Raised by Rats

It's a week since I lost Ajax and we're managing. The other two rats, Fred and Griffin, have returned to normal behaviour, though I'm sure it has been hard for them. They had all been together since birth, being three of seven boys in that litter of 14. Now they are the only survivors; such is rat mortality. 

Not much has happened this week. M hasn't had any serious difficulties that I have noticed or of which I have been informed!  She did say she thought someone else had come in this morning, but since the front door was still locked and no one else was scheduled, I figured I could safely ignore that. They had supposedly opened her cupboard.

I did get down to the beach for a swim, though the days are beginning to cool down. There was a huge set up being constructed for a concert, with the sound stage on the sand, so they had fenced off almost the entire left side of the beach, from the Indiana Tea House to the groyne. Rude. So glad I'm 4 kilometres away from that when it goes off. Apart from that, just a trip out to Bassendean to visit the shop of the butcher who wins awards for his snaggers. You can't miss them, they're arranged along the counter! The awards, not the sausages.  I've got a bit of writing done, not much. Reality keeps on being weirder than anything I imagine.

For anyone into astronomy in comfort, here is the evening view from my armchair, now I have cleared away the summer shade barricades from my balcony. It's also an unintentional lesson in how easy it might be to mock up a false image. That's the reflection of my ceiling light, not an alien spacecraft.

photos.google.com/share/AF1QipNJMTB35YXYd0cKRpLOD0OtPN6WUzEd8Ov0uu1UkDIiZ0y1-L2kv8ciEMTNH4wNxg/photo/AF1QipPzeSoXka1EMKCATxDm8p2MnSWy1Iy7R5TA-BKj

( Bitching again about people who can't fulfil their commitments! )

There's no newspaper on Good Friday, so I gave M a rundown on the news. "There's still a war in Iran so there's a fuel crisis, there's a NASA spacecraft on its way to the Moon, Donald Trump isn't dead yet, and the Prime Minister has told us not to panic."  I think that about covers it. M did realise that this was the first Moon visit since the landing of Apollo 17 in '72, so not too bad. M may have conflated the various Moon landings into one but fair enough, I wasn't certain of the date myself till I checked.

GF is quiet around here since most places are shut, whether or not you observe the holiday. Swancon used to be held at Easter, which dropped away a few years back, and I'm still of the mindset where I have no idea what to do at Easter, because I've always had Swancon to do! I hope it may move back. This year is the first since the pandemic to be held at an actual hotel, with rooms, so one can but hope for a revival. So all I've done is the parental wrangling, which I take over at public holidays because the community care place's rates are very high on such days and we need to conserve the funding. I came home and watered all the plants, messed around online for a bit, read some more of  Caliban's War, Book 2 of The Expanse [second reread] and crashed out on the bed.

( Read more... )

Here's a collection of photos I took today at the beach I go to. It's not normally so dressed up, but at the moment they are having the Sculptures by the Sea exhibition, so it's a lot more popular during weekdays than usual. The swimmers get it back after next weekend. I took these photos around five o'clock this afternoon.

photos.google.com/share/AF1QipNJMTB35YXYd0cKRpLOD0OtPN6WUzEd8Ov0uu1UkDIiZ0y1-L2kv8ciEMTNH4wNxg/photo/AF1QipPIZXeIhYB8kkodsDk2H_z5a8yTUMM4czl5xf28

And some more detail is available on that bunker ad, I mean exhibit....

www.bunkerdown.info/

I saw this on Facebook today: It's a bewildering concept. This may be my favourite boardgame, well, after Scrabble, but a movie? Of course, as a card carrying nerd [it's my library card] I would watch a movie of a bunch of people on an old style train, playing Ticket to Ride. 

nerdist.com/article/netflix-developing-ticket-to-ride-movie-board-game-asmodee/

I saw this on Facebook and stole it instantly, for use in M's next Groundhog Day adventure.

"Quit asking if I'm okay. If I'm ever okay, I'll let you know!"

www.facebook.com/photo

I also intend to adapt it to M's perennial, "Are you doing anything interesting/exciting this weekend?" which drives me crazy, because that sounds like something you'd ask a kid on holiday. Also it makes me feel bad because I'm usually not doing anything/can't afford to. If that makes any sense. And I suspect what I find interesting would not at all align with M's ideas.

