsi soit-il.

Today I will be adjusting the moisture content and seating of the mask on the cpap.

Dishwasher is running, sun is shining, Eddie is feeling much better.  He needs a special diet so we are attempting to feed  the cats separately and it’s kinda sorta working.  His thyroid is wonky but there are meds for that.  He is SUCH a good kitty.  He despises being pilled so much that when Jeff puts the pill in front of him, he consumes it rather than go through the gharstly struggle.  He was also a sweetheart the last time I trimmed his nails.  (Kitties shouldn’t click on floors).

I am assembling yet another project in Scrivener – Broad Hints.  It will be selected songs, poems, essays (no homilies though, that’s another project), humour, blog posts, recipes and miscellaneous writings (like band names, movie and concert reviews).  I have a ton of stuff in there already and it’s going to be book sized by the time I’m done. At the following URL (ya hafta scroll down) there’s my third fave pic of my grandpa: He’s a real cowboy with real First Nations….

Holy crap! some twin engined plane just went over the house at about 500 feet.  I hate when they do that.

Church yesterday was great, excepting that the split pea and ham soup I took for the meal afterwards overturned in the car trunk.  Fortunately I’d taped the lid on and it was still so cold that only the condensation from the defrosting came off it, plus I put the crockpot in a large garbage bag, so there was some leakage but not the HOLY FUCK disaster I thought it was when I leapt out of the car to investigate the gharstly noise.  I did the aesthetics and screwed it up, but Rob rescued me by leaping up and getting a taper for the service leader (Donna).  I don’t think aesthetically it was too bad.  We didn’t sing enough and there was a congregational discussion afterwards grump grump.  I’ve had to lower my pledge because, HEY no INCOME! which cheeses me off, but other delights await, including my return to delivering homilies!  And getting to sing the compost song first service in 2014, more or less hopefully.

I am going to go back to chores now.

We’re number one! In pipeline accidents.

 

Top of the Lake

What an amazing show.  I cried at least half a dozen times, once incredibly hard.  The twist ending which so annoyed the critics pleased me no end. And it’s Jane effing Campion, so it’s awesome, and Holly Hunter as a gnomic prophet is awesome, and Lucy Lawless gets a cameo, and it’s so thoroughly feminist, blah blah.  Anyway.

I practiced so long and so hard yesterday my fingers are all tore up.

I’m off to feed Ayesha, Paul and Keith’s new adorable kitty.

I signed this petition so I’m happy they are out.  I don’t want Canadian citizens and journalists in Egyptian jails, nope nope nope, especially after the Frontline on Egypt Jeff and I just watched.

wotcher

How’s everybody this morning?  Good?  Not so good!? Hm. Let me see what I can do about that.

Just when La Mami Naturaleza seems to have shot her last bolt in the weird department, along comes something like this.  Do please watch the video.

I bought and now have used a bunch of equipment for my rehab.  I am already stronger and more able to extend my arm forwards at 90 degrees.  Jeff rolls his eyes when I do exercises while watching TV, it’s quite distracting.

Jeff’s first impressions of the Mac Mini. There’s something useful in there about the Home/End issue which people transitioning from pc to mac always trip over.

Hey, I don’t mind fashion when it looks like this.  Possibly, erm, not suitable for work.

More evidence, although it didn’t need to be adduced, why Stephen Fry fucking RULES.

The Nepean Redskins will be changing their name and logo at the end of this season.  VERY PLEASED ABOUT THIS.  On the other hand there is this piece of dreck masquerading as a sports common tater.  In a hundred years we will look back and wonder why the hell we did this to ourselves.

And in this Brave New World, homeless people use Bitcoins.

I could do this without breaking a sweat. After all, I’ve already done it, just ask Jeff.

 

 

 

Hot sauce

There has been some of this stuff in my fridge pretty much continuously since I met Paul.

We finished Long Way Round.  I loved it.  If you love motorcycles, OR love travelogues OR are a fan of Ewan McGregor it’s worth seeing the whole thing.

May I just state for the record that Archie Panjabi is amazing in her role as Kalinda in The Good Wife.  She could play Kiaya Khatun or Roxelana Sultan if Lymond ever came to the screen…. that would be so awesome.

Breaking Bad is coming to an end within a few weeks. Here are a couple of articles I enjoyed.  Albuquerque.

and also A Pictorial History.

Keith dropped by yesterday.  Paul and he have a new tortoiseshell barn cat  they imported from the US.  Her name is Ayesha, and she does not want to be a housecat. She is, however, quite mellow.  I haven’t met her yet and look forward to making her acquaintance when she is better settled in.

Eddie let me clip his nails the other day with only one low wail to indicate his opinion of the indignity.

It’s been rainy and blecchy.

