Category: Nature

Dancing

Went dancing with Katie K, aka Kopper.  It was mostly an older crowd so it was all classic sixties R&B with occasional pokes into the 90s.  We ate before the dance at Vera’s, there being no room at the inn at the Raincity Grill.  I had a simply lovely time and only drank two beers.  Laughed my ass off, repeatedly, danced ass off, rinse, repeat, drink more water.

Took a cab from Edmonds to Planet Bachelor to feed Kira; both of the denizens are out of town at the moment.  She was powerful glad to see me.  Said cab, driven by an immaculately mannered young man whose immigration to Canada seemed obvious, but whose ethnicity was not, then conveyed me to my domicile, where Miss Margot waited on the back deck.  She scarcely mewed when she saw me; she’d had no difficulty staying out of trouble in the interim.

Now sleepy-byes.  I hope Eddie and Gizmo, both of whom are out catting, have the courtesy to give me at least 4 hours of shuteye before Eddie starts making Doleful Moan on the back deck.

Church tomorrow.

long post

I bagged on the puddle yesterday, but in good news, I have lost ten pounds since I quit working and the trend continues.  Who the hell knew that eating less and exercising more would work?  I am looking forward to v..e..r..y slowly losing the rest of it.  Keith is dragging me out to exercise today. Paul and Keith and Katie went jogging on Saturday, can you credit it?  I thought it was happening at one, so I was shopping on Main St. I bought…. a pick guard.  Two instrument wall hangers.  A gig bag to replace the trashed one which Eddie whizzed on.  It was trashed before Eddie whizzed on it; I hated the damned thing and the zippers were junk.  I came this close to getting a guitar stand, but no. Margot continues to enjoy her cat toy, to the extent that she came and slept with it while it was charging on my bed last night.  Although her appearance in my room was probably triggered by Eddie permacrabbing at her in the hallway last night. Yes, I permanently mounted a power bar a railing on my bunk bed.  There are four items plugged into it currently, three of them chargers for various gadgetty things. Nascar yesterday.  I am starting to like it, because when I watch it I go into this really creative zone.  Whatever works.  I solved a story problem while watching the race yesterday and went upstairs to write it down.  At one point a car spun out, exploding grass divots into the air at 150 miles an hour, and then ‘wearing’ said grass divots as it went into Pit Road.  Keith and I looked at each other, and Keith said, “Camouflage; you’re doing it wrong!” which cracked me up.  It even went back onto the track with grass stuck in the bumper, reminding me irresistibly of a muscleman with spinach in his teeth. I can’t leave a message for Katie because Daxus filled her mailbox.  Katie just shrugs.  Since the phone’s in my name, I’m going to block it his number for her; she’s looking for work right now and it’s essential that she have access to her voicemail. Thursday Brian C. and Chari are coming over for dinner and la musica.    Mike will be free that evening and bring that sweet electric twelve string he recently rescued from his parent’s basement.  It makes everything sound like a Byrds song. Today…. all the things I haven’t been doing, like getting my taxes mailed off and booking a truck to empty the storage locker, and maybe, just maybe, knocking off another song.

Mike brings dinner and “something for the kids”

Mike brought marinaded chicken, with a side of rice, and I made salad and bought tiramisu cups from Langley Farm Market, and we watched the latest episode of True Blood and T2.  (After Keith and Mike had a Star Trek match).  My new fave movie scene is Linda Hamilton’s escape from the fool farm.

Mike said, “I brought something for the kids” which proved to be one of those motorized balls that wibbles and wobbles and scoots all over the floor.  The boys ignored it.  Margot LOVED IT, but doesn’t actually play with it, she just chases it around.  Will provide video once it’s available.

Mike recently had the astonishing experience of having an ex a) apologize for any harm caused and b) repay the money owing.  The universe did not fall off its axle, but I damn near did when I heard about it.  Wonders cannot cease while we live.

Today, return library books, add receipts to our monthly who-owes-what-to-whom reconciliation (grr, I lost my second biggest receipt this month), tweak various recordings for posting and adding to running-total list of songs, clean house from top to bottomus, prep for dinner with Tom and Peggy, try to get hold of Cindy to see if she can come tonight as well, laundry, and mow grass.  I will try to squeeze one song in there if I can, next up is “Beloved Coworker (I guess I never felt this way).  Which I wrote in Montreal.  I wrote “She” and “Evening News” in Montreal; my dwelling there was an interesting failed experiment in many ways, but at least I got some good songs out of it. Living in Montreal and Toronto have definitely brought me to a finer appreciation of Vancouver; with all its flaws it’s a very good place to live.

The weather has been overcast, occasionally rainy, and cool. Feels like fall already, but we had a deliciously hot summer and I had lots of beach days so no whining here.

Off to do the first load of laundry now….  Should think about what to bring up from the freezer while I’m down there.  It’s cool enough I could cook indoors, and I’m thinking meatloaf?  with spuds and veggies?

