Raised by Rats

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.

Five days since my last confession! It's still very quiet, in that strange week between Christmas and the New Year which doesn't really exist. The Day itself was stinking hot, ranging from 41-43^C depending on where in the Perth area you were. Lowest for the coast. I was visiting M to do the wrangling as well as the holiday visit, which M does not really care about, except for the opening of the hamper which my bro and SIL send over. I always get some of the loot, which included quite a decent Christmas pudding and a sort of brandy sauce to pour over it. After that, I got home about five degrees under the maximum and crashed on the bed for the rest of the heatwave.

I've had trouble sleeping because (a) the heat gets in, no matter what, and (b) my sleep pattern is really weird right now. If I'm writing, my mind is most active in the late afternoon/evening and I can look down to see the time and it'll be 1 am. It could be that this is actually my natural pattern, suppressed over decades in employment by people who tend to want one moving earlier in the am.

( Talking about the time passing between Stranger Things season 4 and 5. No plot spoilers. )

Today I went into town and realised these trips are becoming a rare thing. When working for the gulag, I had to go in three times a week, and there would sometimes be need for other trips in that time. Now not so much. The train and city centre were packed with people on holiday, but I got my stuff done. Visit to Officeworks [reason below], visit to the main Perth Library, and a lookaround a couple of shoe shops, because my sandals are in that held-together state which could disintegrate at any moment.

The first shop had a sale on all men's shoes, which I thought looked great, till I found out the reason was they were "getting out of men's shoes" and didn't have anything near my size. The second shop said they hadn't gotten any men's sandals this year, because no one wanted them last year. This year everyone has been asking, she said. I told her my sandals had been all right last year, which I know does not help at all! But that's made me think the universe does not want me to have new sandals.

( where I talk in detail about my printer. )

The subject is what I heard someone say to a shopkeeper today. I did my last food run before that general shutdown known as Xmas. Claremont is generally a very busy suburb, but has approached 'end of days' chaos now. It's also a generally wealthy area, except for certain outposts such as Saint Andrews, aka this apartment block. So I suspect a LOT of $ is changing hands right now as last minute present shopping gets done.

This celebration seems to have become quieter for me personally, especially after pandemic. People got out of the habit of socialising. Even though I don't get to do much of it, I rather hope we can get back to the keeping of the tribal rituals. I haven't had anywhere to visit on Christmas for several years now, and now gaming appears to have entered a hiatus, it could be awhile.

Of course, I have an extra load of parental wrangling this year, since I will be doing the public holidays. The aged care system recently underwent a major overhaul, which means everything seems to cost more. If you have a professional carer visit your aged parent for one hour on a public holiday, it will now cost you approximately $300. Slightly under, but that's loose change. Even if all that person does is give medication, make them a sandwich and stand by while they have a shower! Wasn't going to do that on Xmas Day anyway, even if M couldn't give a stuff, but I'd been going to let Shine do the visits on Boxing Day and NYD before I learned the above. It would have gone over the budget of M's health care package.

Still, we're headed for another heatwave when I wouldn't be travelling outside during the day anyway, beyond that wrangling. 40^C on X Eve and 41^C on X Day. Even here on the coast, we tend to get less reprieve when it's that high, because there's often no sea breeze at all.

M doesn't want to do the hot lunch thing and I don't have much interest myself, so I will get some fresh cherries, Camembert cheese and whatever else catches my eye from that very expensive IGA at our corner, which is open on Christmas morning. Though to be fair, you can shop there and not be gouged, so long as you don't shop in the fresh produce area. Things like lactose free milk, which I have to use, are as cheap or cheaper than other places, because they get in a cut price brand. Ditto most processed things. They make their money on the fruit and veg, and also the hot dinners smorgasbord, where you can get curries, pasta, baked veges and so on. Each container full costs $14, whatever you put in it!

The one remaining ritual is M's Christmas hamper, which my brother and sister-in-law send over. M can't physically wrangle it, so I get to do that and then we divvy up the contents. Some of them are such exclusive little nibblies I have trouble working out what they are, but so long as they involve chocolate or cake, we're good.

