Hemlock B Bootsalotta

It's a warm today and I am itchy and sweaty. I have spent two days in the shed, pulling out boxes and cleaning up spider webs and mouse poop. SO MUCH MOUSE POOP. And one dead mouse.

I'm taking a break right now. when I go back outside I'll stack the things that I know are staying out there onto the shelves and finish taking the rest of it into the house. Then I'll finish going through the boxes. This is the last place in the house to be cleaned out and I've already found the paining supplies box, so I'll make a list of whatever I'm missing and tomorrow I'll hit the hardware store. I'll also be able to make the final get-things-out-of-the-house push so maybe that will make some room to empty the storage unit. We'll see.

While I'm working I'm also taking pictures of all the stuff the contractor didn't finish. I keep noticing new things, like spotting a new light switch leading me to a light fixture that was never installed. I should also take screenshots of the text messages where I repeatedly asked for receipts I never got.

Everything is taking too long. I keep offering to give money to people for help and they keep not showing up. Which in itself is frustrating. Like if you're not available, fine! But tell me so I can make other plans!

Lord Brock is doing well except for shouting at me whenever I come back from outside because how dare I not be in the room when he decides he wants to sit on me.

I should probably book a massage on the last day of the week. I already feel like somebody beat me up and it's only Tuesday.

Right. Back to the salt mines.

Yesterday was indeed 18+ degrees. I chivied myself out of the house as soon as work was done and walked up to the farmer's market. It was lovely.

Today is also lovely and I threw open all the windows to get some air in the place while I worked. And to let some dust out, because today was more basement. I have now cleared out all the space in the coldroom and have uncovered 1) many more tools including a screwdriver set that is so old the case is made of actual metal instead of plastic 2) more painting supplies including some drop cloths that will definitely come in handy 3) a bow? I only can only guess this is from the LARP that one of the ex-housemates plays. There were some lanterns and a brass oil lamp along with it. (I rubbed the lamp. Alas, it was all out of genie.) 4) a fire-proof safe that has been locked for over a decade and the chance of ever finding the keys gets smaller with every room I clean 5) a stack of plant pots and digging tools 6) more spiders and 7) SO MUCH MOUSE POOP. I was wearing a mask because of the dust and I am really glad I did because I do not need hanta virus. SO MUCH POOP.

The bins and boxes of Stuff are piled at the bottom of the basement stairs while I wait for the dust to settle. Tomorrow I'll wipe it all down and make the keep/throw away decisions. The garbage bin is already full again for the third time just from broken plastic and mouldy chunks of carpet. (Garbage pick-up here is only once a fortnight, and there are extra fees if you want to throw out more than fits in one bin AND I have the smallest sized bin because I almost never use it.)

I'll have to see if I can get a locksmith to open the safe. Somebody dropping off a safe and saying, yeah it's mine but I lost the key seems kinda dodgy to me, but I'm sure I'm not the first person in the world to ever run into this problem.

(Bet I open it and it's full of mouse poop.)

I am absolutely crusty with dust and there are spider webs in my hair. This THIS is what I got the new water heater for.

Tuesday was the last day I had booked off from work. It ended up being an ice-cream-for-dinner kind of day. I had plans to catch up on housework and instead my brain said "NOPE. You're taking the day off."

Yesterday I got the forms I needed for the last of the tax info, so that's now done. Once I hear back from them I can sort out whatever balance there might be and close the bank account.

Today I tried to put the bathtub plug back together but it no longer seals, so that's a trip to the hardware store. I also scrubbed the layers of paint, crusted drywall mud, and hardened caulk from the bathroom sink and emptied out the cupboard underneath - more stuff to go in a box for the ex-housemate. Cleared some more boxes out of the cold room, evicted some more spiders, started sorting tools into labelled boxes.

Hitting the shed or anything at all to do with the yard will have to wait until next week - it's supposed to be freezing rain all weekend. Traditionally we get one last snowfall in April (and Torontonians are shocked and appalled at the treachery of the weather every single time) but for the last two years it's just been rain instead. So maybe this is it for winter. Who knows any more.

Appointment was made for the water tank to get swapped out on Tuesday morning, so before I do anything else tomorrow I need to remember to clear the path between the basement door and the current tank. There are several stacks of flooring in the way right now and it's not super heavy but it's awkward and floppy to carry. I'll stick it in the apartment and worry about what I'm doing with it later.

I am very tired of ALL THIS but also... it's kind of exciting to be getting closer the end of it. I can see progress every time I touch something.

Inspired by luzula who was posting about new cooking experiments.