Cpap machine for a couple of hours last night.  I took it off when I couldn’t actually sleep with it on.  This is turning into a sore trial…

 

 

 

Yesterday….

I got up late … for me … roasted a chicken and made new potato salad.  Then I showed the shop.  Then I went to a church potluck followed by a workshop about leadership, about which I will say no more, except that it kind of brought home to me that I’ve known more about religion since my early twenties than a lot of people, the major takeaway being that the only thing all religions have in common as a precept is ‘don’t gossip’, and then I came home and watched some TV and then Katie came over and removed some more of her stuff to her place and then I went to her place and met her relationship partner SG (who does not own a vehicle or he would have dealt with it) and his two cats Ara and Stig (two mostly black females who are very entertaining and energetic).  He seems a pleasant enough individual, with a lustrous beard.  I was supposed to go to Newton Wave pool with Peggy but the prospect of meeting SG was too much to resist.

So I guess my Labour Day had, you know, labour in it, of diverse kinds.

Today will also be busy, but in different ways.

Keith and Paul dropped over and it was lovely to see them, however briefly, this morning.

Two of the people I’ve known the longest since I got here (a couple in WA state, former coworkers both) have announced wedding plans after 14 years together.  I am so happy.  I’ve been following her posts about him for years now on FB and she has said many times how amazing he is, especially since she has been quite hampered by health issues subsequent to a car accident in which she should have, by the physics, died.  And she’s had a lousy couple of years, what with her brother dying in a car accident leaving young children, and there’s been other stuff.  So I told her “I couldn’t be more pleased about this if it was happening to me!” and I meant it.

I think I need to get another foam mattress; this one is four years old and starting to feel rather lumpish and flat.

Miss Margot had an enormous eye booger the other day, and she started purring when I pulled it out.

I have ONCE AGAIN had to encourage Eddie to stop teasing the dog next door.  I politely asked him to return inside.  Otherwise he sits on the concrete pad when Creamy is on the back balcony and the poor dog barks himself to distraction.

Saw Plunkett & Macleane, and loved it.  I can understand why it got lukewarm reviews, but believe me it has improved since it was released.

 

Margot asked for a lift

She came into my room and stared at me, and then stared at the top bunk.  I picked her up, and she immediately settled into a valise and started washing herself. What a weird weird critter she is.

Jeff says she made a noise identical to a tribble the other morning.  See previous comment.

She is now cleaning herself with such vigour that she’s making my bunk beds rock back and forth.

 

Sad face – again

The new nova that showed up in Delphinius is alREADy losing luminosity, so we may not even get a chance to see it before it fades beyond binocular recall.

Andrew Brechin is dead.  He was active in the poly, SCA, pagan, lantern festival, fannish, filkish, trans & queer rights, union and clown band communities; he could pun without apparent effort, was a wonderful coparent to a number of children, not all of whom were biologically his, made me laugh harder than any of my other facebook friends, and he was younger than me.  He wore OUTRAGEOUS hats, and once showed up to Fetish Night dressed as Cthulhu (man, he musta sweated his balls off in that head to toe gear) with no fewer than 8 skimpily dressed women in attendance as his priestesses. (The pic is now going round the internet like a dose of salts).

He apparently died in his sleep, which is definitely the way to go except it should have been at minimum 30 years hence.  I only met him half a dozen times, if that, but he was the menschiest of men and had more friends – more real friends – than many people could claim.  The last time I saw him IRL he and Mike M. realized that they had sat next to each other in engineering school (and they both flunked out, mOm tell pOp that as I think he will find that mildly amusing).  And we ate. There’s a memorial dinner for him next week and unless I feel really bad I’m going, because I want to hear more stories about how awesome he was, and I think he had the coolest friends circle in town.  I will miss his wit, his humanity and his mighty heart for justice.  I had no idea Cindy knew him – her precis of her relationship with him on livejournal practically had me in tears.

The video camera aimed at the cat door has revealed that Miss Margot does not re-enter the house daintily.  Generally she rockets through the door at such a rate of speed that the effect is quite comical.  Hope to have video at some point.

Physiotherapist scolded the crap out of me. NO I MAY NOT DRIVE.  I may do the following three exercises.  I may not sleep on the injured shoulder.  MY POSTURE SUCKS (HOW HE FROWNED).  Here is how I should sleep.  I crept out of there in a very sad frame of mind, but I’ve been doing my exercises faithfully.

Showed the shop two days ago, showing it to a different set of customers tomorrow.  I am no longer worried about it…. it is what it is, I have a roof and food and friends and painkillers, so tra la la.  Also Cadfael on Netflix.  Man, I do heart Derek Jacobi.

