Category: Travel

Anxiety coming in waves (this condition)

That’s a quote from a Lupine Howl song, by the way, but it covers the situation nicely.  Every time I go to book the flight I am overcome by anxiety.  I have been waiting for a sign and when I emailed Sandra this morning, she cut through all the bullshit and provided a prosaic and unjudgemental reason to fly east, so after Jeff takes me to brekkie (yay) and I empty the dishwasher and refill it, I’ll book it.  Don’t know the day yet, but at least I know I am going.

Yesterday was that feeling of impending doom day, but today is much better.

Millicent AB

Thank you SO MUCH to Paul for accompanying me to see Lois and Bob.  We had a wonderful time.

One of our adventures was pretty adventury and I won’t talk about it because no matter how I tried I’d just sound petty, but one of the days I was gone we went to Dinosaur Provincial Park, a world heritage site, and it was stupendous, spectacular, amazing.  We went to the Centrosaurus Bone Bed and Bone Bed Number 50 and saw an owl nest (no baby wols, although they had been spotted) and did NOT see a rattlesnake, phew, and walked where every honey coloured rock was a dinosaur bone.

We also went to Lake Newell where I got into a big argument with a Ring Billed  Gull (it was very funny, it kept flying back and squawking at me in an attempt to get the last squawk) and mostly we hung with dogs (Harley is a black lab and I LOVES HIM, I brushed him repeatedly and he loved on me right back…. and Lazzy is well, a terrier, and I watched the two of them play keepaway with a stick and I laughed until I HURT MY RIBS and the last day I was there Lazzy presented his belly for my approval and strokes) and people, and Bob cooked me an organic local beefsteak that brings tears to my eyes as I recollect it and we had Cambodian style food in Brooks and I admired how enormous the trees are that they planted 30 years back and enjoyed the comfy bed and quiet at night (except when somebody started spraying Roundup at dusk Thursday night, snarl) and really enjoyed the Nissan Maxima I rented and exclusively drove thanks for asking and OMG JULY 1ST.

We drove into Rosemary at dusk July 1st and set up chairs and blankies and watched a small town fireworks display.  It was neither cheesy nor short; it was one of the best fireworks displays I’ve ever seen and I got to be really close to it.  It was a really sincerely trulio Canadian experience and it made me happy. A local country cover band was playing as we pulled up and they were good

Apart from how very hot I was for the second field trip at DPP (I got very tired of the field interpreter and spent a lot of time sitting in the bus) and the mosquitoes as we walked up to the Centrosaurus bone bed (black, ferocious, completely painless as they bit, and perfectly able to handle 30 degree C weather and 40 kph breezes) I enjoyed the entire trip.  Paul as always managed the travelling portion perfectly and all the getting thither and in and out of Calgary was slick.

I brought neither my computer nor my instruments and I brought no cameras.  I wanted memories, happy ones, and I am topped up currently.

It was SO GOOD TO SEE THEM.  I miss my inlaw rellies and I am glad to have sat in their kitchen and caught up with them.

Side trip

Although I am still going to Ontario later in July I’m actually leaving with Paul to go see Bob and Lois for three days this morning.

Since it won’t be confirmed space I’ll not be taking Otto, which will be strange…  We’re flying into Calgary and I’ve booked us a car.

I may be too busy to post or somewhere I don’t have easy access so I may just be doing mini posts.

Margot is washing herself right outside my door.  I can hear her little grunts of effort and concentration.  She sounds like a little pig sometimes.  Other times, like a duck.

Katie sent me a link to these two lovely women dancing.

 

Leaving for Georgia soon

I will be keeping a trip diary and posting irregularly… I have decided not to take my computer because I simply cannot afford to have it confiscated by the US government.  I have NOTHING on the computer which would warrant that, but I’ve been complaining under my real name about the US government for 10 years now.  Most hotels have a guest computer room.

If I do write any George stuff while I’m gone it will be cursive, or uploaded to Google drive…. they aren’t likely to confiscate that. I will take my phone and charger.

I pack today.  It will be a big batch of weird stuff I take, I hope the TSA and Customs can deal with it all.

I’m going to drop the keys for the business off with the landlord.  I have been trying and trying and trying to sell it, and almost 60 people enquired, and I showed it to at least 30 sets of people, but I can’t pay rent any more.  I closed the file with Fraser Health yesterday.  It has been a year out of my life, and we only operated for three months.  I learned a lot, got my heart and my shoulder broken, and I really think I’m a better person.  I certainly have more self-knowledge, a lot more respect for restaurateurs.  Knowing that I will never ever step through that door again is, candidly, more of a relief than I can say.  Anything else I say will be oversharing.

I am practicing and writing every day – music or one of my other projects.  That’s really the only thing that counts.

Jeff can handle getting a bolus into Eddie by himself with no difficulty, so I don’t feel like I’m abandoning Jeff over that.  Eddie is moving as little as possible to accomplish his goals of just barely eating, just barely drinking, and getting to the litter pan.  I’ve taken to leaving a hot water bottle next to him as he was cold to the touch the other day, and lifting him up into the chair he is sleeping in pretty much 24/7 these days.  Margot is being very sucky towards us and practically knocked Eddie over with her tail the other day, a liberty he simply would not have tolerated a couple of months ago.

So many people have told me how much they are looking forward to seeing me at GAFilk!  I feel genuinely underrehearsed, but I recently read that if you’re feeling nervous, make yourself MORE EXCITED.  So I will.

ATL is not currently experiencing delays in or outbound with the exception of international flights outbound.  Travel will be icky, but not impossible due to weather.

I’d like to call out Patricia for helping arrange a drinkypoo on my return, and a very warm hug for mOm and Chipper, who have been extra specially supportive beta readers for George, and for Tammy, who provided me with the book that unblocked my last objections to the writing.  I have something very specific to say on the subject of first contact, which is that we’ve had 100 years of science fiction in popular culture, and we have to start writing first contact fiction that allows humans to respond intelligently to aliens.  Not to freak out or say stupid things. To say, “Cool! Weird! How can I help? What’s in it for me?  Where’s your ray gun?” when somebody who really does think globally comes along.

 

Everybody who can, have a good day!

So I’m here at the Seatac Hilton

… having gotten Ziva out of the krankenhaus.  She is running as well as she ever has, and with 196 kilometres of highway driving, it’s remarkable how she purrs.

I’m going to unpack to the extent I need to and get me a steak.  I am very very hungry, and I probably should get some coffee too as I didn’t drink any yet today and my head is pounding.

Glorious weather on the way down, the sun shone.  Traffic in Seattle was meh as always, but the drivers here are more polite on average than Vancouver so I had to mind my manners and not weave in and out.  That means picking a lane.  Border crossing was trivial; slower than I would have liked but uneventful.

 

 

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.

Sitting at YVR

I’m about to board my flight home, and I am very happy to have been to FKO and even happier to be going to sleep in my own bed. It was awesome to see DJD and Chipper and Catherine and Shirley and Judith and Tammy and I am just vibrating from the glorious circle last night.

From pooped to peppy and back again

I just ran out of gas at around 12:30 last night, which was unfun, but today I got to hang around in the consuite and saw DJD for four whole hours, which was really really awesome.  He’s about the same as always, and Sandra hung around as long as she could before she went off to see her mom.

 

I printed out the boarding pass and got the schedule for the shuttle.  I’ll be checking out about 8 tomorrow with any luck.

I bought another musical instrument.  Yes, I am very, very insane.  It will be coming to me at a later date as without a hard case there was no effin way I was bringing it home on scare canada.

Now for the Dead Penguin – the last filk of the con!

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.