happy Christmas everyone

Yup, a day whose importance has deflated like a cluster of birthday balloons blown into a ditch has arrived again. I haven’t wrapped a present or done any running around. I haven’t prepped a turkey or assembled the mass of vegetables to peel that oppresses the groaning board. The dining room table remains covered in filk memorabilia, craft cruft and a thousand piece puzzle (Jeff finished the edge). I don’t have to work, be responsible, be hospitable, put on a spread, worry about snax, worry about entertainment, worry about a gathering during a pandemic.

Rob W showed up briefly yesterday with firefly and snowpiercer comics! We mourned for his coworker, killed while moving poles for an electric bus (by another worker in their bus). translink is OF COURSE being remarkably silent about it and Rob, who drove bus in this part of solh temexw (remember? pronounced Sole te mawk) said he always hated doing it because you’re outside the bus and even more vulnerable than usual. I gave him a piece of Sugru (rubber moldable glue, incredible stuff I’m sure he’ll find a use for it) and two KN95 masks, one of which he promptly broke, so I’m glad I gave him two. I provided him with the address at Caspell Junction. Then he mentioned he’s got heart surgery on the docket but not scheduled yet (ablation, ouch). I warned him that COVID is severely fucking with surgery waits. Then we mourned for Tom for a while, exchanged a couple of flying anecdotes  (mine about writing a fanfic with soaring in it, and him about ‘landing out’ as in right out of Germany (he was paragliding) and walking home from France, somehow without attracting the attention of the gendarmes) and parted on friendly terms. We were both masked the whole time he was here and Jeff closed his door. Yes, I know showing up unannounced during the plague is not optimal, but what is in these parlous times and I did immediate upgrade his mask.

We both spent a minute just flapping our gums over the last communique about the plague from the government and Doc Henry. Like who the fuck cares, the hospitals are full, N95 masks are unavailable except at ‘this is what is charged during wartime’ prices, people are lining up to be tested using inadequate masks, test kits are unavailable, disabled people are left at the side of society to die unimpeded and thousands of people are at risk of freezing to death on the streets of Vancouver this week. Yup, Merry Christmas we get wished from a bubble of vacuity. Nothing she says means a fucking thing as long as universities and schools are forced to stay open. Maybe she hopes this omicron wave will burn out in six weeks like it did in Gauteng province. I’ve long since given up trying to understand the rationale for the bs.

I picked up a few treats yesterday while I was out getting my BP meds at Guardian (jammed past pandemic standards with anxious people seeking booster shots…) which included FLORENTINES four of them, strangely available at the butcher shop on 6th, Jeff asked for something caramelly and that was as close as I could get, a beefsteak for a steak and eggs brekky this am, six Timmy Hos donuts, and two handpies (strawberry rhubarb) for Jeff. So that obviously means that I walked two k in the slush and muck yesterday but the traction wasn’t bad and I was having a good balance day so walking home a bunch of groceries while I got a little out of breath was certainly manageable. I leave the walking stick by the door in case I’m having a wobbly day, but I’m getting a lot fewer of those…

Okay, time to get the steak out of the fridge and bring it to room temperature. I think I’m just going to bake it, the idea of standing to cook it for any length of time simply appalls. I’m about to blow through two days worth of salt consumption in one go, better make it worthwhile….

¯\_(?)_/¯

how lucky

  • I still have parents
  • I like them and I’m still talking to them
  • They’ve been married, as of today, 65 years.
  • Isn’t that ludicrous?
  • They certainly think so. Where the hell did 65 years go?
  • And I’m lucky that I have the technology to pick up a phone and call them and felicitate them on 65 years of happiness.
  • How lucky is that?

that’s quite an obit

check it out

Snowed about three cm last night. The world is blanketed and quiet, like it should be at 4 in the morning. I will shovel, Jeff will salt.

It’s five in the morning and I can hear a snowplow. At least Burnaby HAS snowplows.

Madison Cawthorn, a recently minted US Representative, who announced to a bug eyed world that women are EARTHEN VESSELS as far as MAKKING BABBIES and GOD is concerned, is getting a divorce after 8 FUCKING MONTHS.  FUCKING CHRISTIANS AND THEIR ETERNAL MARRIAGES AMIRIGHT??? His wife appears like a Fox news twirlybird with an instagram full of 2 hours of makeup and exercise with every photo, and he is a narcissistic misogynistic shitheel/freeform bag of dicks. Anyway the schadenfreude on twitter yesterday was balm for my wounded soul.

Kitchen floor is a glorious symphony of cleanliness, what with the floor swept and the rugs washed. It won’t last, Buster will scoot across one of the rugs within the next couple of hours, but it did exist, however briefly.

All of my clean clothes are put away or on hangars, but I still need to rearrange some things and put more books away and … like that. Denny’s desk is cleared off and ready to go to Alex.

