At some point, there'll be actual posts here

Busy with work stuff at the moment, though.

So... well, here's the last of the European Crocusses from my father's place. Next up will hopefully be daffodils (if I'm not missing them by not going in this weekend), maybe the odd tulip if I'm lucky, and the Prairie Crocusses.

Incidentally, if you're seeing crocusses and thinking that I've got one too many S's in there, don't worry. Spellcheck's telling me that. It just doesn't look right to me, that's all. Never has.



Off to do other things now. See you... maybe Monday? Well, we'll see.

Chapter 1559: Wherein Dee completely lacks a topic

But I do have a spider. That counts for something. I took that shot last weekend, and it was my first (well, one of three first) pointless spider photo of the season.

That means spring's here, you know.

Not that our weather would convince you, but apparently spring is actually here.

It hasn't given me the appetite for blogging, though. That, plus the continuing frustration of typing with a brace on explains this week's distinct lack of blather, if anyone was wondering.

I still have nothing by the way. Well, I have this link. Go ahead. Click on it. I promise that it's one of the neatest nature pictures you'll see today.

And I also promise that it's not a spider.

Although cool spider photos would be good, too. Maybe I'll get some this year. The blog was distinctly lacking in spiders last season, if I remember right.

Never a good thing.

And since I still have nothing and have managed to press the ALT key accidentally three times, I'm going to stop typing if that's all right with everyone. It's certainly all right with me...

At least the flowers are pretty

This'll probably be short because I don't really feel like blogging, I definitely don't feel like typing, and I'm a bit lacking in the sleep department. Not badly, but just enough to make me a little grumpy.

As I said above, at least the flowers are pretty... or will be, when they're fully opened. It's Early Blue Violets (Viola adunca), one of the first wildflowers to open around here, and one of my personal signs that allows me to believe that spring is really here and not just faking us out.

----------

On this Earth Day, I really have just one thing to say: we can't destroy this planet. As in, it's physically impossible to destroy the planet without taking unbelievably massive measures to do it. This planet will be here long after humanity isn't. Anyone who tells you that we can destroy the planet is wrong.

We can't destroy this planet.

We can, however, make it unlivable for our species. Ours, and many others besides.

Anyone else feel that maybe we should be thinking twice before we do that?

----------

In other news, I fulfilled my civic duty yesterday by going to the advance poll to vote in our provincial election. Here's hoping that everyone else does the same. And here's hoping that they put more than the usual Alberta-style thought into their choices when they make them.

I voted. For an MLA, that is. I didn't vote in the Senate election. I don't know any of those people or what they stand for, so I declined the ballot. Besides which, as important as it is to make your voice heard in a democratic system, it's completely pointless to vote for a... what do they call them here? senator-elect, or something stupid like that?... when the Senate in Canada is still an appointed body and all we in Alberta are doing is saying that this is who we think you should appoint. It's a complete exercise in pointlessness, and I suppose that means that it should have been explored more thoroughly on this blog.

It wasn't. I hate politics, especially the pointless kind.

Oh, and for anyone not in Canada who's wondering what I'm on about, the quick version: the Senate is the federal equivalent of the British House of Lords (there's no such thing as a provincial senate), and its members are appointed. My province likes to waste money by electing potential nominees which are almost always ignored by the federal government. Pointless politics at its most pointless.

And you're welcome to google for any further information if you're actually interested in any of this stuff. You'll not get more from me. This is about as much political talk as I'm willing to bother typing, what with the stupid wrist brace continually hitting the ALT key and all.

----------

Speaking of which, I think I've about lost my patience on the typing front. The wrist is achy and doesn't like to have any weight put on it, but I'm pretty sure that my hand isn't going to fall off so it's all good.

Type at you later.

At some point after tomorrow's political Festival Of Pointlessness, maybe.

The new neighbours

When I was getting ready for work yesterday I noticed some unusual activity in one of the trees next to the apartment building, so I had a closer look.

Then I grabbed my camera and headed out onto the balcony.

