flemmings | Recent Entries

Finished Strange Houses and then went to the internet to find out what I just read. Internet was mostly reddit, whose black-out spoiler redactions do not appear when highlighted. But a lot of people had the same suspicions as I about the architect jumping at once to 'murderous child killer cult' while other people noted that that's just the way Japanese horror rolls. Which, fair enough. And also noted that what's important is once again the things not said, sigh. But the general impression was that everyone but the narrator and the architect are lying and what's actually happening is a conspiracy, yes, but not the one we think. Although people did seem to think the weird cult thing was true, which to me is, ok, if you say so. Do not think I'll be reading more of his work.

I know better than to go for a blood draw on a Monday especially a Monday when I've just lost an hour of sleep, but it's going to rain all week and then snow. So out I went at 10 new time and came in to a posted 45 minute wait. But I waited, and then waited some more when they called my name because they said the room available was too narrow for me. Told them I could walk without the rollator but they were all No no just wait. And when they called me again I went without my walker just to show them. But the nurse got my vein first try, no having to use the other arm as in December, which is either her being more skilled than the other or my veins being pumped up from my water drinking. Whichever, I am grateful.

Could have done without the two large guys who barged into the elevator before I could get off it as I was leaving. Men, said Jessica. And am now headachy and am going out to dinner with bro and s-i-l tonight, but again, nobody made me get my draw this morning.

So nice to see the snowpack from last January's dump shrinking on the mudroom roof. Yes of course it will snow again in a week-- this is March in TO after all-- but for now it's melting happily in the 14C/ 50sF warm. And will melt more in tomorrow and Monday's sun.

Am only partway into Strange Houses but either I've been reading too much John Rhode or the consulting architect has been reading too much Japanese detective fic/ weird tales. Because. Here's this house with a second floor windowless room in the center, marked Child's Room. It has its own toilet but no bath. Here's an odd unmarked space between the walls on the ground floor. Maybe intended as a pantry in the kitchen? No, no, it myst be a crawl space that allows the child to access the windowless bathroom. OK, but why must this child not be seen? My thoughts go to Holmes' Yellow Face or Cthuluan monstrosities. The architect's thoughts go to 'the child is a murder weapon. The parents entice someone into their house, get him tiddly, suggest he have a bath, then when he's drowsy from alcohol and heat, the kid comes in and stabs him to death.' Like, this is the first thing you think of, guy? Now why would that be? I am having Deep Dark Suspicions about that architect

But of course this is Japan whose psychological reasonings are never anything that make sense to me. I await further developments

I spent the day, or most of it, in sweaty domesticity, which is not how I prefer to spend my days. But it was raining and cleanliness helps the megrims, so I doped my back up and took the couch apart so as to add some more cushions as I've been meaning to for a while. Am still not able to get up out of it without them. But of course this involved vacuuming everything, all sides, including the amazing amount of dust on the nether side of the cushions and the amazing amount of crap between them. Then got at the corner by the wall which was festooned with cobwebs and thick with dust because it's very hard to reach. Emptied cannister, drank 500 ml of water, then vacuumed the rest of the living room and the hallway. Some day I may get the carpet up and the couch pulled out to remove the dust elephants there, but that's a bit more than I'm up for just now. Lemon polished the wooden tables instead so they glow.

Am not totally satisfied because there's still too many miscellaneous boxes and bags here. A bag of unwearable back braces that still don't fit, the plastic hooked hanging thingies I use for laundry between the furnace turning off and the cherries falling, and a pile of calendars I can't throw out because they're where I tracked my weight gains and losses. Maybe if I noted the general trends in a notebook somehow? This would be easier if I had a computer of some description.

Currently have some basmati rice cooking so I can have omuraisu tomorrow. And maybe tomorrow will get to the kitchen floor.

Hacked my way through Cabell's Figures of Earth and wondered why I did. Yes he's of his time and yes he's the generic Southern Gentleman but sheesh why does he go on and on about howcum wimmen never measure up to the romantic notion men have of them, and howcum all women want to remake their husbands, and I wonder why did generations of people marry when they didn't even like the opposite sex. Yes I know why, but. Like Blackwood's mother who at bloody eighteen married a widower with five kids, and whose mother-in-law made her life a misery because she didn't think her good enough for her son. Like, who else would marry a blubbery seal hunter with five kids, huh?

Anyway, finished two Dr. Priestleys as well. Am currently reading Lost Souls Meet Under a Full Moon, which I think I'd rather read in Japanese if my library had it in same. The translation is OK, it's just... very Japanese. Am taking my time with it to fight the instinct that says 'five other people are waiting for this copy I must finish it ASAP.' No I needn't. I have it for three weeks and I can take all of them.

Because next is Strange Houses which is even more Japanese and has even more people waiting for me to finish it.

Yeah well, that art gallery isn't going to view itself, now is it? So I cabbed down to the AGO, which confuses me by having automatic doors for wheelchairs everywhere but on its outer facade. Kind people let me in, but yanno. Somebody wasn't thinking. And I know they used to have a button outside but Ghu knows what they did with it. Anyway, I then discover why not to go in winter ie you must check your coat and it costs $4. But these niggles aside, got in and saw first the David Blackwood exhibit, disquieting etchings from his Newfoundland past, of iceberg calves and baleen whales and sealers wrecked on ice floes and dying of exposure and cold. This was a famous disaster that happened in 1914 when 78 men died after being stranded on the ice for 53 hours in the middle of a blizzard.

https://ago.ca/exhibitions/black-ice-david-blackwood-prints-newfoundland

Maybe because I'm a Capricorn, maybe because I'm a city child, just about the most unheimlich thing I know is the ocean. Mountains are a close second: was fantodded by the Alps at the age of 9 and never grew out of it. But mountains are just earth stood on its head, and they're always in the same place; oceans are water that never stops moving and there literally is no there there. Anyway Nfld is an island and you can't get away from the ocean, but I can never understand why anyone would willingly go out on the sea that surrounds it.

Then got to the Jesse Mockrin exhibit, the one that closes on Sunday. She uses Renaissance techniques to paint pseudo-Renaissance subjects, many inspired by paintings and objects in the AGO's own collection. I like her paintings even if I suspect I'm not supposed to. But colour! She has colours! How could anyone resist?

https://ago.ca/exhibitions/jesse-mockrin-echo

The other trouble with going in winter is that one must wear boots, and boots are not kind to that pesky neuroma on the sole of my foot. So though there are other things I should have seen, I figured two hours was enough and headed home. Took the TTC up to Dupont, intending to wait for the bus and finish by shopping at Loblaws. But oh lookie, here's a Shoppers, let's get some garbage tags. Which they no longer sell. Online or at Canadian Tired only, and how lucky I didn't make a special trip to find this out. Then I look at Dupont which is one lane as far as the eye can see, because condos, and after that sewers, so hell, will not kill me to walk two subway stops. Except that it nearly did. But I have more cushioning pads for my feet, and if it gets as warm as they say it will, maybe I can be in shoes later on this week. Phone says this was all only good for 6000 steps, but will take it.

I do not see me getting up at 6 ayem to see the Blood Moon. It will have to bleed without me.

Another library book of long holding came in so I went out in sun and not-that-cold to get it. Then had indifferent grilled chicken at Pour Boy where I ate in lonely splendour. Odd. Their fried chicken sandwich is excellent, their chicken satay is excellent, but their grilled chicken is tendony and fat, like KFC in Japan.

