And two months after that, I lost a close friend. And it's blatantly unfair that October, which used to be my favourite month, now becomes the one where Things Go Wrong and The Right Things don't happen, and anxiety creeps in. Was without furnace for a week, then it decides not to work, then it does....

Join me in the chorus: "Oh, it all makes work for the workingman to do."

Current Mood: restless

I had to let Dango go today - black and white, snuffly-nosed Dango, a.k.a. Yoshiclone because he looked like my first cat. It was fluid in his lungs and a heart condition, worse than the thyroid I had thought it might be.

I don't know how Mischa will take this.

...I don't clean.Went gung-ho on the office, and now I can't find my library card. Of course, the only way to find something is not to look for it. I mean, I wasn't looking for a recipe when I cleaned the office, but there it was. I wasn't looking for a knitting pattern when I cleaned the vestibule, but there it was. So I will clean, period, and it will come.

Because issued within the last 6 years means from the date of issue, not the year in general. But, I ask, the woman at Service Canada approved it. "Yes, but that's not a Passport Canada office." Which is, presumably, why they handle passport applications. If the payment hadn't been processed I would have been strongly tempted to say "Bugger this" and just stay home.

So my passport expired last year and I was too busy to renew it. Started working on it early in the year, kept getting deferred. Last week I got it all together, trotted (literally - 45 minutes' walk) it all down to the Service Centre, where a Sweet Young Thing went over it all twice, smiled, took my payment and gave methe recept. Today I get a call saying they can't use the Expedited Form because it expired over a year ago. AND they shipped my file out to Scarberia (over 45 minutes by transit). But I went over the instructions and there is NOTHING that says it was't renewable and in any case, wouldn't the SYT have caught that?

So I will call tomorrow, for all the good it will do, cuz this hyar iz THE GOVERNMENT and it will do as it pleases. I'd say roll on fall election, but one party is as bad as the other.

Tags: passports
Current Mood: discontent

I did it. And I'm glad. Glad, I tell you. I finally called By-Law Enforcement on the House of Breed across the road, whose walks are now glare ice. And not even glare ice, bumpy-slide-off-the-hill glare ice. Probably it'll be just a ticket. Maybe if I hired a tagger to spray "WORST. NEIGHBOUR. EVER." on the side fence...


The year and a bit between bits doesn't merit mention. It was pretty good on the whole.

Tags: rl, winter
Current Mood: grumpy

What does it say about me that I'd rather sock in and watch a Canada's Worst Driver 2 marathon than go see my family for Christmas? Even the ones I like, who I wouldn't see until late afternoon anyway. Methinks I need a little less of the Ghost of Christmas Past and more of the Ghosts of Christmas Present and Future.

Current Mood: discontent

"I shall have winter now and lessening days,
Lit by a smoky sun with slanting rays,
And after falling leaves, the first determined frost,
The colors of the world will all be lost,
So be it; the faint buzzing of the snow
Will fill the empty boughs,
And after sleet storms I shall wake to see
A glittering glassy plume of every tree.
Nothing shall tempt me from my firelit house.
And I shall find at night a friendly ember
And make my life of what I can remember."

Sara Teasdale. I shall have a copy of the book I got that from soon, a Hallmark collection that I gave away, silly me.

First snow came on the weekend. I don't mind snow; I do mind ice, which is what snow ends up as here in Toronto.

Current Mood: contemplative
Current Music: It's Now Winter's Day

Spent the weeknd in Rochester NY visiting friends, and now I doubly curse the morons in Canada who did zippo to help get/keep the Rochester/Toronto ferry running. I don't drive, the train takes longer than the bus and let's not even talk airplanes. That leaves the bus. U.S. customs views bus passengers with the highest suspicion, and probably with good cause. At least I never have had to travel to New York or past that way, as others do.

Went to a craft store and saw some yarn I wanted. The cashier said, "Oh, that just came in yesterday" (same day I arrived). Looked at the label and it read "Made in Canada". Go figure.

Tags: knitting, rochester
Current Location: Toronto
Current Mood: relaxed

Well, why not a blog? I've been keeping my own journal for over many decades. This is a chance for feedback

Got to see the Doctor Who episode with Anthony Stewart Head and Elisabeth Sladen. Lovely continuity.

Tags: doctor who
Current Mood: content