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!
Yesterday was wonderful. We got to talk. Because there were only four of us. I will remember! Out again in a week with more of the gang, at the Faux Bourgeois. I just reviewed the menu and I’m a puddlodrool.
Got there late, of course. Bought an outfit to wear on the way, more or less, because it had occurred to me that I don’t have an uptodate or comfy or hole-free dress to wear to a formal occasion or funeral and good lord I’m 64 I need to be able to dress for a funeral on a moment’s notice. (My long black dress from eShakti is full of holes and going grey and frayed.) However, only Susanne was on time (no surprise there since she ‘carries polish and precision’ into everything she does). Jan was her usual bubbly self, including a hilarious and useful stream of consciousness narrative about hearing aids. Simon himself is a complete pet, with the manner of an enthusiastic guest archaeologist on Time Team with a hush hush job. We didn’t get into Dunnett, but it was lovely to hear of everyone’s travels in Dunnett country.
Anyway Jan was not trying to convince me that after I get back from Portlandia I need to get my hearing tested but I will, since the test is free after 65.
The SUN WAS BLASTING and the swimmers were swimming in the bay and the mountains and the sea and the boats. The food was divine – worth the expense in my view – and I washed it all down with a cup of tea. Very pleasant to sit in the Boathouse and love the world.
Got gas into the car at the station at Clark and 12th, which is easily one of the worst gas stations in the city for how many people want to use it vs how big the goddamned lot is. Managed to get out of there without hitting or being it by anyone.
Completely rewrote the Vancouver Mods song on the way home in the car.
Back again to Vera and a pleasant evening quietly at home.
isn’t it stunning? This is actually a computer graphic, but apparently that’s what they’d look like. Researchers sought them but haven’t found them yet.
I have a month to get ready for Orycon. I have to admit that I’m jealous of all of Shad’s wonderful patches she’s sewn onto her guitar case, so now I’m going to announce my probably useless plan to sew patches on MY guitar case (Smokey’s going to the con, I don’t know if both ukes and the mando are going. I really want to take the dulcimer but then I keep thinking I’ll borrow Jeff C’s but I’m not 100% sure he’s going. Anyway, I have to figure all of that out. ANYWAY while tearing my craft boxes apart for patches I found Granny’s little Hummel girl on mesh, so SHE’S going on my guitar case and then I can carry Granny around with me every time I sing and play. I’m going to try to find some of the crochet work Grandma Zoos made and tack that on too, mebbe make a mesh pocket of it.
I need to select, assemble and print/PDF a filk-büche, practice until my fingies hurt, sew some patches, select and pack clothing,
SHAD’S HAT THAT SHE CROCHETED AS PART OF HER CARPAL TUNNEL THERAPY. (SHAD IS CINDY, CINDY IS SHAD.)
is it not of surpassing excellence and tremendous beauty???? SAY IT ALOUD
So I’m ripping stuff apart in the craft area of my room (which I have to compress down into JUST ONE BOX lol AND I FOUND THE PERFECT PURPLE SPARKLY EMBROIDERY FLOSS TO MEND MY PURPLE TIE DYE TSHIRT WITH. SO I guess this morning has been a success so far.
I’m going to the Con!
Early one morn on a unicorn, well, I launched a rocket ship!
and I wore my silks and tie dyes and gave mundane life the slip
It cost me more than I could afford but I had to take the trip
for I have you all to thank that I’m a filker!
We sing the sweetest music and we laugh the loudest laughs
The robots sell their spares to hear, the wizards pawn their staffs
the circle calls in the function halls for a chorus fine and free
You can keep your wretched autotune –
Absolutely beautiful here. We have had a lovely day of rock and roll, yummy food (I brought the fruit salad, there were hors d’oeuvres and then ribs and corn for dins, SO GOOD) and Bear the dog nipped me when I dropped something and went to pick it up. It was no big deal but I’d forgotten he’s a reactive little dog.
So there was a plane crash in Langley yesterday. I heard about it on the radio. Then I read on line that the airplane – a small private craft – CLIPPED A TRUCK on the highway before coming in for a crash. Ya know friends and neighbours that is most likely to mean that HE DIDN’T SET FUEL TO RICH MIXTURE so he had ZERO OOMPH when he needed it. Since this is exactly like the plane crash I was in I’m of course predicting that’s what happened. Everyone including the poor bastid in the truck got conveyed to the hospital and in true Canadian fashion, lived to complain about it all.