I've been wanting an acrylic floor polish for the laminate kitchen tiles but no supermarket has it. Lotsa stuff for wood floors which tells you just how yuppie this 'hood has become. When I finally remember to google it, transpires that hardware stores sell it. And since I'm out on Bloor anyway, might as well trot over to Wieners and get my steps in. Noting along the way the many businesses that have closed: not just the vape stores and cannabis outlets, but two or three of the longtime Korean places. That odd health store with its cures for bladder problems (in men), one of the accessory hats'n'jewelry places that also changed watch batteries, another stationery store I think, Tom and Sara with its anime plushies... Anyone would think we were in a recession.

Got my floor polish and then walked the half block to Brunswick to see what had replaced By the Way. Answer is, nothing yet, though at least the sign is up for a French brasserie thingy. Presumably waiting for spring to open, which may also be the reason the high scale Japanese steak house in the old Second Cup and Presse Libre site is still at the Coming Soon! stage. That one has been in the works for close to a year IIRC and I have ceased to hold my breath.

And some day will get down the street for my quarterly blood draw, but who wants to get out of bed early these days? Only it will rain later this week and then it will be achiness rather than laziness that deters me. Not to mention grunge on the wheels, which was bad enough today with melt and rock salt applying a cm coating.

Once again world events interfere with my attempts to stop drinking.

But I vacuumed and dusted the side bedroom yesterday, which made me sweat mightily and left me unaccountably stiff this morning. But then I screwed my courage to the sticking place and removed the drawers from under the futon frame so I could sweep out the dust elephants of ages. I doubt I've done this since 2020, if then. Ideally I'd push the whole frame out to get at the underparts, but doubt I have the strength for that now. Even manhandling the large heavy drawers back in place was a challenge. As for flipping the futon itself, hahaha no.

And I feel so much better looking at the clean bedroom. Cleaning always works to cheer me, and it always annoys me that it works, but shou ga nai.

Would have gone out to buy those things I forgot to get on Friday through not remembering to bring my phone, but it snowed last night, enough to coat the sidewalk. Mind, my stretch was clear because I put down salt yesterday evening against the plunging temperatures, and by day's end so was the rest of the block. But it's -6 with a wind chill of who knows what, so I remain indoors.

Dream last night of coming up my street, or maybe Christie, but there were two walkways-- the public one by the street and a private one, screened by bushes, that belonged to the (nonexistent) housing coop with its low buildings and green lawns that straggled up the street, clearly referencing the RL Bain Coop in TO. And very pleasant until a large dog came up behind me and either started nosing my bum or actually bit it, one or the other.

Enbridge did not email me a bill this month. No idea why not. They've also raised their prices. But this may explain why I didn't pay last month. I'd go back to demanding paper bills but they charge for those too.

Now that the weather is on the turn, sort of more or less because March is seriously not to be trusted, I ventured out past Bathurst yesterday to Sushi on Bloor. Possibly the staff remember me even after two months, or possibly they rush to open the doors for all ancient walker-users, but I choose to believe the former and think it very nice of them. Had salmon teriyaki instead of sushi for the omega-whatevers, even though salmon is always iffy for me. Of course I then had Bailey's and vodka after I came home and suffered heartburn all night, which will learn me. But the salmon skin didn't help, of course.

Glorious sun today and temps above freezing so I hacked my garbage bin out of its snowy bed and replaced it with the recycle. Thus I needn't get out to Shoppers for garbage tags as I'd feared I might have to. I still don't have that much garbage, even though I haven't put it out since the first week in January. My green bin is still firmly stuck in the snow and will doubtless stay that way for a few weeks yet, because I still can't get anywhere near it. Things will melt tomorrow and then flash freeze on Sunday. Must keep the salt handy and possibly buy more, since All That Snow will melt onto the sidewalk--is melting already-- and then flash freeze into a skating rink.

To note in the current game of Recycle Bingo: recycle was picked up yesterday morning, so one must indeed put it out the night before and not bank on a late pickup. Except that the block south of me was still out at 4:30, on the western side, while the east had already been done.

Am wondering about a point of wedding etiquette. Suppose I send my nephew and his fiancée a cheque in lieu of a wedding present. Who do I make the cheque out to? I don't know if they have a joint account, I don't want to send it to just my nephew-- whom I haven't seen in 30 years anyway-- and I don't know if my instinct to send separate but equal cheques to each is permissable. Shall consult the s-i-l, I suppose.

I am so over this winter. Was antsy about getting anywhere today with the snow falling all last night, which might have been why I had a nuit blanche and only got to sleep eventually by refusing to do anything but lie in the dark. After which I woke at 9:30 and reluctantly decided to forego sleeping in till noon. However the bobcats came by at some point and the sidewalks were clear when I headed out-- in a snow shower, yes-- at 2:30. But bobcats somehow manage to throw up an amazing number of pebbles, do not ask me how. No wonder I got one caught in the wheel back a bit. Only surprised it hasn't happened more often.

Came home to the wedding invite from nephew and fiancée, fastened with sealing wax and a seal with their initials. This takes me right back to the mid-60s when I used sealing wax that I can smell even yet. Still not sure if I can go to theirwedding: it's out in Oakville, which requires cars, and the reception is at a country club ditto, and there's an hotel they've booked for people who need to stay over. I believe my bro drove me to my younger brother's wedding nearly 40 years ago, but he wasn't married then and I was able-bodied. There's an option on the invite for 'will toast from afar', which I may have to do.

As for reading: at some point finished Jurgen and started on Figures of Earth, and am questioning if I really need to reread these pale-printed volumes. Finished also Christie's The Clocks, and Joan Coggins' The Mystery at Orchard House, which stars not!the Dowager Duchess of Denver in a young incarnation. Fun, but I do not find scatterbrained Lupin (!) as charming as her author does. Read a Dr. Priestley, Dr. Goodwood's Locum, pleasantly twisty, even though I wonder if the murderer would be as adept at an English accent of the appropriate class as he seems to be, given that spoiler spoiler spoiler. Currently on the go have Closed Coffin, a Poirot continuation, which is... not quite what I want right now. Am at a loose end which may get sorted once I stop angsting about the weather.

I have physio tomorrow so I figured there was no need to go up to Loblaws today. I could go out to lunch or something in the last day of sun before the snow starts tonight. But my insides took exception to the lentil mush I've been eating, or to something, so no, not going out for sushi any time soon. Might as well get my prescription. And a good thing too, because as it turns out an amazing number of people didn't touch Sunday's snow and it's all glare ice now. Walking over that when it's covered with the 2-4 cm/ 1.5 inches forecast between now and Wednesday afternoon would not be fun. So shall take the Christie route if I go out at all, or just eat the cancellation fee. This winter, dear god, this winter.

But I do feel better for the walk and the sunshine. Had a cold brew coffee-- I can only drink coffee safely if it's cold, health benefits or not-- and watched my fellow golden agers trundle about, and read a Dr Priestley on the phone. Turned out to be a short story, not a novel, chiz chiz, but for a .99 purchase one mustn't complain. Somehow must get to the Art Gallery before next week when the show I want to see closes. But yanno, snow and the Spadina LRT not running till late Friday-- buses laid on but no thanks-- and rush hours. Maybe Saturday when temps soar to a sunny 5C if I can get up early enough.

Good heavens. Sun! Blue skies! Brightness! Yeah, I did think the leaden winter would bring me down forever for a bit back there. But of course, with time sense so wonky, it was only a week ago that we last had sun. But that was a pale washy sun and this is glorious gold and blue. Of course it's because a cold front is blowing in. Made it out to Fiesta without much pain: the flurries of last night were indeed flurries even if they coated the sidewalk. But now must go down to the basement to turn taps on against tonight's -14C.

Long range forecast says things will warm up by mid-March. Really can't wait.

