Saturday 24 December 2016

Fingers Crossed

Hoping I don't get any coal in my stocking this year.  I like to think I've been good (enough)!


Friday 23 December 2016

Grumble, Grumble, Lesson Learned, Grumble

Well, I learned the hard way this week on why not to go inexpensive on things.

Like, dollar store tape and wrapping supplies.  Seems like a good idea right?  Save a few bucks and not waste the good tape?

Except no.  Not even slightly.  Because the dollar store tape (which, I miss when dollar stores were actually a dollar by the way) doesn't actually rip, or stick, or do anything useful or helpful at all ARGH.  And then the ribbon doesn't do that fun curling thing it just kind of twists... sort of.  And the bag of bows turns out to be U G L Y YOU AIN'T GOT NOT ALIBI and, well, the frustration just wasn't worth it and I pulled out my "good" tape and finished the job, but in a not terribly good mood.  Bah.

And I've been eying some Bodum brand tea strainer mugs for a while but they always seem just too expensive to justify, so when I saw the store brand for a similar thing was on sale, I bought it.  YAY!

Except, no.  The glass is so thin you can't actually use the mug when the tea is hot, oh dear.

I have a few Bodum glass mugs and they're double paned and the difference between the generic one and the Bodum one is beyond....

Sigh.

So I guess I've reminded myself that saving a few dollars instead of getting the more expensive, but better made thing actually ends up not being worth having spent any money on at all.

Anyone want a not very good tea mug?  I'll leave it at the banana peel tree.  (But not really... but seriously, I don't think it's usable.  Sigh.)

Thursday 22 December 2016

Ew

One of my favourite things about this time of year is mandarin oranges.

Sometimes you get one that is overly dry or has seeds (I can't handle seeds in oranges!) or tastes bad or has gone off or something, but this is the first time I've ever had some that I had to get rid of before I even peeled them.

The last bunch of oranges I bought smelled terribly of whatever preservative they were sprayed with.

Moth balls is as close as I can come to describing the smell, and I tried washing them and letting them air out and it wasn't all of them (they were loose, not from a box) and I ended up just throwing out (composting) the ones where the smell was just not going away.

I have a friend who works in produce and I could ask him what the deal was but I think I probably don't want to know, but man... that was unsettling and disturbing and most of all pretty darn gross.

Ick.

Wednesday 21 December 2016

Phew

It's Winter Solstice today.  That mid-Winter moment when we shift from the days getting shorter, to the days turning back towards getting longer.

If you celebrate Solstice, or Yule or something else around this time of year, I wish you a joyous celebration.

I like Solstice.  It's a reminder that time keeps pressing forward and there is beauty in the lighting of lights in the darkest times.

Yes, both literally and metaphorically.

So here's to the shortest day of the year... light wise... and here's to the days getting longer in this endless pendulum of daylight.

We made it!  See you next year short days!

Tuesday 20 December 2016

Winter

This can be a hard time of year for people for a number of reasons. 

I just wanted to take a moment to say that if you're having a hard time, for any reason at all, please reach out to someone.

If you can't reach out to your family or friends, there are resources online that you can contact or call.  Please do that.  Things can get better.  Talk to someone.  And know that you're loved.

Take care of you, and if you can't, or don't want to any more, please reach out.  You're not alone.

Monday 19 December 2016

Oh... Right.

To file in the list of things I'd never really considered... tea... expands.

Like, I'm sure a bunch of you are shaking your heads and/or rolling your eyes at me right now but seriously!  I didn't know!

Up until recently, I've always used tea bags (not a huge tea drinker particularly) and well, that's just that.  Put it in the mug, put in water, let it sit, take it out of the water (now tea), let it dry out a bit, compost.  Done.  *shrug*

A while ago, someone gave me some loose tea as a gift.  I got to liking it, and went downtown to one of the specialty tea stores (Silk Road) and bought me some more!  And then went back and got some other flavours (they're probably not called flavours but you know what I mean) and well, I feel kind of silly for just realizing that tea expands.