I had my first major cooking fail last week. I tried a new a pasta dish and it was awful. Ended up throwing it out.

I'm still playing with the curry recipe. I made a batch without any habanera and mixed it with my first too-hot batch and I thought it came out perfect for me - but probably still too hot to feed to my gf and I'd like to have a version I can cook for her. I tried some of the no-habanera at all on it's own and it's definitely missing something if I make it that way.

My next round of experiments will be to adjust the base spice mix - maybe keep the habanera and reduce the red chili, or reduce both and ramp up one of the other ingredients to offset. More roti for me to eat, alas.

The other thing I have been making in big batches is soup. When it's hot out I always want salads for lunch, in the winter I crave soup. So far I have found recipes for a pumpkin, a carrot-thyme, and a curried sweet potato that I really like. I've also tried a variety of squashes combined with various other things - apples mostly - but I found those ones pretty meh. The ones I like the most also seem to be the ones that freeze the best, so I make big pots of them and then spend the rest of the week fishing them out of the freezer to nuke for lunch.

I did try the garlic noodles, with bok choy. They were pretty good? But not enough by themselves, they need to go with something and I haven't quite figured out what yet.

I obviously need to watch more youtube videos.

The Bad: His Lordship, Lord Brock of the Brockton Brocks, has been feeling poorly. He stopped eating for a few days, which is apparently really bad for cats - their organs can just shut down. A visit to the vet found him underweight and dehydrated. They gave him an anti-nausea shot and an appetite stimulant and I have been monitoring his intake (and his outgo) like a hawk watching a rabbit warren for the past week.

He had another exam today and he appears to be mostly out of the woods, but I did go home with some more meds to give him over the weekend if anything goes south.

(I will not tell you the stuff I learned at the vet today about anal glands because what the hell, nature?)

Anyway. This meant cancelling on the nephew I was going to help move today, because there is no way I'm leaving town for a whole day until I'm sure he's stable.

***

The Good: There were two contractors involved in the building of my kitchen, the guy who built the frame and the guy who did the interior. I got to watch them have a full-on meltdown at each other over who's fault the frozen pipes are. Wednesday the interior guy came by and moved the pipes and insulated them so in theory this problem should now be solved. Fingers crossed. I haven't had a problem since, but also it hasn't gotten below -5 C yet this week.

Basement guy is now saying he'll be done on Tuesday. ! Could it be true!?

I expect I'll have to do some additional trim and repairs down there. (And painting) But the idea that this could actually be fucking over soon? Be still my tremulous heart!

Next house goal: get a new boiler. Right now I can a) take a shower b) run the dishwasher OR c) do laundry, but I cannot do two of the above on the same day. I might spring for one of those tankless ones, I have to do some research first.

***

The Ugly: I have almost no teeth left in the back lower jaw. If I could speak to my 12 year-old self, one of the things I would stress is to stay on top of the teeth during those few years I would have insurance and DO NOT go to the very nice lady that your dad recommends, because being a completely painless dentist was apparently not as good a thing as everybody thought at the time. My current dentist is a semi-retired Egyptian woman who makes me cry on the regular, but she was able to extend the life of most of my teeth far past the point where I thought I was going to lose them all.

Aside: Teeth not being covered by provincial health insurance is a crime against humanity.

Anyway., So now I have this bridge thing that I'm supposed to wear every day, at the absolute minimum whenever I eat. I hate it. It's uncomfortable and I don't like having things in my mouth. The thing is, I could same the same about my bite guard (I clench my jaw really hard in my sleep) and that I wear every night. But this thing - I can never remember. It's like a mental block, every single day I eat dinner and as soon as I'm standing up to get rid of my plate I think Oh I forgot that bridge thing, I need to remember to put it in tomorrow. Every day. Every. Day. For the past three months.

What the fuck, brain?

***

All Of The Above: I got my election bribe money today. I immediately donated it to one of the other parties.

I keep telling myself I will post here and then not doing it. Then I look at the time stamp on my last entry and a month has gone by.

One of the things that definitely fell off the bus around the time of the funeral was my Spanish practice. I'm disinclined to go back to Duolingo since they brought in AI - I've seen lots of commentary from Spanish speakers that it's introduced a lot of errors into the program. But Duolingo did make it really easy to build a habit around practising, so I now I just have to figure out how to build a new one.

I'm also trying to build up the habit of doing Write Every Day again. And I started doing drawing exercises through DrawABox. And I'm trying to build a habit of going to the gym regularly again. That's really not a long list and none of the things on it are particularly difficult but I suck at changing multiple things at the same time so that does kind of explain why I keep running into a wall.