I picked Keith up in his own car from the Ferry Terminal at Tsawassen yesterday. It was a STINKING HOT DAY, much hotter in Burnaby than the records might indicate. I had to drive in traffic. People who drive from east Burnaby to the southern terminal know well that there are a couple of choke points. One is the bridge access southbound on 20th; queued there for 20 minutes or so, cursing most immoderately the entire fucking time. One is the ‘curve’ on highway 91A where the traffic ALWAYS slows down even though there are no on-ramps? Like- what the hell, people. There is no earthly reason for this to happen, so I unscrambled my brains and gave it some consideration and I guess it’s because trucks have to slow down because it isn’t banked properly or something and that has a standing wave effect on the rest of the traffic. And of course another is the run up to the Massey Tunnel, but that was barely a blip because they had the counterflow set in favour of the traffic direction I was on.
After all that, got there in plenty of time to greet him for the ride home, and he thank god did the rest of the driving because I was once again pretty crispy toast from driving with due care and attention in that relentless traffic and heat. I didn’t want to put the air con on because we had less than a quarter tank of gas and I wanted to make sure that I didn’t get stuck behind an accident with no gas.
All was well, Keith efficiently gave me back the stuff I’d left in his car after the trip, and discovered ANOTHER BAG OF BISCOTTI – I told you I made a lot of that – which is going over to Peggy today because she is awesome and could use a break. With coffee, and biscotti. I won’t stay, I’ll just biscotti fairy it over to her when Jeff and I go to errandry later this morning.
Right now, I must dress, brush teeth and watch Endeavour, and then we’re going out. The downstairs toilet needs a part, and I want to get the Marvin the Martian watch I got from John’s stash running again. Curiously, I found the identical watch (right down to the watchband, which is an unusual leather and colour) for sale, secondhand since it was made in 94, in Europa for 339´€ and in the US for $39, so someone’s getting hosed and it’s not me.
Embarrassing as it is to relate, it is entirely possible that I will purchase another cell phone. Spending time with a dementia sufferer and being out of touch while I’m driving him around (he often forgets his phone) has made me understand the value of access. As I was driving to the ferry I kept thinking if I’m in an accident I’ll have no way to contact Keith and it made me unduly fretful.
Happy St. Sitha (Zita) Day, patron saint of domestic work, domestic workers, and lost keys. Here she is from a church wall in Norfolk UK.
Laundry is done and I’ll go back to folding it when I’ve finished posting. No Lumosity yet, wordle in three (the word made me laugh out loud because it is NOT a word I personally am associated with, like, at all). Five kudos from one person on AO3 last night… I mean woman did you SLEEP that was like 50K words LOL…. Almonds are in the oven for toasting and the timer is set to explode (finally have a LOUD kitchen timer) in an hour. I have started selecting my clothes to be packed. I’ve been practicing my instruments every day, I keep starting on and then refusing to write down any of the gags for a standup routine (part of it involving a ‘tactical ukulele’ which describes the second uke Mike bought me), I wrote 899 words yesterday on the fic and about 40 on TB. Dejunking has slowed but not stopped. Played Original Green Tetris on the Tetris website yesterday and I have to say I prefer newer versions LOL. I’ve booked my next flu/covid shots with the pharmacy.
I send a special family hug to Leo and Linda this am (they are always sharing pictures of their family in the background with me and it helps me stay connected to their fam and I really appreciate it) and a big long rocking hug for Dave, who is mourning his kitty and will be for a while. He still has Pippin, but Mookie was a real character.
Here’s a list of free websites that are apparently useful from boing boing dot com this morning. I’ve only had a good look at witeboard and untools but intend to explore more:
Just in case anyone is thinking of me, please don’t get me anything for Mother’s Day that doesn’t involve tasty food I didn’t cook.
Still very much enjoying Medium and we’ve started The Diplomat and are LOVING it. But it’s (ratchet ratchet ratchet sound in the background) berloddy tense.
That was sad. I mean I was actually upset for a moment. Two top fives in Lumosity, 1189 words on the fanfic. Coffee has been consumed, the day has begun.
Confirmed that we’ll be at Barry and Jackie’s overnight after Jim’s memorial. It conflicts with a Bahá’í festival but that’s just our luck – everything always happens on the same day.
SCORE! the weed joint had Trainwreck. I named a fanfic after the strain before I’d even gotten to try it but the weed sommeliers were not lying – absolute gem of a strain – calm blissful body buzz and zero anxiety.