What you're seeing there, folks, is the start of a new and completely against building code unzoned house. Apparently someone's moving in.

Crows, in fact.

You can barely see the tail of the one in the photo (you'll have to click on it to see it at all, really) as it weaves a stick into the scaffolding (as is were). I'm pretty sure that there was nothing there at all yesterday, so these are definitely new new neighbours. I watched them for a little while before I went to the nature centre.They were keeping up a pretty steady conversation with each other as one would work on building and the other would be on the ground looking for more materials. I couldn't get a close enough look to see if they switched places when the searcher flew up to the nest with its latest find. Maybe one's the master builder and the other's just a gofer? I don't know. I'll have to do a bit of research, I guess.

I have a feeling that when my human neighbours find out that they're hosting squatters, the authorities (that is, Animal Control/Bylaw Enforcement) will be called and this pair will be "encouraged" to move on, but I sure hope not. In the first place, crows are fascinating and intelligent animals, and the nerd naturalist here would love a chance to spy on their home life. Um, just as an aside, years ago we had a magpie pair set up in a neighbouring tree that's since been removed. It was fantastic. No, really. It was.

I suppose that before I get too distracted I should mention the in the second place, right? The second place is a pretty big one, actually. Having a crow's nest right there is very likely to keep the BLOODY pigeons away from our balconies. And yes, I can easily tolerate the sound of complaining crows over the sound of cooing (and crapping) pigeons first thing in the morning as they try to nest under my barbecue yet again. I'd like to be able to unbarricade the barbecue and actually use it this year, in fact.

Seriously.

Please, crows, don't let anyone talk you out of staying, ok? I want my summer to be entertaining and my balcony to be flying rat free...





That'll be it for today from Yours Typingly Challenged, I'm afraid. The wrist? Well, obviously sprained. Not badly, but it looks like this is going to be annoying for a while, unfortunately.

Ah well.

Bug

No, today's pointless photo isn't of a bug. It wouldn't be pointless if it was, would it?

The Bug in the title is to encourage audience participation. You're meant to add the ger bit yourself.

Everybody's got it now, right?

So what happened yesterday that's causing me difficulty typing today (you knew I was having difficulty typing, I'm assuming) is that yesterday's program group showed up at 12:35 pm. I was expecting them at 2:00 pm.

That was a problem.

You see, the teacher had discussed two different times with our booking clerk, agreed on one time, and then apparently wrote down the other time. So big deal, right? I'm an old pro at this. I just get things together and do the program at 12:35 instead, naturally. Except.

Oh, except.

Except that they'd booked the planetarium, and the planetarium takes at least twenty minutes to set up. Or would have taken twenty minutes if I hadn't had to wait for the incandescent lights in the program room to cool down first. The planetarium tent reaches nearly to the ceiling, unfortunately, and melty bits in the expensive tent just aren't a good idea.

Ah well. Lights off and cooled, equipment moved in quickly (and the next time anyone around here makes fun of me for my usual habit of being almost stupidly early in my program set-up, I'm going to remind them of yesterday, otherwise known as The One Day That I Wasn't), shipping crates hauled off of platform dolly (oh, and for those who've heard me mention the mobile planetarium before but have no idea of the size of the thing, when it's packed up it's in three shipping crates -- one of which is large enough to need its own wheels -- and a hockey-equipment-sized duffel), things shuffled around in a hurry, crate picked up at an angle, wrist wrenched...

Yeah. Whence, bugger.

I should never be rushed, you know. I'm too left-handed to be safe to society when I'm rushed.

Anyway, the old injury is officially aggravated, I seem to have a bit of a sprain, and I'm currently trying to type with my brace on. Any of my two fans who've been here for a while know that my brace is fine except for the part where the curve in the lower stay tends to hit the window or alt keys on the keyboard as I type. This post's been interrupted several times by mystery screens popping up, I can assure you.

And for anyone worried that I might have done myself some serious damage, don't be. I don't think I have. I'll just try not to do any more damage in the next while, and the silly brace is actually as much a good way to remind myself of that as it is a bandage. Erm, if you know what I mean.

