Category: Urban living

The $500 question

The responses I’ve gotten to the ads for Ziva are a panoply of:

  • people who don’t understand that a GT is a standard vehicle (yes, I changed the ad)
  • people who think that when I’m asking $500, they can show up with $180 cash, which is less than the government of BC will give me for it, and I’ll think they are doing me a favour
  • men using their girlfriends’ email addresses
  • people who think that I both know AND care exactly ‘what’s wrong’ with the car and how MUCH it will cost to fix and WHO GET UPSET when I do not share this info
  • people who do not know how to assemble anything resembling a coherent sentence or question
  • people who mock me for trying to sell a standard vehicle (yes, I know)
  • cheapskates, assholes, dingbats and users.

Honestly.  NOT IMPRESSED.

On the cafe front, some guy with a heavy accent keeps calling and asking detailed questions about the shop WHICH I CAN’T ANSWER BECAUSE I AM NOT THE LANDLORD.  I keep telling him to call Francis, and dood keeps calling me WHILE HE IS ON THE SKYTRAIN WITH THE LINE CUTTING OUT AND BACKGROUND NOISE LIKE CRAZY.  He keeps calling back STILL ON THE SKYTRAIN asking CAN I HEAR HIM NOW?  I hung up on him the last time because the line went all wibbly and I couldn’t hear a ****ING thing.

It’s not all bad. Katie has another interview today and she walked down with me to get my copy of the registration for the car, which I had mislaid.  And I’ll get a big whack of money back from ICBC for the refund on the insurance, which I am looking forward to.

Still loving Foyle’s War, mOm and pOp you should definitely watch it.

Now I have to go fill out some forms while I’m waiting for some guy to show up and buy the car.

Intruder alert!

Video from the cat door at about 1am on October 31. Along with the alien cat intrusions, this explains why Eddie guards the cat door at night. The large object next to the door is not an albino Horta; it’s packing material from a TV box. Next step: install a motion-activated light outside the door.

Happy happy joy joy

Let’s see, what was so nice about yesterday?

I got called by a recruiter for a job.  That, friends, is a shot in the arm!  My updated resume has been fired off and he will get back to me by the end of next week, AOTBE.

Katie and Kyle fed me and Paul and Keith home made lasagna.  Jeff didn’t go cause he has to stay away from cheese, and it was cheesy.  Cheesy and DELISH.  I got to watch the grandsnake Izzy eat a live mouse.  He struck so hard at it he banged his noggin.

Katie gave me back my camera, which has some great pics on it so she tells me…. pics a G’ma might like to see.

The sun shone all day yesterday and looks fair to do the same thing today.

RIP Aaron Swartz.

And here’s a little diagram showing how agriculture leads to war.

Today I have cleaned out my car, which it desperately needed, and been to brekky care of Jeff (wherein we talked about a business idea we like and could do together, although likely not in the lower Mainland), and later I’m going to do some churchy stuff, including going out and getting ingredaments for Tom Ka Guy for SOUP LUNCH.  Because feeding people is important.  Must remember to google where the nearest T and T is, I have a tremendous craving to put fresh galangal in the soup this time.  O SO OM NOM NOMMABLE.

I should probably make a list, but my procrastination is pushing back on me.  Have fun it whispers….  NO DAMN YOU TIME TO FOLD LAUNDRY.  Or watch an episode of Galapagos….  back, back foul fiend Procrastineo!

 

 

A row of candles

I light a row of candles for the parents, friends, coworkers and relatives of all those slain in CT yesterday.  Tragic news.  Here’s Ebert on the subject – almost 10 years before it happened.

Let me tell you a story. The day after Columbine, I was interviewed for the Tom Brokaw news program. The reporter had been assigned a theory and was seeking sound bites to support it. “Wouldn’t you say,” she asked, “that killings like this are influenced by violent movies?” No, I said, I wouldn’t say that. “But what about ‘Basketball Diaries’?” she asked. “Doesn’t that have a scene of a boy walking into a school with a machine gun?” The obscure 1995 Leonardo Di Caprio movie did indeed have a brief fantasy scene of that nature, I said, but the movie failed at the box office (it grossed only $2.5 million), and it’s unlikely the Columbine killers saw it.

