I HAVE A BEEF

Thanks to Covid, I am continuing my normal life, but blaming it on the virus.  I am in my chair, having eaten a way too fattening breakfast, watching a stupid movie and writing on my lappy. Happy happy happy!!!

I had to laugh.  I was talking to Tandy the other day and she mentioned that Kevin had the kids out for a forest walk. She was kind of amazed at how long he could stay in the house and not go anywhere.  He responded, "I have been preparing my whole life for this!"  Hahahaha!!!!  OMG!!!  The apple doesn't fall far from the tree.  As I said before Monte's life and mine haven't change a whit....and clearly neither has Kevin's!!!  We are def basement dwellers.

So my beef....you have to understand though, my world is very small, therefore very small things can become big.  I have kind of started to watch crap movies on the women's channel or elsewhere and my beef is this.  All the men look the same.  Same hair.  Same clothes.  Same face.  Seriously!  I cannot tell them apart!  And at times..the women too.  Its like watching a movie with clones of each other.  Makes it hard to keep things straight!  I need to watch the older movies where everybody was an individual with individual looks.

So now, on rereading this for mistakes, I can see that my beef is totally unimportant, especially when so many serious things are going on in the world.  I just don't want to talk about the virus, and the financial state of the state, or death and dying....we get a lot amounts of that everywhere.

So Graeme has snuck out of his room and is standing at the top of the stairs, barely six feet away. Grrrrr......I am going to yell at him to get down the hall!  I love yelling at him!  Hahaha!!  Poor guy.  Oh jeez!  He has been stuck in that room for two weeks now.  But his breathing is still hard and he says his chest congestion is a five out of ten...so he has to stay in his room for longer.  But in the meantime its fun to boss him around and yell at him.  Hahahaha!  Gotta find your fun somewhere...why not Graeme? I ask.  (I need something that is the opposite of shovel list.  I will think about that). I love you Graeme.

Okay now Pete and I are watching Gone with the Wind!!!!!!!!!  Can we say MELLYDRAM!!!??  I remember every single thing about the story.  I read the book but didn't see the movie and it seems to be following the story exactly.  This is exciting!  TTYL....Keep safe Peeps!!!

THE EXCITING MOMENTS IN MY LIFE

Now let's see......I scared the shit out of myself this morning.  I accidentally read an article that snuck in in my email.  I didn't think it was about covid, but guess what?  I was wrooooonnnngggg....(shovel list)

According to the headline it was about blood pressure drugs.  I know there has been talk about cancer causing stuff in them so I decided to read the article.  And now part of me is glad to have the heads up it gave me but now I am genuinely scared, not a feeling I am used to. (except when I have to have a body probing medical procedure, then I turn into a bowl full of jelly)

The long and the short of it is this....blood pressure medication, diabetes medication, heart medication and cholesterol medication....are basically the reason old people are dying from covid virus.  Something in the virus bonds with stuff the meds leave in the lower respiratory tract and take it to the lungs, causing double pneumonia and respiratory failure.  I am taking all four of those meds, double types for two of them.

  One good thing thats come out of this is I have doubled down on how careful I am being.  We do have a covid case here in the house, who, bless him, is being super careful and considerate.  I gotta admit, I am really feeling like I am waiting for the axe to fall now.  But he's basically had it for 11 days and so far so good.

We have watched some movies.  Blue Velvet.....holy crap!!!!  A David Lynch graphic creepy movie that I don't get.  Dr. Zivago (sp?), a beautifully shot classic that totally reminded me of my Gramma, The Big Labowski, so funny and awesome!  I love Jeff Bridges.  Now I am about to watch the third season of the Ozarks...one of the best tv shows I have watched.  I am really looking forward to it.

I am reading books.  First a heavy philosophical one then a fiction lighter one.  Right now I am on a lighter one.  Or so I say but holy moly such a good book.  Its written in the first person and she is a self admitted (and proud of it) sociopath.  What an interesting page turner!!!  Its a super good story too, not just inside a sicko's head.  I shall write a favourable review.  The last fiction I read was awful and I didn't hold back when reviewing.

Well thats all I got.  Not really cooking tonight.  Maybe some tortellini with a bottled sauce.  Big cop out but I don't feel like cooking.  TTYL

I HAVE QUIT

Honestly, I am just plain tired of the whole covid thing, as is everybody I am sure.  I know that this is probably a really selfish attitude, but I have run out of caring anymore.  I don't care if people hoard (mostly because I understand why they do), I don't care anymore if peeps go out and congregate, I do care about how the curve isn't flattening but I don't want to hear about it anymore, I sure don't care what Trump does or doesn't do, I just don't want to think about it anymore.  And because I am a lazy cow, attached to my big comfy chair, lappy and tv, my life hasn't changed a whole bunch.

