Category: Nature

Monday rain

It was raining in my inbox, too. Chipper sent this link, with the comment ‘looks like an animated floor mop’. The Luddite is threatening flour, with strawberries. (He has both in excess of requirements currently).
Jeff and I walked for about half an hour in the rain yesterday (wandered over to Jerome’s for the french fry cutter). We walked through a curtain of falling cherry blossoms, so I whistled “Sakura” while he scowled gently. I don’t think he’s ever going to get used to me bursting into song in public, and I guess he doesn’t have to. I should just stop, or find people who don’t immediately wish that I had the Nelson Riddle Orchestra hidden under a flowerpot as accompaniment.
Somebody asked permission to record the Tapioca Song. I said sure, and gave them the link to the music sheet on my site. Just to round things out, Paul says he made tapioca in the microwave a few days back. I accused him of being a barbarian. He says the trick is gentle heat. Hmph.

Edgar Kitty ran up and down the hallway like an insane thing early this morning. When he decided to slow down, he barfed. Repeatedly. In a tone I’ve never heard a cat use in barfing. Essentially, he has a basso profundo barf; imagine, if you will, that Ivan Rebroff is horking up a furball in a series of staccato coughs, and that is what Eddie sounds like. Jeff and I got up to deal with the menace to bathroom navigation that is kitty puke, and I’m still up eating brekky and watching the sun come up through a veil of cloud and rain. The kitties like it when I sit here as I don’t have to move to open the back door.
Watched Across the Universe and more Deadwood, after we got back from our nice drenching walk.  Mind you, the dampness was mitigated when Jerome tucked some of Sergey and Megan’s salmon and veggies into my hand on the way out – they had it in excess of requirements and it was DAMNED good.

social it be

Jeff and I went to see Jerome and Shannon last night for a barbecue. Shannon made Jerome a birthday cake that had whipped cream icing, two kinds. And chocolate. And raspberries. I only report this so my mother, who is dieting in perpetuity, can go OOOOO.  Best Cake Ever.  The barbq itself was stellar.
There were a whole bunch of other people there including (this is just weird) another brother sister combo. As is usual everybody attending was smart, funny and good-natured. Rob (the Baumfest Rob, not RobofNine) and his two adorable, active childer, Elise and Arden, were there, and also, another kid, Maya (spelling?) who apparently learned to talk overnight recently and was saying, in that adorable high pitched voice “unca jrome? unca jrome?” and did a variety of other cute things that had me saying goo. Maya had a mom and a nice older brother Julian, who couldn’t be four yet, but he didn’t do that “I will scowl at you for about ten seconds and THEN smile at you thing” which Maya has down to a science and is guaranteed to melt the heart of anybody who wasn’t a sociopath to begin with.  There was also one other child there, an adorable, just barely walking tot named Isaac (who is the spirit and image of his dad, another coworker named Kevin).  Mike and Heather were there as well – Mike made Yam Fries.  Oh, and when Maya and Julian had to go, Julian said in response to somebody else saying “You’re going?” “The car has to go back,” so I instantly knew mom had a CAN car.
Yeah, it was a good time.

Yesterday, besides prepping veggies for the partay, I made mac and cheese from scratch, spaghetti sauce, cookies, and we did a shop in the morning which made all that possible. I also unpacked a couple of boxes, but I still need to do more.  I guess I’m thinking that I don’t want to do more until more space magically appears; I should transfer stuff into boxes and put it in storage, not mess up the middle room with it.

The breakfast nook is now delightful – there is a big enough table and in the morning it’s beautiful and airy and bright.  I’m thinking I should blog out here, then I can watch the cats at the end of the street have a convention.

All of the neighbouring dogs, with the exception of Meadow, the brindle Boston terrier in the basement,  bark like sons of bitches.  The landlord’s dog is brutally loud and will bark at you if she even sees you in the kitchen window from her vantage point on the deck across the alley.

More cooking and puttering today.  I kinda sorta hafta go to church today… an optics thing.  I am hoping I’ll get a lift home.  Now to figure out which bus to take to get out there, as I’m trying to reduce expenses somewhat.

Satidday roundup

Two hundred thirty seven reasons to have sex.  Guess I am going to have to read the original research to get the list. This was forwarded to me – but I won’t say by whom….

How will you know when the housing market has bottomed out?  A handy formula. 

A canonical list of “They do it” one liners.  Definitely some giggles in there.

