Category: Things with Motors

Brain hurts

It’s like a slap in the face to get up and realize there’s NO MORE SUN.  But hell, it’s October.  And October is SOME OTHER PLANET Month. (Obligatory Joe Hall reference).

I’m off to put gas in Ziva, maybe even for the last time as the plates expire at the end of the month and I’m not renewing them.  I will collect Katie and bring her back here for laundry and other mischief, and then churchy type stuff in preparation for the Board meeting tomorrow.

I am working on three new songs simultaneously.  One of them is because I downloaded a free app which allows me to strum chords I couldn’t play tanked up on painkillers, meth and ketamine, one of them is vibrating rapidly back and forth between being George’s theme (Lady of the Deep Waves) in my imaginary show and being something sad from the Game of Thrones universe, and the other is a Celtic style “Go forth and be happy” kinda tune.  I must be driving Jeff nuts, I’m practicing for hours every day and unfortunately it’s rather hard for me to write songs without actually, you know, like, singing.

I am contemplating the list of things I’ve put off with misery.  I’d like to trade that in for some feisty action and a dirk to slit the gizzard of my procrastination but the friendly NPC at the counter is NOT helping.

I’m enjoying having a phone that allows me to post pix directly to my blog though, I think it instantly made it more fun and interesting.

 

about the town

Garageband intermediate lesson a success, thank you Lisa (also her fur babies Luna, Romeo and Chai, two chill dogs and a cat).  Drive out to Maple Ridge was HOT.  Even with ac.

While there found out that my Garageband IS gibbled, it’s not just my imagination and I should probably reinstall.  Also got an appointment for a job interview this afternoon.

Drive back was interesting.  Lisa gave me directions for taking the scenic route out of town but I missed a turn (v. typical of me) and got back to Lougheed and Dewdney Trunk Road (driving past Glenn and Maggie’s old place in the process and feeling kinda sadface).  After a turned onto Lougheed I saw a woman in a teal top and jeans (the colour drew my eye) HITCHHIKING.  I haven’t picked up a hitchhiker in 15 years but it was a fucking hot day and I recently challenged myself not to suppress every kindly instinct.  Feeling strongly that some good would come of it, I stopped.

I asked her where she was going, after she said OMG AIR CONDITIONING – she’d been sitting surrounded by concrete in the blazing sun – and she said Coquitlam close by IKEA, and I said, pas de probleme, I’ll drop you there.  What are you doing?  Picking up my grandson.  I have money to get him to his mother’s but not money to get back, so I’m hitching out.  Crappy deal sez I. Where are you taking him after you pick him up?  uh….. 8 blocks from your house in Burnaby.  Yeah.  Of all the people in the lower mainland who could have stopped for her, I think I was the correct choice.  She’s a cancer survivor undergoing a second round of chemo and radiation.  I expressed sympathy and hoped she had sufficient support.

The first place was the incredibly broken down and third world trailer park between Brunette and Lougheed (there are two, this is the one that looks like chickens should be scratching in between the trailers).

There were four feral kittens about 12 weeks old under the next trailer, which had busted windows and appeared to be unoccupied.  There were two little boys bouncing unattended on a trampoline.  Yes, my classism is showing, but I watched the boys for a while and somebody had obviously trained them to stay well away from the edges as they were playing for fun and not xrays.

As we pulled up I told the woman, It’s gonna take ages to get your grandson out, I had kids myself and I know, don’t worry, I have no place to be so don’t sweat it if it takes a while.  I’m looking at the trampoline and going Cazart it’s gonna be 20 minutes at least to pull those kids offa there.  It’s a beautiful summer day and the trampoline is in the shade and they are having more fun than a barrel of otters.

Finally we achieved cooperation and got the grandson, a sweet and intelligent little boy of five out of there and I drove them in to Burnaby and dropped them off (after I rolled through a stop sign I didn’t see…. oops.  It was a three way stop in a construction zone and the sign was behind a hedge in my defence).

I hope the next time I’m feeling impulsively helpful it works out this well.

Busy weekend

Helping Jerome with concrete this afternoon – hope to run into some friends as well.

Sucked it up and bought car insurance.  I am putting together a list of work on the car to justify my asking price. Paul also helped by sending me a nice pic of Ziva.

Put together a care package for Katie for her move (envelopes, stamps, etc.)  She’s been going nuts buying stuff. Dropped her off at work.  Happy sigh.

Tomorrow church AGM and for supper off to the John B to suck back some Shirley Temples (yes, I’m still not drinking) and pub grub and watch ….. the BLUUUUUUUUUUE MEEEEEEEEEEENIES.  Because I loves them, and Mike and Rozo may come, and Jeff said he’d go too.