My email box is constantly filling with insincere syrupy messages from every big corporation or bank that I have ever had a two second dealing with telling me how much they care about each and every one of us and how they can help us.  Blech!!!!

And the news, other than repeated and repeated stuff about the growing numbers of deaths and doom and disease, are now talking about how horrible banks and lenders are for not letting people off the hook for their pmts, that they actually will want those pmts back down the road when things are better.  People, please, get out a dictionary and read the definition of deferment.

So I am checking out.  I am staying off social media til its over.  I am not watching the news anymore.  I am not watching talk shows.  I am not going out.  I am not reading my news emails.  I am done and am going to my happy place.

Graeme was supposed to be able to come out today.  Its been three days since his symptoms left.  But he has developed a sore throat and is coughing a little so he has self imposed quarantine again.  Poor guy.

But.....that being said, that bugger, every time he comes out of his room to go to the loo or something, he screeches, super really loud, "HEEELLLEEEENNN!!!!" and scares the shit out of me.  Honest to God!!!!  I tell ya I am going to get my giant huge wooden spoon out and I am going to hit him with it!!!  Right now it has 'Monte's Spanking Stick' written on it.  It used to say 'Jennifer's Spanking Stick'.  Jennifer is crossed off and Monte on there.  I am going to cross off her name and put Graeme on it AND USE IT ON HIM!!!!!

Anton sent me an email!!!!!!!  First one!!!!!  I couldn't believe my eyes!!!  It was long and newsy and almost made us cry.  He is doing super well and he sent his love to everyone he met through us.  Anne, Kathy, April, Kevin, Peter, Graeme etc...And our little sweet Anton is living with a girlfriend now...in St. Petersburg.  Can you believe that?  He spent time with his parents in Soche a few months ago.  Its a hot climate resort town and he said he had a good time with them.  He lives near his brother and sees him lots.  I don't think he is working but I'm not sure, he didn't elaborate.  It was so good to hear from him.

Well the sun is shining.  And its hot!!  I think we will have to be extra careful this year with the UV UB rays.  With no planes flying there isn't the pollution up there protecting us at least a little!  I might even get some sunscreen...if it hasn't all been hoarded!!!  Peter walks.  A lot.  And his face is all tanned and brown!  Healthy looking!

I think we are going to go for another nature jaunt...in Gladdy.  We are going to head out to Cathedral Park, maybe tomorrow.  Hopefully the weather will hold.  Of course it may be too crowded.  If so we will find a logging road to pull off onto.  I want to collect some river rock.  I have decided to put some plastic down along the flower beds outside the front of the house, mixed with driftwood.  Bill and I always collected rocks on our jaunts.  I am still hell bent on buying and planting a weeping willow in the corner of the front lawn.  I love them.  In the other corner I want to plant a pink dog wood...the one Jan bought us died.  The stupid people that bought our Langford house let it die.  I shall replace it here.

Well enough self imposed utopia.  Take care people...you are loved.  TTYL

POOR GRAEME.....IN EXCILE ON THE DECK

ON THE BEACH

No not us.  We still have two sick boys, confined mostly to their rooms.  Peter and I have been out, not where people are by the way, but not on a beach.

Us older folk may remember reading Neville Shute's book "On The Beach".  An atomic third world war broke out in the Middle East and the toxic killer radio active atmosphere was going to reach Australia in about six months....and they, in Australia would die.

Well living in a house with two covid-19 victims is a little like that.  Waiting for the axe to fall. Each morning when I wake up I do a quick check, throat, head, temperature, all fine thank God!!  At night Peter and I go 'well there's another good day!'

One time in Kamloops Costco, I bought make up remover wipes in those sealed packages with a little door on the top, like baby wipes.  There were at least a dozen of them.  I have ended up simply not using them, any of them, and April can't use them due to allergies.

Well I hauled them out, made a solution of one part bleach and ten parts water, opened that little door at the top and poured the solution into it.  Now I have sterile wipes, which I try to use every time Graeme uses the john and Monte comes upstairs.  Poor Graeme has been stuck in his room for some time now and even when he is better he has to stay there for three more days after that.  Monte comes up to get food then goes right back down.  Really sucks for them.