Like, I'll scoop some into the strainer thing and once it's done seeping, the strainer thing is full!  It took me a few times before I had that a-ha moment of OH!  It's dried... whatever, and the water .... expands the dry leaves and stuff and yeah.  Not really sure why this hadn't particularly occurred to me before.  Guess it's just not something I particularly paid attention to.

D'oh.

Saturday 17 December 2016

Where Is It???

So here's the thing.

I take a lot of stuff down to Burning Man.

I mean, I don't really, in some ways, but I also do.  And this year, with the additional week (or so) of camping on the way down, I took more camping type stuff than previous years.

When I had to fly home with my thrift store purchased suitcase, I left pretty much everything back in the van.

Which means I am constantly wondering where things are, and then realizing they're "down in a van in California"

Sigh.

Some of those things have been just minor annoyances.  Like batteries, or my second oven mitt.

But some, I'm now finding, I didn't think through when I went back to the van to rescue my undies and some socks.

Like, my fuzzy pjs.  (It gets quite cold in the desert at night)  I need them now.  I don't have them now.  I bought new ones. 

Sigh.

And like my long johns.  That I would really like to have right now, but can't find anywhere, so can only surmise they're.... packed somewhere in the van.

Or my hiking boots.

It's kind of impossible to hike in the slippery West Coast forests without boots that have traction.  (But I can't justify buying a new pair.)  I miss my boots.

And my pjs.

And other things I'm sure I've yet to discover are missing.

Jason thinks it's hilarious.  Wants to have a t-shirt made.

I just kind of want my stuff.

And don't even get me started on what state it might just all be in, having been sitting there, unwashed since August.

Sigh.

Friday 16 December 2016

Kindred

So in case you missed it, I went on a solo road trip to Burning Man this year.  As in, I drove there myself.  (I also tried to drive back by myself, but my van's "rear end" [heh] had other plans.  OH!  That reminds me what I was going to write about on Tuesday!  Hopefully I can remember for tomorrow, yay!*)

I did not enjoy the solo driving road trip.  Pretty much at all.  (Although the same way I hear some women swear childbirth is so painful they won't go through it again but then they sort of forget and, well, there's baby number two... I seem to be forgetting how awful it was, but that's neither here nor there right now.)

At some point during the week, I was hanging out with the new friends I'd made and they pointed to someone across the way.  "You should go talk to her, she came by herself as well."

So I did.  I walked over to this gal and I said hey, I'm Victoria.  The boys over there said I should come say hi, because you've come on a solo (female) road trip and I did too.

She looked at me, "You did?"  I nodded.  "Isn't it awful!?"

YES!  It is!  SO AWFUL!  And we hugged each other and I may have cried a little because yes, it was awful, and thank God someone else who'd been through it was saying it too!

I will forever be grateful to that woman.  For showing me that a solo road trip is totally allowed to suck and that it's totally ok to say so.

Meeting her, and her saying that, was one of the best moments of my burn.

Isn't it awful?

Yes.  Yes it is.

The end.





*I wrote myself a note, I got it.

Thursday 15 December 2016

Ahhh Hah Hah Hah Hah!

This photo just happened to be the next unused one I'd found in my flickr stream.  I used to try to find photos that went with whatever I was talking about, but then I killed this flickr account and stopped adding photos so... I started running out of unused ones.

Now I'm going through them (attempting to be systematic) to find ones that I haven't used yet, and, well, I've mentioned it before, but I'm going to run out at some point.  (Maybe that'll be quittin' time, who knows...anyway.)

So I had this one in the "next" lineup and I thought, you know what, that's actually really pretty.  And I stared at it for a while, looking at the nice colours and all that kinda stuff, when I scrolled down to double check I hadn't used it before, and that's when I noticed the comment...

"Cute cat :-)"

Followed a few minutes later (I assume) with

"Sorry, no idea what my phone is doing. lovely textures and colours. :-)"

Heh.  Cute cat.

Heh.

