4:00am insomnia blogging
July 19, 2011
There is a smell being drawn in from outside by the bedroom window fan, a fresh and not-fresh, green brown slimy smell, like algae. Nerve endings buzz, high on cough syrup, and restless legs twist in the bed but don’t want to stand up and walk around, either. This is (hope) the last of several risings, sitting upright in the dark to suck on cough lozenges. The stomach rebels at the sickly sweetness of those, but the throat demands them. In the late afternoon the heat wave gave way to torrents of rain then curled in close again, holding that moisture, keeping it warm so that the only relief comes from stretching out bare feverish feet in front of a fan that sucks great algae stinking breaths from the hot wet outside. I feel like I’m living in the South again, where damp settles into houses and never goes away and things slowly rot and you don’t even notice the scent of mould in sheets, in clothes, in hair, in everything until you go away somewhere and open up your suitcase and the stench hits you and you wonder, is that what my life smells like?
It almost wouldn’t be a surprise at all to wake up and find the house overgrown with kudzu, like in a story. Or a dream.
Posted by jodi on July 19, 2011 at 3.29am
in which she indulges in a little bit of canada’s favourite pastime
April 18, 2011
Snow in April is hardly unheard of in Southwestern Ontario, but way down here in the Sun Parlour we’re usually the only ones not getting it. So this is a nice surprise so long as it goes away quickly, right? I may have spoken too soon this morning when I told somebody I’d rather have half a metre of fresh new snow than one more day of those 65km/hr winds. It seems some of this snow is sticking.
On the forsythia:
On the rhubarb, garlic and chives (yes, they’re too close together, I KNOW; that rhubarb is moving this year, I promise):
On the tulips!
On the irises:
Posted by jodi on April 18, 2011 at 12.09pm
cleaning snow off the car
January 24, 2011
From the vantage point of the passenger seat. Or, as Peter put it, “is that so you can show the internet how helpful you are?”. (FYI when there is lots of snow I help. Today was not much snow).
Shot with the Harinezumi digital.
Posted by jodi on January 24, 2011 at 2.15pm
photos
April 26, 2010
A busy and at times frustrating day, with too much emailing, too much running around, not enough progress, and a knitting machine showing up in the mail right at a time when it was impossible to drop everything and set it up and play with it RIGHT THEN. Started rainy and cold, turned to sunny and just on the cusp of warm enough for a t-shirt, then the winds rolled in like banshees.
Posted by jodi on April 26, 2010 at 8.53pm
seven sleeps
April 9, 2010
Today was a day of keeping busy to stave off homesickness. It’s Peter’s birthday, and it’s been an awfully long time since we were apart on his birthday. It’s snowing again.
All of my student work is photographed, most of the marks are calculated, some of the feedback for seventy-six drawing and printmaking projects is typed up. Heading into All Work Mode to bust this out over the weekend. After that: Unicorns and Glitter!
Posted by jodi on April 9, 2010 at 10.53pm
spring
March 22, 2010
The ice isn’t off the pond yet, but the snow person has long since disappeared.
Posted by jodi on March 22, 2010 at 6.12pm
prediction
March 12, 2010
When the ice has melted just enough to allow the shrinking snow person to slip into the pond and away, it will be spring.
Posted by jodi on March 12, 2010 at 7.10pm
spring is coming
March 4, 2010
Posted by jodi on March 4, 2010 at 10.11pm
turn on the waterworks
February 26, 2010
The second and third periods of last night’s hockey game were dead boring, what with all of the scoring happening in the first few minutes of the game. But, whatever. We won!
That guy with the “GOLD CANADA GOLD” sign had a white helmet on his head with a flashing police car light on top. Somebody on flickr said that he was in the front row at every game, always with the same helmet and different signs. Hilarious. He must have spent a fortune on tickets.
I always feel so sad for the team that loses, though, because I am a sympathetic crier and can’t see people crying on the teevee without joining in (it makes no difference whether or not I’m actually moved, and in fact television doesn’t really move me very often and I’m mostly cynical even about the few shows I like; the crying’s just a visceral reaction. Or whatever the viscera of tear ducts are, I guess). I wish the Americans could have felt happier in celebrating their silver, but they all just looked so crushed that the medals ceremony was hard to watch. The Finns, on the other hand, were ecstatic, jumping around and making kissy-faces at the camera. So cute. Anyway, it was nice to see some people in the stands wearing Canada jerseys holding up American flags and shouting “U-S-A! U-S-A!” after the silver medals had been given out. Okay, actually that might have made me cry a little too. I’m a big old crybaby this week. Y’all should have seen me hoofing it up that snowy hill to work yesterday in the wind and blowing powdery snow. I was crying up a storm then, I tell you what.
Another thing frequently seen on the teevee these days that never fails to make me cry:
The Tim Hortons “welcome to Canada” ad. For the record, I’ve never cried over a Tim Hortons commercial in my life before, no matter how overly sentimental and mushily patriotic they are. This one, though, I can’t watch all the way through with dry eyes. Good thing all this hockey will be over soon and I won’t have any more reasons to watch teevee.
Awww.
Posted by jodi on February 26, 2010 at 5.51pm
minus 28° windchill
January 28, 2010
Our week of mild temperatures and melting snow has given way to what in these parts isn’t really considered THAT much of a cold snap, but for a Sun Parlour girl (and someone who, thanks to three winters in Georgia, has become a bit soft) this is definitely the lower end of bearably cold. After checking the weather this morning (minus 13°) I decided that I could easily walk up the hill to work wearing a shorter than usual skirt and thinner than usual tights (pantyhose weight, really). Upon staggering into my office, wind-whipped and with NEON PINK LEGS glowing out from under my polka-dot tights, I opened up the Environment Canada weather page once more and read the fine print. Minus 23° windchill. Whoops.
Needless to say I bummed a lift home after class with a student. I may be a fool but I’m still also a wimp, and the wimp won out easily. It’s now minus 20° outside, minus 28° with the windchill. Quite normal for here, or so I gather. And certainly not unlike the winters I grew up with, long before my stint in the South miraculously transformed me into a Georgia peach. Tomorrow, thick leggings. Perhaps two pairs.
Posted by jodi on January 28, 2010 at 8.36pm