We are now having strange dinners.  It's not quite sardines and capers yet but we are getting there.  Tonight its marinated tofu, buffalo wings, frozen corn and candied yams.  I am out of green stuff and I don't even really want to ask Peter to go to the store.  Other than these things my life hasn't changed a whole bunch.  My chair and tv and phone and laptop are right where I like 'em, and I feel great....so far.  I am well aware of that axe over my head though.

The two biggest upsides to all this as I see it is:

1.  No pollution.  With way fewer cars and no airplane traffic to speak of, our skies and air are rapidly cleaning up!  Can't complain about that!

2.  As much as I am a fan of competition reality shows like Survivor, Ink Master, Alone etc....I am really okay with the one type of reality show that has had to back off....and that's sports!  No basketball, baseball, football, hockey.....no silly little men running after balls and pucks to do silly things with them if they get control of them.  At least shows like Survivor takes mental strategy, Ink Master takes extreme artistic talent, Alone takes extreme survival skills etc.......

So all in all other than washing down the house three or four times a day with bleach, life isn't a whole lot different.  Pete and I escaped onto logging roads yesterday and it was beautiful and healing and almost no people.  I shall put some pics below for those I am not fb friends with.  We had such a fantastic day!  Take care of yourselves and each other.  TTYL

supper with Arnie and Dorothy

delicious FISH PIE!!!!

TWO DOWN.....TWO TO GO. SIGH. (BUCKET LIST)

One swears he has it and the other swears he doesn't.  And it's hard to tell.  Graeme, the one who figures he has it, is the one that got the most awful headache.  Plus he is sneezing and coughing a little and having a hard time getting his breath.  And he gets really bad allergies so it's hard to tell.  Monte on the other hand has had a headache and feels dizzy and sick.  So I don't know.  We are going to presume they have it.  No fevers though.  I don't know....

I can't remember if I mentioned this or not, but after buying a fifty pound bag of flour at Costco and getting it home, Graeme noticed that it was sugar, not flour.  Damn!!! And I had nowhere to put it except behind the couch where Wrangler sleeps.  It has to go back as soon as this virus stops its stranglehold on us.  Or maybe, as Graeme suggested, go to the food bank.

This morning Peter and I were sitting here in the living room kabissbing away when we heard a noise.  Then we heard it again.  It definitely was ripping paper!  Coming from behind the couch!!!! Peter leapt up and roared over there and there was Wrangler delicately ripping the paper on the side of that fifty pound bag of sugar!!!  WTH????  He was unwrapping it like his Xmas present!!!!  So Pete grabbed it and it did leak all over the floor, but just a little.  What if we weren't here?  OMG!!!  The mess!!!!  And why now?  That thing has been there for a couple of weeks now!  So that sucker is ours now.  If you need sugar, just let me know.  We use about four cups a year, never mind fifty pounds!!!!!

I figure though that now that there are a couple of extra mouths around I should use some of that sugar in baking.  So this afternoon I am going to make something that neither Graeme or Peter have ever had.  Gingerbread Cake! Can you believe they have never had gingerbread cake?  And I have a bag of lemons so I am going to make a lemon sauce, kind of traditional, to go with it.  I will take pics and post them here.

So there is absolutely nothing else to report.  Take care of yourselves and I will report back about the cake.  Who knows they might hate it!  TTYL

PICS THIS TIME

I have not much to report so I thought I would throw some pics on here.  I don't have many of those either, at least new ones.  I am not sure what to report when I don't go anywhere and nothing is happening.  I am reading four really good books.  Ummm....the house is pretty clean and my laundry is all done.  Graeme is in Vancouver right now and Pete is in Victoria.  It just happens that its a long wait between disability cheques this month, six weeks when usually its 4 weeks, so I am getting hit up by Port Alberni peeps I know for money. It's like I am the Bank of Port Alberni. 

We drove to Nanaimo today to take Graeme to the ferry.  Got some pics on my D90 so I can't easily put them here.

Tomorrow, if it's beautiful like today, I think Monte and I will go find a place to have Weiner roasts in the future.  Okay thats all I got.  Sorry.  TTYL

A SCARY SWIMMING POOL UP HIGH IN SINGAPORE

THE BOYS FOOLING AROUND MAKING A MOCKERY OF THE HOARDERS

MY WALLPAPER THATS COMING YET

A BARENAKED WEIRD BIRD IN CAMBODIA. I THOUGHT IT WAS A CHICKEN TIL I LOOKED AT IT'S BILL

I DO BELIEVE THIS IS A PIC OF ME EATING THOSE AMAZING FALAFELS IN PARIS

MONTE SHOWING ME HOW TO MANEUVER AROUND MY KINDLE

CRAZY TIMES!!!!!!