Going now. Tired of fighting the inadvertent pop-ups.

You can't hiiide yer cryin' eye

Theme of the week, but this needs to be short because I have things that need to be done before this afternoon's program. Oh, and the photo? Taken April 6th. This tulip has either budded or been eaten by now. I'm betting on eaten.

Aaanyway. Today's weird title is a veiled complaint that I'm going to unveil for you now. I have a weepy eye. My left one, in fact. It's been that way for months, and I've no idea why. Screwed-up tear duct, maybe, or maybe half of my face is severely depressed. Either way, there are days (not always, thank Whomever) that I'm a virtual tap, and it's annoying.

Today's one of those days.

One thing those of you who've never had a (and the singular's important here) runny eye might not know is that when you have just one eye running you also end up with just one nostril dripping.

TMI? Don't care, really.

Gotta go now, anyway.





Bet you're glad you stopped by today, aren't you.

Condiments

But first...

This was the last of last year's leaves left on the apple tree. I thought it deserved commemoration.

----------

Do you think a person's condiments tells you anything about them? I'm thinking specifically of the stuff that you generally find on the door when you open a person's fridge. Do you think that the assorted collection of weird bottles and jars says anything about a person's personality, or is it just an indicator of the person's cultural background?

Does it tell you what a person likes... or just how boring (or not boring) they are?

There's not going to be any big revelation behind these questions, by the way. I was just thinking about it yesterday as I reached for the Lea & Perrins (for my scrambled eggs, if anyone wondered. And don't knock it 'til you've tried it). Would someone draw conclusions about me just from the stuff on the door?

Probably. It's what we humans do.

May as well draw some conclusions about me, then, because I need to get back to work and this particular blather is going to end with THE LIST and no smartass comments after. Here goes, then:

•  Ketchup
• Mustard
• Barbecue sauce (hickory smoke flavour, if you must know)
• Frank's (but I don't put that sh-- on everything)
• Soy sauce (need to get some more, though. The current bottle's showing its age. Guess I don't go through it very quickly these days)
• The aforementioned Lea & Perrin's (which I do go through. I loves me some worcestershire)
•  Ranch dressing that should probably be tossed, now that I think of it. I'll check.
• Ribena. Not a condiment, for anyone who doesn't know. But it's on the fridge door.
• Miracle Whip. And yes, I know that a certain segment of the population considers the stuff mayonnaise blasphemy. I don't care.
• Cheez Whiz. Again, not a condiment. Not even cheese, for that matter.

I think that's probably it. Terribly exciting, I know. Still, it was an actual post. You have to give me that much, really.

Lack of post of the day:

Ok, this is why: I'm busy, I'm allergic, and (according to Captain Obvious at the walk-in clinic) somewhere along the line I've picked up a sinus infection. Here's how that went down:

Me: I think I might have a sinus infection.
Captain Obvious (pressing down on aforementioned sinuses): Does this hurt?
Me: YES.
C.O.: You have a sinus infection.

Yaaayyyyy...

Anyway, this too shall pass (and remember, kids, as the Alberta Government says: Not All Bugs Need Drugs. Or something like that), and I might find time to post properly by about... um... Wednesday?

In other words, don't expect much from this week.





Wait a minute, the more observant of you are saying now, what about the more-pointless-than-usual photo, then?

Acetaldehyde, aspirin, and ethanol. Ethanol looks kind of like a bad model of a dog, don't you think?

Um, Dee? That didn't really help much.

Oh, I'll explain it another day. Wednesday, maybe.



Outta here for now.

I feel like the Before part of the ad...

But first... this is a cat who wants ooooout. I have several photos like this because I seem to take at least one a year, but it kind of makes me laugh that this time I caught him mid-howl.

