overslept – late post

It was a lovely day to do laundry yesterday so I put the kitchen mats back down and did three loads, and got them back upstairs, yay. Got up this morning and Jeff had filled the dishwasher again, which was a great feeling. I’m slowly eating the leftovers from yesterday’s breakfast at the Fraser Foreshore. I think I will see if there’s any coffee left.

8953 words, two kudos overnight, Wordle in three, and did I mention I had A GREAT NIGHT OF SLEEP!?

Dave D. has finished editing the poetry mag he was asked to guest edit and apparently the poem I wrote for the occasion has been neatly fitted into all the others. I will have a contributor copy eventually, mOm so you’ll get to see it.

Brekky from Foreshore this morning

We haven’t gone to get it yet, but we will. They open early, so anytime after Jeff gets up we can go.

Got Wordle in 4 tries (it’s been brutal lately); 1 kudo overnight, currently standing at 8823 words. mOm has been enjoying what I send her.

Suzanne was here yesterday and took care of the Buster fur, and I did three loads of laundry, starting with the rugs in the kitchen, so the kitchen floor is lovely and clean. The rest of the kitchen looks like a bomb went off in it, sadly, but I’ll get to it eventually.

One of the things I found out while at the parental units’ was that peyote plants are no longer illegal in Canada. Mescaline still is, but not peyote. That means that I can talk about peyote, so I will. Just not right now, I have to organize my thoughts about it first.

I found a free legal busking place one bus ride from the house!!! so pleased. That’s Bully’s.

another lovely day

Briefly:

a shopping expotition; the longest walk Paul and I have done in months; a lovely meal at Phó Edmonds.

Re: the shopping expotition DO NOT LIKE SHOPPING WITH NO MASKS but at least it’s an environment in which one does not experience harassment for wearing one, so that’s a plus. Also, we go first thing in the morning and we don’t both go in. It’s annoying that we can’t get the Ritter Sport MINT chockie square any more but they support the Russian invasion, so NOPE.

Jeff made sliced roast beef sliders for a snack in the evening, they were so good.

Midmorning Paul called and wanted to go for a walk, and it was an exquisite day, so Paul said he wanted a change of scene and to go back to Deer Lake Park. I wanted to go in case the snakes were out. It took quite a while to remember where the hell we’d seen them before but after scrambling up the bank I remembered… and then in my triumph I stomped too close to where the little beggars were and three of them all raced off back into their den. Biggest was maybe 16 inches, the rest smaller, all garter snakes.

The brilliant yellow of the skunk cabbage was everywhere in the low lying parts, and the birds were making a wonderful racket. Too early for frogs, no interesting mammals.

After, I had the number 32 at the Phó Edmonds (it was absolutely succulent, and the egg was perfect – and I don’t know how they make the vinaigrette for the carrots but damn that was good too) and Paul had a wrap and an order of their really nice spring rolls. We tried to go to Mezze, the relatively new Uyghur restaurant first, but they don’t open until 4 (and stay open until 8 – I have to assume that they do a roaring catering trade!)

The rest of the day I was quite lazy because hey I walked 2.5 km (we rested plenty)

No kudos, word count now 8131 so yes, I also wrote yesterday.

I spoke to Katie and she approved the pics, so….

Yes, that is the debris from a Mickey D’s brekky that Katie had delivered so my mother got exposed to her first egg mcfuffin and apple pie and hash browns and my father got a mocha and an apple pie for breakfast. For reasons best known to themselves they sent an additional pancake breakfast and that got et, too. I have to say that McDonald’s coffee has achieved an unlikely inversion of glory. From having the worst coffee of any chain, it’s now damned close to being the best and it’s definitely on a par or even better than Timmy Ho’s. I wouldn’t have thought it possible, but there you go.

I have to respond to the jury duty summons that appeared in the mail on Tuesday. GRRR GRRR. I’ve been joking about appearing at the summons half naked (I’ll get arrested even if it’s legal) or declaring that it’s MST land! and the justice apparatus has no legitimacy here! but I think I’ll just get a note from my doctor saying that I have holes caused by strokes in my cerebellum and I’m not fit for service.

