Quote by JamesPBear

It started with overcast, cloudy, and cool.

Then we had a near white-out, leaving the formerly bare ground covered in snow – again – with high winds.

Then the snow turned to ice pellets.

Then freezing rain.

And overnight we had repeated thunderstorms.

Yeah, that was one helluva day weather-wise. My poor backyard turned into a pond at one point. I think the ice remaining from the freezing rain was keeping the rain from soaking in.

Quote by gillianleeza
Thank you to everyone for being so kind and letting me have a place to vent.

Vent away, Gil. You deserve the opportunity.

Hope all are well. I survived another week. I will try to get some writing in on the weekend but (ominous music) I have to do my taxes. Sigh. It's gotten easier in recent years, at least, with our tax agency allowing you to download the data from your slips rather than having to key it all in.

Quote by Meagananne1986

Tea, Earl Gray, Hot, with Sweetener and Hazelnut Creamer

Hazelnut creamer in tea?? That sounds like my kind of madness (Scribbles note to self).

Just finished a mug of Yorkshire Gold tea.

Quote by WriterGirl
I’m waiting for a mobile health screening at a church across the river. It’s a fab idea for people to get health checks in a more cost-friendly way. A flat fee of $159 get me heart, artery, circulation checks, scans. Results in 2 weeks. I’m gonna do the major disease checks next for $59. If I did these in a regular clinic, it would no doubt cost me $1000 after insurance did its small part.

That sounds cool. I mean, being Canadian a lot of the major diagnostic and routine stuff is covered by our medicare anyhow but results in 2 weeks would be a stretch these days. In the context of the US system, though, that sounds like a terrific idea. Good on you to take advantage.

Watched this Spotify roundtable yesterday. Three women vocalists from rock/metal bands discussing music, being a woman in a masculine world, and other topics. Good discussion even if you're not into the music (I am a fan of two of them and do listen to the other from time to time).

The women are:

Cristina Scabbia - vocalist in Italian goth metal band Lacuna Coil

Lzzy Hale - vocalist and guitarist in American rock band Halestorm

Courtney LaPlante - vocalist in Canadian metal band Spiritbox

Nothing just now but I am mostly drinking Yorkshire tea these days

Lotion. Always worry about inhaling the spray stuff.

Gas, hybrid, or EV for your next car?

Here's goodies, too.

Ape is in the house!!

Want coffee? There's some dark roast Nicaraguan in the pot.

Tea? Yorkshire Gold and Earl Grey Supreme are ready.

Kettle is on if there are other hot beverages you crave. Sodas and fresh unsweetened iced tea are in the fridge.

How are things?

Envy of None is sort of a supergroup. Three members, guitarist Alex Lifeson (Rush), bassist and backing vocalist Andy Curran (Coney Hatch), and keyboard and guitarist Alf Annibalini are music industry vets with probably over a century of experience among them. Lifeson alone has been around for over 50 years.

However, Maiah Wynne the singer-songwriter fronting the band is only 28 with maybe a decade of experience. She's a solid singer and songwriter though, holding her own with the three veterans, every one of them old enough to be her father or even grandfather. Oddly, the band doesn't have a fixed drummer, using various drummers from the Canadian music scene as session players.

Cute note: not only is Lifeson in the band with Wynne, but he plays on some of her solo work, too.

My best to those joining the April 5 protests. We have our own concerns with Mr. Trump up here but seeing Americans expressing their rage, concern, unhappiness, whatever gives us a boost, too. I heard there's finally some senators on the GOP side of the aisle showing some cojones down there, too, which is also good news.

Good evening, I continue to be pulled in too many directions. Probably need to just dump social sites but not sure which ones. Plus time spent working, doing house stuff, and maybe writing now and then. I am trying to get a story moving ahead for here but it seems to be a bit of a slog. And a story for another site kind of got in the way for a bit, too. It was a draft that I thought I had abandoned but then it came back and demanded to be written. So, yeah.

Very wet.

Running shoes should be comfortable.

Leaf - Leif (names are allowed, I assume?)

Magdalena Bay came to my attention because of this cover of David Bowie's "Ashes to Ashes". They are an electronic alt-pop duo with some prog influences with three albums and myriad singles out in their 9 years to date. The group consists of Mica Tenenbaum on vocals and keytar and her partner Matthew Lewin on assorted instruments. The add a tour/session drummer and a second instrumentalist for live performances.