M asks me that weekly or as often as she sees me, which can be several times in a week. Weekends are usually when I hide, because this suburb is very, very busy on weekends and I don't like that. Same as I go to the beach on weekdays when it's not insanely crowded and you're less likely to be swum over by some gung ho type practising for the Rottnest Swim. Which got cancelled this weekend because of rough weather, so it is in my mind.

My mum has NO clue.  When I was talking about this annual event, in which people swim the 20 kilometres from Cottesloe Beach to Rottnest Island, she asked if I was going in it, to which I asked if I looked crazy, by which I really mean that obsessed. I'm an all right swimmer, but I cannot do a distance like that. Has she met me?

In other news:

Google has slowed to a crawl this weekend, so that loading anything took a long time, enough that I finally checked and there was actually a reported problem, cause unknown. Which is preferable to the times when the Down Detector responds with, "No, why do you ask?"  That's what it feels like, that I am being humoured by their AI.

It is my rats' second birthday. I gave them some leftover chips from fish and chips. Doing nothing is their favourite thing, so this post is in their honour today.

( another inept assassination attempt on Trump )

I've been around to take some more pictures of Lake Claremont/The Swamp, so people can see what I'm on about. Well, that's one of the things I carry on about.

I went to the volunteers' seedling watering session on Sunday morning. They're going to think I don't talk much, because that's 7.30 am and the brain is not out of bed yet, but they'll learn. Somebody told me why we're doing it in that area, which was good to know. There used to be five Moreton Bay Fig trees there, but they fell victim to the polyphagous shothole borer, which is a tiny beetle that can kill really big trees. It's not from around here, but decided to move in.

photos.google.com/share/AF1QipNJMTB35YXYd0cKRpLOD0OtPN6WUzEd8Ov0uu1UkDIiZ0y1-L2kv8ciEMTNH4wNxg

Anyway, in no particular order, the photos depict: The shed where volunteers' equipment is kept, two of. The path to where the seedlings are. I didn't have my camera on the day and I can't go in there unless on official business. There's a distant photo of some of the seedlings taken from the public path. All this is a wetland in the centre of Perth, by the way. Claremont is an inner suburb, about six kilometres from the CBD if you take the bike path. [Inner-ish].

There's also one of the surviving Moreton Bay fig trees, which has some 'crime scene' tape up because a branch, the size of any other normal tree, fell off a while back. Then there's the lakeside with some of the residents. I'm told this is a lot of water for the lake to have in late summer, but there's quite a few weeks of hot weather yet to come.  Then a surprise, somebody's nest built almost in arm's reach of a public viewing area. Then a distance view of the whole lake.

Then we have some holes. They're as close as I've been able to get a camera to the elusive southwestern brown bandicoot, also called the quenda. I *think* these are quenda holes. I asked at the volunteers thing if there were rabbits here and someone said "rarely," though as we know, two rabbits are all you need. But I've seen and nearly broken my legs around rabbit holes and these don't look like those. Rob, Leece, what do you think?  In the link is a quenda someone prepared earlier.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quenda

There are definitely foxes, for whom live-capture traps have been set. Somebody had found fox scat right outside the shed. There was a moment of respectful silence for the knowledge of one who knew fox poo when he saw it.

We've just had a power failure and everything went black. It's fantastic. Streetlights still on, unfortunately, but the houses around this block of apartments seem to be affected. Closest we'll get to a Black Sky event, Rob and Leece.

Am I weird that my first thought was wow, this sky right now would be great for astronomy. [EDIT. Though it is a full moon, so maybe not so much?]

It's to be expected after a 42^C degree day following a 27^C minimum night, I suppose.  

I can hear my pet rats moving around, this being their free range time, but I can't see them, so the little horrors are going to go to bed exactly when they want to, I suspect!

Lucky I don't need to see my keyboard to type. I used to freak my boss out by transcribing with my eyes shut.

I just took a look out the front and it's definitely the surrounding block, not just us. A few folks will be getting their exercise, since of course this puts the lift out of operation. And a bunch of people are standing around in the car park, not sure what for. I've got my front door open, with flywire shut to prevent rat excursions,since it's getting a bit uncomfortable without the fan. 