Jiggety jig

Excellent night of sleep. Ryker’s teething but didn’t hear a peep out of him all night so that was good. My auntie Mary arrived by cab with a book of Scythian grave goods and I hadn’t seen half the illustrations and photos so that was amazing. She also gave me a copy of all the newspaper clippings from when I was seen by the Queen of England at Pionera in Saskatoon in 1959 and the biography of an archaeologist.

We went after that to the Country Bee, and then after that mOm and pOp peeled off to go home after a simply exhaustingly wonderful visit; we went on to the Butterfly house, and then I’ll just drop a hanky over what happens when three people with ADD get trapped in a car. Once again I didn’t acquit myself well but Alex and Katie are still speaking to me so …. yeah. Gentle parenting is very very hard to do. I applaud Katie for her efforts and her success.

Came home, ate cheesies and drank beer and watched Foyle’s War.

I have pictures; after consideration I decided not to post them.

Everybody have a peaceful and productive day! I am back to the salt mines of writing today, and if that doesn’t work out for me, I can always go for a walk, clean things, write letters, and sleep.

what a day

My day started at a little after 1 am. I tried to keep as quiet as possible while I packed and showered and readied and flailed about in prep mode; I made salad for Jeff to put in wraps while I was gone; and finally at 5:45, just as promised Katie appeared with her two children and we roared off to the ferry.  I did not take any musical instruments, and given how little room there was in the car (Katie has a sizeable amount of mutual aid gear, rope, bungies & First Aid in the trunk) it was the right call.

We got a simply smashing view, as we closed the distance between us and Victoria, of the entitlement, skill-free behaviour and misunderstanding of how physics, especially inertia, works, thanks to our fellow Vancouver commuters. Seriously I don’t care that a recent survey found that Vancouver drivers were among the safest in Canada; Katie never cursed at anyone but she was left perplexed at a panoply of weirdass lane and speed changes in a most comical way.

Ryker, who as I perhaps have mentioned, farts like a much larger human, did himself JUST as we were supposed to get onto the ferry (it was a nail biter, since despite all Katie’s efforts we were ONE MINUTE LATE to get secured boarding, which is NOT going to happen on the way back) and there’s Katie, doing a thorough clean change while the loading starts, with the efficient and relaxed mien of someone who will not panic no matter how much her mother is encouraging her to. (I did not distinguish myself with my handwringing.)

Ryker doesn’t seem to consider coldness to be something to cry about. He is vigorous and happy even when he’s being changed at the ambient temperature of an April morning.

We stayed in the car for the crossing except I had to take Alex to the washroom once. If you’re a middle aged woman, hanging around the mens room door is not a fun place to be for five minutes, especially when part of the floor show is a pair of polished Instagram wannabes setting up shots of her midriff – and his I don’t know what – but they didn’t notice me gurning at them in the background so that was okay. I just told Alex about me making faces at them and we had a good laugh.

Ryker literally smiled the instant he saw pOp. Great moments in bein’ a grandma. My mother was cold with dread that he wouldn’t like her and of course that was the opposite of what happened. He scoped her out in seconds and then her arms got tired and she handed him back, a little dripping with happiness (and I’m like OH LOOK I’M ONE EIGHTH RESPONSIBLE FOR THAT CUTENESS the way I always insert myself into glory if I think I can get away with it.)

Garry and Dianne were here as well but I did not see them for their health and safety. I am sorry that our appearance put a spanner in their visit, but they’ll be back Wednesday.

I sold the SFF books for a reasonable price and met a simply lovely (masked) young man. Alex insisted on insinuating himself into the transaction and that was lovely too; always fun to show your SF drawings to people, right? So Michael found out about “Remain Indoors” my favourite of Alex’s drawings, which I brought with me to leave with the great grands. Transaction took place strictly outdoors, and I wrapped the books in a strip of cloth with busty ladies of classic SF on it and Michael immediately started figuring out where to stick it in his apartment, so that was both profitable and fun.