…. and I already need to do more laundry. LOL. Two more loads at least, cleaning rags and regular clothes.

FCKING SQUIRREL came to where I feed the crows and tweety birds. pOp is rolling his eyes, having lived this for decades…. If you put out food, HERE COME THE SQUIRRELS! this one was big, fat and glossily black. Christ, I’m expecting a raccoon and a bear at this rate.

Crows really like pecans. I gave them pecans as a treat and the NOISE THEY MADE it was most entertaining.

I didn’t fetch my Inderal yesterday; I’ve got until 8 pm tonight to get more. I HAS A CHRISTMAS EVE MISSION. Get BP drugs so I don’t blow a hole in mah brain, whoooooeee

The handyman now has pictures of where the railing is loose at the bottom of the stairs at Caspell Junction and he’ll fix it sometime between now and New Years, and then I’ll pay him I guess. I was beating myself up a little for paying for something the landlord should be doing, and somebody else’s landlord at that, but I realized that it’s something that needs doing and if I can make it happen through someone else’s labour, I will. Paul is walking slow (he can keep up with me no problem) and his gait has changed a lot in the last couple of years and I’m just terrified of him falling. I was also thinking about Tom and how he REALLY had a bias for action, for being up and doing, for being productive and ready to help people and it was one of the things I loved about him most (ha ha since I benefited so much over the years) but let me tell you, listening to everyone talk about how he helped them….. that’s how I want to be remembered, as helpful. A little weird, but helpful.

 

what a fucking arsepick

I know, I know, talking about cops like this is so stupid. There’s no opsec. Under my own name, with all the skilsaw I can muster I’m saying that A SPECIFIC COP a REAL LIVE HUMAN COP as if those words aggregate meaning in any meaningful way IS AN ARSEPICK.

Y I SAY THIS

y i say this

I SAY THIS BECAUSE IS TRUE, COP IS ARSEPICK

This arsepick, this noted and particular arsepick, chose to ticket A WOMAN WAITING IN LINE FOR COVID TESTING.

for operating a vehicle while using a cellphone

WHILE SHE WASN’T IN THE VEHICLE because she’d stepped out of the car.

I’m not arguing that he had the right. BUT I HOPE TO CHRIST SHE FIGHTS THE TICKET AND THE COP HAS TO FACE A JUDGE FOR DOING THIS.

I HOPE TO FUCKING CHRIST SHE FIGHTS THE TICKET.

BUSY DAY planned

Once again, woke at one. I have an endodontist appt at 8 am. Holy Crap cereal with greek yogurt for brekky (then I broke down and had some banana bread too). All washed down with lashings of Yorkshire Gold (thee best) tea.

I’ve got about an hour to put clean clothes away, and I’ll probably need all of it. (It’s now about half done, everything that goes on hangers is put away.)

Suzanne of the monstrum vacuum (monstrous vacuum, or empty monster, depending how you eyeball it) is here today. She is continuing to help with my room, which is tidier but still not squared away. Since all I’m doing with Denny’s desk is using it as a ‘junk bunker’ I’m perfectly happy for Alex to use it for his computer and it means that his darling mama doesn’t have to spend additional money, since Alex’s old desk disassembled during the move last January.  I’ll try to let him understand what the desk means in terms of family history. Hard to believe they’ve been in that place a year, hunh?

Buster does not like the vacuum, but he loves Suzanne and always comes to suck up to her after the vacuum stops.

Then after the endo I have to go to the pharmacy to check on something for me and Jeff.

I’m trying to think if I have any other errands I need to run in the middle of this “North Face” of an omicron variant wave. I sure hope not.

 

 

can’t stop sneezing

Is it COVID? Omicron is a sneezy one, they say.

Most COVID infections reported in a single day in BC. There’s only 5 million of us but almost 2000 were diagnosed with COVID yesterday.

All the rest of Alex’s computer came. Jeff is diligently getting it so it will be ready on Christmas morning.

Endodontist appointment tomorrow. Hey, root canals wait for no man.

Ordered on line and picked up yesterday. I AM NEVER BOOKING FOR 4 PM AGAIN FOR PICKUP the traffic was superlatively heinous.

Image

a glorious day yesterday

I went walking with Paul at Fraser Foreshore and a bush tit and a chickadee ate sunflower seeds from my hand. Hullo leedle birdies. Sun blasting down but icy af in a few spots, no falling for us.

MIKE CAME OVER it was brief but it was lovely. While he was here I made banana bread, which is a story in itself, and he bought a Delica 2800 Japanese right hand drive vehicle and showed it off to us. Anyway, I sent him off with banana bread for his coffee this morning and that makes me feel happy thinking about it.

PEGGY turned up with MINCE PIES and TARTS and ENOUGH EGGS that I could make the banana bread. Because I didn’t want to leave the house. So I MANIFESTED EGGS. I said to Jeff who needs magic I have Peggy. DAMN HER PIE CRUST IS SO FUCKING AWESOME (muppet falls face down into food, everything everywhere). She reports taking some to Paul.