Today I’m going to try to do health oriented things, get some letters in the mail, call a couple of friends, do some more sorting for the yard sale – matters of that nature. I can be upset or I can try to make progress and they don’t usually go together.
Charge your devices! Natural and infrastructure disasters are always only a tick of the clock away!
DeSantis threatening to build ‘another theme park’ to compete with Disney is extremely funny since as far as I know the only two documents he has any interest in are the Bible and the Constitution and neither of them have any fuckin’ IP. What’s he gonna do, ask Veggie Tales to put up the money?
Today’s Trotsky Tuesday guest is Alexander Berkman, who for a long while was Emma Goldman’s sweetie.
As much as I might think I have the mental and physical energy to hop on a plane and go to Toronto to assist Dave with cat care, I don’t. Yesterday was full of panic attacks and self-excoriation for being a bad friend. I should not have volunteered. And now I get to phone someone who’s sick, lonely and literally isolated and tell him that. Thank all the anarchist saints Catherine volunteered.
It’s not about me, but I can’t help. Just the idea of going to an airport fills me with LITERALLY existential dread. I mean, I probably just got over a silent case of COVID (I lost my most of my sense of smell and as things stand now I have to hold things up to my nose to tell what they smell like) which the Canadian government has just admitted was all part of a mass-disabling event, and now I want to get it again? Just thinking about taking my medications, or having to transit everywhere, and then having to come home; I’m on the ground wailing.
I just found out you can sing into the extra soundhole on this Riversong ukulele and get absolutely wild harmonic effects. Also, yesterday I learned THE ORIGINAL LYRICS to the ‘2 & 20 Blues’ and they completely change the tone of the song. I shall herewith demonstrate: The very first line is “There’s evil men in this DOGGONE town” but the way my ex (and Dr Filk) taught it was ‘GODDAMN’ and that really changes things. First is worldweary, second is angry, and the song is resigned, not angry. The very last line is “You may say that I’m wrong but you know I FEEL all right.” I was taught ‘I’LL BE’. The singer is OKAY IN THE PRESENT, not sometime in the future. But right now! The song’s about grabbing life where and when you can, not hoping you’ll be happy sometime.
Thank you for attending this bathtub dive into 2 & 20 Blues by Linda Morrison, pressed 1981.
Jeff and I went for a little walk in the gorgeous sunshine yesterday afternoon. Jeff said that he should go for a walk and I said, “I’m going to stagger up the stairs, stagger up the hill to the park and stagger back again,” and he thought I was joking; he joined me after watching me put my shoes on. This is the same park at the start of the pandemic; the logo has all washed off that hoodie but the hoodie remains.
I missed the DD celebration yesterday. I am not sad, I don’t feel sad. I am somewhat immobilized though.
Russians out of Kherson. They’re starting to put anti tank cement blocks on their side of the border, which triggered Finnish Twitter to do a most pointed and technical takedown of how insanely useless it all was. (Altho the discussion was in Finnish you can translate tweets on the fly and man the Finns were just shaking their heads, it was wonderful. There were also comments that since it WAS useless, some oligarch musta got paid for it, ten times what it’s all worth. Lovely.)
Supposedly the new washer will come in the downstairs back door around 11 am today. No movement on the tree, not that I’d expect it on Sunday.
by aquilegiaformosa on tumblr
guys we’re not being cringe to keep out the twitter users. we’re being cringe to keep out the ALGORITHMS, the CAPITALISTS, the INFLUENCERS. twitter users are welcome as long as they agree this site is UNMARKETABLE
In other words become ungovernable by being someone you can’t make money from…. by being cringe. You know who’s cringe ? autistic people, by virtue of the intensity of their many hobby horses.
I prefer to be ungovernable by having my own website, that nobody ever looks at, but which will be invaluable to my family after I’m dead. That’s how things work. It’s the longitudinal and continuous energy of it, not the content, necessarily.
Worked on yet another fanfic, “Special Deputy on the Run” yesterday. I’ve poked into the file for Part II but I think I added 36 words.
The amount of shit kicking Zibethicus (my name for Elon, means muskrat) has taken on the internet is amazing. In a few short weeks he’s scorched his fortune, facing a lawsuit for over 50 billion dollars from a former investor choked that he essentially stole shares from Tesla, received the brickbats of the commentariat and been held up as a model of everything not to do in business. Every time he says so much as boo on twitter hundreds of thousands of people tell him he’s a fucking idiot; it’s glorious, but not enough to get a twitter account.