Alex has a Five Nights with Freddie plushie. It’s worth a young fortune by all accounts so he wrote his name on its ass and the idea that El Plusho got Alex’s name tattooed on his ass is very funny to me.

Alex is a big brother. He takes his responsibilities in his family extremely seriously and helps in material and emotional ways, all the time, without fanfare. I knew when I saw the picture of him holding baby Leo (Katie’s best friends second child – there are some names in our extended family that are just there! lol hope you’re reading this) that he would be a good big brother if he got the chance, but I really didn’t expect to be this impressed. He is completely attuned to his little brother’s state of being and he’s an enormous and consistent help to his mother.

And Ryker adores him. His smiles and wiggles as his brother holds, entertains and loves on him (and locates his soother) are balm for my wounded soul.

Today, ONTIE MARY oh lord. Haven’t seen her in at least three years, and we’ve been corresponding irregularly but amusingly (her last two letters had me slumped over the kitchen table, howling with laughter) so it will be most diverting to see her emerge from a taxi, fling books at her sister, fling something, I will be amused and amazed to see what, but probably books, at me, and then flee back into the taxi to Esquimalt.

Today, after Mary, there will be a trip to various countryside establishments for tea, and possibly at Alex’s request, a trip to the Butterfly House, and then home.

I am so happy. Nothing lasts, but I wrote it down, and I can go back to this whenever I like and remember something perfect and family and sweet, even as the world I grew up in dissolves in the acid of war and climate change. And we didn’t take any pictures, but neither did our ancestors, and they got along on their memories just fine.

 

 

 

Dorothy Sayers 80 years ago

Allegra Sloman made this. Font is Bangla MN.

oh this next item made me so mad. A list of words you can’t use as an amazon employee on amazon work chat

Image

these are words you can’t use in Amazon Chat. JFC (WHICH STANDS FOR JESUS FUCKING CHRIST.)

My replacement words  (you get the idea, also the above is truncated so some words are missing)

I nate

Scallion

Thermal event

Sleeps with Ahnold

Condensation

Play phrase

Bullriding

‘mint’

donut

Sandstorm By Da

Consarn it

this is foolish

this is foolish

The Big Rock Candy Mountain

Red Alert

Petticoat

Beef stew

Poutine

optimal staffing

Nicomachean or Eudemian

Flairness

accessibility – antarctica

Vaccine – Jolene

Junior mints

Living wage  pin money

Representation – mouthpiece

Unfair – more mints, or too many mints

 

 

 

 

wind

Exceedingly windy right now, I’m worried a bit about our travel plans

My head’s empty and my mood is blank. I have a ton of things to do before I leave.

Heard from Mike. It was good to hear his voice.

Heard from Paul. He was having trouble with the website that you have to fill out a form for in order to return to Canada. After I, like a fool, volunteered to help him I learned that I had to actually be logged in to the site which I couldn’t do, so I told him to go talk to Hank (where he’s a houseguest) about that. Hopefully he’ll make it home, the alternative is an enormous fine.

7623 words, quite a bit of ratchet editing; two kudos overnight. If the averages hold, that means that twenty people across the surface of the planet were reading my fanfic last night.

I really should pack, lol. The wind better die down or they’ll cancel the ferry.

I am cautiously pleased about the price I should be getting for some books.

thinking of John tonight, this is a drawing by Brooke…

another cat pic

The Smalls

Robert Smalls: American politician, publisher, businessman and marine pilot, who rescued a number of enslaved persons by boat.

The Inimitable Biggie Smalls, the Notorious B.I.G., he whose suit is in the entrance of the Music Museum in Seattle, (it is scary big, no kidding, I’ve seen it with me een) known to his momma as Christopher George Latore Wallace

Christian Smalls – the man who led the drive to unionize an Amazon warehouse. The Amazon execs are reputed to have said of him, in assessing his chances, “He is not smart or articulate.”

And that is PRECISELY why Amazon is going to lose.