This morning I have run the dishwasher and had a breakfast of leftover pancakes and tea. Later this afternoon we’re going to pick up our first ever pickup grocery order.

I booked my booster THE INSTANT I got the email, and now of course everything in BC is going off the rails so Jeff can’t find anything closer than the Italian Cultural Centre (You remember mOm, that’s the place Theo ripped all the tiles off the roof in my novel…) well into January.

I’m buying handyman services for Katie’s household, I hate that railing on the back stair so I’ve contracted someone to fix it for them. The idea of Paul coming a over t down those stairs has very little appeal.

Didn’t he die?

Trust me to sing something cheerful about my grandad dying. Katie sings this every once in a while, at least I’ve heard her once. I don’t see why I can’t sing something cheerful about a dead relative; thinking about Denny, who left us on this day in 1995, always cheers me up, because he himself was a cheerful individual, and he’s a part of a lot of people I love.

The lyrics should be pretty self-explanatory. Didn’t he sounds like didden tee in a lot of Canadian dialects.

Ryker in a pram

Pushed Ryker up and down New West Quay for a good chunk of yesterday morning, as he and Alex and his mother and I got out of the house for some much needed exercise and air. It was ICY AF and Katie and I and Alex all almost fell down at least once, but almost made no bruises, so that was good.

Called my mother, Paul and Peggy; Peggy’s going to make us some mince tarts and she’s saving the biscotti I gave her until Christmas day. Paul’s supposed to drop by this am for a walk in Fraser Foreshore.

Keith is no longer going to Victoria and we’re all really sad about the necessity but I for one am relieved, very relieved.

Started S2 of Witcher, and am LOVING IT I do so love Geralt the Grunter. Henry Cavill has one of the sweetest frames a man ever draped leather over.

 

chazerei

So I ate ESSSSEEDINGLY poorly yesterday but it was like a gap day and I’m back on the eating gooder wagon today. Chazerei is Yiddish. It is used for junk, stuff of little value but there’s a word for pig embedded in there so if you’re eating chazerei there’s a hint that it’s swinish badness.

I’m having a tough time remembering to drink enough if I’m not drinking tea, but my ureters start tugging their waistcoats and looking annoyed if I drink too much tea, so that’s a bit of an issue. I think I’ll make peppermint tea first and then take it from there. MUCH laundry today. I can well imagine Jeff saying why bother doing it if you can’t put it away, but one thing at a time dear lawd.

I was supposed to have a doc appointment but she never called me.

busy day

So after I went to the dentist (bill $60, bill that’s coming ~~three grand) to learn that I have two cracked molars in two separate parts of my mouth and need to see Dr. Lee the Endodontist as soon as may be –

I went to Lifelabs and got my every three months pee and bloodwork, and a followup ECG. I thought about picking up snacks and just couldn’t face another queue, so I walked home and more or less collapsed. There might have been a load of laundry in there too.

I just figured it was better to get it over now than later. The teeth I’ve been expecting, I had a vision that all my teeth would need work all at once and that it just wouldn’t stop, I knew it wouldn’t stop after the last crown.

Much hand wringing here, waiting for Alex’s computer with the porch pirates so active.

BP continues to drop a tiny bit.

BISCOTTI HAS OCCURRED

Today Jeff will help me move it to where it’s supposed to be, Peggy’s place, not my greedikum gullet.

Off to the dentist today to see if I need repairs for a molar chip.

Still puttering along on the fanfics. Submitted a poem for publication yesterday. I doubt it will be published but I had a lot of fun writing it and there’s some vivid language in it.

Omicron doubles in 2 days. Apparently the highest testing area in Canada is Vancouver Island right now and Keith’s off to the grands shortly to visit them so I hope he stays in his car for the ferry ride. He is currently employed, and I couldn’t be more pleased, although he sounded bagged the last time we spoke.

Christmas gathering this year will be a) takeout b) at Katie’s c) after Christmas Day and d) just immediate family.

Earthquake this morning off the coast, a leedle one. I woke up IMMEDIATELY after the posted time so it’s possible that’s what woke me, but I doubt it; Jeff knows I slept through when a raccoon dragged the plastic container full of cat food to the stairs and launched it gravity-wards so I probably did sleep throught it.

The only hospital left in Afghanistan that can treat covid just ran out of oxygen.

 

 

RIP bell hooks

Knowing how to be solitary is central to the art of loving. When we can be alone, we can be with others without using them as a means of escape. – bell hooks

“No black woman writer in this culture can write “too much”. Indeed, no woman writer can write “too much”…No woman has ever written enough.” – bell hooks

Endlessly quotable, humane, tough and loving, bell hooks has gone to her ancestors and the hall of remembrance knows her name.