Monday, December 31, 2007

Hogmanay

Sent my love off to the city in an ambulance this morning. For the last week we've been sharing the worst case of flu either of us have ever experienced but by this morning it was time to admit that one of us was starting to need a breathing prompter.
Happy morphine, my darling.


Then in the afternoon, an intervention. Alison, you're making yourself ill with this blogging shit - you used to paint.
This much is true - I did use to paint. Hard to see how another nude will be of much use at the moment however and I can't seem to manage both at once. I give them, my kind and loving friends, my standard citizens' democracy chat, only slightly ruining it by fitting in the word 'ambulance' at the end and bursting into tears. Noted pamphleteer Thomas Paine used this debating technique all the time I'm sure.


Thing is I haven't blogged, read any blogs or papers, or watched tv news in a week and it's been a great relief to know little more than that Benazir Bhutto was apparently killed by a car door handle.
I think I'll just check my mail though and maybe a couple of blogs, just in case Harper has decided to use Xmas week to kick up his conversion to full psi-lon status....

Oh look, Skdadl said something nice about me in a great piece on the freedom of the press to become whores. Wait, actually it's even better than that. She says that even as much of the fourth estate "have decided to make careers out of laundering government propaganda", there's still us - the lowly unpaid blogging pamphleteers - to point out both this fact and where the facts in their stories should be.
Skdadl : "This is very hard work for a volunteer army, but it is a privilege to know so many people who have joined up anyway."
And a pleasure to serve with you, chickie chick.


Night. Trying to snow.
I've opened the gates to let the local deer into my normally off-limits garden. They walk uncertainly past the lighted window and sprint off down to a winter salad of roses and the remains of the veggie garden. They want those cabbages but first they'll strip every leaf off every ivy they can reach, ivy being higher in vitamins C and D than most veggies.

Much is made of the superior cunning of predators; not enough of the perseverence of herbivores. I've seen a doe run repeatedly up a 7' chainlink fence, throw her weight at the top, and spring back to the same side again.
If unlucky, she'll snag a hoof between the links, break a leg and die. If successful, she'll flatten out just enough of the top of the fence to turn what was an obstacle into a landing touchdown, a springboard to take all the deer right over the wall.


I imagine it is at those times that she turns to her fellow deer and says something like : "This is very hard work for a volunteer army but it is a privilege to know so many who have joined up anyway."

Eat everything down to the ground, my lovelies. There's a new year coming.

Jan 3 update : Thank you so much for your many kindnesses left here and elsewhere. He still can't breath without the machine and is not expected to come home any time soon, so if it's ok with you all, I'm not going to mention this again till I have something more encouraging to report. Your good wishes very dear to me and I thank you.

15 comments:

Godammitkitty said...

*hugs* Alison, and warm thoughts for your sweetie :(

Anonymous said...

So break my heart first thing in the New Year with a story about Bambi's mother, will you? ;-)

That was beautiful, Alison. All the best to you and your love. We can't go on; we'll go on.

West End Bob said...

This being the first post I've read by anyone in 2008, it places the bar extremely high for those that follow.

Sending our Get Well thoughts to both of you . . . .

Q said...

'Death is a great price to pay for a red rose,' cried the Nightingale, 'and Life is very dear to us all...

Oscar Wilde reminds that love and sacrifice are our highest virtues, but I like nudes as well...so do both.

RossK said...

Don't you just love it when q waxes eloquent?

I know I do.

And he makes a great point - especially if it's possible to paint nude free press whores.


(skdadl's post really was very, very fine)

Dave said...

Hoping that you and your love recover quickly.

Nice post. Very nice post.

Take good care. This volunteer army runs on "smarts" so we need you.

Cheers

Lindsay Stewart said...

do get better soon, both of you. what dave said. there's plenty of us slinging mud, we need our precious few word painters, you are too rare by far.

Alex Arnet said...

Happy New Year, and I hope you and yours are feeling better very soon. Love reading your words.

Havril said...

Beautiful post, kid. I send warm baby love and boundless hope to you and yours. I have an abundance of both these days.

Anonymous said...

Get well cards suck don't they?

But get well anyway, both of you.

I've spent the better part of the holidays paying little or no attention and feeling relieved as well.

Conflicted.

bigcitylib said...

Stay hydrated. Sleep lots. Do NOT stay up late at night on some fever inspired blogging tear. It'll come back on you tomorrow.

Unless you have some really inspired hallucinations.

Get well soon.

Anonymous said...

Get Well Soon Allison, both of you!

Do what bigcitylib says... she's exactly right.

I'm trying to think of something clever and cheerful to add here but my brain is mush. I shall return to quiet lurking for now.

Happy New Years everyone!!

Geo

ernie yacub said...

gan mao ling - little yellow pills made by those clever chinese.

i swear they work like magic - i buy boxes of them to give to friends cause they do ACTUALLY WORK, especially if you start taking them when you get the first signs - even work during the cold or flu to help recovery.

cheap too - a couple of bucks a bottle in vancouver chinatown.

funny thing is, i haven't had to use them the last couple of years - must be the home grown garlic i eat almost every day with my home made kim chee, which also has copious amounts of garlic.

Bazz said...

I hope very much that you and your love are feeling better very soon!

Cathie from Canada said...

Herbivores watch out for each other, too. When the herd is feeding, several are always standing heads-up, watching for danger. And they practice running together, too.
Beautiful post, and hope you are both getting better.

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