merry merry and mardi gras (while we still have TikTok)

 

another building crumbles and a parade every Sunday

I’m no closer to understanding this gloriously paradoxical city than I was two years ago. It’s been 0 days since the last building closure for structural damage. (The city even sent emergency alerts last night about the most recent one.)

And at noon on Sunday another second line sets out, one of thirty-seven this season. A social club literally dressed to the nines, a brass band, and dancing in the streets.

 

new music Sunday (yes another one)

 Check out baddy daddy on Soundcloud. I love this artist and his joie de vivre.

BADDY DADDY🎧MUST WEAR HEADPHONES · Featuring The Wilson Sisters, in another Baddy Daddy Mixed Up Production.wav

a vintage haul

I lucked out the other day, stumbled upon a treasure trove of vintage ornaments at a nearby thrift store. As I unwound one clump of newspaper (dated 1999) and then another, the owner offered to sell me the entire dusty bin for $15. Sold, I said, handing over three Abe Lincolns and picked my way carefully home. I netted more than sixty of these babies, some are already en route to excited family members, and I feel so lucky.

In my corner

On week 7 of a knee injury (preceded by a rolled ankle) and I feel wounded on so many levels.
Obviously physically, with appointments at a general physician, X-rays, physical therapy, an ultrasound, a borrowed cane and most recently a orthopedic doctor and a needle to the knee. No one can say with certainty what treatment will work (if any) or when I'll feel better.
Just rest, ice, heat, elevate, do the exercises and wait.

I'm not young and elastic anymore no matter how much the camera filters lie to me.

Emotionally I'm worried about my family member fighting cancer, four chemo treatments in and awaiting scan results. It's a low thrum of worry every day, for my sibling and the cancer-haver and my nieces. It's feeling supremely helpless, in another country, limited to a weekly Zoom, peering anxiously at the screen for a sign. Of what? Weight gain or loss, more hair or less, puffiness, sluggishness, a stutter, a joke, a smile, a tear. We didn't notice anything before and they were already sick.

The emotional is physical and I'm sure there will be a bodily price to pay for my sibling and nieces. 100%.

Then there is my friend network, my found family, several of whom departed my orbit in a hail of screaming and invective. I'm still quaking, inside. Remembering the ugly words, the nasty tone, the shock and confusion. The confirmation that my deepest worries (my friends hate me, my friends think I'm less than, they despise me, they pity me) -- that my deepest sickest worries are in fact true. I wept on the phone with a mutual who was there too. It's a tragedy in a world of daily horrors and hourly traumas.

I don't want to end with ugliness so let me offer this, a network of underwater cameras that stream live every 5 minutes.
Our gorgeous underwater world: https://www.oceannetworks.ca/multimedia/live-cameras/

new music Sunday

Kendrick Lamar dropped a new album GNX and yes I'm old (so what hip hop is for the people) and YES it's fire.