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Grey clouds lowering on the mountains, rain, rain, dismal leaves crushed under foot, the blackened silhouettes etched onto the sidewalk, and the rain, non-stop, snow visible but not into the valleys yet.
Yesterday, at Save-On foods, a case of Hari-Kari, someone, an unidentified male, used their washroom, came out with his neck sliced open, a proper bloodbath, no updates, only severely injured, self-inflicted, witnesses are recommended counselling, this weather, government, age, it would do it. I'm curious as to who it is, was, someone no doubt on the peripheries of acquaintance, everyone here is.
Rain, rain, and when I let myself indoors it continues, the pitter-pat of my nose dripping everywhere, a terminal cold, I've become an extension of the clouds that cold-sweat buckets on the street, forever a Kleenex, tissue, scrap of toilet paper or napkin wiping my nose, drip, drip, drip...
Yesterday morning, a train derailment, blocking all access to the mall. I had no need to go, just news.
And today, setting about on my second round of errands and the power goes out. All over town, 45 minutes, then it's back up.
The news, I've gotten quicker, I just get the gist, we're in trouble, everyone, global stability, it's all done, the end game is being played out. The appointments, cronies and kleptocrats, experts in nothing but their own self-enrichment, whenever things can't get any worse they invariably do, I'm dropping the news by and largely from my list of things to do, catch-up upon, there's no good news at the moment, only bad news and irrelevant news, and - worst of all, with the right leader (not Poilievre, not Trudeau) we could be not only prospering but flourishing, per capita we're the richest country on earth second only to Australia, we only need clear vision, governance, leadership, a plan...
Stop importing minimum wage-paid slaves, cheap foreign labour, instead import experts, engineers, begin the industries wherein we can become self-sufficient, produce our own consumer goods, recycle, innovate, to hell with all the lowly service jobs lets get started on the ownership and fair distribution of our own resources, we could, should be a model to other countries...
Instead, well, instead, the news down south is as terrifying to us as it is to them.
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The end of the world, delivered to your door in a cardboard box, courtesy of Amazon.
Not that I'd in any way support them, but having a list of supplies I needed before I could get underway on some bigger painting projects, and having had no luck sourcing them in town, I turned to Amazon. .Com as I'd forgotten my .Ca password.
And - my god, if they didn't deliver everything I ordered in 2 days. From the US, to my door.
To compare, all the books I've been reading, most of which didn't arrive for 2 weeks, some as many as 5, well, - Amazon - all things aside - and they shouldn't be put aside, enough with the billionaires already, off with their heads, but bloody hell are they efficient.
So, supplies garnered, to Dollarama to buy up a big stock of cheap disposable paints - I have some ideas, that before I waste quality paint and canvas on I want to first experiment with cheaper mediums. Before committing to the big guns, maybe a hundred dollars to figure out what I'm doing will save (the theory goes, at least) a few hundred dollars in painful mistakes.
I'm counting on this to buy my jeep for next spring, on Facebook Marketplace I've seen a few for sale, of interest, on old Mercedes (SUV Jeep Style) that'd be perfect, only I'm about 30K short. The helicopter, well, that sold pretty quick but who knows, maybe by spring there will be another?
The living room fills with garbage and it's time now - today, after my volunteer shift, to start mixing up colours and begin the experiments.
Outside, the last of the fall colours peeling from the trees, the fog hangs lowering on the mountains, grey and rain, giant ravens circle the parking lot, no reason now not to get this underway...
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Slight sense of achievement, 2 electric razors, neither of which would even slightly trim my beard, instead merely pulling it out in bloody hunks. One even stopped doing that.
So get onto YouTube, watch a few how to videos, fix one, then oil them both.
And now 2 razors, good as new.
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The car, the car, always in the forefront of my mind. Finally, finally, after 100 false starts I go up the hill, it's still there, tires flat, windows broken. I call BCAA. It's looking good, only have to wait for the tow truck driver, only about 20 minutes later they call back, my car, is it insured? How long has it been there? They're on to me, no tow.
And so I call the wreckers and they actually promise to recover it that day.