Another general call for extras popped up, so I updated my photos. The details of the Thing to be Filmed are very scant, but surfing and board shorts were mentioned, as in: Can you surf and do you have a problem with appearing in board shorts? No, and no, though I'm a confident ocean swimmer, so hopefully that works in my favour! I decided to dress in what appeared to be the desired garments and now we wait to see if they want one of those this time! Be warned, you will see partially unclad Rattfan if you click the link. Nothing to trigger the Internet censors.

photos.google.com/share/AF1QipNJMTB35YXYd0cKRpLOD0OtPN6WUzEd8Ov0uu1UkDIiZ0y1-L2kv8ciEMTNH4wNxg/photo/AF1QipNI23zPDa_7UzMfXipq7t23OmD9_NCJzlRYPrEh

I've done another gardening session with the Swamp volunteers. There's very little in the way of live weeds in my Spot now, so I went to the 'social' session that happens once a month! This time of year, it's watering the young native seedlings [native to this specific area] which have been planted in open ground beside the Swamp, to become a proper forest in a year or so. This will be done fortnightly, not monthly, from now on until the rains come again. It just happened to be the task for what they call the Busy Bees. Sometimes they do other tasks. A dedicated team does the watering on the off fortnight Sunday. The water is brought up by vehicle in a large tank and decanted into watering cans, carried two per person if they have reasonable strength, over the planting area until everyone is watered.

I was supposed to go gaming tonight, but [again!] somebody cancelled and it had to be put off. This is a relatively new social trend, I find, that of the last minute cancelling.  It became very prevalent last year. I suppose I should be grateful that I found out several hours in advance, rather than minutes. When I'm on my way out the door and somebody does it right then, that does piss me off. I think a functioning adult should be able to work out if they want to go to something and if they can fit it in to their schedule, then TURN UP if they have responded in the affirmative, always allowing for sudden death or disablement/illness. Theirs or someone else's.

But hey, that's just me. And I never wanted to be the adult in the room!

With this demon icon, I'm referring to a scene in Supernatural where a character explains that you know what you're going to get from a demon. They're a predictable evil. Though I will note, that in all the lore about making a deal with a demon, there's one interesting item that shows up: Hell stays bought. What they promise, you will receive. You just better be really careful about reading the fine print. They must have a lot of lawyers down there.

But people will screw you up in all the ways that come to mind, and more. One of the recent insanities I've been tracking is the story of a writers' festival in Adelaide, an event where the chosen writers get to talk to their adoring - or not so much - public, spruik their books and answer questions. When politics enters the picture, the agenda can go off the tracks, because writers don't know any more about politics than anyone else, in general.

So here, a writer was invited. Her politics were well known. Then it was decided by the board of that festival that she should be disinvited, details why in the link. There was much howling and rending of garments. Personally, I think they could have just stuck her in her own tent or space, and then anyone who wanted could go hear/talk to her or ignore her. From what I can see, those writers who have cancelled have done so not because they agree with her, but because they agree you shouldn't silence someone with whom you disagree.

www.afr.com/life-and-luxury/arts-and-culture/exodus-from-adelaide-writers-week-after-pro-palestine-author-dumped-20260109-p5nsvw

NYE was excellent, spent at a barbecue and board gaming with rdm, leecetheartist and the usual suspects, safely out of earshot of the NY concert and fireworks next to my place. We played Falling Towers [is that the right name?] Squishing of magician students under towers and extraction of their precious bodily fluids]. Also Vantage, which I think I understand a bit better now.

I got to sleep about 3 am, so today have been semi-conscious. Managed the parental wrangling but since M was out of hearing aid batteries, communication was limited. A friend of M's rang me up because she hadn't answered calls, waking me up from another doze. He tried to get me to use words but that wasn't a huge success. 

I posted a brief summary of last year to Facebook, so here's a copy of it. I'm sure everyone here knows all this.

I was made redundant just before Xmas 2024. 2025 was my first year of retirement from the gulag, as a victim of the "AI plague."

Lease terminated, had to move. Found apartment in Claremont for very reasonable rent. I think this is my only critical success roll for
the year.

Did some work as a TV extra, which was a lot of fun and I hope to do some more.

No travel. No spare $, and I'm carer for my mother [almost 95] so I think this year will be a rinse and repeat in that respect.

No publications this year, but still writing, a novel about a Western Australian zombie apocalypse, which begins in the United States.  [Otherwise this post is intentionally politics-free].

Not dead yet.