I haven’t really written at all anywhere during COVID. I just didn’t feel like it, or, when I did I was too exhausted from working or looking for work and mostly because what the fuck was there to write about really? The thing is, I’m comfortable. I like my life, I like my place. My dogs are lovely. I have terrific friends and I’ve got everything I need. That teenage angst is long gone and I’m just settling into my golden years here and just humming along.

I got fired from McMillan which wasn’t too much of a surprise, however I really think they sucked at training me and I could have done better if I was in with the in crowd on the other floor where all the talent was. Oh well. So then I didn’t work for about six months and the fuckers at the government under taxed me so I’m broke AND I owe money for taxes – what a bunch of shit. Right now I’m coming to the tail end of a 6-month contract with PwC and honestly I’ve been loving it but I’ll be quite content to take the summer off and collect EI and see if I can’t find another contract position or whatever in the fall. If it were up to me I’d just fucking retire now and just live a very humble and frugal life. This is one of those times I honestly wished I knew when I was going to die, ’cause if it was like at 65 or 70 I could totally just wing it but if it’s 80 or 90, nope I have to plan for my future … sigh.

Mom’s going through cancer treatment but she seems to be doing well, except for all the side effects and she’s very thin and frail now. She’s been riding her bike but honestly that terrifies me because she’s so fragile, one fall and she’ll likely break something major. Oh well, can’t tell her what to do obviously. She finally fucking sold her standard car (she had it for 23 years – wow) because her knee has been locking up and she was finally scared enough of that that she got rid of the car. So at least that’s something. She says she’s not in a rush to buy another one and I suspect she’ll be fine during the nice weather but that will change as soon as it gets colder. I might talk to Jason and see if he won’t see to getting her another one but I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s already on it.

I was kind of pissed that she has Jason listed as the sole overseer of her estate. I thought it was kind of shitty that she just excluded the girls altogether but not at all surprising coming from someone who still refers to Chinese people as “the Chinese” I can’t even at how prejudiced she is in that regard. But then I thought about it and that means he can sort all the shit out with her funeral and her house and whatever and I won’t have to do shit, so that’s kind of cool.

It’s really nice that she comes to see me almost every Saturday and we just sit around, in the winter I put on a program for her that she likes and we sit on the couch with the dogs and in the summer we’re on the patio. I got some great lounge furniture, tossed the table and a bunch of other crap (will probably get rid of more stuff later on) and now it’s like being in a cabana on vacation and it’s so much nicer to sit around outside. I got the furniture and a bunch of cushions used and only paid $300 but I’d really like to get LJ to make some better cushions for me, with some Danielle colour in them. The ones I have right now are beige – blech! And I went to try and take one of the covers off to wash it and couldn’t unzip it so I think their days are numbered.

It’s been so beautiful and warm the last week or so, it was an amazing reprieve after the long, cold and grey winter. Today is grey and rainy but it’s perfect for a Monday, suits me just fine and we needed some rain. We still didn’t get enough, and, as usual, my weather app is so off. Saying it’s raining right now when there’s not a drop in the sky – I’m sure it’s raining somewhere in Toronto, just not where I am. I wish they’d come up with an app that was a little more localized by area but I doubt that’ll happen anytime soon.

So I joined a group called The Neon Riders last year. I was feeling REALLY isolated and alone so I joined this bike group and honestly, it’s one of the best things I ever did. Sadly, I had to miss the first two rides because I got the Omni and OMG it is so not like the good old-fashioned flu. It was brutal! I was wiped out for two weeks pretty much. I’d start to feel better and then bam, I’d be wiped out again. I still don’t have my sense of smell or taste back, although it seems to be coming back a little bit now. Anyway, this Thursday I get to on my inaugural ride and it’s awesome because I don’t have to work on Friday so if I burn myself out it’ll be fine.

I’m kind of sad my new wonderful friend Gerrit won’t be here but I’m happy for him because right now he’s back home in The Netherlands hanging with his bestie. But tomorrow he’s off to Scotland and then the UK so not much of a holiday, more like a just passing through type thing lol. Ten days and three or four different countries … mind you it’s a lot different in Europe than here what with everything being so close together.

I’ve connected with a lot of old friends over the last little while. I try and make best efforts to get in touch and hang out but it seems like a lot of them just aren’t interested. Like Susan M is always near my neighbourhood posting pictures of her and her dog and I’ve mentioned so many times we should get together for a doggie date but she never reaches out so fuck her. I’ve also tried with Binky many times. She came over once but then nothing so off to the bin she goes until I run into her somewhere random and hang out. But funnily enough Paula reached out after all this time and is in town and is coming by tonight to have a glass of wine and a chat. That will be surreal after some 30 years. She might even stay here for a couple of days before she heads back to Vancouver. Lucky sod is living on Vancouver Island now. Now there’s somewhere I wouldn’t mind living. But let’s be real, I’m probably not going anywhere.

All the festival type things are starting to ramp up again but the only one I’m interested in is Summer Camp. Hubert will be working it, I told him I really want to go but he didn’t really respond so I’m not sure about that. Hopefully I’ll get to go to LJ’s cottage a couple of times this summer. Next winter I’m hoping to go and stay with Greg at his villa in Costa Rica. He’s really done a wonderful job with it and I hope he starts getting some income from it so he can keep working on it.

Since I last wrote I’m down a dog. Sherman passed away abruptly – he was only nine. It was terrible and to this day I think it’s my fault for giving him drugs that fucked up his stomach. But he was always slightly sickly and who knows, maybe there was some underlying thing I don’t know about. I had a $1,500 operation for Anise in 2020 and it was totally worth it – well actually the operation was $700 and all the tests beforehand were $800 – crazy. But anyway, she had this lump and it was fine for several years and then in a couple of months it just grew huge. It was benign. Markus removed it, fixed her spay and she got an inadvertent tummy tuck so she looks pretty amazing for a 16-year-old cat. She’s still going out and jumping up on the fence but she is slowing down a bit. I think she might make it to like 20 or something ’cause she’s pretty healthy.

She still has food issues and I still have to feed her little bits at a time but she hardly ever barfs anymore compared to before so that’s good. It was up a bit in the spring but that’s because she was eating all my fucking plants. Now that they’re not accessible much less barf.