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“Meeting Art, December 11, 2025.” Pencil on printer paper. Collection of the artist.
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(Picketing Day 9)
I’m breathing well today. I thought I was coming down with something the first half of the week, but I just proceeded as usual and now I’m fine.
I was coming down with something or my lungs just don’t like the actual transition to fall weather that’s happening maybe. Extra-specially since I have to be out in the weather so much more than usual.
It is a rainy day today, or as the weather app says, potential storm is happening. I started the morning in a raincoat and rain poncho, which was a fetching combination. I also had 2 sweaters on which ended up being too warm, which is a good way to be. I went home for a new jacket/sweater combo and I’ve achieved a good warmth/dry balance now.
I walked for a lot of the time, now I sit in a sheltered are at the front of the building. I feel there aren’t as many people here today as there have been other days? Main topic of conversation the past few days was how rainy it was going to be today, so there may be some practical absences. Not me though because I had to prance around in my poncho for a while, and then once that was soaked thought, I changed to my parka.
The wind has picked up, and the rain is heavier. I’ll stay put here unless the wind shifts in any significant way and my shelter becomes no longer sheltered.
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My first deep breath of the day occurred just after I locked the door to my apartment and was walking down the hall to leave for the morning. I had my right arm wrapped around a pot of dirt that once held a tomato plant, taking it down the store temporarily in the trunk in my car before taking it to Duncan this weekend. I took my tomato plants down this week, harvesting the last of the mostly edible tomatoes, because they were done for the season. I heard from Mum that Dad took down his tomato house quite recently so that was a good gauge for my timing.
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Picketing Day 6
… was yesterday and I sat for the whole of my shift. I wasn’t feeling good? Or my legs were tired. Something. I didn’t want to walk. And then it was my first time experiencing rain for a whole shift, for which I was not prepared. The weather report betrayed me in the most dreadful fashion. I am close enough to home, though, so I and got a warmer jacket, and then a dry jacket throughout the morning.
Today (Picketing day 7) is better and I’m walking about, and did t bring my chair, but it was open and pit after having to dry it out yesterday, and it seemed like a lot of work to fold it back up into its carry bag.
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I took the deepest of breaths this morning at around 10:45. I was under a chestnut tree on Michigan St is James Bay behind Capital Park. I know it was a chestnut tree because chestnuts have been falling on us as we walk under it; and there are chestnut casings(? The spiky outer skins) squished all over the sidewalk. And the occasional shiny brown nut.
I got a cough drop at my break so that probably helped with the deepest of breaths I took. I was not huffy today so I wasn’t thinking about breathing and then I took a big inhale that just went on and on.
My work site is on strike as of last week, so I am spending my mornings walking along a picket line with a jolly yellow sign attached around my neck. This week the weather is sunny or cool and so makes for a delightful existence, but I will see how it goes once it starts to rain.
… (Picketing, Day 3) …
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I took my first deep breath of the day tonight as I lie in bed watching a television programme on my laptop. I’ve just taken my echinacea in two forms so maybe that’s why. Does echinacea even do anything? I don’t know. I said it maybe. Note that I’ve been breathing fine, I just didn’t have a Nice Deep Breath until now.
I drank cider all afternoon with my chum I’ll call “Susan”. That doesn’t need to be in quotes. That’s her real name. I made pasta with cucumber and tomato salad and salmon with lemon and various herbs. And roasted zucchini. A Use Up As Many Things As Possible lunch so that I Can Fit Things In My Fridge Again.
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Yesterday (Monday) my first deep breath of the day was while I was sitting at the counter at my parents’ house, eating a seed & nut bar. Needing to eat because I was going to drive home and needed the energy, only able to eat a seed & nut bar because I wasn’t really hungry yet. Or hungry but didn’t feel like eating? It wasn’t a very big deep breath and my chest felt tight. I was out of breath from packing up the car: not something I should be out of breath for. It was after I took my inhaler. I proceeded with the day ok, and did a dance class later with just a little huffiness. But. Hm.
I haven’t taken a deep breath today.
I’m at the precious time of the year when I have brought home a box of tomatoes from Dad’s harvest, but I have tomatoes ripening here as well. Overlap.
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I’m in Duncan for the weeeeeekend. “Weeeeeeekend” because I arrived on Thursday and will leave tomorrow (Monday). Here there is the Duncan Farmers Market and “Hand of Man” museum (yesterday). And fresh tomatoes, beans, zucchinis, cabbage and etc. I picked two buckets of beans yesterday for my own personal use (“YES TAKE THEM ALL” says Dad.) Also I had to hose down my car while I was here because it was covered in ash. I used the scrubber brush while I was at it to remove all the moss. AND I watched the Canada/New Zealand women’s rugby game, which was gorgeous.
My first deep breath of the day today was just a few minutes ago while I’m sitting on my bed reading. I’m sitting up against pillows, “lounging” so it’s easy to get a nice breath in. It’s not as big of a breath as I am usually capable of, but I’m going back and forth between being better and still recovering from being sick. Safely out of the acute sickness stage, for sure, which is good, but not entirely back to normal, either. We wait. And the doctor said wait, too, when I checked in.
