Yummy, Spicy, West African Soup

We went for a long and lovely morning walk. It was only 9°, but when I am walking and warmed up, I took my coat off and carried it. I wanted to walk all day in the trails, but I get tired of the diligence required to monitor Her Highness so that she doesn’t eat poop. Also, but bloody bone spurs hurt all the time. But a warm morning with no rain is something to celebrate in Winter.

When we got home, I made a West African soup. My friend Bunny, sent me the recipe which, of course, I wanted to adapt—this time, by omitting things rather than adding things (although I did add butter beans because you just can’t fart often enough). I love the soup, it has 6 tablespoons of peanut butter in it, but the soup doesn’t taste of it because there is a lot of tomato paste and diced tomato and that is what I taste most. But I love the soup.

After I cleaned up all the dishes and measuring utensils I’d used to make the soup, I was beat. I longed to be reading more Simon Mason, but I’ve finished all his books that I want to read. So, I went on a bit of a buying spree. Hell, it’s Christmas. I’ll buy myself some presents: a rug for the hall to the guest rooms, 4 new hoodies because all the hoodies I’ve been wearing—and I wear one every day—are large, and they make me look sickly thin. My new ones are lovey bright colours and medium size. 

I also got another Winter coat. Now I have two, and I won’t have to wear the same coat every day. I also got a new dish drying rack. I loathe dishwashers and I’ve had them removed from every home I’ve moved into to give myself more cupboard space for my many cooking and baking supplies. The incoming rack will not need constant cleaning as my current one does, and it looks much smarter.

The best thing about yesterday was the soup. I had it for both lunch and dinner and I am really looking forward to having it for lunch again today. I love it very much. It’s got a lot of hot curry in it, plus a good helping of pepper flakes, so it’s a hot soup and I love spicy hot thing.

Today is My Day and it’s very windy. I hope we don’t have a power failure. It’s such a drag using the generator. We’ll walk, of course, and laze away the rest of the day. I have no desire to attend the many Christmas events happening on the island. I’m not a Christmas person; my disengagement is a legacy of my upbringing. All I have ever wanted for Christmas is for it to be over.

I feel nothing at all for NYE either. I don’t want to kiss a stranger, neither do I have any interest in alcohol or groups. And I’m equally alienated from birthday celebrations for me, so I guess you can understand why I always have had a rough patch in December. However, it’s much better now that I am here in a home I love and with pets I love passionately. Paula called me yesterday. She’s excited about coming here for Christmas. We’re going to have lots of non-Christmassy fun.

I'm glad it's My Day today, for tomorrow I go to Nanaimo for breathing tests in Nanaimo Hospital. I've had them before. They are nasty, but afterwards I'm going for a sushi lunch and I've very excited about that.

Talking via Kris

Friday dawned wet and dark. Sigh. But no matter how bad it looks and how much I dread going out into the wet, I always love the walk and am glad to have done it when I get home. I feel like a good dad when Sheba has had a good long walk. When we were done, we went into the village for a quick shop of stuff before hurrying home to be there when Kris arrived to help me with the phone call to Dr. Hull.

Back home, I cleaned a bit and tidied before Kris arrived, but I’ve been keeping the house clean and tidy. It makes me feel good to live in an orderly place. I used to clean up for guests, and then I thought one day long, long ago: Wait a minute, why do I honour my guests but not myself, and ever since I keep the house as clean as I can.

Kris came just before noon and thank God she did because without her the call would have been a disaster. She handled the entire call, and it went well in that Dr. Hull is going to have his assistant research Doxy.me, the medical video chat program, so that in the future he can speak with me on video.

After the call, I’d picked up a delicious potato salad from Ground Up, our local healthy eating diner, and I had some pastries for dessert, so we sat down for a quick lunch before she had to return to her hubby Steve and an afternoon of baking.

The afternoon was spent just chillin’ because I’d had a seizure right before Dr. Hull called. And the evening was the usual: dinner and a movie. I ate a lot yesterday, partly because my weight is getting close to too low, and partly because I’d had a guess for lunch and in the evening, I was eating for fun, not out of need. Today will be different. I’m going to be a good boy.

Chris Makes a Font

I’m not a fan of pop music, but I watch Tik Tok videos and sometimes someone appears on my feed that makes me melt. I love this guy, B.J. Griffin. He radiates joy and what a wonderful voice!

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I had to walk Her Highness is semi-darkness so that I could get her back to the house and then get to the dentist on time. What a way to begin the day, with fillings. I got little fillings where my gums had receded, and then I came home to bake on what had become a gloomy day after an early morning clear sky.

I came home with a bloated upper lip, unable to feel anything. My entire upper lip and nose were numb. Not wanting to drink or eat with no feeling in my lip, I got straight to making bread. And oh! How I love my new cooking thermometer gun. It’s so incredibly simple and easy to read. I wish I’d got one long, long ago.