Snakes, dogs, Wagner, hail

Wagner was very smart and very musically influential. Even if he believed some nutty things.

Yesterday I walked with Paul in Robert Burnaby Park, a nice long walked that stretched my legs.  We saw a woman who runs a doggie daycare (Canine Corner in North Burnaby) and she had 7 dogs off leash with her (and only the terrier barked, of course, but not at me.  For some reason my ability to interact appropriately with dogs has magically improved over the last year).  We talked to her for a good long while – she also has an elderly orange cat who was a Katrina rescue.  In exchange I told her about Molly. Anyway, if her ability to cope with 7 offleash dogs is any recommendation, I recommend her facility.  She was amazing, and those were very happy dogs.

Then we went into New West and went to the Deli on 6th Ave. next to Galloways which we also shopped at and got food for ourselves and Katie.  Then I found out my bank card was compromised AGAIN and was declined, call bank.

I had cash to pay for the transaction, but I didn’t have any ID, which was naughty of me because as is customary these days, I drove.  I went to the TD Canada Trust on 6th St. expecting to be told to go home and get picture ID, but wanting to know what happened to the card.  Ross said, Tell me about your accounts, which I did, down to the penny in some cases, and then answered a couple more questions, and then bingo – he was getting an override from his supervisor and I had a new card.  Total turnaround 5 minutes.  I was astonished and pleased, and even happier than normal that I bank with TD Canada Trust.

Then Paul and I went to see Katie.  Kashka was the only other roommate home, which meant SNAKES.  Yes, they have a rosy boa (a boy, Speck, finger thin and 18 inches long) and a ball python (a girl, Opal, pushing 5 feet and forearm thick and very large for her age not to mention bloody strong) as well as a mini dobie named Piper, who jumped into my arms as soon as I saw her and a ten week old black kitten named Pan(dora). And dead rats in the freezer.  Opal was traumatized by a live rat once and now she only eats drowned thawed ones.  Anyway, we got them out and handled them, and we took some amusing pictures which I am hoping to coax out of Paul if chance affords so I can repost them (including one of Speck hanging out in my hat).  Speck likes noses, Opal likes to drape herself around necks.  Both have recently shed their skins and have a healthy glossiness that anybody who loves animals would rejoice to see.

Then I went home and tried to write down “Back in the City” and got about two thirds of the way through, I will finish today. It’s done now.

Then, True Blood from last night.

I just leaped up in consequence of hearing hail and got Granny’s chairs off the back deck.  It was 5:52 in the morning when it stopped, and as is normal around here, it was heavy rain mixed with graupel.  There was a bit of lightning too.  Noisy!  It was pinging and spoinging all over the show.

I call this one “The Triumph of Enthusiasm over Knowledge”

Moose, like teenagers and occasionally older people, are not necessarily wise when gripped by hormones.

This pic is all over the web.  In one rendition, it has been transformed into a poster marked “Statutory Rape…. you’re doing it wrong.”

Let us all take this picture as a somber lesson that our senses … and our hopes … may deceive us.

mooseplusstatue

I really feel for the moose.  Springloaded for an amorous encounter, is he not an icon of every human being, mostly guys, but whatever, who wasted some time over an image rather than a receptive female?  If I ever open a shelter for over-enthusiastic practitioners of self-abuse, this will be the image over the lintel.

more True Blood and more cat fur

Another great episode.  This one Eric is barely in, but it’s still good.

Jeff and I have a busy day planned, culminating in  a barbecue for Katie and all the women she lives with.  First, a trip shopping, then District 9 at Metrotown (it will likely be nuts), then the barbecue.

My efforts to keep hair out of Miss Margot’s digestive tract have not been entirely successful.  She produced a tiny, ladylike little furball yesterday.  Hopefully this will inspire me to brush her more often, although considering I’m brushing her at least twice a day, while she grouses and grumbles and tries to bite and wriggles like mad OR sits there purring like mad as if she’s glad I finally got round to it.  Sometimes she asks to be be brushed – and still complains – and sometimes she runs away and wails.  The other night she spent I don’t know exactly where, but when she returned in the morning she had half the undergrowth of Burnaby lovingly stowed in her belly fur.  Normally I only brush her for about 2 minutes at a time, this time I locked the bathroom door and got really thorough.  MASSES of fur and crap came out….

I compost everything I pull off her.

Finally saw Driving Miss Daisy.  I liked it, but there were specifics about it I didn’t like all that much, like the soundtrack.

Unca Dave and others

Unca Dave is in town this week for cancer treatment, and Paul and I went to see him at the Lodge downtown.  It’s a really nice place although he says the one in Kelowna is nicer.

What can be said?  It’s all management; of energy, of medications, of treatments, of emotions.  He is as cheerful and forthright as ever, and it was great to see the names of his other visitors in the guest sheet.  We had a cup of coffee and visited for a couple of hours.  Paul will be taking him back to the airport today.