(Also new meds and learning to feed myself and big work stuff and the cat is also on new meds and ok, maybe it's more than four things.)

***

In very good news, contractor's tests all came back negative. No bone cancer. So he's back to work on Tuesday. I am very happy he's healthy, because I genuinely like the guy. It also means I can now yell at him without feeling guilty. He texted me that he spent all day yesterday driving to stores to pick up supplies.

One of the things that has been waiting for the end of the construction work is to get my fucking toilet fixed. I paid off the last of my credit cards this month and said great! Time to rack that baby up again! And called a plumber. He decreed the ancient throne to be unsalvageable so I have a new one winging it's way towards me. Some day very soon I will be able to crap in my own house without having to haul buckets of water from the shower to do so. What a country.

***

Saw my dad on Thursday. He wasn't doing great. It's alarming how fast his cognitive function is declining. Summer before last he would lose the occasional word. Now he only manages a few words before he starts struggling.

I sent an email to all family members and said, look I don't take risks around infection so we can do one of two things, either we do it at my house and everybody masks religiously for two weeks prior, OR we try and find a heated patio. I really didn't think the masking would fly, but much to my shock everybody agreed right away. The nephews said they mask anyway because they're both at new jobs and don't want to take time off. Everybody also said they are happy to do the family get-together in January, which means some gap after work events and NYE parties. So that's what we're going to do. This also gives me some extra time to get the kitchen sorted out - right now it's still full of boxes of crap. I don't want to unpack until the back window gets torn out because that's going to be filthy. But if I have a couple of extra weeks I have time to 1) harass the contractor to finish it 2) clean up after 3) put in shelves and 4) unbox everything.

Wish me luck.

***

I have been absolutely fascinated by everything that's happening around the CEO shooting in Manhattan. Not so much the shooting itself but the social media around it. Conservative commentators are getting pushback from their audiences when they frame it as "lefty's celebrating". People in New York actively telling each other not to cooperate with the police.

This article is a good example, there are people who spend their spare time solving crimes who have have done a lot to close cold cases and they're all saying nah to this one.
https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/internet/internet-sleuths-say-wont-help-find-unitedhealthcare-ceo-suspect-rcna183228

It's been like a real-life Leverage episode and it's fascinating.

It has also led to a lot of Americans talking about their personal experiences with private healthcare. It's always been a horror show, but I feel like it's gotten worse in the last 10 years as the capitalism pressure-cooker gets hotter. Companies can't just make profit, they can't even just make more profit every year, they have to make a higher percentage increase in profit every year - until they hit the wall of course, because that shit's just not sustainable in the long term.

I am really hoping that Ontarians are reading these stories. Because our province is pushing for private healthcare and that's going to be very very bad news if the public just lets them get away with it.

So that happened.

I'm seeing theories of cheating which honestly wouldn't surprise me even a tiny little bit. I'm also seeing calls for progressives not to stumble down the conspiracy theory path, which is also fair. But you know, there's no harm in asking for a recount, right? If the numbers were that close?

Maybe a do-over?

I have other thoughts, but they are not for a public forum. All I can say here is, take care of yourselves.

***

I'm still plugging away over here. I have reached the small fiddly part of organizing that is so hard because I am still waiting on things to be finished. In the meantime I've resigned myself to putting things back in boxes while I wait for the house to be done.

Contractor hasn't been here for a month in spite of frequent promises of "next week". Turns out his cancer is back and his doctors keep dragging him in for tests. I can't complain about him putting his health first, but I am complaining about him not telling me what's going on. I can't plan around his schedule if he won't fucking tell me what it is.

Cheap fast or good. Pick two.

On the plus side, took a chance that the contractor wouldn't be here last week and got the furnace guy to come in. Just in time for the temperature to drop 15 degrees. Now I need to find the manual so I can reset the thermostat since the housemate was always cold and I tend to run hot.

***

Cat was supposed to go in for some dental work. Instead I got a call from the vet saying, I'm concerned about his heart murmur...

Wait, his what now?

So now I have to take him into a cardiologist for an assessment. I legit did not know they have cardiologists for cats. But here we are.

***

I finally got my big-boy pants on and joined the gym around the corner. So far I really like like it. Huge queer contingent. Very body positive. Lots of variation in skill & fitness levels. I am sore as hell, entirely in the good way.

Really the only down side is that the building is old and the ventilation is shit. I wear a mask every class but so far I'm the only one.

I'm also thinking I need to find time to hit up a massage therapist because hoo boy, are my muscles complaining about being out of practice. And one of the clinics near me just sent out email saying that they now have a practitioner who specifically does scar work, so I might set up an appointment just for that.