There are things in it I could use, a waterproof camo jacket, fishing rod, lures, but, damn, let it go, I can get all of the above for $10 at a garage sale next year.
The next day, through the rain and drizzle, I walk up to where the car is - and - praise the lord - it's gone. Should I have grabbed the plates? I don't know, I only know it's off the large list of things I have to worry about. Now there's room in my life for a working high-clearance 4 Wheel Drive Jeep.
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And the weather, perfect, fall, clouds in the morning, rain, drizzle, cold temperatures. Wake up, have a coffee, go back to bed, the snow's coming down the mountain. You can see it, maybe 100 meters up, not so long now, not so long at all...
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And reading, after "A Voyage to Arcturus" Bloch's book on De Sade is looking pretty damned sane. And I'm still getting pages of notes out of it. I'll be a little more thorough in my review, but he's excellent, and far more entertaining than De Sade ever was...
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...being the marvelous history of General Augustus Sutter
Which being the history of a remarkable man and time in history, told by Cendrars becomes poetry and art. A slender, although marvelous read, from the point of view of a man who can't seem to reconcile the swings of fortune God (and man) have assigned him.
Cendrars is kinder to him than history is, although how much information he had access to is uncertain. The historical accounts currently do not describe him as kindly in his dealings with natives.
You can read the bare bones of his life here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Sutter
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Sooo, brought in a few of my less valuable books for trade and discovered Bloch's "Marquis De Sade - His Life and Works", which puts him into context with the rest of the Era, the countless unforgivable crimes of Louis XV, his concubines and Mary Antoinette, the innumerable vices and sins of the Clergy and Church, (with many pages given over to police reports detailing the "in flagrente delicto" acts of Monks, Jesuits, Priests, etc. It is very laugh-out loud, and while I'm barely 30 pages in I've already made as many pages in notes. Unfortunately it demands a bit of attention, and my attention has been a bit scattered by the events of the weekend.
Anyways; news I've been following, the apparent closeness of the Russian American election, news that Elon Musk has apparently been in contact with Putin, that he's paying voters to vote Trump, his Million Dollar Lottery, his dancing dipshit routine, and Trump, who's so chaotic and terrifying that there's no keeping up with him, and no point even trying...
Closer to home, news of the poor girl burned alive in a Halifax Wal-Mart Oven, Temporary foreign worker/or International Student, I knew all this without even reading the article, Canada, we've become the Dubai, the UAE of North America, bringing in cheaply paid foreign workers, giving them little to no training, and placing them in dangerous situations where this should not even be possible, yet clearly it is and it's happened. Or the recent case of an employee found dead in a Cambridge, Ontario, walk-in Freezer, Canada's become a bit like France, over there you serve 5 years in the French Foreign Legion and you become a citizen, over here you work 5 years for some of the dodgiest employers ever and - if you survive, you get citizenship.
Back to the election, Bloch and the Marquis De Sade, It's worth noting that while eventually the populace in France rebelled against the obscene hypocrisy and corruption of the Nobility/King and Clergy, resulting in the French Revolution, In America they're seriously considering reelecting them in. I mean - time, if ever there was one, to yell "Off with their heads...". Win or lose this election won't be so clean cut...
There are no clean players, from Trump, Musk, Bezos, Thiel, the list of corrupted technocrats, politicians and their sycophants should keep the guillotine busy for quite some time...on the other hand, never have they been easier to identify, merely look for the Trump Logo/Flag.
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Other than that, my books slowly arriving - early last week (the same day I was setting my chops to Bloch) Muireann Maguire's "Red Spectres" arrive, one I've long looked forward to, as well as Friday I received David Lindsay's "A Voyage to Arcturus". And there are yet two to arrive by Cendrars, and I've lengthened my list with a few more via Bloch.
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Friday night, the Dosed Party, up far too late (in fact didn't sleep, a little sketch all day and only slightly recovered for work Saturday, today feeling a little bit better. You can have too much of a good thing. I am getting a little bit too old for this, and am going to need a few weeks banging on a Tamborine following a granola truck to fully recover. This is how the Yellow Deli gets you...