It's going to snow some time in the near future, so as long as it's possible biking weather I figured I'd better get to the hardware store for environment-and-concrete friendly salt. (The other kind destroyed part of my steps and walkway last winter.) So though it was -10C this morning (14F) with gusty winds, off I went, lugged a 22lb bag into the ( Read more... )

1. Sunday was hair wash day but I wanted an epsom bath. Which had, but could smell- because I have A Nose- my hair just the slightest bit manky from the steam and wet. My mother's impromptu unshampoo was to dab the hair with cologne, on the grounds that alcohol removes grease. I do not have cologne (and anyway, that method requires a very subdued ( Read more... )

Another calm grey dry day, but brighter than before: like the best of civil November. The seasonal fantods withdraw for a spell, as they bloody well ought to when the weather isn't reinforcing them in the slightest. But their persistence bodes ill for any kind of retirement I might have had in mind (and that my twinging knees and back may be ( Read more... )

In epoch-making news, I actually got down to a show at the Art Gallery today. As far as I can recall, I haven't been to the AGO since the late 90s, and even then I think I was only at the gift shop.
( Cut for architectural grumbles )

A grey dry day, cool not cold: best of November and March but different from both. After presents and breakfast, in that order, I went for a walk along the quiet grey streets, wondering again why Christmas is emptier even than Sundays in this town. (Because local restaurants and cafes are closed, I guess, up here at the residential level, and ( Read more... )

The Guardian has gone to the dark side. It's all large colour-coded boxes suitable for reading on cell phones, but *really irritating* on a desktop. Especially at 800x600.

Continuing in the grand tradition of Oh What A Week. Dentists and emergency shifts, acupuncture and emergency chiropracters, knees that go in and out of spasm in spite of the acupuncture and a lower back does the same in spite of the chiropracter. But it's been clear and dry for three days now, and I'm accordingly grateful ( Read more... )

Oh, and iced coffee. Iced coffee is the other thing I need to get at Loblaws. Didn't. Must make do with Pepsi ( Read more... )

Never ever ever ever ever leave the kitchen with a pot simmering on the stove. I do not remember pots, any more than I remember that I'm out of toilet paper. (Actually, after a decade or two, I have myself trained to remember when I get low. This may be because I now buy only one brand that's available at only one neighbourhood store, the one I don ( Read more... )

1. Bleak midwinter still beats snow; there's also a Romantic melancholy in the grey and faded browns that emerge from the melting mounds ( Read more... )