Final Victory
“For Tony, ideas were a kind of emotion, something he felt and cared about in the way that most people do about feelings like sadness or love.”
Read the whole essay here
Six women and a…
Six women and a concertina for La na Troika celebrations yesterday. The place was spinning. The stew was great.
Three women, five knitting needles and a bundle of beads for this evening’s knitting adventure.
In between the two events a walk around Kits Point with my lovely fella, scouring the topography of gorse, bramble bushes and trying to figure out: is that a wall holding it up? And which buildings across the water there were added since the 1970’s?
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Yesterday I undertook a significant indulgence and read a book about how to build a shed. On the walk today I couldn’t cease examining the foundations of things.
Parrot toed
Here’s a volume of dictionaries I’d love to own: The Dictionary of American Regional English and here’s 100 words from them.
My exposure to American Regional English may have mainly been through song so far.
I enjoyed parrot-toed, nebby and quill pig in the list. (could be handily patch worked into he was a nebby, parrot-toed, old quill pig)
I have a relative who uses futz and putzing around so that word crosses the border.
Mega-watty bluster
Overnight a major wind event, the like of which hasn’t been seen I hazard since 2006. Your trusty forecaster here was convening with it when it began around the midnight mark.
This system surprised me. Yesterday I noted wind warnings for Victoria and Campbell River but nothing for Nanaimo. I was suspicious!
By 1am I was outside in my pj’s scrambling to save my greenhouse which had risen and blown over the balcony. I settled in for a serious weather event. It blew all night and all day and well I am keeping an eye on it. There’s still the odd wave.
What was particularly fascinating with this storm was the icy-grip on the cheeks, which burned into mine, as I ventured along the road to inspect the local foliage and collect caffeine so many hours later. (would that be 10-11 hrs maybe)
I was laughing as around 1am I checked the readings and they offered a paltry 37-54 kph. Huh, says I not likely. By morning they’d finally upped them to 80kph. Truly we need a bit more edge from our weather peeps.
For a while there I was encouraging some collaborative forecasting/weather reporting on Facebook with some pals dotted about the Island. Very fun when we get collective weather weigh-ins going on. Highly recommend it.
My best weather collaborator is my mother, who sends daily reports and maintains an enthusiasm for weather news from the other sea (or ocean) to her. Between the two of us we have the Atlantic and the Pacific covered.
Anyway Glory Be to the Weather! We are well provided for. Honestly I love the weather in Vancouver more and more, it is a source of startling fulfillment for me. I heartily encourage everyone to pay attention to it. Deep meteorological topography.
Toronto Public Library readings May 16, 2012
I am thrilled to have been invited by the Toronto Public Library to participate in their Eh List Author Series. I am lucky enough to be doing two readings for the series!
The first reading will take place on Weds May 16th, 2012 at the Northern District Library at 12.30pm and later that evening the second reading will take place at the North York Central Library at 7.30pm.
There is a rumour that we might have a bit of music at the reading! So bring your bodhráns!
I have never been to Toronto, so am very happy to make her acquaintance beginning in the libraries. Curiously I have been to New York and my sole purpose was to go to the library there. I wonder if other people go on holiday to the library?
Please spread the word amongst your compadres and come out and hear a reading or two from Malarky and even a tune or two.
Thank you TPL
A two night sudden temperature dip that I noticed firstly because an extreme weather warning was issued for the homeless and it caught my eye. -2 last night and it will settle around -1 tonight.
Yesterday I noticed a man I have seen over a dozen years on various streets. The first years I saw him he was always on his bicycle and seemed purposeful. He clearly had some mental health struggles but he looked like he had shelter and seemed quite functional. In recent years he has plunged and is now clearly sleeping rough, he looks fragile and bashed about by life. Every time I see him it’s such a reminder of what happens to the vulnerable when mental health support, affordable, subsidized or sheltered housing and pro-active medical care do not kick in. (a troika rather than 4 pillars) Deeply saddening and alarming. He’s not the only one, I’ve noticed many others. I cannot fathom how they endure the cold nights they must face. My mind turns to them as the temperature falls or the icy wind hits.
Adventures in sledge hockey
Have I mentioned how much I am enjoying playing sledge hockey? It’s been five whole weeks since we started. I have to confess the hockey part is a bit lost on me, but I enjoying the barrelling about on the sledge (which is its own unique skill).
I find it very hard to unite stick or pick as it is called and puck, but really enjoy turning left and right and in circles at high speed. (by my calculations)
Yesterday we learnt how to be “defensive” on the boards. You huddle yourself in close, so you do not sustain injuries. It’s preemptive. It reminded me of the way David Foster Wallace used his knowledge of the wind direction in Junior Tennis.
The dilemma of very cold feet and hands in sledge hockey has yet to be tackled but I am thrilled to have discovered this new sport. The small male has already advanced to the intermediate level ! He of resistant fame!
Amish 2012
PBS had a new film about the Amish the other night that’s available to view online.
An intimate portrait of contemporary Amish faith and life, this film examines how such a closed and communal culture has thrived within one of the most open, individualistic societies on earth.
Narcoleptic Government
I was just reading a list of people who have narcolepsy and noted a competitve road cyclist and a molecular geneticist were both on the list. I was kind of relieved to see the geneticist in there and imagined him poking about on the topic inside test tubes or his own cheeks.
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There was a piece on CBC Radio tonight about the federal government’s insane decision to completely withdraw funding from the Arctic Atmospheric Station (part of CFCAS). It was this station that discovered the largest ozone hole ever found over the arctic. Thus it’s clear that this oil clappy govt have withdrawn funding on ideological grounds and because they are so dim they refute climate change and the need to observe and record atmospheric changes and shifts up there. I truly hope the first epic piece of ice shelf that breaks free and comes flowing towards us will make a beeline for the left leg of Stephen Harper’s bed.
Earlier this week I watched Gasland about natural gas fracking in the States. Terrfiying to see people’s water supply completely contaminated and to realize that with no water supply we are completely screwed. Frack off says I.