the conformists

brO’s heading out to Timmy Ho’s (guess Katie had an effect) and soon COFFEE SHALL BE MINE. We don’t keep coffee beans in the house any more, because if you have coffee you need cream, and so on.

My list of stuff to take to Victoria is as long as my forearm and I still haven’t figured out which instrument(s) to take.

Much editing (and did it need it, what was I THINKING) on Best roommate in the world this morning.

 

 

TOMORROW

Mike’s weekend got rearranged by something so that made me sadface. But it also means I can take my time packing. Now that everyone (except Alex) has been vaccinated, Katie and Alex and I are off to see the grands tomorrow. I can hardly wait. And I really should make sure that everything that’s migrated here goes back to them, lol.  7 am ferry here I come

do not whack the simulacra they’re running subroutines as fast as they can

Truly, one must have survived two heat domes to enjoy the humane temperature and humidity currently blanketing MST country. I popped the front door open at about 4:30 am to see what I could see, and the soft light and welcome light breeze were balm for my overheated soul.

This morning I’ve run the facecloths through the wash; they’re in the dryer. I have trained Buster and brushed him TWICE (we have two brushing stations in the house and he wanted me to hit him up in both); I have popped some clear plastic face shields and clips into a bag for Mike as spares -he uses them for eye protection, not COVID protection and why not since the delta variant goes through air like cigarette smoke – I wear mine when I’m doing the lawn (which reminds me, I should do some weed whacking once it’s not quite so damp, and now I’ve written it down, so it’s on the task list). Jeff loaded and ran the dishwasher. I cleaned out my purse again, and found something in it which I will not report but made me laugh like a drain. Something-something, a certain morning after at Statpower, my desk, and that’s just to remind me what it really was. I put additional sterile masks in a clean bag and into my purse; I counted my pills to ensure that I had enough until my next GP appt on September 13 and put a weeks’ worth into my purse so at least I’ve got my BP medication if I’m on the wrong side of a bridge if/when that fault lets go; I practiced octave mandolin and dulcimer and kazoo, and you’d know when by the moment Jeff rolled his eyes, put his headphones on and turned up the EBM; I found a shade for the light behind the TV (there’s supposed to be an extremely expensive sun-spectrum light there and after 12 years of faithful and continuous service, except during power failures, it expired, so there’s an ordinary incandescent bulb there now and it was just too fucking bright so I wandered lonely as a person with ADD around the basement until I realized THERE WAS ALREADY A SHADE FOR THE LAMP thank you Granny and swapped it off a lamp we aren’t using for the one we are, so now the light level in the media room is back to semi-Stygian, instead of having an ambience like someone’s training a Klieg light on me for an interrogation); I played a whole bunch of Sherlock (as mentioned in previous posts, my all time favourite puzzle game, available for a very reasonable price from Mr. Everett Kaser please pay the full retail thank you) but never got my 8×8 time below 8:30 (best time under 5 minutes, and I’d like to see YOU get that time) which leads me to believe that my cognition and processing time today will, sadly, not be excellent; and I even got dressed if you can believe it. Now I’m waiting for the various water-using machines to quit cycling so I can make pancakes, and in the meantime I should probably go downstairs and fold laundry until I get bored.

SO LOOKING FORWARD TO BEING IN VICTORIA WITH MY MOTHER (also my dad whom I love just as fiercely as my mother, just not as mushily); SO COMPLETELY AND UTTERLY REFUSING TO EVEN CONTEMPLATE THE CLUSTERF …. THAT WILL BE THE JOURNEY TO VICTORIA. Well, really, it’s Saanich, but most people call it Victoria. Full marks if you get the reference.

I spoke to Tom, who sounded hoarse and thrawn but lively af (he was at work when his phone said he’d missed a call from me, which, strangely, he had not) on the phone yesterday, no housefilk today. The shop will be moved into his garage; (this is his NON side gig, not that anyone but he can keep it straight at this point); his sole employee entered into a state of nullibiety under ‘unforgiveable’ circumstances, and given that grumpy ol’ Tom has a fuse (for important matters, on trifles he is …as people are) of ample dimension and remarkable length, I refuse to even think about what the employee did to earn that particular word from Tom. Also Peg’s got relatives in from out of town, it all seems like too much work and fuss for them.

Still pissed about the mailbox. I feel like every time I take a step forward from being a selfish ass, in this case by writing friendly bracing letters to friends and relatives, for which I need a mailbox, the social environment says FUCK YOU! try harder ADD person, use your executive function for something you shouldn’t have to, because some fucking bureaucrat is trying to save money. Always and continuously, capitalism pushes governments so they are rent collectors instead of service providers. And that, mes soeurs, mes hypocrites lecteurs, is a rant for another other day.

where the fuck is the mailbox

The mailbox that used to be one block from here is GONE. One day it had a sad yellow paper sign -handwritten- saying it was out of order, and the next day it had been completely removed.

I have no idea where the next closest one is AND THERE IS NO PLACE ON THE CANADAPOST.CA website where you can search for the closest mailbox. I suspect it will be a while before I find it.

All I want to do is stay in touch with my friends and be prosocial, and now I’ll be waiting a week to run errands before I post letters. Heavy sigh.

Time to get up, hydrate, and start supper (I had a nice long nap… and why not.)