Wednesday 14 December 2016

The Things

I have a (short) list of things or stories or remembrances from Burning Man to tell you about, I just haven't had a whole lot of motivation to write them out.  I mean, I don't want to force myself to talk about them when I'm not in a good mood, you know?  Because then it might be like, ugh, so this thing?  Happened?  And it was kind of, like, ok I guess.  Sigh. Whatever.

But I do have a few little stories still to share.  Soon, I hope.  Because, yay?

Also, did I tell you about the really cold morning last week when I woke up and discovered that the radiators weren't radiating?  Yeah.. brrr.

I don't know if they're on a timer, or if the water heater/boiler thing can't keep up with .... demand (we're "free heat and hot water" in this building)?  I remember someone once telling me that the thermostat.... reader for the... uh... system was on the third floor so that if it's warm/hot up there, the rest of us don't get heat.  But.. that can't be right can it?

I mean, I have a dial on my radiators, I can open or close the valve, so shouldn't they just be on all the time at whatever "opening" I've set them to?  No? 

Am I missing something?

I miss having a resident manager in the building.  It was nice to be able to talk to someone who also lived here, rather than having to message someone who comes in once or twice a week to vacuum the halls.

So yeah, I guess I don't actually know how the heat in my place is regulated.  Wonder who I should ask?

Tuesday 13 December 2016

Oy, My Brain Forgot So I'll Babble Instead

By the time I'd scrolled my way through flickr to find a photo I hadn't used yet, I'd forgotten whatever it was I'd thought to talk about.  Sigh.

So it snowed last week.  Not enough to shut anything down, although some folks took a snow day the second round of white-stuff...

They say it's going to be cold this week, but I'm a little done with weather forecasts.  The last few times they've warned us of a massive event of some kind it hasn't happened.

I suppose that's the way of forecasting and perhaps it's better (for them) to be safe rather than sorry, but I feel like they (Environment Canada) didn't use to be *this* dramatic about things.

Meh. 

As I think I said last week, it was more the ice that was dangerous and difficult last week than the snow.  I actually ended up going and buying regular (thick grain, or whatever it's called) salt to do a corner by my place that no one shoveled, it was that bad.  (And the stores were all out of the "official" salt stuff.)

I'm struggling a lot right now when the days are bad ones.  Using my "light lamp" in the mornings, and on a new supplement (vitamin?  what do we call them?) with my acupuncturist that I think is helping a good amount.

Seems we're mid way through the month that somehow ends this year.  Weird.

Have a good Tuesday, y'all.  Or a good whatever day it is when you're reading this.  Have a good day.

Monday 12 December 2016

Oh Dear Lord

Could I *be* any more addicted to After Eights?

ARGH!

(Dear stores, please take them off Christmas sales, I refuse to buy them at full price... save me from myself!)

(But not really.)

(But yes please, really.)

(Oh no.... soon it'll be Cadbury Creme Eggs, I may be doomed!)

Friday 9 December 2016

Meh

I had a dream last night that was more of a nightmare and I'm exhausted today because of it.

Or, perhaps more because of not getting a restful sleep and all.

I don't exactly remember what it was except that I went out to my car (but not my car, you know how it goes) and it was late after work in the parking lot (upper deck of big lot kind of thing) and it was weird because there was a company (floral company?) van parked right next to me and I thought that was odd but shrugged it off and was sitting in my car checking a text before I got going and they (the bad guys) jumped me.  Or one was in my backseat and the other outside.  I think there were guns.

And I forget stuff but then I was hiding in the old building, or not old building but big and empty (cuz it's late after work of course) and hiding from them but trying not to get cornered and I dunno, my brain probably got that from some show I watched or something, but it was so exhausting and tiring and frightening that I woke myself up to get out of the dream/situation.  But then even though I'd woken up, every time I started to fall asleep again I'd end right back up where I'd left off in the dream (like a save point in a video game) so I'd just wake back up again and this seemed to go on and on... I have no idea what I did to stop it, actually, I just know I'm really really tired and wish I could go back to sleep.