Can’t explain

Image

Gotta love that take, sorry lol.

7618 words. One kudo this morning. The Supernatural (2005) character Dean Winchester loves pie. There are over a hundred thousand #destiel fics on AO3; one thousand of them are about or include pie; one of them is mine, and it got a kudo. Food makes us all fools. REMEMBER THAT.

Russian forces are committing atrocities in Ukraine. Twitter IS FILLED TO THE BRIM WITH ATROCITY DENIERS THIS MORNING. Some of them are credentialed journalists. I’d weep, but I’m more inclined to send more money to Ukrainian anarchists serving at the front.

Susan Sontag had a few words for the people who claim that it’s the Ukrainians committing the atrocities. You know, in wartime civilians often take the opportunity to settle scores, but it’s by individuals, on individuals. That the Ukrainian army or any of its forces would do this – when they know they don’t HAVE TO? Russia brought 45000 body bags to the front – they weren’t for soldiers, they were to handle massacred civilians.

Image

German PHO’s are asking that all Ukrainian refugees be tested for AIDS and TB. That actually makes sense as long as it doesn’t turn into an excuse to refuse them entry.

Transnistria is denying that Russian troops are building up along its border with Ukraine. Satellites say what?

Poland, which has responded to white Ukrainians with open arms, has publicly stated that they’ll accept US Nukes on their soil. Jaroslaw Kaczynski, deputy prime minister of Poland, said so within the last 24.

Russian troops in Bucha massacred every Ukrainian man between 16 and 60 and then moved out of the town. Bucha, originally about the same size as Grande Prairie at 40000 people, had already seen most men of national service age leave to either train or rejoin units, so essentially they killed every man and boy who was either in a protected profession or too sick, disabled or unfit to serve. (Eugenics much). Total numbers will likely never be known, any more than Putin’s likely to stand trial at the Hague. Yes, some of those men were likely fighting in civvies, but it was either planned by the Russians or indisciplined troops and either way Putin’s gonna wear this.

 

don’t break the internet while I’m gone

7539 words, no kudos. Felt absolutely terrible yesterday until just before supper time, at which time I felt much better (I’m assuming it was food rumblies based on, er, throughput and truly remarkable pain) and I’ve felt better ever since. Got my prescriptions delivered and we paid our rent. I also fell for NO FEWER THAN three April fool’s jokes, I must have looked batty to my friends.

Ducreux self portrait of man yawning repurposed to say I'm off to bed you fuckers, don't break the internet while I'm gone.

For the first time since I stopped withdrawing money from what’s left of my retirement savings, the dollar amount has gone down. THANKS VLAD YOU ASSHOLE

Theo Moudakis of the Toronto Star made this thing:

Editorial cartoon by Theo Moudakis/Toronto Star showing a man with his back to a wave cheering over a sandcastle Yay, Finally open for business again. The man looks remarkably like Doug Ford about to be drowned.

Okay so a little about Ukraine

Alex’s drawing in the correct colours.

It is reported that a swarm of bees killed 3 Russian soldiers. It’s propaganda, most likely, but great propaganda.

Just watched a two minute video of two technically sane but very risk-friendly Ukrainians driving through their EXTREMELY RECENTLY LIBERATED town, catching sniper fire from Russian stragglers, stopping in the middle of the street to talk to two pedestrians with much the same plan (we stuck our heads out to find out what’s going on in our own fucking town! sez they), saying fuckitifwediewedie, admiring the stuff that’s still burning, saying that Russians are evil cowards, and speaking so casually about being fired on you’d think they were entirely fearless. (Then one says, no expression in his voice, “I’m fucking losing it.”)

It’s being reported that Putin travels with a small army of doctors and that he has thyroid cancer. Once again propaganda, but it sure cheered up a lot of Ukrainians.

AND ON A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT NOTE

Pontifex HAS APOLOGIZED FOR THE HARM DONE TO INDIGENOUS PEOPLES in what is now Canada BY THE CATHOLIC CHURCH.