Was woken this morning before I wanted to be by a robo phonecall saying Pay your Enercare bill. That's my hot water heater. Bill comes in at month's end, I pay it immediately, what's your problem, Enercare? (I do not like them. Ages back I signed with them for my gas on an equal billing scheme and wondered vaguely why my gas bills were always so high, because I couldn't quite reconcile the total price with usage. Many many years later saw an article comparing prices and found Enbridge was something like 10% cheaper. Thus good-bye Enercare, except for the damned heater.) Tried to go back to sleep and was jerked awake by robo Bell phone call-- or someone purporting to be Bell-- saying technicians would be installing fibre optics in my neighbourhood please book your call now. I already have Bell fibre. Screw that. But by then I was completely awake, so started on my morning routine. Oh, and when I checked my bank account just in case, oops, looks like I didn't pay Enercare last month. OK, fine. Now paid up and another bill will come in Wednesday-ish.

Woke up at a reasonable hour, took meds, looked out the study window, saw snow, and decided to go bak to bed. Did, and dreamed of being back at Bedford with sibs and Aunt H trying to work out how we could live there and also sell to the Chuas. There was an official sort of man pressing the point, who was some sort of policeman, but who also at one point was dealing with a chubby baby. And Bedford was definitely Bedford except that parts of it were Bedford as renovated by the Chuas. It was the sort of dream that leaves an all-day hangover: not unpleasant, just mildly disconcerting because, well, we sold the place almost forty years ago and my aunt died in 2000, and there I was at Bedford talking to her this morning.

Eventually got up around noon and breakfasted and all. Then by a judicious but generally unadvised combination of muscle relaxants and vodka, shut my back up enough so I could scrape the snow off the steps and path. And feeling almost like old days, lifted the compacted layer of ice and snow from the pavement in front of my house and SND's, who must be away this weekend, and then a stretch of NND's frontage. We were just at freezing today but tomorrow will see a fast plunge and the slush will turn to ice.

There was a video about making lentil pancakes: boil up a carrot, potato, onion, and red lentils, blend in blender, form into patties, cook in oil. I did the veg first and separate, then added the lentils and cooked till soft. Except that red lentils immediately turn into mush so that, when blended, I wind up with lentil soup. Am clearly missing a step. Maybe I should add the breadcrumbs I do not have, or cook some green lentils to add instead. Or just resign myself to lentil soup.

Yes, I know I've been out every other day this week, but it still felt like I'd been indoors for days when I went out in today's grey dank. Got my library book returned so I needn't worry about the weather anymore. The walking was occasional slush and frequent ponds after yesterday's rain and melt, but the sidewalks were 90% clear on the way to the library and Bloor of course was dry. I got berries and avocado from the Palmerston greengrocer so I needn't shop for those for a while, and as well, because the supers' are more expensive.

Part of the temporal confusion may be that the temps flipflop about in their February fashion. Thus last weekend's spring interlude was interrupted by Wednesday's winter snow dump, and we're now back to 5C before returning to the minuses next week. Heigh-ho.

My grocery order came promptly, though the poor guy had to wade through the between-cars snowpile, still healthy after four weeks, to get to me. I now have a sufficiency of soy milk and veggie juice, things which are a pain to carry in the walker over slush. The sidewalks up the street look rather more icy than those down, so am happy to let Instacart do my Loblaws shop for me.

Saturday at the Opera was Puccini's Manon Lescaut, which I was listening to as I waited for my delivery: and turned off in short order because it was somehow getting on my nerves. Unreliable memory says there's a memorable aria at the end but memory is wrong again, because I couldn't prove it by YouTube. However have now got it clear that 'sola, perduta, abbandonata' is Puccini's Manon and 'sola, abbandonata' is Verdi's Violetta, and frankly I can't be having with this compulsive desire to kill one's heroines.

Rain all day which is supposed to turn into snow overnight and then continue for the next little while. I am so over this winter. There's a grocery delivery tomorrow which I hope won't be impeded by the weather. Maybe today's 5C and rain has reduced the snow berms somewhat? Obviously I haven't been out to see.

The library book I got last week is in Japanese, yes, but I hadn't registered that it's not merely a kid's book but a young kid's book ie it's all in hiragana ie it's unreadable by me. Yes I subvocalize but it's like reading phonetic English, a chore. Somehow I need to get it back to the library for those three other people who want it and I don't know when, or rather how, that will get accomplished. Am hoping the cold front due on Monday will firm up the snow enough that I can get the walker over it.

However, I would have sworn there were no Agatha Christies I hadn't read, and especially no Poirots, but here I am reading The Clocks for obviously the first time. My thanks to whichever FFLer who mentioned it however long ago: it's been on hold for a while. My one niggle is that I'm reading on the downstairs tablet that has been heartbreaking since I updated it. Won't hold a charge for more than a few hours, when the upstairs tablet had its charges boosted when I updated it, as well as getting me predictive entering. If this tablet continues to be such a bummer I may well gather my courage and return it to factory settings.

Terminal hubris yet again took me out to the nearer supermarket, yes on a garbage day, yes after that 10 cm dump. Possibly the Whatever that flattened the sidewalk by me yesterday also did down the block and the snow/ ice piles were from people cleaning off their cars. But possibly the Whatever couldn't touch the ice because people put salt down before the sleet stopped falling which naturally led to an unmoving ice sheet. A common mistake in these parts. But I needed milk onaccounta indulging in daily hot cocoa, and tomorrow will be 5C ie melt, plus rain, which means even more slop, so out I went. Really must get an all-terrain walker, though no guarantee that would handle slush any better.

This is also the reason why, after going to bed last night, I got up and cancelled tomorrow's physio. If the sidewalks are passable I'll see if the spot is still open but I strongly suspect they won't be.

However having prudently put one of the Thermacare disposable heating packs on my grumpy back, I was able to clear the rest of my frontage of the ice layer. Wasn't enough to do NND's but at least it's a start. Only because I did this after coming back from the super I was getting light-headed from all the exertion and needed to rest and do deep breathing from time to time.

A come by chance setting on my tablet which I can no longer find allows you to switch up the wallpaper of one's login. I selected landscapes so now, in the brief interlude before inputting my PIN, I have vistas of forests and meadows and deserts and rivers and mountains. My sadness is that they don't tell you where these places are, and that I only get three seconds to view them before the screen goes black again. But they're a nice little pleasure to offset the annoying FUBARs of this new update.

It was heavy sleet when I got up and then it was heavy snow but thankfully not really freezing rain. However heavy snow-- weight heavy, not just thick and fast-- is a pain to deal with. I scraped about four inches off the steps and shovelled the path in tiny increments because shovel was too heavy to lift. Salted same, came in and stretched, two hours later did it again, though it was only an inch or so by then. Have been hearing sirens all day, doubtless the aged like me not taking their shovelling easy. Meanwhile either a bobcat or a really public-minded and extremely strong snowblower had come along and flattened the sidewalk into walkability. Money is on bobcat because didn't see any blown snow. And if only my back wasn't such a diva I could have taken the snowpack up and cleared down to the concrete, because it lifts really nicely with the ice scraper now. Did a metre-long stretch to show it could be done, but my back really hates me.

Finished the Riddlemaster trilogy last week and went over vol.3 with the handy ebook 'search in book' function to shed some light on who and when. Am still slightly confused. Then in a bout of 'get it off the shelf' I started on James Branch Cabell's Jurgen. Cabell was probably my first experience of fandom: somehow in my 20s I stumbled on a group devoted to his works and subscribed to their newsletters and such. I haven't read him in 50 years and retained only an impression of extreme clever clogs-ishness. Which he is, and sniggering with it, though I was surprised to find that the beginning of Jurgen is actually sweetly melancholic about the compromises of maturity. Which was not something I'd register in my early 20s. Did go online to see what, if anything, people have to say about Cabell now, and was pleased to come across a reddit thread of the young'uns can't be having with him.