Brian Kiely goes to Kenya in February for the UU movement, and reports back.  I’ve seen him deliver a couple of sermons and the guy is fracking awesome, and he’s also the only minister I’ve ever seen who incorporated Chet Baker music into a service.  By way of sidestream comment, has anybody else besides me had a conversation about genocide in Canada recently?  The existence, the possibility?

I asked my brother for advice about a haircut and after a blank stare, he said, “Uh, not a brush cut,” which now concludes my attempts to ever ask him appearance related questions again.

Since some of my readers will be progenizing shortly, and some have progenized and like getting reminders of how traumatizing it was (sample conversation with my mother.  “Remember when I here insert description of frankly horrid and unsafe and at best unsanitary teenage behaviour?”  “No.” “Well one of us is luckier than the other.”)  So I am providing a link to an interesting list of things new moms should know.  When I read it I nodded a lot, and I also went hunh?? a couple of times too.

The science behind monster waves.

Rational atheism.

Interesting green blog. Obviously it exists to sell things, but there’s cool stuff in there too. 

I LOVE THESE PICTURES.  The expression on the young man’s face, the poses, the clothing that he’s wearing.  And he was hanged. I just think of Deadwood, and melt.

Maybe it’s not a safe place to put money, but it’s an interesting place.

Young and coordinated.

And now… a dancing walrus.

Life on line…. death on line.

Your opinion?  I poop on it!

Finally, a joke.  What’s Australian foreplay?  “Brace yerself, Sheila!”

various

  1. The Willie P Bennet Memorial event went off hitchless, magnificent, and a credit to the participants.  Goddess bless the James Bay Coffee House and all who frequent it! Paul and I got through the set without embarrassing ourselves and Paul received praise for his fingerpicking.
  2. Peggy showed up the second we cleared the door of the coffee house.  I hugged her twice, I was so happy to see her.  And she crashed her at my folks’ and then I got her to the ferry for the 7 am (which was the reason she crashed here, because if she’d stayed at Pondside that would have been somewhat harder logistically).
  3. Yesterday after we made town I saw the Pondside crew and met a small horde of Devon Rex cats.  I didn’t understand their charm until I met them.  I nearly kidnapped Spice; what a cat!  Suki recognized me and sucked up to me something fierce.
  4. I gave Juliana a copy of the Interfilk auction video I took in January.  w))t!  No, you may not see it.  Private. Also screechingly hilarious.  Ha.
  5. John introduced us to the Blue Nile, an Ethiopian Buffet restaurant on Head Street in Esquimalt.  Man, the food was AWESOME and I am so glad to have had njera again. That is some seriously great bread.
  6. My folks are doing famously and we and Paul are going to head to Granny’s place and have lunch with her today, and then leave for the ferry from there.
  7. All in all so far this weekend has been a spectacular success and I wish I could put the feeling I got when I saw Peggy in a bottle and uncork it whenever I feel sad.  I thought my heart would burst with joy when I turned and saw her with her best mischievous expression. 
  8. Peggy brought Tom’s blackberry jelly, two jars.  Loki pronounces himself well satisfied with a house guest who only appears to deposit blackberry jelly on his kitchen table (he didn’t see her as we were in late and out so early).
  9. Did I mention the Willie P memorial was a rousing success?  That was, after all, the point of the exercise.  But it seems that we may weave extra happiness into our days by availing ourselves of the fleeting opportunities as they pass, and by feeling grateful.  I know that I’m very, very grateful right now.  For my health, my family, my job, my friends…. and frankly, screw the weather.  You can’t have everything.

Weird weather in Vancouver

Last night at about 8:30, Keith and I were watching Cool Hand Luke (Keith’s first time, my fifth at least) when someone outside the house fired the biggest flashbulb ever.  At least, that’s what it looked like.  Both windows in my field of vision lit up like daylight for a fraction of a second.  I had time to look quizzically at Keith, then turn back and shrug, before the thunder arrived.  We estimated that it was about four seconds after the flash; long enough for both of us to dismiss the flash as something other than lightning.  We were wrong.  The thunder was like an earthquake; the house shook violently and I felt the shaking throughout my body.  I couldn’t figure out how the thunder could be that loud if the lightning strike was so far away; Keith suggested that it had indeed been far away, but right above us.  That would explain what we observed.  Of course, what made this particularly interesting for us was that it occurred at the point in the film where – you guessed it – there was a thunderstorm.  Anyway, soon after this event, it started to snow.  And this morning, snow covers the ground.  This is going to be a weird year for weather.