After the visit, we poked our heads into MEC, where I got two of these in black.  (Always ask if they have some in the back… I had checked inventory and there were lots of black ones, but not on display.)  Paul had loaned me a carrier and I fell madly in love with them and got two of my own.  They are only fifteen liters but I got four bags of groceries into one on Wednesday… I had to get some.  Also I got a map, because I like maps.  They don’t have topos of the city any more, pity.  Paul got raingear for his trip with Tish and Terry. After that we went to Pho Hong and I had one of these. Then we went to Rona and recut the keys that didn’t work.

pOp got himself hauled off to the emerg in Victoria in a most discomfiting fashion recently.  He’s back at home looking forward (not) to further tests to find out which end of the malingering/mad-with-worry pole he should be attached to.  And of course there are two other members of my family experiencing health problems that we know of – I light virtual candles for all them not because it will do a bit of good, but so I can turn my attention elsewhere.  Really, hard core atheists don’t know what they’re missing out on with church.  It’s just so comforting.

Fed the cats the free food that you get as a sample from the pet store for breakfast this morning.  Margot makes the most astonishing assortment of grunts and duck calls when she eats – she literally quacks when she’s excited or disturbed.  I put her on the Star Trek pinball but it’s too noisy for her, even though she did chase the ball a couple of times.

Sundry and various

Laundry all done.  Much practicing on mando yesterday, at least 90 minutes and my fingers are all callous-y again.

Family barbecue with lamb, chicken and steak (mmmm) and garlic bread and pan fried enoki mushrooms and couscous and greek salad and beer and green tea ice cream.

Katie got her documentation from the Hair Design School – she passed all exams with flying colours and got her certificate.  Yeah!  Should make job hunting a bit easier. We celebrated her success but she skated out right after True Blood to go keep an eye on a friend of hers (long story, likely tinged with fiction).  But it was great to have the fambly including Mike to dins.

MANY WASPS…. the funniest incident was when I was done with my steak and an extremely determined wasp tried to fly off with a hunk of meat still attached to the steak by a tiny thread of connective tissue.  He kept trying to lift off and then whizzed around like a tiny tethered helicopter, setting down, trying to chew through….. I finally took pity and took the knife to the meat and he took off, flying low but triumphant.  Keith had an interview yesterday, it didn’t go as well as the previous one but he is still looking and still hopeful.

Margot was batting at Gizmo’s tail the other day.  He just lay there, looking long suffering.  Gizmo and Eddie are both, very suddenly, much more affectionate with me.  Eddie has gotten up into my lap a couple of times (he’s not a lap cat).  Margot sticks to Giz like glue when they are outside at night.  Hopefully he will teach her not to be an idiot around cars.  She already runs away if you come up to her outside, always a good sign.

Brian C’s 50th.

The Charbaums very kindly put up their land for a party; the usual gang of well loved friends was there, as was a proper portable Finnish sauna.  Yay is for Jarmo.  Mike and I slipped away at midnight; he had to go look after his Spuddy-buddy.  I could have spent the night, but I didn’t want Mike driving back by himself.  No, he wasn’t impaired; he’d quit drinking around 8:30; I wanted him to have the company on the long drive back.

The downside is that somehow, probably because I was sitting in Very Bad Chairs, I have put my hip out very badly.  I suspect this is actually referred back pain.  I am stumping round like an old lady.  Jeff will be back with pain killers and milk shortly, and then I’ll make brekky and start laundry and all that domestic style stuff.

I got to meet Braden, Jerome and Shannon’s baby. Never in my life have I seen a 15 day old child with that much blonde hair.  We’re not talking that flossy blonde hair you get on babies, this is like Spike’s do in Buffy, and there is SO much.  I got to see Sarah and Ian’s young pjokk, and had a boo at Vijay’s two gorgeous boys (oldest is 8 already… and I can remember Vijay going through hell trying to get Lakshmi into the country… how long ago it seems) and then there was Elise and Arden (Elise is heartbreakingly gorgeous at almost three) and there were Sigrin and Lobo and Max the dogs, and Ariel, Megan’s daughter, in pre med at UBC while her parents explode with pride. Jenn and Rob, Kyi and May were there… Wally …. Tom U… Otto… Mike of course and Jim E., all the good folks.  Jarmo and Susana, without the boys.  Remember when the boys locked me in the outhouse?  How long ago that was.  Brian said friends and relatives he hadn’t seen in years were there; he was a little overwhelmed.

Next Friday is Sarah’s last at Xantrex.  I’m going to the golf course to see her off.

We didn’t have a campfire…. we respected the fire ban and used a portable campstove on ‘simmer’ for a fire. A beautiful, happy, mellow time was had by all.  Yes, I went in the sauna; yes, I let Jarmo beat me with hot wet birch branches.  It felt UNBELIEVABLY GOOD.  Especially on my back. It was so funny sitting outside the tent and listening to other folks get whacked… the noises!  People might have gotten the wrong idea…..

Storm Brewing Keg.  Jarmo fries.  Nuff said.