To take the taste of that out of my mouth I had recourse to a couple of Dr. Priestleys, only one of which was glaringly obvious. Then took a disintegrating Penguin Classic off the shelf, Poems of Heaven and Hell From Ancient Mesopotamia. Have been through the Babylonian Creation twice, with the introduction and the cast of characters, and am still confused as to who is who. It doesn't help that the pages are literally crumbling so that leafing back and forth is unadvised and difficult. Should probably move on to the next section.

Currently also reading a collaboration between John Dickson Carr and John Rhode, which reads very oddly indeed. Should also read that library book, which is in Japanese and I believe rather in demand. Since I'm certainly not going anywhere tomorrow, I may spend the day doing that.

The forecast for tomorrow contains the heart-stopping words 'freezing rain' and my joints are registering the approach of the oncoming storm. Wasn't so bad in the morning when temperatures soared to 6C/ 40-something F and great chunks of snow berms melted. Got out to the laundromat finally. The great lake at the end of my block that I waded through going had shrunk to a small puddle coming back 90 minutes later. I can't think this was all evaporation and certainly wasn't run-off, having nowhere to run to. I suspect a public-minded citizen with a broom, but who knows.

I rescheduled my physio from tomorrow afternoon to Friday and I hope that will guarantee nothing but ordinary rain and maybe sleet. Certainly they're now saying the freezing rain will mostly be west of the city. But Fiesta, at least, has road salt back in stock should I run out. And a good thing I never followed up on the impulse to take advantage of the springlike temps by suggesting dinner to bro and s-i-l. Even today I couldn't manage it and the rest of the week is various forms of precipitation.

Anyway, happy lunar new year to those who celebrate, as also ramadan mubarak tomorrow.

Went out yesterday in the grey and slush and got my library book, then went to Pour Boy where the lovely waitress came out to hold the door for me and then helped me lift the walker onto the snowbank so it didn't block the doorway. Checked my paper diary and yes, it's been a month since I was out at a restaurant and six weeks since I was there. Seems like a mighty long time because it was.

The melt has led to the usual ponds at street corners so today I put on my unsatisfactory new boots which are at least more waterproof than my ten year old pair. The left boot slopped around because that's evidently the shorter foot and inserts don't cut it. Had a bright idea and put my orthotic sole into it and it was fine. So now I know.

Otherwise I need to get back to the bike machine but melt temperatures also conduce to achiness. And of course vodka and Bailey's don't help the couch potato reflexes.

Went out to get my shop for the long weekend and as I was tooling about Fiesta the front right wheel locked. Poked at it, found nothing that would act as a brake, and finished shopping in mild despair. Last time this happened it was something rusted out in the wheel casing and yeah, I've been going through snow, here we go again. The upright walker is too wide to take through the narrow snow-free walkways and of course I can't fold it to make it narrower. Oh well. Trip to Starkman's this afternoon and see if they have the ones with pneumatic tyres that will go over things more easily. Then as I was crossing to go home and bumping up the ill-shoveled other side, something went SPROING and suddenly the wheel would turn again. Fingers very much crossed that it was just a pebble caught in the casing, because must go out tomorrow to pick up a surprise! hold from the library.

However enough was enough and I ordered vodka and Bailey's for delivery. Poor guy had to try and scan my ID to prove age which, like, wouldn't it be simpler just to take a picture of me? But protocols must be followed. Glad I tipped him well. Currently feeling no pain. Or not much: is owie weather.

But as I was coming up my street a woman with a large brown dog was coming down and it was she who stepped out of the way onto someone's front path to let me by. So I had to stop and compliment her dog, whose name is Wendell. He's a Rhodesian Ridgeback and now I see why they're called that. Which recalls the line from the song The Maple Leaf Dog--

Rhodesian Ridgeback's intolerant and crude
Turn around your basset hound is doing something rude

and I see the lyrics were updated last year to replace the verse about Pierre Trudeau with one about Carney. Oh dear.

https://youtu.be/6fwzhKgd55k?si=KgOsPabrSRfRBzim

https://youtu.be/xKXTukQz4cM?si=AzzDWuZfVzVvw50n

The recycle got picked up. At 5:30 of course, but at least it was same day. And because it's seven weeks post-solstice it was still light out so I could see the guys had left my bin lying on its side, blocking the sidewalk. So I went out and rescued it and dragged it back up the path, and a nice guy walking his dog asked if I needed a hand. I thanked him and said I was OK, but if he hadn't had a curious energetic pup to handle I might have taken him up on his offer, and let him heave the thing back onto the snowbank.

I miss the city guys who always pushed the bins back to the edge of the yard.

However it seems-- fingers crossed-- that my bar fridge has come back to life. I treat it very gently just in case, but not having to tackle the stairs pre-meds is a great relief.

And Monday is a holiday, so I must get a shop in before then.

So the world is a shitshow. No surprise there.

Otherwise-- otherwise, I got my recycling into the bin and the bin out of its snowbank and was surprised that six weeks of recycle still didn't fill the thing up. But of course there's another bag of recycling sitting in the bunker. If pickup is as late as I expect it to be, I might try stuffing that in as well. And maybe ask SND if I can put a bag of organics in her green bin because mine is still stuck in two feet of snow. But no, actually: the green bin pickup comes early when I'm still asleep.

Weather pages are all about the cold spell being broken when temps got above freezing today. Yes well, there was a wind so it was 'high of 2C feels like -7' and yes it did, in spite of the lakes of melt at all the street corners. Some public-spirited type on Dupont was hacking at the knee high snow berms pushed up by the plows in order to clear the storm drain. Go public-spirited guy.

Reading is still the Riddlemaster trilogy, now on volume 3, which I've only read once and am still confused about. There's a great deal of travelling from place to place in that one, is partly why. Have dropped Dr. Siri early on in vol 13 because things are getting dark and I expect several long-time characters will be dead either in this one or the final volume.

I wanted a Vietnamese coffee and I didn't want to go out to get it so I ordered in through Skip the Dishes, my old standby from lockdown. Skip has a peculiar web interface that lags when you try to login and then suddenly decides yeah ok we do know you after all. I think they want you to use their even buggier app which no I won't. But this time they were giving my address as 518 for some reason, so I corrected that to 543 and ordered my chicken and vermicelli and coffee. Of course I really wanted a banh mi after reading all those Dr. Siri books where he sits eating his banh mi by the side of the Mekong looking over at Thailand. But you know, bread, so no. And I watched on the map as the little car icon come up Christie and turned and I went to the door to wait for the guy, and the guy didn't come and my phone said Your order has been delivered! with a photo of an unfamiliar porch. So I text the guy, I'm here at 543 waiting, and he texts back that of course he left it at 518. Thus I had to go out anyway and yes, wrestle the walker through the snow berms again, because 518 is south of me and on the other side. This isn't the first time Skip has altered my address off its own bat-- they had me at 552 for the longest time-- so I think that's it for me and Skip. I like that they give you tracking on your order, which Uber doesn't-- Uber comes when it comes and doesn'teven knock-- but I can't be having with their webpage's dementia.

Well, the sun was shining and tomorrow is supposed to snow and I need milk so out I went in my warmest coat and fleecy trousers and longjohns. No idea what the city has done with respect to the sidewalk clearing. They put down salt all up my block so I had no trouble getting to physio last week, but going *down* the block we were all back to snow berms and cratered packed snow. So it was still heave the walker up and down for half the journey, almost as bad as ten days ago. But anyway, now I can have my cocoa again, my one treat, and I did *not* buy any pastry or pasta meals so go me, I suppose. Also bought more chocolate soy milk because my shopper last week bought me cappuccino flavour, in spite of the wp saying 'many in stock' about the chocolate. I won't say 'men' about male Instacart and Uber shoppers getting my orders wrong because male Voila shoppers get things right, but Voila has those big ass trucks that are a hassle in winter. Otherwise I'd be ordering from them.