Fur

Yes, there’s a lot of it.  Eddie is shedding, and I occasionally try to help the process along my taking a big brush and loosening it up….

Eddie is a very bizarre critter.  He LIKES having his fur vigorously rubbed the wrong way, including on his stomach.  For virtually every other cat I’ve ever met, such activities would result in a quick trip to the bathroom while dripping blood and cursing, but Eddie explodes into a 30 decibel purr and swims sideways across the carpet.

Gizmo came into my room last night.  I hoped he’d jump up on the bed, but instead he crawled under my desk and batted some loose cabling around until I sternly said, “Gizmo… beat it.”

Trying times

There are occasions when being a writer and having a blog is a curse. An event will occur, or happen as a consequence of matters I am party to, and nothing would suit me better than to give a full account of it. I would have liked nothing better than to have given a full accounting to the exact reasons for and the beastly behaviour of other people during my marriage breaking up – fine, let it stand that I was self-willed and I’ll leave the name calling and cruelty and bald faced f*cking lies other people subjected me to out of the picture. To protect innocent people, and to prevent myself from looking like a goddamned asshole, more to the point, I guess, that’s what I have had to do. Nor am I complaining about the results. I am clearly happier and better off for having moved out of that house. I just wish I could tell the truth about it. I’m still on good speaking terms with my ex and kids, so no harm done, right?
I would like nothing better than to describe in gory detail what it’s been like to stop being a member of a couple and to have many of favourite activities curtailed and destroyed. Yes, I had to go there, yes, it was my idea when I was no longer psychically safe, but I really really haven’t liked it, and I haven’t talked about the times I’ve spent a day or two, here and there, crying for reasons I can’t describe. Yeah, I could definitely go on at length there. Into the memory hole with it. I’m not even keeping a private journal of those events, it’s not worth it, as in the end it’s living well that counts, not keeping a tally of every grievance. If I wrote it all out it would become impossible to forgive, and even now I haven’t forgiven… into the memory hole. There is no good outcome in setting it all out, whether for myself or others.
I would like to render a full account of yesterday evening’s events – how an entire panoply of human cruelty, stupidity, waste and denial played out as a consequence of the death of a companion animal and how I had to sit with it, and be companionable with that parade of nastiness, and deal in practical terms with it (ie, help move the body of a large Rottie cross onto a board and then a truck, and clean the inevitable leakage off the floor). When Scooter died, it was an opportunity to show family solidarity when we all went to the Lodge to say goodbye to her, in the dark midwinter; when Bounce died we were all together and had each other for one of those uniquely horrible and sad days families go through. Last night wasn’t like that. I have no beef with Mike, he lost his dog, and I am honoured he called on me to help. I have no beef for the icky factual stuff, and I now know that eating a pizza pocket and then cleaning up after a dead dog is a great way to remind yourself your gag reflex is set way high. I am angry, hurt, bewildered and rendered half daft by how mean some people are. Fifty years old almost and I still think people should be nice to each other, and here’s me upset when they aren’t. What am I, a child still?
I intend to give a donation to the SPCA in Vancouver and say a brace of prayers for the animal control staffer, who was an angel of mercy, dignity and punctuality.

I thank my mother for being a civilized human being unlike some others whose behaviour I am shielding as a result of my mother’s teachings, and my brother for his material aid yesterday in conveying me to Mike’s after work.

Chores

Practicing for the gig on Friday went very well; one of the cats, presumably Eddie, had an accident requiring additional laundry but you can ALWAYS wash your bathroom rugs anyway so what the heck; I learned how to play back prerecorded video from Shaw thanks to Jeff’s fabulous instructions (he wrote a BROCHURE); the weather was six kinds of gorgeous; church was great thanks to a really great service and I really didn’t mind doing chairs; my back doesn’t hurt for the first time in about three weeks; all my laundry is done and hung up (remarkable) except one load which I intend to go deal with right now; saw Keith briefly yesterday and he brought a Useful Object into the house, namely something to catch his immense nest of hair in the shower; cleaned various kitchen and household objects; I renewed the server account for this site and paid some other bills; more yelling downstairs but much more subdued than Friday night; ran into Heather at the Nanaimo skytrain and things don’t sound too good in her world right now.  Dunno. I guess I’m happy to be me.
The Luddite took a day off work to play with trains which involved him and a bunch of other guys moving track onto a new setup…. we’re talking about something the size of a basement.  He also mentioned something about strawberries in pots for me; I look forward to this with interest and yumminess.  Container gardening is about all we’ll be able to do here.