Quote by gillianleeza
Social Security never answers its phone lines, nor does the DOD—all I need is for them to accept my POA so I can change his address for his pension.

Yeesh, and I thought Service Canada (who are the frontline for most programs in Canada now) was bad when my wife was dealing with her government pension. What a pain. And the DOGE crap probably isn't helping, either. Vibes.

We switched our voice line to a new provider over a month ago and I am having buyer's remorse. Major outage covering our entire region of the province has taken down our incoming calls. We can call out, at least. And we don't get many incoming calls of importance. I don't given out our home number much anymore. I mostly give out my cell since then people can reach me whether I am home or in the office.

Wet around here this weekend, as predicted. Guess it'll help with getting the plants going. Spring birds have arrived so there's a lot of aerial activity outside my window, though the winter birds could be pretty active at times, too.

I'll put on a pot of Saint Drogo coffee and some Yorkshire Gold tea in case anyone needs something hot. Sodas seem to be in good shape for cold beverages. Given the temps down Gil's way, I guess I'll mix up a pitcher of iced tea, too.

Symphonic metal is distinguished from other metal styles in its use of orchestral and choral backing tracks (or actual orchestras and choirs in some cases) along with more typical metal instrumentation like guitars and drums. Epica is one of the pre-eminent bands in the genre and is working up to the release of a new album. This take on T.I.M.E., the most recent single from that album, does something interesting, though. They take out the band. Epica vocalists Simone Simons and Mark Jansen (Simone's the pretty one 😊) perform the song backed by just Hellscore, a rock/metal choir founded and led by Noa Gruman, who also sings in the band Scardust.

Good evening. I keep having good intentions about being around more and then keep wandering off. I'll get there. My later winter-early spring mood swings seem to be dying down.

Not a lot happening. Doing some writing. Doing some other stuff. Working. Life goes on.

Gil, glad the therapist is helping. Hope you can get things on a better trajectory soon. Hugs.

A prog fan on another site pointed me at this rather cute, silly video by guitarist Charlie Griffiths of the UK prog metal band Haken. Cute silly video but some hellagood guitar work from Charlie. There's a whole album of this from 2022 (this track is the title song) and he recently released a followup with Tiktaalika now serving as the band name.

And from the new album Gods of Pangaea, "The Lost Continent"

The weekend rages on. So I popped by and put some Nicaraguan Dark Roast on. There's Earl Grey and Sunday Tea (Vanilla) in the teapots. Kettle is ready, too, for other hot beverages.

Hope you're all having a good weekend. Sunny here but chilly (forecast high of 3C).

Fame - Fake

Hot Orange Pekoe tea with a squirt of fresh lime juice (one of my go-to teas)

6700 🤘

The problem with a cornfield as a setting for horror now is the existence of Children of the Corn, both King's short story and the mostly suckish movies allegedly based on it. Any horror using that backdrop is going to call that to mind, at least in boomer and Gen X horror fans like me.

I am trying again to write the story I came up with while in Iceland in 2023. Volcanoes, spirits, sorcery and other such fun in a faux Nordic secondary world. It's also the long intended, but never written, sequel to The Spirits of Tan Maldrin and picks up the story largely from the viewpoint of the character Nalia as she struggles with PTSD after nearly dying at the hands of a skeletal monster in that story.

Panda ambles through the forest.

Raiders of the Lost Ark

All The Lovers In The World - Lawrence Gowan

Quote by gillianleeza

I love the musical Wicked and have seen it three times, but I am always leery of movie adaptations. The movie version is streaming, so I'll probably watch it this weekend. I hope it isn't a repeat of the movie version of Cats. That wasn't very good.

Definitely been getting better reviews than Cats. I saw Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande perform at the Oscars and they handled the music pretty well (I have been a bit skeptical of Grande doing a big musical but her voice is actually up to it). And Erivo, who play Elphaba, is dripping in talent and accolades.

It's Fríiiiiiday!!! The weekend looms!!!!! And it is now officially Spring!!!!!

(I know, too many exclamation points 😁)

So there's some Fire Roasted Saint Drogo brewed and ready for your coffee fix.

In the teapots we have Yorkshire Gold and Raspberry Royale.

Kettle is full and ready for other hot beverages.

I see Bear has been keeping watch on the sodas

What's up in your world?

Clam chowder. One of my favourite soups. Vegetable beef is okay, but chowder for the win.

Baked potato or fries?

Contentment comes with living lightly.