Category: Writing

Pain scale

I’ve just smoked a ball of opium – no pain (no conversation either, but oh well)

note to anyone reading this. I smoked opium precisely once, ten years ago, and while I’m glad I did it for archival and educational purposes I have no interest in doing that again because candidly it was about the best I ever felt, and we all know how that goes

usual amount of pain from joints which never goes away and sometimes moves up the scale

sunburn

costochondritis

chest pain from humiliation or breakup <— mental, but it still fucking hurts

IBS flare up

migraine

gall bladder colic

broken shoulder

L5-S1 disc blowout

childbirth – LOTS OF PAIN

 

Steve Earle

Yikes Lexi I never paid for the Steve Earle (and the Dukes) ticket. But I will. Amazing concert. Just bloody amazing. Now that I’ve seen him live, I’m definitely a fan – and I nearly swooned when he pulled out a mandolin, although I remember thinking that I’d heard some mandolin on a Steve Earle tune before. No duh! Copperhead Road – there’s even mando tab on it when you google images for Copperhead Road. Considering that I felt like hammered scrap most of yesterday it’s startling how perky I felt when I left the Commodore last night. Then came home and chilled with Katie before I collapsed. Another gorgeous mornin’ – Paul will be home soon and I get the car, tra la la. Steve Earle characterized himself as a borderline Marxist! Hope ev’y’body has a good week.

various family things

The great thing about being at my mother’s place, besides the notion that it’s the most peaceful place imaginable, is that I get a lot of slack cut for when I do my post. So it’s now late morning and I can sit down and tell the world that

1. Nineties music videos are not really all that great. I mean, I watched part of the ‘top 90 music videos of the 90’s’ and thought that I feel sorry for the aliens trying to piece our culture together from this whale dreck.

2. I really like Tommy Lee Jones and Cate Blanchett. Now you can guess which movie I watched. Also, Ron Howard actually knows how to direct children, which is really no surprise when you think of it.

3. Keith has fled to ‘the club’ being his uncle’s place. There they can grunt and scratch and be manly.

4. One of my relatives is expecting a baby. Unfortunately I can’t say who yet because her mother in law doesn’t know. My grandma’s saying My Family Can Never Be Too Big comes to mind.

5. I have now read the story that “It’s a Wonderful Life” is based on, and wow is it corny.

6. Remember that history is not always written by the people who were there. I have now seen what happens when a cruel and selfish man is turned into a saint in his old age by a well meaning historian, while the nephews that he worked half to death raise their eyebrows and chorus, as one, “b— s—!”.

7. I come from a long line of people who do kindly things on impulse, and who believe that when something’s meant to be, the way will clear.

8. I get to look more like my great aunt Elsie every year. This is a tragedy, but at least I don’t have facial bumps. And she was a nice lady.

9. My mother is working on the Siberian portion of our family history. During the collectivization and the Great Patriotic War, a lot of Mennonites including my kinfolk died, mostly of starvation, typhus and firing squads. For anybody reading this, no matter how hard your life is right now, you aren’t watching your 16 year old sister die after giving day to a child conceived in rape by the party stalwart running the local collective (the child lived a day). And if your life is that bad, you are likely not living in Canada.

10. Yes, I’m feeling somewhat grim.

11. To lighten the tone somewhat, I should mention that Katie and I walked down to the beach yesterday with our cameras, and I wish to god I had a USB cable or I’d show some of the pix I took yesterday; some of them are actually not bad. It was a lovely walk and Katie was in a really good mood (made better at the end of the day by a call from the D-man) so we were bopping up and down the beach scaring seagulls and taking pictures of driftwood and I was playing with the exposure settings, etc. I hope the picture of the burl comes out okay.

12. I would be feeling pretty good today but a HOWLING wind blew up and as I was attempting to sleep in the sunroom I got to lie there calculating which parts of my body would be obliterated by Douglas Firs. There are some damned big trees close to my parents’ place. I was thinking how funny it would be if I got staked by a branch from a Douglas Fir like something out of Buffy. So I am inadequately rested.

13. Debuted the Tapioca Song for my parents. Quit after the second chorus, as the expression of rising horror in my dad’s face was quite reward enough for my efforts.

14. Soon, the ferry, and home. And laundry. And a return for the complete lack of normalcy that passes for family life. Pic is something random.

Polar bear with pumpkin

Into the “Live long enough and you’ll see some crazy sh’t” file goes a new datum. The Nigerian scammers went through the Dorothy Dunnett archives and have started sending their classic letters to what is probably the most skeptical and refined group of women (present company excepted – and there are a few guys, but not many, in the fan club) on the planet. We viewed this in a mood between hysterical paralysis (suppressed laughter) and bilious fury.

My life is about to get complicated and scary again. I can’t really say anything else except that I’m looking forward to an opportunity for us to really show what we’re made of. 2019 says I have no fucking idea what this means.

Pokey went crazy yesterday and attacked Paul. He has a lot of very big scratches.

last showcase

Last showcase tonight. Hope you all have other plans; the Laughing Bean only holds 35 people and everybody else said that the known planetary population was coming. I am feeling reasonably relaxed about my set.

I am trying to figure out how I’m going to make a living, post apocalypse, and I have a number of dodges which I think may go reasonably well if I don’t have to move around a lot. Mind you I may not make the cut, but at least I’m trying to think in terms of ‘what small non perishable items will people still want after global industrial collapse?’ Played the Tapioca song to my bedroom walls last night… better than trying to play it in front of the kids, who start screaming and throwing things if I do.