I cleaned about half of the kitchen and once I make that list and update the craigslist ad, I’m going to go back to doing that.

What a day

Trip was fine, weather was so wonderful when I got home. I realized I had just enough energy to do a small shop and get the stone chip that Ziva collected the last time I went to Victoria fixed, and the guys at Crystal Glass on 6th repaired it for nothing because they liked my car.  I will take them all my glass work in future!

Sue called me to remind me about the minister meeting last night but I’d already told David that it was a travelling day and I was unlikely to attend.  I was in bed asleep by 8 so it’s just as well.  Formal announcement is coming soon.

In the middle of all this I got the reference check call for Katie WHO WILL HAVE HER OWN APARTMENT on May 1.  Huge step forward for her and I hope she enjoys having her own space.

And now, Chipper I’m thinking of you when I post this link.  Farming doesn’t have to be an ecological disaster.

travelling woman

1.  Excellent and wondahful visit with the parental units.  I got a photo scan of the old homestead in SK, had my traditional coffee and cinnamon bun (best commercial cinnamon buns ever) at Dan’s after a lovely ride in the country, communed with some skunk cabbage, watched the hummingbirds, who are quite active these days (three sucking back syrup with another circling, occasional flashes of the O My God red as the sun hits them), watched a quail peck a pileated woodpecker while the woodpecker ignored him, cooked a couple of lovely meals for the folks, which my mother quite appreciated, watched some nature programs, and felt pride as Katie passed the 48 hour mark of quitting smoking.  Fingers crossed she makes it this time!

2.  RUDE FUCKING START TO THE DAY.  I had to yell at the cab driver.  I will post a copy of the letter

 

Dear Sir,

I am a long time and mostly satisfied customer of Bonny’s Taxi, whose
services I have been using since 1998.

I am complaining in the strongest possible terms about the complete
disregard for the safety, comfort and wallet of the customer
demonstrated by the above-named driver.

This morning I got a cab to the airport from Bonny’s.  I SPECIFICALLY
TOLD THE DRIVER NOT TO MOVE THE CAB UNTIL I WAS BELTED IN.

The reason I did this is because my daughter just got a 147 $ ticket
because the cab driver she selected took off before she was belted in.

The driver verbally agreed to stop and then immediately sped off again
prior to me even being able to get the belt anywhere close to secured.
I had to yell at him to get him to stop the cab, which I am not proud
of, but he disregarded my clearly stated and lawful instructions.

As you are no doubt aware, the fine for not being belted in is borne
by the customer, not the cab driver.  I understand that time is money
but when your driver’s anxiousness to make some money potentially
costs the customer money and the aggravation of a court date, there is
something seriously wrong with the safety training and customer
service ethic of your drivers.

I would like a refund of my $44.30 cab fare and a reprimand on B.
D—–‘s file.  To be clear, apart from running a couple of yellow
lights and failure to make legal stops under the HTA, the fines for
which would have been borne by the driver, there was nothing else
wrong with his driving.

I look forward to your prompt response, which will factor into my
decision whether or not I complain to the licensing agency.

Thank you for your time.

Prodrome turns into fullblown

Well.  That spacy feeling was actually prodrome.  I took sick (weakness and vertigo) around 9 pm and after bringing me a glass of water Cindy went home.   Hell of an evening for her. I staggered to bed.

15 minutes of vertigo accompanied by weird visuals (bright teal and navy blue geometric progressions and I think I would have appreciated them a lot more if the bed hadn’t been jerking around.)

5 minutes of physical symptoms which included feeling like the inside of my head was full of cicadas and that somebody was repeatedly lowering a heavy weight onto my stomach, and weird wobbly noises like the sensation of having water in your ear.

about five minutes of feeling tight in the chest, probably panic from all the weird new sensations.  Breathed through that.

Then I spent about five more minutes getting my head into a position where it wasn’t buzzing, as the buzzing came and went depending on how I rested my head on the pillow.

Then I fell asleep.

It was the weirdest migraine ever, probably triggered by the barometric hops of the last couple of days and relief of pressure from starting my holidays, also I sneezed about a million times yesterday.  I only had 1.5 beers and I suppose that could have contributed but I don’t think so.

I’ve had so many really weird migraines and in fact my neurologist characterized them as atypical that I think that’s what it was.  I also have the weird spacies like I get after an attack.

My grandmother was very subject to vertigo.  Vertigo really sucks.