Still plugging away.

I did an adulting this morning by getting up early on my day off so I could let somebody in to clean all the ducts. Next week I have somebody to do the furnace, and then I'm ready for winter.

If you walk into my basement from the front, you see a wall down the centre. The right side has a couple of doors into the basement apartment and that's where the work is going on. The left side is a long corridor that ends at the back wall and contains the furnace, boiler, and steps to the rest of the house. Up until the ex-housemate packed up their stuff, it was crammed so full of boxes I couldn't really get in there. Now that it's somewhat accessible I decided to get in there and try and sort through what remains.

Dust, dust, baby. My eyes feel like they're going to fall out of my head. And this time I remembered to wear a mask.

I also discovered that the housemate had piled a bunch of half-used paint cans next to the furnace, so yeah those are finding another home.

Tomorrow I'm getting up early so I can go the gym. No really, I am. I swear.

Yesterday I watched a squirrel run across the sidewalk with a full slice of pizza dangling from it's mouth. Ah, autumn in Toronto.

***

Things have started leaving the house again this week. I was officially in taking-it-easy mode for the last month - although I might have pushed that 20lb limit slightly once or twice - but this morning I had the follow-up appointment that gave me the all-clear to start hauling boxes and other heavy things as of today. Stretching my arms to the very top of my range is still a slow and careful thing but the scars will get more flexible as I continue to heal.

That means I should probably also do some of the housework I've been putting off. It's been... piling up a bit. Prior to the my surgery I put together a long list of physically low-impact things I could accomplish around the house while I was off work. I did not do one single thing on that list.

***

Yesterday was Thanksgiving in Canada. I can't cook for shit, but the gf is an amazing cook and she made duck for dinner. Sooo good.

And my sister, who has been living in Europe for the last 13 years, decided that she's really excited about being able to celebrate Thanksgiving now that she's back in Canada. So she hosted a family dinner on the weekend. I have been trying to get my family to stop making plans that mean being unmasked in a restaurant without much success so after stressing about it a bunch I finally texted her back and said I would come and hang out, but that I would be remaining masked while I was there because none of them take precautions. We had a brief argument about it, and I was honestly kind of dreading having to argue about it again once I got there.

But it turned out to be fine? She set up a small side table in the bedroom, closed the door, and left the windows open all day. So by the time everybody sat down to eat I could take my plate in there and eat away from everybody else in a ventilated room. When I left she told me she thought I was being unnecessarily paranoid but, "It's your health, so you get to make the call." Which was... honestly better than I expected?

I saw an article last week that the FDA has approved a combined flu/covid RAT for home use and it apparently has a much lower false negative rate than the 4 year-old RATs we're still using here, so I'm hoping I can get my hands on a few boxes before Xmas. And I'll need to sort out a booster soon. Hopefully at a time when I have a couple of days off after to deal with the ass-kicking it gives me.

So you know, still chugging away.

It's been a productive week.

The day after the funeral, when I woke up to the piles of boxes and furniture and paperwork, I set myself a goal that every single day, something would leave my house, no matter how small. I am surprised to report that I think I've actually managed to achieve that goal, even if on some days it was only a single bag of garbage or a pair of glasses dropped off at a charity.

Earlier this week the housemate showed up and took away all their furniture and boxes AND emptied their storage unit and moved everything to a new storage facility in Niagara Falls. It will be much closer if they need anything and since it's not in Toronto it's a third of the price. They stayed with a friend who lives within walking distance so they came back the next day to go through the basement and pack up more boxes. With all their stuff out of the way it meant I was able to get a start on organizing the main floor and they helped me move furniture and scrub aged cat piss off the hardwood.

We had a beer on the porch after, hot and sweaty and streaked with dust and cobwebs. We talked. They freely admitted - without me bringing it up - that they were pretty toxic at the end there. They're doing really well now, in their new environment.

I have... some mixed feelings about that. Not gonna lie.

After they buggered off home I used the long weekend to scrub dust off more shit and rearrange some other shit and start to figure out how I want my space to be laid out. A friend calls it House Tetris - I need to move a thing so I can clean the area and make space for the thing that I want to be there instead, which also needs to be cleaned, and then I have to find a space to stash the old thing while I figure out where I want that. Everything is filthy, I have inhaled so much dust. I am allergic to dust. I feel like I've been punched in the face.

But ultimately I am really happy that I finally get to do this. It will be the first time in very many years where nobody's opinion matters but mine.

Now if I could just figure out where the drill ended up.