Aaanyway. This isn't going to be much of a post, because I just don't have the head for it. Being out in yesterday's wind set off the spring allergies in a big way, and the fact that it was windy here (and still is breezy) as well as where we were on our field trip (and how was that, Dee? Oh, fine. Some ups, some downs. Some good ideas... well, you get where I'm going. I'm always struck, though, when I visit other facilities, with just how much we manage to do here with comparatively few resources) has stirred up a lot of fun for my eyes and sinuses.

Those antihistamine ads that have people happily riding bikes and picking flowers in the middle of spring (or fall, or whenever) allergy season? Yeah, whatever. I use one of the ones that's heavily advertised right now (it's one of the few that don't make me sick. I have serious issues with most antihistamines, unfortunately), and while it certainly helps I'm definitely not feeling all sweethearts and roses.

Whatever that means. I don't really know, and I'm the one who typed it.

Ah well. Expect a lot of similar whining in the next month or so, because the allergies of the moment are mostly just from what's been put in the air by the wind. When we get to what'll be put in the air by the poplar trees in a week or so...

sigh

Well, that was weird

Yesterday, I mean. For whatever reason, I ended up having an unintentionally busy day. I did my taxes, finished the laundry, cussed at the Alberta online voter registry, finally got registered to vote (but not at the address I'd hoped for. Ah well. Here's to voting in my father's riding again, thanks to a certain website's inability to accept a street address that ends in Avenue CLOSE rather than just Avenue), sat down at the piano for a while (and I won't even tell you how long it's been since I did that), did a painting (a very small painting, but still) and went out stargazing.

And somehow still managed to fool around with the 3DS long enough that it's on the charger now.

In other words, I had an apparently busy day that still felt like I was doing nothing. Weird.

The painting, such as it is, can be found here. Or at least a scan of it can. It's an ATC, so if there's anyone out there in my-two-fandom who wants to trade, just let me know.

And after yesterday? Well, as usual, I have very little in mind for the blather. I've really got to start planning things out more.

I guess I could mention that today's pointless photo features what is, knock wood, the last picture of my snow-booted footprints for the season. That particular snow is nearly gone now, and hopefully the inevitable late-season (or in this case, even later-season) storm to come won't necessitate my getting out the boots again.



You know what? I don't have anymore stuff today, so I think I'll just stop typing. See you in a couple of days, since I'm going on a field trip tomorrow. With a van full of coworkers who'll be half asleep because we're leaving too early.

Ought to be... interesting.

Way to celebrate the holiday, Dee

You'll have to excuse me if I'm not exactly wordy today (gee, and that's different from most days how?). The mood is definitely taxy at the moment.

What's that?

No, not taxing. Or taxi (and what kind of mood would taxi be if it could be a mood? Now I'm kind of curious. Would it be a moving one?). Taxy. As in April 30th.

Yeah, for whatever reason I chose this morning to do my taxes. Hey, I wasn't doing anything else...

Ok, I do realise that it's sort of weird, but at least now they're done. Online this year, for the first time. Usually we buy tax software for the family (Dad, me, and my uncles) but Dad must have waited a little too long to be able to find it in this small town this year. Rather than wait and pick it up in the city, I just decided to get it over with and give one of the online services a try for a change.

How was it?

IT WAS DOING TAXES. How do you think it was?

Ok, seriously? It was fine. My return's pretty simple anyway, so I think that any service that allows a person to enter T4s and T3s without opening every form available would have done the trick. I won't bother telling you which company I went with because I don't have much more to say about the experience than it allowed me to do my taxes without a calculator. Such a glowing recommendation, really. They'd probably love for me to e-mail in that testimonial...

Anyway.

In honour of this weekend's spring festival -- whether you celebrate it religiously or not -- I thought I'd leave you with what little colour is trying to struggle through the cold Alberta soil this early. Up top, a photo from Friday. To the left, the same plants on Saturday. Hello crocusses.

I thought I'd better take their pictures before the deer eat them. Crocusses and tulips have a pretty finite life in this yard. I guess we should plant more daffodils instead.

Speaking of which, don't forget that April is the Canadian Cancer Society's Daffodil campaign, so if you or someone you love has been affected by cancer, please consider buying some flowers during Daffodil Days, wearing a pin, or adding a daffodil to your facebook page or twitter profile.