Continuing counts in the US election still trend Biden’s way. They didn’t poll people who never voted LOL__ so many pundits have tender buttskin hanging out on this that another public spirited activity on twitter these days is going through the pundits’s last two weeks of salty prognostications and retweeting it, saying things like THIS AGED LIKE MILK or DO YOU SUPPOSE YOU WILL EVER BE RIGHT ABOUT ANYTHING EXCEPT AS THE SPECTRUM FOR YOUR POLITICS etc etc.
It is GLORIOUS and marvellous in our eyes. The night show hosts are having a field day.
Mitch McConnell, easily one of the most corrupt and disgusting politicians in American history, is not Senate GOP Leader any more, and rumblings are someone is going to grab his 15 year old perch in the Senate. The people who are candidates in replacing him aren’t as likely to be as competent at either whipping votes or stealing anything they can reach.
We are about six episodes into Farscape. Every episode is weirder than the next. Truly bizarre show.
Virtually every pediatric ICU in the country is at double capacity. There are so many sick children that you cannot buy children’s aspirin in this country right now.
Spoke to Tammy on the phone the other day, she called. She confirmed that she’s coming at Christmas and I’m seeing her on Boxing Day.
I’m going to take my meds and ignore the world right now. Filk cancelled again, and although it’s Dorothy Dunnett day I have concerns about zooming for a meeting today… oh well.
I have no idea where the above came from.
the hotel room in the Dominican Republic. A married couple who checked in at the same time got a room full of sewage for two days… this room was much better. Also a bottle of rum was like 4 bucks.
Katie was damned lucky I took a spare bathing suit. This is Saona Island.
Jeff is safely arrived; I am taking the talking bricks from my imagination and making sentences elsewhere, this morning, but took a break to say that.
I practiced guitar this morning and that inspired me to start writing. 8962 words already!
In the meantime, a squib.
You are given 3 choices
I want nothing to do with you, white woman
Please, if you can, demonstrate how you would ‘Scream for Jesus.’
Debate with me the context and applicability of this art.
I know nobody else will enjoy this poem but I so enjoyed composing it that I felt obliged to share. “One art, please.” Ah, Zoidberg, I love you so much you borscht-belt Decapodion!
We played spotify rounds last night and thus it was I found out I love Junior Brown and Paul Anka’s 2005 album ‘ROCK SWINGS’ where he frank sinatrafies modern hits. like black hole sun and wonderwall. IT’S FANTASTIC. Jeff and I laughed until we cried. “Und dis is ven I learnt that I AM AN OLDT FARDT!!!”
Our hosts are empty nesters. A human and dog friend came over and we watched Bear hump Maple until she got bored with it. Bear and Nelson are good friends with Maple.
The wifi connected instantly, I slept 9 hours last night – I literally faded at the stroke of 8 and woke up at 5.
Barbecue and summer squash from their garden for dins. SOOOO GOOOD
Aw jeez I’m dying here; Suzanne saw Janice on the sofa the other day at Caspell Junction and said (because her filter doesn’t always work) ‘WHO’S THAT???’ Janice did not acknowledge Suzanne’s existence. Suzanne was here today for the Enshinening and I laughed immoderately.
D.Y.I.N.G.
Anyway Paul drove her to the train station so she’s left town. I’m assuming Paul told her his medical news, but who knows.
Slept a lot yesterday. I’m glad I’m not easily tired in a war zone, I might lie down and never get up. Driving for five and a half hours does that. We stopped twice on the way back, once for gas in Chilliwack (and the attendant laughed when I thanked him for the clean safe bathroom because at that point I was fair burstin’) and once at Hola Tacos in Cache Creek, which had the best goddamned pork taco I ever ate, and even better for Zanne because she just got diagnosed as celiac and can’t eat fast food except for a few items. We also drank Jarritos! she got a mango and I got a mexican cola, happy sigh. Technically we stopped three times because of the single lane situation on the highway, long enough for Zanne to get out and check where she hid her candy.
Currently planning a train trip to Toronto in the fall. There’s many a slip, of course, but it’s something to look forward to, and I have a long list of people to visit.
Heard from Mike; he sounds marginally more lively than the last time we spoke; it was lovely to hear his voice.
Off with Paul to the doctor today, pray for us all.