The reporter looked disappointed, so I offered her my theory. “Events like this,” I said, “if they are influenced by anything, are influenced by news programs like your own. When an unbalanced kid walks into a school and starts shooting, it becomes a major media event. Cable news drops ordinary programming and goes around the clock with it. The story is assigned a logo and a theme song; these two kids were packaged as the Trench Coat Mafia. The message is clear to other disturbed kids around the country: If I shoot up my school, I can be famous. The TV will talk about nothing else but me. Experts will try to figure out what I was thinking. The kids and teachers at school will see they shouldn’t have messed with me. I’ll go out in a blaze of glory.”

In short, I said, events like Columbine are influenced far less by violent movies than by CNN, the NBC Nightly News and all the other news media, who glorify the killers in the guise of “explaining” them. I commended the policy at the Sun-Times, where our editor said the paper would no longer feature school killings on Page 1. The reporter thanked me and turned off the camera. Of course the interview was never used. They found plenty of talking heads to condemn violent movies, and everybody was happy.

Another great day

I am hoping today will be another day when I deal with a years old to do item.  I am not 100 percent sure why I am feeling so much more like taking care of business, but I am not going to ignore it… I has schtuff to do!!! Starting with taking Jeff to brekky.

I will be writing Canadian forces personnel in Afghanistan for Christmas this year.  I’m thinking of it in terms of being a UU challenge to myself.  I’ve already written one to an anonymous service woman in the US, now I need to do one or several for Canada.

All y’all have a nice day, now.

New-ish song (“Grateful”)

Early in a city morning
there’s a moment that is soft and still
then far off, you can hear a dog bark
farther off a car alarm trill
and the overcast has cleared
and the stars seem near
as childhood recollection
and now I am old
and the stars are far away
and still I feel the same connection

And yes I am so grateful
for the stars so far away
for knowledge is an ocean of stars
… let’s go swimming today, let’s go swimming today

There’s a moment early in a love affair
When you really want to make time stop
and if you’re foolish you hold tightly
and if you’re wise you let it drop
for that love will still be there
throughout all of time
by the standard that I use to measure
I do not rifle through the past for love
for it is an eternal treasure

And yes I am so grateful
for the love along my way
for love is an ocean of stars
… let’s go swimming today, let’s go swimming today

There’s a moment early in a project
when you think you’ve gone completely mad
the best you have is mediocre
and the rest of it is really bad
So you step out for some air
and try not to care
How you got stuck in this rutted canyon
And the stars, serene, as ever they have been
will be the staunchest of companions

And yes I am so grateful
for the work that’s come my way
for work is an ocean of stars
… let’s go swimming today, let’s go swimming today

 

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.

Sundry and various

I had cold chard salad with two pieces of cut up bacon for brekky this morning, plus coffee.  I am currently in love with chard, it makes my digestion very happy.  Then I read that it’s terrible for my body because it is full of oxalates.  Oh well, guess I’ll drink a gallon of water today to keep my kidneys happy.

Sad face for the Philippines; it’s very wet there and 22 people have already drowned in weather related incidents.  Sad face for New Zealand; one of the bigger volcanoes is about to let go.  Sad face the Canadian Olympic Women’s Soccer Team, the ref was an oversized Foley catheter style moron of an incompetence rarely seen EVEN IN INTERNATIONAL SOCCER, which is ludicrously bad.  Sad face for the kitties.  We had to lock the cat door again, so they may egress but not ingress.

Happy face for Dog Swims With Dolphins.

Just left a message for Chipper to find out how her weekend went – it was supposed to be the best revenue this summer and I am hoping it wasn’t a disaster.

I can hear flickers outside my window.

Marvin Hamlisch has passed away.

Hope everyone has a lovely day.

 

 

 

So I decided to see some live theatre

Let’s just look at the whole thing here: http://emeraldpig.ca/?q=news/2012/05/29/particular-class-women-june-24th

If that link no longer works here’s another: https://sites.google.com/site/siteoctogon/a-particular-class-of-women

So I had no idea I was going to a show about strippers.  It was HILARIOUS, moving, the costumes were droolariffic, and I got to sit next to the president of the Beacon Unitarian Church board, a fellow congregant, my former minister and her husband. Nudity! Swearing! References to bars in Toronto from the 80’s – when I lived there!   The former minister repeating some of the vilest of the lines in a stage whisper to her deaf husband!

frack! I LOVE BEING A UNITARIAN!  The food and drinks were overpriced and meh, but it was a great show and I am grateful to Sue for the opportunity to go and grow.