Started rereading the Riddlemaster trilogy, untouched for nearly half a century for some reason. Was having a hard time with my hardcover vol 1, again for no reason I could discern. Got it from the library in ebook and that was not only readable but had the advantage that I could consult the map in the hardcover on the frequent occasions when I had no idea where Morgon was at any point. This never bothered me in my 20s but now I hate not knowing where a fictional here is. And in ebook I can highlight and search a name on the frequent occasions when I've forgotten what the story on Kern or Yrth or whoever is-- and lord were there many many of those. I've heard tell that there are indications that the trilogy is actually SF rather than straight fantasy, which I will ignore because I don't want anyone Severianing my fantasy, thank you.

Bloody Chrome bugs me to update it, and starts turning itself off to make me do it. And of course you should never update because who knows what crap they'll put on your machine. But I have limited patience with sudden! black screens so ok I update. And now all the fonts are bitsy little things which I can enlarge with zoom but then the line goes off the screen. Other people can change fonts in Chrome but my version doesn't give me the option. My phone will let me turn everything sideways so I have a longer screen but not this tablet. Other people can get rid of the AI button but I can't unless I change my search engine. I can no longer turn on those time-wasting little Discover news stories on the main page with one click: I need to go through a couple of screens, to find it and then I can't turn it off. Which I suppose is fine, I don't need to read Twisted Sister and that ilk, but they do occasionally have legit news. So now I'll probably be on Facebook more because their fonts aren't changed, and be watching more tiktok vids. This is not the optimal outcome. Oh, and will be discovering for the next week all the places the update logged me out of. It was pure chance that I found a way to log me back onto LJ.

Feh. Also ptui. Must rethink gettig a Chromebook, but what else is there?

The carpet of salt the city put down kept the sidewalks clear even with the inch of snow we had last night. I was all prepared to head out to a restaurant but my phone was low on charge. And while it was charging I thought better of it and ordered in instead: chicken vermicelli with lots of veggies which I know will do me two meals. Because if I go out I will drink and I might at least try to make it through a whole month. January wasn't a dry month because I had vodka coolers up until the middle. But I did at least succeed in getting the recycle bin free of its snow so I can put it out on Thursday. As ever there's no guarantee it will get picked up on Thursday but that's another problem for another day.

Clipper winds are bringing in another polar vortex so will not be going anywhere this weekend. Have turned basement taps back on for the duration.

One thing I find on these Tiktok videos I keep watching instead of, yanno, reading something improving or reading something I want to get off the shelf or just reading, is the common wisdom that Canadians take their shoes off in the house. I mean, yes of course I do, I lived in Japan and some behaviours just stick, like putting my hand out, thumb up, when I have to walk in front of someone. But. But. I started taking my shoes off five years before I ever went to Japan, when I moved into an apartment with woooden floors and another tenant underneath me. Before that it was shoes on all the time. Just, at some point evidently everyone decided to take their shoes off.

Boots of course were different. If they were wet or muddy of course you took them off. But otherwise no, you kept them on even if you were lying on a bed in the daytime.

Last week's reading wasn't much, probably because of those Tiktok videos. Flora's Fury gave me a reading hangover. But otherwise only Dr. Siri #13 which had a bit too much Message for me.

I am not in Somalia, I am not in Gaza, I am not in Minneapolis, so mustn't complain. But there are still fretful niggles.

There's been a musty smell in my house for several days now. Something has died somewhere. Probably a mouse, because trust me, rats smell worse. Went down to the basement to do a wash and found no corpuses so must be in a vent somewhere. If I didn't have a super nose I probably wouldn't even notice it but I do and it bothers me. It will disappear eventually and meanwhile I've broken out my stash of incense.

My garbage hasn't been put out this year and is beginning to pile up. I never do have much garbage and once a month usually does me, but I think we're at seven weeks now. But my garbage bin is under two feet of snow. No matter. I have those pricey tags you can put on extra bags so the garbage guys will take them. They're on the kitchen table. Only they aren't. They're not to be found anywhere in the kitchen. No doubt I put them in the proverbial Safe Place and will never find them again until I buy new ones, available only at Shoppers where I will not be going any time soon. So fine. Put on boots, take shovel, and remove snow so I can heave my bin from its snowy bed. Of course there's no place to put it afterwards so it's lying on its side, half on the path. Must put garbage out tomorrow afternoon because there's not enough space for the walker on the path.

Since my lenses have been on backorder for six weeks now, with occasional updates saying Still on backorder should come in soon!, yesterday morning I ordered another box of 30 from the pricey but reliable company. And I mean pricey: for what a month's supply cost me I could have got a new bar fridge. So of course yesterday afternoon, comes the email from company 1 saying Your order has shipped. Well, great. I am well-supplied with lenses now. Only, this morning company 2 tells me their lenses are on backorder too. I wish there was a way to cancel that order only I'm not seeing it. But at least I'm supplied until September.

Going downstairs in the morning means going back to weighing myself every morning. To console me for everything else, I dropped another half pound yesterday, to a weight not seen since 2022. Yay water and bike machines!

The good news is that I got up the street with only a few patches of slush impeding the walker's wheels. Alleyways mostly, which are a pain because snow+slope makes for antsy footing. So I should be able to get to physio on Wednesday. I've been doing remarkably well given it's been nearly three weeks but will be glad of some work on the knees.

The bad news is that I knocked my water pic of the sink this morning and broke something off it. Thus the need to get to Loblaws to buy a new one.

The worst is that the bar fridge stopped working last night. The connection will no longer connect. So it's stairs again for me in the morning.

However, last Thursday as I was pushing my way through the almost impassable slush a bearded guy coming the other way stopped to commiserate. You're very brave, he said. Pure hubris, I said, and anyway I need potatoes. I ran across him again today up the street. Appears he was impressed by my using hubris, a word which he doesn't expect people in general to know. Ah, said I, comes of being a Classics major. Still impressive, he says. Which was nice.

Rabbit, rabbit.

Slightly warmer today, with sun, and I had thoughts about going out and shovelling more snow off the bins, but instead sat on the couch with hot beanbag wraps and finished Flora's Fury. I'm a little sad that she didn't finish the series but on balance, maybe not. Flora is really hard to take for long. Impetuous characters who never stop to think are so not my bag.

I distinctly remember buying lean hamburger once and registering it as a mistake because it was too dry to make good fried rice with. Something must have changed in the rubrics because I used lean to make beef stroganoff on Friday and it was so fat I had to soak it up with paper towels. Couldn't drain it because I added it to the vegetables I'd sauteed first-- mushrooms, onions, broccoli and cabbage. If I eat meat, it's going to be well padded with veg. Maybe if I'd served it with rice or noodles but I'm still trying to keep the starches low.

To which end it seems I lost 5.7 pounds in January (that's 2.5 kilos more or less), so my modifications are working. Yes, no alcohol works wonders. No, I still hate it.

I defrosted the bedroom bar fridge yesterday. Satisfying as it is to pull great sheets of ice out with the aid of a screwdriver, this will occasionally sever important connections. Was wondering why the fridge was so silent last night. Anyway, I fiddled with this and that and it started purring again this morning, so I'm hoping all is well and cold. I'll be more careful in future, and also not wait six months to defrost. Though if worst happens, it won't kill me to go back to limping downstairs to get my breakfast and limping back up to eat it. Did it when I was far more crippled than I am now ie four+ years ago.