The most interesting part of all this covid thingy is watching how different people react.  Some of our crew have the most outrageous conspiracy theories!  Honestly!  How can people be so silly.

  If you go to China it's almost predictable....the lack of control over their body fluids and the lack of control over the animals they eat and the crowded conditions...I am surprised it hasn't happened sooner. Oh yeah it did. Sars, CNN flu. I doubt very much that anyone purposely sniffed bats and then ran around the country spreading a virus.  Jeesh!!!

The only real nod I have made to the virus is I cancelled the party.  Ostensibly because of the virus but really because I didn't feel like making a vast vat of spaghetti.  Plus Monte has been sick.  Turned out he had a UTI, a pretty bad one.  He tried to go to his doctor but there was a five hour wait.  He tried to go to the clinic but they weren't taking anymore customers.  So he ended up at the hospital where he had a really long wait but at least they have a coffee shop, piano and lots of space between people.  He was given heavy duty antibiotics and is feeling a whole lot better.

I also stacked up on turrlet paper.  Yes, I will admit I jumped on that band wagon.  Mostly because it was on sale at Walmart and I know for a fact it would double in price as time goes on.  Plus I don't mind hunkering down and making do with shortages of everything else but finding a substitute for toilet paper is not at the top of my list.  And with three boys in the house.....well it disappears pretty quickly.

So I have been telling my family that I am pretty sure I have the beginnings of dementia.  They don't believe me!  But I just know it!

Here are some of the signs.  I keep buying mayonnaise (amongst other repeat purchases, completely forgetting I already have ten in the cupboard).  Monte called me over to the pantry the other day and there were three, THREE, giant mayonnaise lined up on the shelf. That might not actually be dementia...it could be my irrational fear of running out of mayonnaise.

And speaking of mayo, I made Caesar salad dressing last nite.  It was a little strong so I decided to get out the mayo and add a little more.  I couldn't find it.  I took the fridge apart looking for it.  The kitchen was super clean and I could see it wasn't sitting out, I had put it away.  I seriously couldn't find it.  Until I finally started looking in the most unlikely places it would be.  I eventually found it sitting up high on one of the shelves in the kitchen.  Right where it doesn't belong.  Thats a sign!

And I never remember I put a load in the washer, not til its days later and all smelly.  Then I wash it again.  Then I forget again.  Then I wash it again...seriously, sometimes I have washed a load up to five times over a month.  The boys eventually remind me cuz they need the machine.  That might be laziness though.

And the worst one of all...?  I keep forgetting completely that I am not eating too many carbs and calories.  (I won't say dieting....that word is very high up on my shovel list).  So I will gorf down something evilly delicious and forbidden then go Damn!!!  I forgot again.

I think I am going to start doing what my mom did.  As she developed dementia over time, much to her chagrin, she would take a calendar and put it into a duo tang and then write everything down. Now my life is mind numbingly boring and uneventful but I think I will start now while its simple.  You never know I just might get a busy appointmenty (huge big ginormously on the bucket list) life and when that happens I shall be practiced and ready.

Well I gotta bounce.  I am pretty sure there is something I have to be doing.  TTYL....stay away from humans and wash your hands!!!!!  Oh, I remembered to put the garbage out this morning at an ungodly hour so that's a pretty good sign I think!!!  (I admit though I heard Harry next door putting his out, kinda helped)

MY PURPLE ROOM IS PURPLE!!!!!!!!!!

My room is now purple!!!  Thank you thank you to Bradley ordering everything and Graeme doing all the painting!  And he is one of the neatest painters I have ever come across.  When he was finished there was not one drop of paint anywhere, not even on the drop cloth, not one over run on the walls and not one smooch on the ceiling.  I couldn't believe it!  I am so grateful.  Usually when I am involved in painting there is purple footprints everywhere.  And the basement didn't flood with purple water this time either!  And I was very distracted with extreme hunger.

Now I am waiting for the wall paper.  I will put a pic below.  The gorgeous colour of the purple really shows up the dinginess of the brown drab old wallpaper.  And the new wall paper, for just one small wall, cost more than all the paint and stuff needed to paint cost.  Jeez!!!