One think and another

I just messaged one of my coworkers and instead of a cute little caffeine deficient owl I sent him a photoshopped bodybuilder which is candidly a very disturbing pic.

Yesterday’s homily went great – it was sparsely attended but I must not have been doing a good job of making it a worshipful experience because there was applause at the end (this is NOT a good thing in homiletics – respectful and silent attentiveness is de rigueur.) It’s posted on this site now.  Ralph came up to me, twinkling, afterwards and said, “I was going to tell you what a nice homily that was but I figured you’d kill me”.  I heart Ralph and Ivy so much.

Katie K, Lard be praised, came along (she may have attended one other, I can’t remember, but my friends never come so it was a red letter day!) and since I didn’t have the car we jumped on the Skytrain and went to International Village for lunch.  We wound up at Kentizen, which for $16 tax in provides a lunch buffet reminiscent of the lamentably fallen off but still extant Grand Buffet. There was loads of nice sushi and acceptably acceptable Chinese food, although the reviewer who says you can get Chinese food like that in a small town in rural BC is a moonbat.  I love the decor and ambiance for a Chinese restaurant and it was a welcome respite from the wall to wall noise in the Village concourse.  We shot the breeze in a most delightful fashion and she toddled off to Metrotown to hang with her daughter.  What a GLORIOUS day it was yesterday, the weather couldn’t have been improved on.

Then to Imaginarius Fantasticus, from whence, 300 dollars poorer, I emerged.  I bought two pieces of steampunk jewellery, an additional cambric top, a pink and black confection of a corset for daugher Katie (I had taken her measurements so her absence wasn’t an issue, and it did fit her – and corsets were $60 on special, so ya can’t beat that with a stick and I was so happy that my evil plan to pick her up a nice and relatively inexpensive corset worked), a BEAUTIFUL dark blue half circle Regency style cloak with ribbon closure and the most AWESOME hood (it is so flattering it’s amazing), a bunch of ceramic nametags (hey, they had Allegra, Tish, Terry, Hank and Katie so I bought them) and I came THIS CLOSE to buying Paul the Spock costume from The Voyage Home, which he would have looked f*cking awesome in.  Man, so so tempted.

There were carnivorous plants, and Viking (no, really, antique) belt buckles, and medieval armor demos and evil female pirates and kids dressed up like fairy princesses.  And aura readers.  I would have preferred a steampunk tarot reading, but ya can’t have everything….

Keith and Paul ran into Mike and Rozo at the Quay about the same time I was releasing the last of my money into the wild, so we all had quite the nice day…and then Lost Girl, which was okay, and now work….

Nuff said

I watched the helicopter video of the assault on the Oakland OWS folks Gas.  Un fracking believable.  And oh look.  http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/citydesk/2011/10/26/oakland-police-love-kittens-teargas/

So instead of showing the veteran who was injured by the assault by the police on peaceful protesters, they show an Oakland cop petting a kitten.  If you see the video, you will be amazed and appalled.

Not impressed, Mister Mass Media.  Not one whit.

octopi vancouver

Care package for the demo.  2 blankies, including a hand made quilt donated  mOm; batteries, a drum and a penny whistle and an egg shaker; two pairs of socks, a complete rain outfit men’s medium, a yoga mat, reusable tie wraps, a metal portable desk with paper, a granola bar, a nice name tag, and some other little things.

Brilliant day of sunshine!  Jeff’s coming too.

Titanic scale GRRRRRRRRR

Ziva, o Ziva.  Her electrical system went snake when I touched the alarm fob when it started beeping (due to low battery) yesterday.  I removed the battery and didn’t think any more of it, but then all hell broke loose after I got it back from the shop – weird weird stuff!  I managed to get it to the shop, and the brake light and running lights were going on and off, and a horrific relay noise was coming from the dash, and the blue lights radiating from the alarm are triggering a migraine, and I’m scared out of my mind that she’s been possessed by Satan.

The brake light is an easy fix; the aftermarket alarm is getting yanked out today (I am morally opposed to car alarm systems and should have had it yanked from the outset) and Ziva continues to be a very, very temperamental hunk of purple ironmongery.  And somewhere, Loki is laughing.  Grr Grr Grr!