Show them your support, everyone.

It's another jewellery post

Because that's what's on my mind, but first:

This is a crummy photo because my camera is never too happy about yellow, but it had to be here.

I took this photo yesterday.

That crocus? The first flower I've seen this spring.

I guess that means that I have to officially call it spring, right?

I can live with that. Just please let a few more of them actually flower before the next snowstorm, ok?

----------

Yesterday I spend part of my afternoon sitting on the floor of my father's living room surround by jewellery cases. It's not a habitual thing with me, I can assure you. In fact, none of the boxes has had even a cursory glance from me in well over ten years.

They were my mother's, you see. And there's also one from my paternal grandmother. Speaking of which:

I have a feeling that one of these must have been her wedding band. I don't recall her wearing one, which isn't surprising considering that my grandfather died a long time before I was born, and my dad doesn't really remember much about it either way. Still, married in England during the war -- you've got to figure plain gold band, right? My vote is for the lower one in the photo, but that's purely a guess.

And yes, I should remember to use my hand lotion more often.

Anyway.

The reason that I had the boxes out goes back to those pendants I bought a couple of weeks ago from the Rock and Gem Show at the nature centre. After I got them, I obviously had need of chains to wear them with. That equals slim pickings in my world. Oh, I have chains enough, as you'll see in the continuing series of Garbage That Lives In My Jewellery Box photos, but mot of them are either too short (because I've had them forever), too fine (because I'm cheap) or a little too decorative for a pendant (because I never used to wear pendants with my chains. Which is weird, because as I rummaged through my own stuff I found enough pendants hiding in the cubby holes).

I was figuring on making a trip to the jewellery store (THE jewellery store. Get me, will you. We only have one jewellery store in the whole city, of course...) at some point for a plain silver chain that might be more suitable than the this'll-do-in-a-pinch choices I'd made from my own stock, when it occurred to me that it might make more sense to check through my mother's (and grandmother's) things to see if there was anything usable before shelling out unnecessary funds.

I meant it when I said I was cheap.

So that's what led to me hauling the boxes out of my father's closet and having a sort through. I'd never really done that before; hadn't exactly been in the mood right after Mom died, which I think is understandable. And what did I find, after all of these years?

Well, no one's getting rich by robbing this family. We're apparently the Queens of Costume Jewellery.

It made me laugh, some of the things that were kept. I won't bother giving you an inventory (even if it includes old diaper pins, of all things), although at some point I might take yet another pointless jewellery photo so that you can see what I decided to salvage for myself and have a giggle at my own taste. I do think it's a shame, though, that out of so many dozens of pairs of earrings I took very few. My mother was fond of teeny tiny studs that sort of made it pointless to wear earrings at all, come to it.

One thing I suppose I should put out there: if for some reason my brother is interested in his academic medals from junior and senior high school (which I can't imagine he is, but just saying), I know where they are now.

Surrounded by a dozen shell necklaces, for some reason.

Ah well.

We'll end with another look at my own collection of junk, I guess.

The middle drawer of my jewellery box is apparently an earring black hole, where old earrings disappear and are never heard from again. I'm particularly fond of the gaudy Halloween ghosts (which, admittedly, do come out on occasion. Generally on Halloween), the teal telephones that are missing a fair amount of paint, and the leather... um... totems? I dunno. I was given those when I was a teenager, and I don't think I've ever worn a one of them.

Up for grabs, if anyone's interested.





Oh, and I did end up finding one or two chains that might do. I guess I forgot to mention that, didn't I?

Well, at least it's a post

It won't be much of one, but whatever.

Excuses? It's a holiday. Plus, my two fans know that if I wait too long in the day to blog, what little inspiration there was to start with dries up completely. Plus again, I've been sitting on my hand and now it doesn't want to work to type.

And why were you sitting on your hand, Dee? I'm not sure, really. I just was. Didn't even really realise I was doing it until it started to tingle. Shut up. That's not weird.