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I came here today because I’ve been meaning to start a new series of posts where I document the circumstances of the first deep breath I take each day. I’ve only remembered to do it today, which is a day when I did not take any deep breaths. I’m feeling huffy today for reasons unknown. (“Huffy” def. in Lindsie speak, is when my lungs are tight; I’m breathing but it’s not as free as it might be; I should probably find my salbutamol inhaler to ease it.)
OK not totally unknown. My lungs protest sometimes when I’ve had too much sugar/choco/alcohol. Which is why I try to watch my consumption of these things during the dance season. It’s barely the hint of a sacrifice on my part. I asked myself years ago whether I wanted to eat junk or breath during dance and I made my decision. (To breath.) But an advantage is no sugar/choco/alcohol = healthy.
I think I used to get huffy, also, when I was under a constant state of stress and anxiety? Certain former paid positions come to mind where I had to answer the phone all day. But that’s not today.
I don’t feel like eating much today either, but that’s likely to to over-indulging all weekend long. There were a couple times at least where I thought to myself after a meal that that was tooooooo much food.
Choco-chip zucchini loaf! I made one yesterday and then ate too much. It’s tasty. I have a good chunk of it left but I’ll eat it in smaller portions. Or have a larger portion but that will be a meal.
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Not last night but the night before I dreamed that my friend Susan took new living accommodations in a big shared house where she was sleeping on a mat on the floor at the end someone’s bed. Instead of saying I was proud of her, like I knew I should, I said she could probably find a better living situation. I knew immediately that this was wrong. But she and I have reconciled about this in real life and everything is fine now.
Somehow after that dream, or as I was waking up, I started ranking late night talk show hosts. Late night talk show hosts must be on my mind lately with Colbert getting fired, and I just watched an episode of his when I was at my parents’ house.
Seth Meyers I like because we saw him live when we were in New York. He talked to Paul Rudd when we saw him so that was a famous person, even. Most recently though I saw him on tiktok talking ALL CAPS to Pamela Anderson, who was just lovely and only talks in small caps, I guess. I wanted him to Shhhh just a bit.
I only watch Jimmy Fallon when there are BTS members appearing, because he is their late night talk show host of choice. That’s all I really have to say about him, EXCEPT that he has a flavour of ice cream named after him that comes in a dairy-free version and it is very tasty. I guess it’s named after his show, actually, but I call it “Jimmy Fallon Flavoured Ice Cream.” I liked Jimmy Fallon more when he did the news on SNL. But he’s nice to the BTS members, so.
I forgot about Jimmy Kimmle. Kimmel? He’s been around a while. I’ve watched compilations of his feud with Matt Damon. Funny.
I never watched Craig Ferguson until he was finished his run and then I went on a spree watching all of his content on YouTube. He has several things going for him that i enjoy: he is basically completely unhinged. Did he ever have a script? Who knows. I don’t think so. But also he featured a pantomime horse with an accompanying song and dance that the host and guests would do when ever it appeared. I don’t even have words to express how much I love this, although I have Youtube history showing how many instances of this I have watched.
I would watch Conan O’Brian waaaaay back in the day when he was on at 12:30 am. Also unhinged. Sometimes I would laugh a lot. Mostly it was an accomplishment to be awake that late. I recently watched his special for getting the Mark Twain award for being a particularly funny american. It was a good time.
Colbert is the best when he talks about Lord of the Rings, or when someone tries to best him in LOTR trivia. There’s something else I like too, but I can’t remember. When I was watching just recently I was like OH, this is him doing that thing he does. I wonder what it was. Probably something smart. My parents record him and watch while eating dinner, that’s when I was watching, so maybe it wasn’t Colbert that I was impressed with so much as it was roast chicken dinner with corn and caesar salad, and I got to eat all of the caesar salad because no one else wanted any!
And then David Letterman. I like that he has the kind of humor that is straight-faced and entirely disinterested or indifferent. For some reason in the mid-90’s he was on at 3:30 in the afternoon on channel 6 so my brother I I would watch and do homework (or not? maybe? I don’t remember him ever doing homework, but I might have.)
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I have a lot of food right now, just by the nature of having brought a lot home with me.
Today I had three meals ready to go (I work from home today, so I prepare things): oatmeal with blueberries and yogurt for breakfast, chicken dinner, and salmon pasta. The last two could be for either lunch or dinner. So I had the salmon pasta for breakfast because I really wanted it then, and chicken dinner for lupper (late lunch). I’ve just eaten the oatmeal for dinner I guess.
The salmon pasta was with fettuccini with butter, parsley and fried zucchini. I didn’t finish it. There’s still two slabs of zucchinis, some crumbs of salmon and 6 noodles in the bowl in the fridge.
Chicken dinner is left over from Mum making it on Sunday night. I have portions with the plan of adding gravy when I warm it up. But since I was at home I made a sandwich with the chicken (open-faced), and fried the potatoes. Then some green beans, and I had some wee tomatoes from my tree to use so I made tomato/cucumber salad as well, with basil and lemon/olive oil dressing.
Oatmeal is oatmeal, just I put maple syrup on it, too, along with the blueberries and yogurt. I remember there being a slurrrrrping noise and then it was all gone. There is a matching one of these to take with me to work tomorrow, with blackberries instead. Such yum. Much health.
i'll try to be better. i promise 