I have the tester cpap machine.  A new one is going to cost 2400 dollars, but it’s the ResMed, and it has all of the features I want.  The tech said the Respironics machines break like clockwork just out of the warranty period, and he’s sold 300 of the ResMeds and only one ever came back and that was because the dumbass customer left the water in when he put it in his car and of course fried the circuitboards.  I haven’t started using it because CANDIDLY I am feeling just that little bit overwhelmed at all of the changes I’ve had to deal with in the last six months.  Getting into and out of the restaurant, Audrey and Andrew and Bareld dying, breaking my shoulder, deaths and breakups in my circle of close friends, Kira dying, estrangement from one of my children, not being able to drive…. and there’s more but listing it all seems a mug’s game.  And of course if I don’t mention how my church family has rallied round me I’d be a true mug.

Jeff and I are heading out to Home Depot.  Type atcha later.

 

Sad day

Kira died yesterday.  She had quit eating and drinking and suffered convulsions.  She is now resting with Bounce and Gizmo and Zeek! her adoptive brother in the back yard.

I have new glasses. They look great.  I’ll be getting another pair next week.

Jeff and I are about to take off to see Pacific Rim.  A full report later.

 

My car is finally being worked on.

I am feeling very low in spirits – my shoulder hurts a lot and I think it isn’t healing right, although I won’t know until tomorrow.

 

I am still working on Midnite Moving though.

Eddie you old codger

Eddie is the senior cat in the household.  He’s 15 or 16, and while his back end is starting to be saggy, he’s a very sleek and healthy cat who simply despises Miss Margot…. or pretends to.

Last night Jeff and I were watching the thrilling conclusion of the 1st season of Veronica Mars when Eddie started to howl.

Normally he howls when he’s caught something and brought it back into the house or he howls from existential angst.  This time it was low, sad howls, and he didn’t want to move away from the cat door.

I looked at my brother and said in a horrified whisper, “Where is Margot?” Normally when we watch tv she’s parked at the top of the stairs or on the floor close to the tv.

The two of us leaped up and searched the house.  Jeff popped the front door and Margot bolted into the house from her hiding place under my car, where she’d obviously been trapped by another cat.

Which is how we learned that he has a special call when Margot is in trouble, because that’s how he was the last time he rescued Margot (she got locked in the garage). He got many skritches for his assistance, and Margot of course is impervious to correction or comment.

huge catering job

We’ve been asked to quote on a thousand iced cookies for July 1.  For the opening of Edmonds Community Center.  (Cue screaming and dancing around the shop like fracking idiots.)

I opened communications with the purchaser but Katie’s totally grabbed the reins on this one, and I am tagging along with that big goofy grin that loving parents get when their kids are doing something berloody awesome.  Paul came in to grab a bowl of soup (and Katie’s Red Velvet cupcakes, which are like clouds with cream cheese icing, so fluffy and delicious ermagerd).

And I had TWO big orders of biscotti this week,  I have to do more baking tomorrow so this is me signing off and getting another batch on before we close up today.  Katie’s gone home early to try and sell Izzy.  It is sad but necessary.

So, busy, happy, and thinking holy crap, it’s ON.

Sundry and various

Brinicles. I had no idea such things existed.
Katie will be heading off for bloodwork this morning. She is fasting, and thus tired and cranky.
Izzy and I (the grandsnake) bonded nicely last night. He is one of the most hand tame snakes I ever interacted with, although I will never feel about him the way I feel about Speck, a little snake who hung out in my hat for an hour at a party, thus triggering the single funniest triple take I’ve ever seen in my life.
Margot is prowling around my room and quacking. Yesterday she got up in Creamy’s grill (he’s the Samoyed next door) by walking up to him when he was tethered outside, getting him to bark furiously, and then pelting away. What a jerk she can be.
Paul and Keith took me and Katie to supper last night at the Grand Buffet. In a stupefying and gratifying demonstration of customer service, the expensive sunglasses Keith left there a month ago were produced as soon as he appeared. You can bet Keith tipped the living shit out of those servers. The crab was particularly good.
I have found an internet radio station that plays bluegrass gospel, and it has no annoying commercials. That’s what we have on at the store now. It’s bright and bouncy and banjerrific.
Biz still slow and interestingly variable. Paul bought cherry biscotti, my latest creation, and took it to work, and there was much rejoicing. His work is going well. Per parental instructions I will be baking and shipping biscotti out to them by the end of the month.
All my friends from Ontario seem to be living through hellish times. I am not. I am having difficulties with certain aspects of my life, but these things tend to self correct. As mOm remarked, this too shall pass. In the meantime I have a loving family, a good place to live, choice friends, good health (even my back is whining less…) and the best stupid cat in the world. Hey, at least she’s keeping herself clean, although I still have to brush and de-eye-gunk her frequently.
I am now washing my hands forty times a day. It’s like acquiring OCD or something. Thank god for Uremol, and many thanks to LadyMissB for putting me on to it.
Off to work now.