I guess I'm doing all right.  I'm continuing my preparations to move, which atm means deciding what to cull and what to keep.  I've boxed some of the latter, which I needed to start in order to work out how many boxes I was going to need.  Newsflash:  It's more than I thought.  The apartment's renovations are advancing, but we still don't know if it'll be ready by 25 April.  Which, as I belatedly remembered, is the Anzac Day holiday, right after Easter, so essentially I need to be sorted by around 18 April.

I went to see a performance of Shakespeare's Henry IV at the University of WA last night, since two friends were in it.  That's the main incentive, since that's not a period of history I know much about, and I spent quite a lot of time figuring out who people were.  But it was very good and I hardly noticed the passage of time, though I think it ran for at least two and a half hours, maybe three.  The New Fortune Theatre is open to the sky, so it got cool, and last night is therefore my first night of the year wearing the jacket I hadn't thought I would need.  Then after e-biking back to the Subi train station and reaching the city, I found that the second train was only going within two stops of home, because reasons.  So it was a bit more riding than I had planned in a coolish night.

I've reached a stage of waiting for other people to do things.  Therefore my mind has a chance to drift, which it frequently takes!   I'm hoping this results in me being able to write properly again.  I hoped this would happen after I got made redundant, and it did for a while.  Then the end of lease/having to move came along.  I looked up the national rentals vacancy rate.  It's 1%.  So this is the first time ever in my life that I can say I'm in the 1%, having secured another rental within two weeks, thanks to rat-related connections.

Anyway, my mind wandered, and I retrieved it.  Thinking of how a certain elected leader is now behaving more like a dictator;  in short, a king.

For some reason my mind drifted to a foreword of a book I recently read, which can't have been that wonderful because I can't remember the title.  But the foreword was from the Old Testament, 1.8 of the Book of Samuel.  This concerns the Israelites begging Samuel, their leader, to give them a king, because he was old and his sons were politically corrupt. 

They wanted a king instead, because all the other nations had one, and they wanted to share in the glory and have a king to fight their battles.  Samuel, no idiot, warned them that a king would take them for everything they had;  sons, daughters, worldly goods, and their own freedom.  They said, "Never mind all that, we want a king."  So Samuel reported back to the Lord, "They're still asking!"  And the Lord sighed in resignation.  "Give them a king."  So Samuel said to the people,"Fine, you will have a king, but the Lord says don't come crying afterwards, because you'll get nowhere!  Now go home."

Yeah, this has happened a few times before.  

 

In case anyone was wondering!  Perth is now so hot that all I'm doing is watching the temperature rise.  Aircon holding it to 25^C inside;  don't need any more than that.  I ventured out only to water all the potted plants that live outside, and will be doing so again after dark.

I made it to the library before this struck, but have only one of those books left, so it'll be back to Kindle or rereads soon.

There was Generation Ship by Michael Mammay.  Hadn't heard of him but like the subject.  It resembled a public service department in space, with all the plotting and conversations and rules.  Like the one where people got euthanised at 75 to make room for the next generation.  Then they reach the planet, and the planet doesn't want them... The book was okay, but don't feel inspired to read any more of his.

I also read The Third Nero by Lindsay Davis, grabbed more for the oddity of its title, and I like reading about imperial Rome, so.  It's part of a long series but worked on its own, fortunately.  Amateur detective series.  It grated a bit, because the author included a lot of things not accurate for the period.  A newspaper in Imperial Rome?  A woman being employed by the Imperial Palace to snoop, even if her father had been an investigator also.  Girls being educated?  I just couldn't see it.  Too much 21st century thinking in it.

The last one I've got is by Steven Erikson, with the rather unusual title of Rejoice - A Knife to the Heart.  The blurb goes:  An alien AI has been sent to our solar system as representative of three advanced species.  Its mission is to save the Earth's ecosystem - and the biggest threat to that is humanity.  But we are also part of the system, so the AI must make a choice.  Looks good.  We'll see.