Thursday 8 December 2016

D'Awwww

I thought about this the other day with my "types of rain" post, but didn't remember to share it until now!


Wednesday 7 December 2016

Random Snow/Cold Type Things

My favourite thing about cold days like this is coming home, putting on warm, fuzzy pjs and cozying under the blanket.  Being warm and cozy when it's cold is lovely and secure feeling.

The water in my water bottle stays nice and cold (which makes me assume the room is cold... but I can't tell because see above!)

The roads are not too bad.  Some have slippy parts, or very chunky icy parts, and some are utterly clear.  (Kind of weird actually.)  But the sidewalks are not so good!  I think I actually felt a lot safer in a car than I did walking.  The spots on the sidewalks that didn't get cleared are very slippery and difficult to navigate.  Not sure they'll be any better tomorrow as there was some melting and that will likely freeze overnight.

I'm appreciative of people who clean their sidewalks.  Yes, I know there are rules or bylaws or something, but I still appreciate it.  It makes a huge difference.

You know it's "actually" cold when I close my windows.  Sometimes even I have to sacrifice fresh, moving air for warmth.

Cars driving on ice-snow are very very loud.

Tuesday 6 December 2016

Squeeee

I'm writing this last night (which is funny to say, but I know this won't post until morning so... yeah) so I have no idea what's actually gone on over the last several hours but right now there's SNOW!

The snow that missed us two nights ago hit Vancouver, and they said "oh, maybe some mixed showers" but sometime around dinner last night it sort of... started snaining (NEW WORD!) and then that sort of turned into sleet, freezing pellets (I know cuz I went for a walk in it!) and then it turned into snow!

As I write this, things could go either way.  If it warms up (or stays about the temp it is now) things should be ok in the morning, if a bit messy or slippy.  It's fairly wet snow at the moment.  But if things freeze up at all, or freeze and then snow on top of that it could be quite ugly and possibly dangerous.

Not that I enjoy navigating in this town in the snow... I don't have much faith or trust in other drivers.  There never seems to be much middle ground between "timid and overly cautious" and "I CAN DRIVE REAL FAST IN THIS CUZ I HAS BIG TIRES N STUFF" sort of overly assertiveness.  Sigh.

I'm hoping that if it's not too nice, I can get away without driving, but who knows... as I say, by the time I wake up and this has published, allllllll of the night's weather will have happened.

I'm just happy to have any snow at all.  It's such a neat thing, and doesn't happen here all that often.

Happy dance (before bed.)

It's also funny to see how bright it is on nights when it snows.  All that white reflects the streetlights very nicely.

Monday 5 December 2016

Rain

Rain changes.

I say this because I was lying in bed last night, listening to the rain they'd told us might be snow, and then reneged on their promise, and the rain was hard.

It was hard and spiky and I got up to see if it was maybe slightly snow and I realized... rain changes.

Sometimes the rain is big and soft.  Fat drops that squelch into whatever they hit.

Sometimes it's a drizzle... a mist that sticks to you but doesn't actually fall, it just hovers in the air like a blanket you walk into.

Sometimes it's wetter than others, and sometimes it's slushy... not quite frozen enough to become something else, but not quite rain.  (I call that "snain"... snow/rain.)

So as I lay there last night, listening to the not quite snow hit sharp and small against the window I wondered how many people don't notice that rain changes.  That there isn't just one rain.

(And yes, I was hoping for snow, but it seems to have passed us by...)

Saturday 3 December 2016

A Little Light Distraction

In your understanding... how do zombies... zombie?

As in, do you think they are a virus? Do you automatically become one when you die or do you have to be bitten to become one?  How did they first start? 

And why do we assume they're going to make noise?  How?

I feel like I've asked this before... perhaps I have...but srsly.  What do you think?

Thursday 1 December 2016

The First

Here we are at the start of a new month.

A month that has.... a lot of feelings in it, around it, because of it....

May you be well this month, both emotionally and physically.

May you find joy and calmness.

May this month mean the best things it can to and for you.

Be well, my friends.... be well.