My grocery order came promptly and a little before time, also with the same shopper as I had in December. Possibly luck of the draw, possibly he remembers that hefty tip I gave him. Poor lad gets the worst weather with me-- sleeting rain then, bitter bitter cold today.

It will warm up briefly next week but I'll probably wait till Monday to see if the sidewalks north of me have become passable. Physio on Wednesday if I can make it. I wonder if Diamond cabs would consent to ferry me two and a half blocks?

In a fit of nearly terminal hubris, I went out to Fiesta today. Today is recycle pickup, which famously does not get picked up, plus snow berms from cars (on my side of the street: opposite side is from snow plows) plus people who just never got around to shovelling their sidewalks. So it was A Trip. I thought that the -12 temps might have kept the snow frozen enough to make pushing easier but TO snow is unimpressed by -12 and insisted on being slidy churned up. Came home soaked in sweat and stiff as if I'd been cross-country skiing, with arms aching from pushing the walker through the churned up snow and having to lift it bodily over the ridges. This will learn me, of course.

But I'd ordered a grocery delivery for tomorrow and wanted to see what I could get myself of those things that Loblaws does badly, like fingerling potatoes, and in case of substitutions, because Loblaws tends to run out of stuff on a regular basis. It had to be Loblaws because I need ibuprofen, and because a Sobey's truck won't fit on my street. Especially if, as I suspect, the recycle doesn't get picked up until tomorrow. Yes, they managed it after last February's dump, but we had more snow Sunday than last February.

My sadness is that I want flageolet beans, that food from my childhood. There are very few legumes I can eat safely- lima beans in small quantities, edamame at will, and flageolets. But nobody has them, no one at all, except amazon. And the only thing I will buy from amazon is books unavailable anywhere else.

Didn't want to get up this morning. Bed so warm, world so cold. Checked my phone in bed and saw 47 has taken to wearing a glove on his left hand to hide the bruising, like Cosmo Gilt. Yeah, could be because of aspirin use-- I used to get amazing bruises back in my aspirin and codeine days-- but someone cheerfully remarked that the Queen had a similar bruise on her hand when greeting Lettuce Liz, and two days later she was dead. Of course if he's taking aspirin he's less likely to have a stroke, which is unfortunate, but maybe the Big Macs will do for his heart.

Is still freezing out because wind chill. Went out and scraped packed snow off front walkway and a bit of the sidewalk, but there's ice underneath. It comes up if you hack at the right angle but that irritates my touchy neck vertebrae so I couldn't finish. Removed a bit of the snow mountain in front of the bins and the gas meter. Bins aren't going out any time soon and new company is making noises about not taking bagged recycling like the city used to, but the gas reader is coming next week. Mind, the gas co. should just do another estimate this month and cut their losses.

Reading is still Dr. Siri but I wanted a break and some easily understood classical English mystery, so I got a .99 special (and why doesn't this keyboard have a cents sign? I can have £ and € and ¥, but cents, no.) It was very silly and I deleted it from my account so I don't even know what it was called. Then had recourse to a Dr. Priestley, but Rhode has a verbal tick that increasingly grates. Whenever a witness is asked about an event, the answer begins with either 'I'll tell you how it was' or 'It was like this.' Ah well. Back to Dr. Siri.

Dead tree is Flora's Fury to get it off the shelf. I should read at least Flora's Dare to refresh the memory, but Libby doesn't have it and it's non-circulating at the library. Still, the world building is a lot of fun and I'm enjoying it.

Yeah, so that was 56 cm/ 22" downtown, setting a record for most snow in one day. The dump of '99 gave us three times that much but over a couple of days. My steps were obliterated last night when I went to bed and I got up this morning steeled to deal with them. No idea where I'd *put* the snow, of course, since heaving shovelfuls of even light powder is more than my elbows and back are up to. But after I'd breakfasted and stretched, I came down to find my blessèd neighbours had snowblown my walkways and steps. The blown snow was the height of my armpits. Snowploughs had created embankments on the street, and maybe bobcats, maybe really public-minded citizens had cleared the sidewalks-- or rather, reduced the snow cover to an inch or two-- as far as I could see. But corners will be impassable so no, not going out any time soon. DW reminds me that I was inside for ten days after the dump last year but SND texted me last night to say she'd pick me up anything I needed. I have wonderful neighbours, one of the many reasons I don't want to leave this neighbourhood.

But snow dumps are the reason I also want to lose weight and get my legs stronger so I can be mobile again. Thus I will not be asking SND to pick me up vodka once the city starts moving again.

No, sorry, that's no 7-10 cm out there. It's damn near the 30 cm/ 1 foot they said would happen with lake effect, if not in fact more. Can't tell with the wind blowing: my porch alone had 15 cm piled up on it. My good neighbour(s) (plural because both J and C have snowblowers-- saw them hobnobbing as they cleared their respective frontages) snowblew the front walkway and sidewalk some time this morning. I went out at noon and did the steps and the accumulation on the walkway. Four hours later I went out and removed a foot off the steps and six inches from the walkway. Came in and as I was taking off my boots good neighbour C came and cleaned my steps again. Yes it is snowing that hard. My icon is exactly what's happening. Am bitterly regretting that dry January I decided on.

My weather memory is off, which disturbs me. I keep thinking this amount of snow is unusual, but it's not. We had a lot last year, not just the big dump in February, a major snowstorm in 2022, and enough in 2023. It was only 2024 that was dry enough for shoes. And for that matter, we had a January thaw in the second week. It was 15 on my birthday.

A balmy 'feels like -9 / 16F' out there so, having survived the high winds and -20 of yesterday, thought to try my luck getting up to Loblaws, because of course tomorrow is Moar Snow. Again, not forecast to be the huge dump of elsewhere. 7-10 cm ie 2-4 inches, like Wednesday. But not easy to be out in and possibly making home delivery a problem, what with snow berms on either side of my street.

Walking wasn't too bad. Ice ridges in the street where snow plows dumped their loads but the corners themselves flattened enough to be passable. A few houses on my block had cut narrow passages for the able-bodied, a few hadn't shovelled at all, but the next block was clear all the way. Except it was clear because someone-- and it must have been the city's contracted snow cleaners because no one else has that kind of largesse-- had dumped piles of salt every few metres and then spread a cm over the entire sidewalk. I do not understand how any of this works, and I'm not even sure the city is still contracting their cleaning out.

Being on a Dr. Siri roll and having exhausted the paperback versions, got the next one in ebook from the library. (Parenthetically, this is a typical winter in that getting dead tree from the library is suspended until at least March.) But either the format or the actual three-strand plot of I Shot the Buddha had me beat. Half way through I had to go back and start again, and when finished, had to go back and reread several passages a third time. Almost as bad/ good as Diana Wynn Jones or early Ima Ichiko for twistiness. I think there are only three more of these so on I go.

I must assume it's the current political climate that has me all wibbly about the impending meteorological one. Polar vortices are nothing new in this town: we had one last year. But of course this year comes on top of snow dumps and is set to last till the end of January, not just a day or two and done.

It starts tonight so I went out in today's sunshine and relative warmth to stock up at Fiesta, even though it meant threadinng my way between ice berms and garbage bins. A bobcat had come up the street and done its best with those houses that couldn't be arsed to shovel last week's accumulation, but of course it had turned to unmoving ice by today. So three houses in a row had ice ridges in front. One or two other places put down salt that had begun to break up the ice, but that will all freeze again tonight. I do so wish I was still able-bodied enough to take my ice chopper to it, because I could have cleared it all in fifteen minutes. At least my side of the Greek gardener's corner lot was clear, though the Follis stretch looked untouched. But insult to injury, the actual corner had a great puddle that I was forced to wade through in my ancient leaky boots.