Aaanyway.

Post tomorrow? Probably. Possibly even new pointless photos, since I took a few in the yard this afternoon.

And will I be sitting on my hand?

Erm...

Let me get back to you on that one.

Ah well

I would have taken a photo of the view out the office window this morning, but someone else who's not here today has the camera locked in her desk (very helpful, I'm sure you'd agree) so I couldn't.

Well, I suppose I could have taken a crappy cameraphone picture, but it really wouldn't have been worth it.

So? So you're stuck with another photo from last spring because I'd really rather look at leaves than white.

There was... oh, about ten centimetres or so of the latter to clean off the car this morning. Wet, heavy, and snowy. Snow tends to be snowy, you know.

And yes, I know that it'll melt, and probably rapidly. It's just a bit disheartening this time of year. At least we didn't get the wind that some places were supposed to get. And at least we're not getting the total crud that parts of the UK are getting. My total sympathy there, folks.

In other news, I have none. It was the kind of morning that doesn't really give me time to think of the blog, so I didn't.

I am making two posts in a row, though. Points for that?

I should hope so.



Going now.

A note to my stalker

But first:

I just heard myself saying to Wheat that "in my tired brain we're now playing Find the Fish." Poor guy was only looking for his pen cap -- I know he wasn't planning on having that go unexpectedly Python all of a sudden.

I'm on the giddy side of tired right now, I guess.

Oh, and today's pointless photo isn't a recent one. Spring, as always, comes slowly to the Great White North (even if I don't live in one of the whiter parts of it) and to top it off we're expecting a major winter storm tonight.

Yay?

Yeah, my two fans can fill in the snit for me, I'm sure. You've all heard that song before.

Anyway. A note to my stalker, since Sparroweye has decided that's what she is...

And I hope she knows that I don't actually think of her that way.

Yes, it's true. I don't own a computer. I haven't owned one since the early nineties. I haven't really needed to, since I'm lucky enough to have a workplace that allows personal computer use on breaks. I check in when I'm at work, and that's enough internet for me. Well, ok, with one exception. I occasionally check e-mail using my 3DS if I know I'm not going to be in the office for a day or two, but that depends on how strong the WiFi signal is from the hotel next door, so it's not always a given.

Yeah, my toy knows how to borrow WiFi. Does anyone else besides me find that a little odd?

As far as other electronic gizmos... well... as I think about it it's kind of sad in a way. I have a cell phone. It's five years old. I like it, and it works. Besides, I'm not sure if I want to re-sign with my current service provider, so I've let my contract run out. I do have digital cable... but not a high-def television. I have one of the last-generation flat screen CRTs that has a far better picture than I'd ever get from whatever cheap LCD that I might be able to afford. And I don't mind watching things in letterbox, come to it. As I said before, I like it, and it works.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that I just don't see the point in having to get the latest and greatest. Never mind the amount of e-waste that we as a society create (spoiler alert: it's a lot); the plain and simple fact is that I don't need that stuff. I just don't. At the end of the work day I don't need the internet or the 50" television or the smartphone or any of that stuff.

And since I don't have it, I don't really miss it.

I do well enough without it anyway. I blog when I have the computer time available. Same with checking tweets (yeeesss, I have a twitter account. I use it to follow people. I've tweeted a whole once myself, if you don't count work tweets). I'm not on facebook, so there's a whole big chunk of time that I don't waste. I don't need netflix, or to have a television that can check my e-mail.

So what do I do, then?

Draw, sometimes. Knit if I need a new toque. Read (but oddly enough, rarely about bugs and botany. That made me chuckle). Watch dvds or the Discovery Channel. Or Food Network.

Think.

It's a lot easier to think when you're not surrounded by electronic noise, you know.



And this has officially become a much longer blather than I was intending. Back to work for me. Ignore the typos -- I really am too tired to be doing this properly at the moment. How does it go? Excuse the long letter; I didn't have time to be brief? Something like that, anyway.

Later, all.