I could see a lovely thick foam on the top of my wet ingredients, and that excited me. It told me that I’d get great lift in my dough, and as it rose so beautifully, the house filled with the delicious fragrance of yeast. Oh, how I love that smell! And my new proofing bowl is perfect!

My appointment was at 8:30 yesterday morning, and at 11:30 my nose and lip were still too numb to eat. I drank in front of a mirror until the freezing was gone. But just as the second resting phase of the dough was up and it was time to put the bread in the oven, my lips felt normal. It was 13:00! And once the bread was out of the oven, Her Highness and I went walking at Elder Cedar.

The second rise was less successful. I was disappointed. Previous loaves of the same dough had a billowing round, high, loaves. I probably kneaded it too much, but its taste is fabulous! That’s what I love about baking bread; it’s so forgiving.

Slow night on the chaise. I was not getting any sound on cable. When I was working on the font piece is did something, following directions from Google, and I fucked -up my preferences file. Oh goody. Two tech problem. Oh joy, at Christmas. The baby Jesus is with me. Fuck.

I am one voice in a growing Library of Dysfluent Voices. Conor, the curator of the Library, sent out a call for submissions asking people to create a font inspired by the story we tell orally in the Library. Aidan texted me today to remind me to submit. The call ends on Dec. 15. I have neither Photoshop nor Illustrator software. I can't afford it now that I am not working. So, I made my image in Word.

Coincidentally, I used to draw words in art class in junior high. The teacher's concern was our understanding of perspective, so I drew words, sitting in parks, and looking like a huge, magnificent tributes to language. My love of words is real, my skill with them is variable, especially since retirement.

Today, Kris comes at noon to help me with the call from my doctor. I have written her what I would like her to say to the doctor for me. It’s going to be interesting because his receptionist is the person who hung up on my TTY operator TWICE when I tried to verify the appointment. Plus, I need to know how often he wants me to have blood tests.

Drama, at Pinecone Park. Here are some photos from recent walks in the forest plus one fabulous Christmas image.

I have a particular fondness for Salal leaves. I use them to
make chocolate leaves, and in bouquets. They turn lovely
colours in the Autumn.

Look at that colour!

Sadly, the camera cannot capture the beauty of this leag.
It is a burnished silver colour like aged pewter.

This was a particularly tall shroom.

SPACE Promo; HEAVY Rain

 It was very wet yesterday. It rained all day, so our morning walk was short because it was really raining hard in the morning. After our walk, we went into the village to do some shopping before coming home to wait for my Tezspire to arrive. It arrived while I was Zooming with Dwight, and now it’s in the fridge because I am not taking it until the end of next week. They delivered this dose super early. I guess it’s because of the Christmas holiday.

I wish the scabs on my nose would come off. My nose has been bright red and has two round dark scabs on it from the love bites of Vinny. They embarrass me. But hey, it ain’t cancer. 

I was very happy to have a day of rest yesterday. Tuesday was a nasty day because of the St. Paul’s incident. I was so angry that day, but all my anger dissipated when I got a reply from Dr. Maza. And it was a great reply, which he copied to Mr. Norm Peters, Chief Operating Officer of Providence Health Care who will “review and follow up with [me] directly to identify how best to support [me] and address any future concerns.”

Mid-day, we took our second walk when the rain was gentle. The fog had rolled in though, making it feel very depressing outside, but inside, with the fire on, it was heavenly. And last night, I watched season three of Dalgleish staring the man who doesn’t yet know that he’s in love with me, Bertie Carvel. I love the series, and I love Bertie.

I felt odd all day, so I did nothing but lay around. Still, I slept like a bear last night. This morning, I must walk Her Highness early. I have a dental appointment at 8:30. When I come home, I plan on baking some bread.  

When I got up, I thought I’d weigh myself because it had been a while since I’d done it. Last time, which was a couple of weeks ago, I weighed 171 and I was pleased that my weight was staying at around 170. I psyched myself in advance of stepping on the scales as I always do. I was thinking that I’d put on weight because I’ve been eating more, but I weighted 159.

I thought my scale was broken, so I went back and got on the scale a second time. It hit 159 again, so I’ll be eating more each day. I don’t want to lose any more weight. I can’t recall ever weighing so little. When I decided to address my overeating and addiction to sugar, I weighed 197.

The atmospheric river has dried up. When I went out for wood this morning the moon was bright and almost full. We’ll enjoy our walks this afternoon.

Everyone at SPACE is very excited because of an article Aidan secured in the Vancouver Sun to promote an upcoming SPACE event featuring artists who stutter. Here’s a link to the article.

It’s (mostly) forest day in the photos!