However am now reasonably set for the next week if I have to stay indoors. But I really need to get a massage for my twinging back since that's what's making moving difficult now. I have money for luxuries because my physio is on vacation next week, I can't get out to restaurants, I'm not buying alcohol, and my dental cleaning cost me $13-- not because of insurance but because I paid for something last year that insurance reimbursed half of, so I had a wodge of cash on account.

My brother texts me:

Snow, snow, go away
Come again some other day
Early August, shall we say?

I tell him the snow has its fingers in its ears singing La la la don't hear you. At least it wasn't the dump we had last week, just 5 or 6 centimetres ie 2 inches. I swept it from the steps and shovelled it from the walkway and sidewalk. More fell in the late afternoon, covering the steps, but the sidewalk remains clear. Either foot traffic or the city salting, though I haven't seen any bobcats. I might try getting out tomorrow, though now they're calling for gusty winds before the bipolar vortex comes back tomorrow night. And of course if I'm up at Loblaws I'll want to buy cream liqueur and if I go to Fiesta I'll want to buy cake, and I mustn't have either. Not merely calories: my innards really don't like alcohol but my spasming back muscles love it.

Have read nothing but Dr Siris because nothing else registers. Can't remember if I'm on 11 or 12 at the moment.

Made it to the dentist. Did not die, though I thought I might while waiting on College St for my cab. Wind tunnels at -10C will get you wind chills of -22, whatever that may be F, because 'forking freezing' is not a scientific measurement. Driver kept yawning since extreme cold also leads to somnolence. Am yawning now at quarter to six. Which may be fallout from the dentist or may be tiredness from getting up this morning when I first woke up. Seems I need the extra hours I get from sleeping in.

Cabs always come early so I had an hour to kill. Intended to get something from Tim's and then found I'd forgotten the toothbrush and paste I'd carefully put in a bag for this eventuality. Well, fine, shall mail that parcel I've had ready for weeks since there's a post office in the same building. Had the photo of my QR code for overseas customs declaration. But as ever the PO scanner couldn't read it and a 1 o'clock line was forming behind me. So I went to the side and filled out the form again on my phone-- and let me say, people who live on their phones must have different keyboards or smaller fingers than I, because writing anything on my android is a fiddly heartbreaking exercise. This goes double for Japanese addresses, but in the end my phone was completely readable. So this is what I'll do in future. Asked the clerk what people do who don't have smartphones and she said They just don't send parcels. I begin to lose sympathy for Canada Post. We won't mention sending anything to the US, with customs to be paid in advance via one app only. The customs thing is their current administration (quae delenda est) but I think the mandatory app is pure Canuck bureaucracy.

Because my kitchen floor is technically clean I went downstairs in bare feet this morning to weigh myself. Chuffed that I've lost that Christmas kilo and maybe a little extra. Which will probably not stay off because this evening I made satay peanut sauce to have with stir-fried carrots and cabbage and ohh yum I love peanut sauce. OTOH staying indoors means no alcohol and minimal sweet stuff, so maybe.

But I washed kitchen floor again because it still looks grungy, and bent to get at some of the deep corners. The floor never gets really clean unless I sit down on it and work square by square, which I no longer dare to do, with the Goof-off I no longer have. I also had a go at the front hallway which does look slightly better. Used a squeegee mop and a cut up waffle top that had finally got holey past repair, but for real cleaning you need a cloth diaper and the last one I had of those shredded long ago. Also am out of the acrylic stuff that gives vinyl tile a shine. However I should be pleased that I could do the crouch and push without knees and elbows screaming, or at least, not screaming today.

Hardy Canadian me looked at the sorta clear sidewalks from my window, looked at the weather forecast (3C now, temps dropping rapidly this evening), and put on her boots to go to the supermarket. Going was easy enough, even over the slush of the houses that had removed most but not all of Thursday's snow. Only had to detour once into the street, because the corner house at the end of the block was completely untouched. Suspect the Greek gardener is in Greece or something. But the opposite corner was passable and the Baptists, somehow getting their act together at long last, had cleared the whole width of the sidewalks on both sides of their lot. I'd say snowblower but there were no mounds of blown snow to be seen, so where they put it all is a mystery. Am grateful they did, whatever.

So now I have potatoes and swiss cheese and eggs to make omelets with, and lime juice to make peanut sauce for the cabbage (napa) and carrots I have from the greengrocer. Must boil the carrots first because they don't cook otherwise.

I did scrape the remains of the snow from my walkway and sidewalk this morning. Hope it dries before it freezes but I have salt and sand even if it does. Next door M (age 9) came out to try to shovel his front walk with minimal success because neither if their shovels has a metal edge, which is what you need for icy slush. I lent him my ice scraper which seems to have worked. But their front path has paving stones that makes it difficult to shovel things completely flat. There are benefits to mundane concrete aftercall.

Was out scraping packed down snow from the front sidewalk, now temps are however briefly above 'frozen solid', and had to step back for a gaggle of school kids coming up the street, lagging behind their impatient mother and dragging toboggans behind them. Shortly followed by NND and M heading out down the street with a toboggan. NND confirms that schools are still closed even though the streets are plowed. Whoever else may or may not be enjoying this old fashioned winter, the kids must surely be in heaven. A four day weekend and infinite tobogganing, how cool is that?

Garbage trucks did make it out this evening, though I shall be surprised if people then put their bins back. Still don't see me going out any time soon. See: snowploughs creating mountain ridges at all street corners. Or pools, since tomorrow will be above freezing. Cooked a turkey roll and did a dark wash and tried to get the kitchen floor clean with indifferent success, and that was my day.

Seeing it's going to be one of Those Winters. Did not put my recycling out last night, not least because the new recycling company have been less than efficient. Horror stories abound. Some neighbourhoods were skipped entirely last time, some they only took one side of the street and didn't come back for the other, one guy called to complain and a truck came by to pick up his recycling but not anyone else's on the street. There have been complaints, so our loathèd premier says Well if you downtown lefties don't like it, you handle the recycling yourselves. Conveniently forgetting that we've always handled our recycling and it was Ford's own idea to bring in a private company. I swear the man acts more like Trump everyday.

But mostly it was because another snowstorm was set to begin last night and begin it did. Hard to tell how much we got with the winds blowing the stuff around, but by day's end the roofs looked like a good eight inches/ 20 cm. My lovely neighbours did my steps and walkway while out snowblowing the sidewalk, but of course I had to go out and sweep/ shovel the new stuff, twice. It was light powder-- which it should be, given the vortex temperatures-- so sweepable enough, but my back still hates me doing it.

I had a dentist appt scheduled for next Wednesday so I booked my physio for Tuesday. Dentist calls me this morning asking can I come in Tuesday instead, so I said sure. Went to rebook my physio and she has nothing available for the next two weeks, and then she's away for a week. So now I'm on standby and fingers crossed, both that there'll be a cancellation and that I can get up the street to get to it.

And the recycle bins are still sitting in front of everyone's houses. Though-- NB, Mr. Ford-- the green bins were emptied promptly this morning by the old garbage company, even with six inches of snow.

Snow and freezing temps. I suppose I should go down to the basement and run a dribble of water to prevent freezing pipes, also to get my underwear before I run out. But hardy!Canuck me thinks it's wimpy for pipes to freeze at a mere -12C/10F and anyway I have underwear till Friday.