I fucking NEVER thought to live to see this day. The Indigenous delegation in Rome is in a state of mind you rarely see publicly. The generally expressed sentiment is that healing is now possible in a way that it simply was not before. I wept like a fool when I heard.

 

a tiny bit of slack

Jeff has accomplished much in his consulting work recently and he’s slacking off a wee bit, just enough for us to binge the most recently available season of ‘Shetland’ (with a seventh season coming in the fall of 2022.)

Us, heard calling at the screen at Season 6 so far: (more or less)

“Jesus, Sandy, don’t you ever do a vehicle check?”

“Sandy, fChrissakes.”

“Jesus, Sandy, try to be a little more subtle about committing career suicide.”

“Sandy, do you ever call for frikkin backup??”

“Aw Tosh you’re adorable when you make that face.”

“Go, Donny!”

“What an excruciating way to die, bleugh, shudder!”

“She’s lying her ass off!”

“Textbook way to deal with someone with dementia.”

“His first emotional reaction to things is often wrong.”

“What a cow, what a total cow, she’s pure fucking evil.” <— yes I do still use gendered slurs, this one came out when I wasn’t looking.

“Duncan, you idiot, she’s winding you up.” <— yes idiot is a ableist slur. I am trying very hard to cut that one out but idiot, moron and cretin are still in rotation.

“Will you look at that view.” (every episode)

beautiful day for a pap smear

So I saw the doc, got a pap smear, had to wait an hour and a half. “Everything looks fine down there” what a relief eh.

Something odd came out of the overnight BP study. A couple of hours after I went to sleep that night my BP crashed and stayed there for about two hours. I mean crashed; literally so low that I’d be hospitalized. I guess I just have to be a weirdo. Otherwise the drugs seem to be doing their job and I’m not in Sky High About To Pop a Clog territory any more.

Jeff gave me a no-SMS-card phone so I have a calculator and alarm and game platform and I have now killed both of the chargers he loaned me so I have to replace them.

Got my meds re-upped – yet another change, this time because the drug is literally so old the drug company doesn’t want to make it in that formulation anymore, sounds like me. Anyway that’s set up and I should have enough prescriptions to cover me during an earthquake. I’ll be going off the inderal eventually. Very glad I’ve added vitamin c to the mix of pills I take every morning – as is often the case my teeth hurt less.

Today maybe I’ll get that bloodwork done, but it’s more likely because I have to go to the same building for my prescription,

Katie, Alex, Ryker and I are going to travel to Victoria at some point. This means that M&D have to re-jig their visiting from other relatives which I kinda feel bad about but it would have been hella worse if the unvaxxed baby breathed all over the immunocompromised elder, so at least everyone involved has consent. We’re also going to do RATs before we leave to ensure none of us are actively illin’.

I am not going to comment about the assault at the Oscars because as far as I can tell, with maybe one exception, every single white person whose comments I’ve seen has applied all the intersectionality of non-Euclidean geometry and all the nuance of a cast iron frying pan flung across the kitchen. Given that I am not the great white hope (sarcasm alert…. sarcasm & POOR CHOICE OF PHRASING alert) of contemporary anti-racism activities and thought, I won’t do better and therefore, if you want to know how I feel about it (I have three main points to make) you can ask me in person, and of your kindness, wear the rainsuit.

I am not going to comment as much about the Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. I’m against it; I continue to donate and send letters and whatnot in the background; Putin won’t give up until he’s dead or deposed; Canada is as involved as it reasonably can be and maybe even more so anyplace it can get away with it; Russia and India and China are now doing a pavane and in the end China will crush Russia. In terms of will, planning, execution and numbers, China can’t do anything else.

The suffering of the Ukrainian people, and the Russians dragged into this war by violent paranoid old bigots, is not imaginable by those not experiencing it; we uphold their courage and denounce the frauds who’ve started this terrible slaughter.

6646 words, still waiting on further oomph to finish it. Haven’t seen any kudos yet this morning. I got the wordle in 5 this morning, but it was a complete bear of a word.