Those cicadas, though.  Imagine that Peggy’s bowed bass sound is INSIDE your head.  That’s what it was like.  Most extraordinary sensation.

So I am okay, and once more amazed that my brain can completely detach from consensus reality and go on its own little journey!  Also, I got to sell my car.

Ziva, you heartless tyrant

So, she’s in the shop again for two days while they address the fact that she went from being very well behaved to sounding like an emphysema riddled old drunkard and blowing through 25 percent extra gas overnight.  As always if it isn’t one thing it’s two things.  Paul’s been at me for the valve noise for ages; she needs a new timing kit, and there’s other assorted shit in there.

To misquote the Catalonian Catalunyan poet, “I want no pity for this pain I would trade with no other man”.

Work itself is okay but there are circumstances at work that are very tiresome and disillusioning and when Jeff picked me up yesterday (thank you!) we had a lively discussion of management techniques on the way home in the car, and calmed ourselves down with some more Stargate SG1, which continues to be excellent although I imagine eventually the show will get tired.  It just hasn’t happened yet.

And I hit – or will make an uncontrolled descent into – a milestone today.  I’ve never ever ever been to a Beacon choir practice.  I’m going to one tonight because I’ll be rehearsing drums for a single performance.  When I get asked why I won’t join the choir – and I know I will be asked – when I have one of the better singing voices in the congregation – and that is merely a statement of fact, not me getting uppity – I am going to look at them all and say, “I don’t have to say why, and I’m not joining.”  It’s the material.  Dirges, with a few exceptions.

 

Any day I don’t have to scrape or defog the car is a good one / Resolution list

Katie’s coworkers reacted to her new boots (she WORE THEM AT WORK for the last half of the shift, they is that comfy) with a gratifying display of jealousy, appreciation and WTF that her mOm would spend that much money on her.

Wednesday, probably, I go have dins with my old beau from the bike shop.  Looking forward to catching up with him.  It didn’t work out between us (he has a sweetie in Seattle, where have I heard THAT before) but I still appreciate him for his complete and blithe disregard for whatever is fashionable in favour of what he likes.

Check this out.  Laughed my ass off.  http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/visualizations/horoscoped/  It is a wordcloud of all the words in 22000 horoscopes, with A COMPLETELY GENERIC horoscope at the end.  So much for augury…..

Per the tarot reading which said I have so many, I have prepared my new years resolutions. Being ten in number, as recommended.

Remember to bring cans, rice and pasta for the food bank at least 3 out of 4 Food Bank Sundays.  I keep forgetting and it really feels bad.

Prep for taking on the duties of a Secretary at Beacon (I expect to be acclaimed, and still no Treasurer, bah).  Since this involves a lovely long lunch with Carol and Sue on my dime, I can’t imagine this one taking too long to tick off.

Lose 20 pounds by this time next year.  Awk, oh well.

Attend at least one Humanist meeting, even though there are two regular attendees whose smooth and seemingly impenetrable pomposity I would like to test a laser on.  Oh Allegra you are really doing them a favour aren’t you.

Attend at least one Lunch Bunch meeting.  It means I have to be on vacation or take a day off, but I have an evol plan for that.  It means connecting with some of the church elders, whom we do not have with us forever.  Their wisdom and humour is the reason I keep going back to church and yet I never socialize with them.  Wrongo me bucko, as they say.

Go to one open mic per month, except in January.  I plan to map out the ones closest to the house thanks to http://www.openmicvancouver.com/

Gather up all my homilies for publication.  Yeah, I know.  I will self-publish but it’s easy to do for cheap and I’m enjoying the notion of my mother having something to send her strict Christian relatives.

Monetize the web site.  Yes, start selling shit or advertising.  Seeing as how I will have to stop linking all over the web thanks to SOPA, I might as well start covering costs, cheap as they are.

Track the amount of time I spend watching TV (this, not the weight loss, is the real asskicker).

Get good or at least fun at making hats for cats and steampunk jewelry.  Cindy says she will tutah me.  Might even be a revenue stream, who knows.  It won’t be until I’ve recovered the $100 I’ve spent on supplies – I am keeping track.

And there you have it.  2012 will be all about connecting and creativity.  And hopefully some relief for my poor tubby knees.

Good news, bad news.

http://imgur.com/nYl6h  Guess who wrote that….

The single most incompetent and lazy employee who ever worked here (who was released into the wild years ago by the precursor firm, at which news I danced at my desk for it was glorious in my eyes) is in the building for an interview.  This is what lies on your LinkedIn profile will do, sweetcakes.  I need to be self-employed, this is bullshit.