Jeff and I watched the Green Knight with Dev Patel. While it labours under an awkward script and a set decoration philosophy which screams theft from a thousand millennia of design choices (all over the map is kind), Dev Patel is pretty and as vacant as a hero from a 50’s costume epic; Alicia Vikander is wasted in a role that a cardboard cutout of Elizabeth Taylor could have performed; and they use a fuckin’ years’ supply of fake ground fog. ZERO UNDERSTANDING of the up down and sideways hype this film received; it’s not quick on its feet enough to be camp and it isn’t good enough to be this fucking slow. In the end the jerk runs away and it was all a dream; profoundly underwhelmed. I ripped myself off; I should have turned to Jeff and bailed at 10 minutes but a powerful desire to just finish it to say that I had overwhelmed me.

This is a test post

At the moment I am thinking about plotting. I am now thinking I want to compress the new trilogy about a white scientist playing Johnny Appleseed in Canada’s north into one longish book called oops redacted, and then I can introduce a whole bunch of ideas at once.

LOL THE BORDER’S CLOSED UNTIL SEPTEMBER congrats we did it again, we’re having to defend the world’s longest undefended border.

Yesterday and today

First, have a bear from the Capilano neighbourhood of North Van, as of about last week.

AND we don’t deserve dogs. Nor cats. (Buster when he see WOMBAT he CRAZY). NOR ORANGS.

Yesterday Paul and I walked in Fraser Foreshore. I had a dizzy spell coming out of the house so I didn’t drive, and thus nagged Paul freely the entire way back and forth.

Virtually no birds singing, none of our usual animal companions, not very well attended, nobody but us and an Asian couple bothering to wear masks. I told Paul the Delta variant is like cigarette smoke and even outdoors on pathways where we have to pass close by to people you can can get a whiff…. also I’m getting REALLY MIXED PRESS on how good Astra Zeneca is on suppressing Delta. Apparently, the word is now that it’ll keep me out of hospital if I get a breakthrough infection but I’ll be more likely to be contagious to other people if I’m asymptomatic. Not exactly the shit ya wanna hear when you’re going to visit your parents, who while not frail are elderly (sorry guys but you are over 80 after all.)

We bailed on pho as soon as I mentioned Schnitzel, by gar, and I got three takeout schnitzel dinners from Balkan House so Jeff could enjoy our celebratory meal too. Paul took exactly the same amount of time to get beer from the Oliver Twist, which faces Balkan House (I suspect he actually used the crosswalk, since jaywalking across Edmonds is something only silly young people do) as it took for the food to arrive. It was fantastic… much better than the last time, although the food portions on the rice and potatoes were smaller than I’m used to. The breading though… always a classic.

That plus beer (Red Racer Vanilla Stout, a total rip off of Granville Island Winter Ale) and a blueberry turnover for dessert, and we had a lovely meal.

Finished Swan Song and loved it. I think it’s a one-watch but it was a lovely, heartfelt movie with lots of great bit performances, the young gay bartender being a standout. Wish I had his name but imdb is oooooosssssssslessssss.

We’re really feeling the Lack of ‘Wanted’. They made three seasons and stopped, like sensible people, but we are not sensible people and want more. As always, we are salved by Elementary and the inhuman perfection that is Lucy Liu in that show.

Danny DeVito’s been locked out of his Twitter account for supporting the Nabisco strike. LOL

about to leave the house whooooppeeeee

Paul’s arriving shortly for masked walkies and pho.

Jeff and I are halfway through “Swan Song” an Udo Kier film. I’ve already cried six times I’m sure I’ve got some left in me but GAh I’d better take water in a bottle.

Gene Roddenberry would have been one hundred years old today. He was a massively imperfect human being and sexist af and Star Trek is an important cultural inflection point. We can think these things at the same time, because imperfect beings are always thinking about imperfect beings, and think they can still get it right.

Corpse flower

Uncle Fester, Bloedel Conservatory’s titan arum or “corpse flower,” bloomed on Wednesday, Aug. 18, 2021. (YouTube/Vancouver Park Board)

CHICKN

I have chicken thawed in the fridge and must Do Something with it.

Trip to Victoria for next week confirmed.

Tom is feeling poorly; he’s been in hospital again. I wrote him a letter, I should mail it.

House filk has been postponed until we have better health and a certain venue. (Edit later) nope it still may happen on Saturday. I think Peggy is possibly contemplating more food than she can reasonably get into her mouth but I ain’t argying wit’ a grown woman. I mean, she’s having rellies for house guests AND wants a house filk? I WANT EVERYTHING AT ONCE she is my relative, there’s no getting around it, I don’t care what the family tree says.

Alcohol abuse

Well, that’s what I call it.

Jeez, it’s almost like you can’t expect the feds to actually investigate. I have no idea where we’d be without Citizen Journalists.

OH MY DUCKING SOD. Free DNA test with application  Please note this link will disappear in 60 days. But essentially it’s just another brick in the EMPLOYERS ARE DUCKED IN THE BREAD wall.

 

YUCK

So that irredeemably greasy and vicious vibe I always got off Jimmy Fallon turns out to be in agreement with a lawsuit filed against Horatio Sanz, a very very long time buddy of his. If you were sexually assaulted as a youngster in NY State apparently the usual rules about the statute of limitations don’t apply in civil suits against people who abused you. The reason this is important is because Jimmy Fallon, while not accused of some of the vile and despicable and in some cases public violations of the child/young woman involved, is alleged to have known all about it and in fact introduced some of the people named in the suit, and it sure looks damning.

Next time I get a vibe about a guy being a secret misogynist I’m just going to go with it. Don’t hang with rapists and don’t give them air support, ‘kay?