Peter and I are on the last day of a three day fast....just to see if we can do it.  It's a really good mental strength practice.  Not easy.  The first day is okay cuz you are all motivated and gung ho.  The second day, around noon, you start getting hungry and you start thinking...what the hell was I thinking?  This is stupid and useless and jeez all I want is a chilli dog and a glass of orange juice.  Today I just want to toss it!!!  But we shall see it through and then be proud and wonder if being proud makes up for being friggin hungry.

Tomorrow we are off to town again.  Costco!  I need to get the stuff for the next dinner party.  We are absolutely going to eat poutine and hot dogs as soon as we get there!!!!

The party has changed.  Instead of Monte getting his night of Maui Luau, salmon burgers, we are having a birthday party for Graeme.  So its baked spaghetti, home baked bread for garlic bread, Caesar salad and birthday cake.  Most of the ingredients must come from Costco.  I just want to eat!


Well now I must write an unhappy email to my family.  I just can't afford, at the moment, to take a trip to Vancouver, Penticton and Kamloops right now.  And I am going to have to tell Jennifer that I can't afford her plane ticket out for a visit right now either.  I feel bad.  But I just forked out money for the jeep insurance, over seven thousand for the rest of my income tax instalment pmts (at least my taxes for last year will be covered now) and now I have to get my property taxes together.  Sigh.  (big time shovel list). 

But truthfully I am happy to stay put too.  And I am happy to be on a budget.  I am waaaaay more comfortable being on a budget.  I have always lived on a budget...way more my default setting.  Anywhooo, time to go.  TTYL

GRAEME...BLESS HIS HEART....GETTING STARTED

MY WALLPAPER CHOICE

YOU CAN SEE HOW DINGY THE OLD STUFF IS

BONE BROTH AND BAD HIPS AND AWFUL FAT LADY CLOTHES

I love living in Port Alberni, as I have said here before.  But there are some drawbacks.

For example, eyeglasses.  You can either go to the couple of places here in town and pay through the nose.  Or drive to Nanaimo, an hour away, to much more reasonable Lens Crafters.

Fat Lady clothes, I seriously wonder what fat women do who don't own cars!  Like, how do they get to Nanaimo to the Fat Lady stores?  You know what?  They are stuck with Walmart and that's just sad.  Walmart clothes are horrendous!  Their fave material they use for dresses and blouses have pineapples on them.  Pineapples.  Thats just cruel.

Ethnic ingredients? forget it.  Even our Save on doesn't carry the ethnic stuff they carry in the larger metropolises.  You know when you need five spice, oregano just ain't gonna cut it.

It's kind of annoying.  Reminds me of Maui.  There was so much you just couldn't get.  But then last night the setting sun turned our sky the most incredible pink and dark grey, colouring the amazing mountains outside my front room window a colour I don't think I have ever seen before.  Absolutely stunning...and totally makes up for any shortcomings in this town.

Well Peter and I are mentally gearing up for another three day fast.  He is so skinny you can almost see through him but he treats this as a mental exercise, which it certainly is.  With the fast in mind, I picked up a load of chicken broth and beef broth.  I did not go for the bone broth.  

I read some articles, research, from totally reliable sources like Prevention and Popular Science etc... about the extra healthy properties of bone broth verses Campbells type broths.  And there were exactly none.  Broth is broth.  Those companies make the broths they sell the same way we would at home with bones and whatever else you want to add.  So I go with Campbells, cheaper for sure, and in my opinion much tastier.  If you get the low sodium one and add a wee squeeze of lemon its delicious.

It was a quiet non eventful week.  We did drive to Nanaimo for dinner and a movie.  We went to Ricky's and had a very sub tasting meal.  Won't be going back there.  We discovered a Whitespot was just across the street.  Should have gone there.  We then went to see Sonic...a very fun crazy movie.  The theatre was plumb full of very well behaved children.  We don't see kids in our life much anymore so it was kind of a treat to hear all those little voices.  Mind you I don't think I would have taken my kids to this movie.  It was pretty scary and violent at times.  We sure had fun.

We take Wrangler with us when we go to town.  If something happened there isn't one person in this town that we know who actually drives.  So poor old Wrangler would be stranded.

But I think maybe the long spell of inactivity in the van is hard on his hind end.  When we got back from the Costco run he couldn't make it up the front steps.  Since then Peter has been taking him for enough walks to keep him limber, but not so many that he can't function after.  I'm not sure what we will do when he can't do the stairs anymore.  Maybe we will have to put the dog ramp along the stairs and help pull him up.  He is getting old.  :(

Okay I'm killing this here.  A very boring post.  But not much has happened but I thought I should check in anyway.  Wish us luck with the fasting.  It's never very pleasant.  TTYL