better and still okay

Things are calmer, but they will be sadder again yet, so waiting is. Katie’s doing better.

Talked to Jeff and we’ll be hiring housekeeping help on a trial basis.

Jeff got me a medium coffee and some donuts, thank you, and then we watched a “Tim Team” which is traditional.

It seems possible, perhaps likely, that the ant problem is going to taper off and stop.

Buster was excited as hell about the rain. He went in and out three times and yelled about the rain just as loud the third time as the first time. He trained this morning as well, although he was hard to settle, so excited about RAIN mom. Let us pause and bless the life giving rain, present for the first time in 46 days.

The floor is shaking in a very SF sort of way, must be Elite Dangerous.

sad but okay

I had a very long talk with Katie last night, got caught up on what’s going on with her and her s/o, and it’s not my story to tell, so I won’t. But I’m sad.

I feel compassion for everyone involved, but I’m going to centre Katie for the time being.

Love each other while you can,

Soon we’ll go and have our fun on Bowen Island, and after that, Victoria to see the grands.

hanging with Susana Ville and Jarmo and Sauna and Mike

In the morning on Sunday Alex and Katie took us out to IHOP. Then at four we were off for Hastings Sauna – I respected my blood pressure and only went in for about fifteen minutes. Mostly we talked. The manager fell on Mike’s neck like he was hoping he’d reinvigorate the business single handed. (In the meantime, we’re plotting our next trip to the JJ Korean spa in Coquitlam) and Jarmo offered me a peach Bubly which was nice.

Earl’s on Lougheed afterward for a celebratory meal. I would NOT have ordered the second most expensive entree on the menu if I’d had any idea Jarmo would pay for it, but that’s the kind of friends I have and I had been daydreaming about surf and turf for a very long time. It was fantastic. Seriously. Best restaurant meal I’ve had in ages, and despite being on the Lougheed highway side of the building it was cool and deliciously quiet.

Then hugs while the folks drive back to Chilliwack where they live now, and hanging out at Mike’s for the evening (congee and garlic shrimps for brekky), plus body work and the first three episodes of Loki (also got to listen to Mike work his way through Kane’s theme in Skyrim which is always a treat) and THEN he three Dee printed me some pick holders for my ukelele and my other guitar. Consider all that and wonder not why I follow that man around like an awkward pupdog.

Then we walked back here, split up and I came home and rehydrated because it was berloody hot out there and I thought I was going to have a heart attack for a while there, and Mike went to Oliver Twist and bought a Steamworks party pack and some munchies. We then watched two movies (Jolt and Boss Level) with Jeff and Mike walked home.

Birthday

Jeff’s Bday celebration yesterday. We had an untroubled day at home (after a small shop) and went walking with the king. Buster was SO HAPPY to spend a couple of hours on the deck with us.

Today me and Mike and Jarmo and Susana are going to go to Hastings Sauna and then I’m going to hang out over at Mike’s. This is like THE MOST SOCIAL INTERACTION Mike has had in many long months, I imagine he’ll be practically giddy. I know seeing the Dalai Jarmo is going to make me giddy, and I will definitely talk to Susana, which given that she runs an LTC in BC means that I’ll be getting a ground zero response story to COVID over the last 18 months. There’s also family stuff going on in the background which won’t make it to the blog but is distinctly and prayerfully on my mind.

Load of laundry is on.

I cut about six inches off my hair, but not evenly, so now I look like even more subsistence than usual.

My new crown aches almost all the time. I sure wish it didn’t, at least it’s not keeping me awake as much. It got bashed around quite a lot and I guess it’s still sore.

incoming

We’re supposed to get wildfire smoke within the next few hours as the heat dome continues.

Delta variant continues to be scary as hell. Somebody overlaid July 2020 over July 2021 and this bump will be worse, going through the unvaccinated. Realizing how easy it is for the vaccinated to carry and transmit the variant is terrifying to me. I am going to start masking again on the trails in Fraser Foreshore. I know Paul won’t (and he is HOPELESS at staying 6 feet away, although now we know it’s like cigarette smoke what use is that anyway).

I am in an okay mood, I just can’t move, think or act.

very tiny bit of editing on two stories

no practicing

no training Buster

 

an ordinary day

called Peggy, found out that Tom is not having a great time, but he’s alive and kicking, so there’s that, and ran two loads of laundry including my new favourite cloth masks, and emptied and refilled the dishwasher, and found out there is another rat in the wall and the rat Buster caught didn’t help, and practiced and possibly wrote another instrumental on the ukelele, and watched some TV, and ate the Burger Den Mushroom burger Jeff got me, and now I’m wrassling with my bedding, since I washed my bedding like a sensible person.

I am still thinking about best roommate, there’s a scene I keep writing and rewriting in my brain but it’s really heavy in terms of the power relationship between our two knuckleheads and I want it to be incredibly light and airy and delicately emotional and I haven’t felt my way to it yet.

I even broshed my toofs

Damn I love timmy ho’s coffee

Jeff got some yesterday and we never do it two days running, but oh the mighty urge.

Yesterday I ran the dishes, practiced, cooked up the last of the chicken, kept my driving skills current in Paul’s car, paid the rest of the dentist bill (thank you mOm and pOp) and enjoyed a lovely walk in Fraser Foreshore. Other than that I didn’t do a damned thing, but I had a great day.

Right now the rumble and crash of the trash truck is making its way through the alley.

Relatives are re-reconsidering their holiday options, given that Alberta has gone spare and the case rate is rising AGAIN in BC, what the fuck, people. I was thinking about Victoria again. I know it seems weird given that Jeff and Keith have both visited but my fears are real and not subject to just being switched into a corner.

Of course my allergies are bad right now so I’m sneezling a lot, and that makes me think about what exactly in the way of fomites and aerosols of unusual pathology I’m spraying around….

 

little birdies

The nesting pair of Great Blue Herons was at Fraser Foreshore Park today; they went to their usual haunts and one of them yelled at the water for a while for reasons that were completely opaque to me and Paul. We saw what I believe was a Pacific wren trot at a great rate of knots across the trail. I fed the last of the unsalted roasted peanuts to the crows, and glad they were of it.

It was almost too hot to walk, but in the shelter of the cottonwoods it was deliciously cool.

No other critters…. it’s starting to get to be the quiet part of the year, the male birds aren’t singing as much. But even when we see nothing, this guy sees lots.

happy family news

Paul got a job! he’s working part time for the thrift store around the corner from us both here in East Burnaby. I had the Sudden Strong Urge to phone Keith (I try to ask if he’s got 15 minutes and tell him I don’t have an agenda at the beginning of the call so he can pace himself, I think I remembered that last night) and among other news, I gleaned that. I am thrilled. We talked about sleep hygiene and how he’s adjusting his cooking style to suit his housemates, which is also happy making news.

I am well rested and in a good mood, maybe I’ll get my executive dysfunction whipped into something like a shape and get something done today.