Finished a single Dr. Priestley, name and plot forgotten. (OK, Murder at Derivale, about a no-gooder killed by an obscure poison in the back of a truck.) Also vols. 2 to 4 of Siri Paiboun. Am rereading these as a 'get them out of the house' strategy. I know to skip the one set in Cambodia but did wind up reading the other I wanted to pass over. They have a lowering effect, not surprising in a series set in late 1970s Laos. Works as an object lesson, I guess: you think *now* is bad? Look how much worse it can get. But still, I should take a break. If I want mysteries entwined with weird bollocks, I now have the complete Max Carrados, in e-format yet, thanks to incandescens.

Continue with Da Vinci, a few pages at a time because I might actually learn something from it, just, the process is not being fun.

Something I don't quite get in Murderbot is the paranoia the general population seems to have about SecUnits going rogue. I say seems because it's possible Murderbot itself is just paranoid. But the theme does figure in its media so I suppose people really have this fear. And why? Here you have what's essentially a security system that's supposed to keep you alive as its main directive. For all intents and purposes, from most people's pov, it's just a superior robot. Getting wound up about what it might do is equivalent to fretting that Siri or Alexa will try to murder you using your smart house. Which is not why I don't have a smart house, or a Siri or an Alexa, but is still ridiculous.

Couldn't sleep last night in spite of exercise in the day. I refrained from checking my clock but will guess it was well after 3 when I got off and was awake at 9:15. Did not go back to sleep and paid for it with chronic semi-headache all day. Or could be the pressure changes from approaching fronts though the real change doesn't happen till tomorrow evening when temperatures plunge yet again, and the current rain turns to snow. House down the street had a crate of National Geographics out front, plus a box of mugs and glasses. I took a crystal wineglass and left the highball glasses, even though my body currently hates wine and I broke my one martini glass. I don't need incentives to drink. But I do hope the guys took those magazines back in, because periodically someone on the neighbourhood FBs will ask if anyone has magazines for school projects.

In January one must play Weather Roulette, with the usual disappointment when weather doesn't do what the forecast says it will, and equally when it does. Thought of getting a massage today but probs said snow so didn't book. There was no snow and sidewalks were still dry, but forecast said rain and snow all week, so I went up to Loblaws for everything I forgot to get on the weekend. And still forgot the Voltaren my doctor recommends for cysts because I'm running short. I must put everything into my phone or I will never remember what I need.

Because my downstairs stays cold unless the thermostat is bumped up to 21C/ 70F and because I am of a saving disposition when it comes to gas usage, I wear a jacket or a shawl when couch potatoing. But my indoor jacket doesn't zip anymore and the shawl keeps shifting about. So I pulled out a high end Polo hoodie my bro gave me yonks ago. I'm pretty sure it's the real deal because it has various features I've never encountered elsewhere, like velcro tabs where not needed. It's bright red and therefore goes with nothing else in my rose-pink and purple wardrobe, and of course at an early stage I got bleach on the sleeve. Consequently I don't wear it outside. But it works marvellously indoors and, as I discovered, under my winter coat when outside. Blow away, winds. I am now triple layered, and I have a hood that I'm not afraid to use. Bonus is that I can wear it with the red scarf that A. gave me years back, because I can't wear any of my neck warmers and cowls with it either. My other hoodies are ragbag ancient and only used as nightwear. I was debating getting a respectable hoodie for spring and autumn wear, but not buying cheap fashion from the dollar store is doubtless a virtue.

A bright blowy day and sidewalks still dry, so off I went in shoes to have eggs benedict. Temps were just at freezing: I should have checked the wind chill, because it was -11C/ 12F. Needed mitts over my gloves, which I did not have. Anyway, eggs were reasonable, though no one ever gets them the way I like ie soft but not runny inside. Kind people helped the walker in and out of Pauper's and I headed back west. And almost immediately turned around in the opposite direction because wind gusts and Mirvish Village high rises make walking both unpleasant and nearly impossible. Walked to the next stoplight and then through Annex streets and laneways to home. 5000 steps is the best I can do these days, shoes or not, because cysts and neuromas are just not fun at all.

And Bateman's Bicycles have closed their Bathurst shop and moved up to Eglinton so if I ever buy a city bike it will not be from them.

Not so belated, because it must have been delivered yesterday and slunk down in the mailbox, which annoyingly is just wide enough for a regular sized envelope to get stuck on its side at the bottom. Do people not think if these things? Anyway, was a thick envelope from the city, clearly my property taxes moan groan tremble, unless someone has factored in the 5% drop in housing prices in the last year. Though I think they've been factored already: I seem to recall a 200K drop in my assessment that took it to 'still badly overpriced' from 'are you effing joking??!!'

But is not my taxes. Is a utility bill for water and garbage. Um yeah. That would be the water meter reading I sent them after who knows how many years of estimated usage. People in this situation have been faced with high four figure adjustments so I was preparing for the worst. And the damage is... a credit on my account because I'd overpaid to the tune of nearly $150. So all is for the best in this best of all possible worlds.

Slept in today as my birthday treat, thought about staying in bed all day, but eventually got up after 11. Sun kept peeking out and temps soared to 10C/50F, stretching helped the iffy right leg, so out I went in blessed shoes and took a load to the laundromat. Downside of not doing this for a month and change was not being able to take everything so dressing gown, fleecy, etc will have to wait, but I do have clean hoodies now, so am content.

Bro messaged me this morning because FB was being weird and insisting we weren't friends. It's still saying that even though we can see each other's posts, so shrug. S-i-l is all holidayed out so meeting up will have to wait until she decompresses. Which is fine. Mild temps mean mucky sidewalks and the need to keep cleaning the walker's wheels. Mild temps did clear the sidewalks of snow but not the gutters so yeah, getting to cabs is not fun. Though I must get down to the subway station to see if the elevator is working at last.

Wild winds were blowing in a cold front by the time I came home amid wild grey November clouds, with golden patches on the horizon where the sun was going down.

No idea why both my knees should be having conniptions today but suspect the recurring Baker's cyst on the right one, oh dear. But went out in the one day only!! sun to return my library book at long last. It will be spring (10C/50F) and wet tomorrow and snow thereafter so will doubtless go back to my wonted lethargy. Some day I may get to the laundromat but that day will certainly not be tomorrow. Am relieved I was even able to get my dark wash from the basement.

Did have lunch at the Pour Boy, a cocktail and fried chicken sandwich that put me in a good humour. Bill was 29 and change with tax, I gave my attentive Vietnamese waitress a ten and a twenty and went merrily on my way-- until I realized, twelve feet up the block, that I hadn't tipped her. So had to go back to retrieve my ten and give her the twenty I should have given her in the first place. Very embarrassing. Ginkgo biloba has not taken hold yet, obviously.

And I feel lousy, actuallly.

Grey, dank, depressing weather doesn't help, of course.

Finished nothing but The Coroner's Lunch, first of the Dr. Siri Paiboun mysteries set in Laos in the mid-70s after the Communist revolution. Am currently reading the sequel, Thirty-three Teeth. Might as well stick the Anglo-Saxons and Leonardo in the donation pile, because I doubt they'll tell me anything I'll remember. The A-Ses are all about church buildings for pages and pages, and do I care? Leonardo is maybe he did this or possibly he did that, and I came here for biography, not speculation.

More snow, of course, if not the dump other places got. When I finally got out I discovered that SND's fiancé had shovelled my sidewalk, front walk and steps, so I was happily spared that task. Dull grey dank made things hurt enough that I wasn't looking forward to it. Temps are supposed to rise in the next few days, with rain of course, but it may clear the snow the way the warmup a week ago did. Or we might get freezing rain, which I shall hope also avoids us.

Otherwise sat indoors and did nothing but a dark wash.

Profile

flemmings

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags

The rodents are running hurrah! hurrah!

Recent Entries

Expand Cut Tags