from chris lloyd
to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Sun, Jul 20, 2014 at 9:44 PM
subject Les priorités des conservateurs aux antipodes de la population; Navy feared frigate’s excessive noise made it an easier target
Dear Stephen,
I am still alive. I survived On Kawara. I survived 3.5 weeks of
vacation. I survived Oh Canada, Moncton, Sackville and PEI. I survived
tenting, driving, blowing winds and friends. I survived becoming
vegetarian again. I survived a blown alternator in Bangor. I survived
a hike up Flying Mountain in Acadia Park in Maine. I survived a week
of camping sauvage in Chertsey learning all about Earthships,
Eco-construction, Permaculture, Passive Solar Heating, Thermal Mass,
Rocket Stoves and more. I survived the return to Montreal, warm
weather and public pools. I survived the World Cup. I survived a cheap
motel in Rawden to avoid setting a tent up in a thunderstorm. I
survived mosquitoes. I survived tofu. I survived extended periods of
time without Internet, email, or Facebook.
I go back to work tomorrow, but while on vacation got the call for my
knee surgery, which is a week from tomorrow, and while put me off work
for another 3 weeks. I’ll work from home, practice my sketchup and
hopefully make more headway on my own art practice than I have for the
past six months. Maybe even get my nomination forms in order for the
Conservative Party candidacy here in Papineau. Also plan to build
Jesse’s wheelchair ramp before I become relatively incapacitated.
-chris
from chris lloyd
to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Mon, Jul 21, 2014 at 10:36 PM
subject Mike Duffy aurait facturé des déplacements personnels ou partisans; Russia ‘loaded the gun’ that shot down Malaysian airliner: John Baird
Dear Stephen,
I am still alive. I survived another Monday, and first day back at
work after a long vacation. I also survived working on a tattoo design
made from a drawing of two dinosaurs that Rose made a few months ago.
I booked an appointment for Wednesday afternoon. Tomorrow morning I
have to go to Hôpital Notre Dame first thing to re-do my pre-surgery
tests. I’m not looking forward to the surgery per se, but I am looking
forward to time at home to recuperate and work on projects. Sometimes
the kids don’t go to bed so easy and all our spare time in the evening
is spent putting them to bed. Sol suffers from FOMO (Fear Of Missing
Out) so badly that he’ll often climb out of bed the minute Clo or I
do, even though he was fast asleep. Now it’s hot in the apartment and
I just want a cool shower before bed.
-chris
from chris lloyd
to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Tue, Jul 22, 2014 at 9:49 PM
subject Roquettes dans des écoles de l’ONU: Ottawa veut une enquête; Mapping waterworks beneath Canada-U.S. border may help avoid water woes
Dear Stephen,
I am still alive. I survived another day of work. Now, after signing
documents at SKOL, biking home early for a booty call, picking up the
kids from daycare, making supper, a bike ride to the park, a bath,
stories and putting kids to bed, I’m exhausted myself and just want to
sleep. Brush my teeth and got to sleep. Tomorrow morning I need to be
at the hospital by 8 to go through some pre-surgery tests.
-chris
from chris lloyd
to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Wed, Jul 23, 2014 at 9:47 PM
subject Ottawa veut de nouvelles règles sur les armes à feu; Blatchford: Stephanie Guthrie, alleged victim of Twitter harassment, says she wasn’t ‘perfect victim’
Dear Stephen,
I am still alive. I survived my pre-surgery tests at the hospital.
While there I received a call from the hospital to move the date of
the surgery from the 28th the to the 1st of August. It really just
means I’ll be at work next week.
Today I also survived a new tattoo. What I thought was a drawing of
two dinosaurs is actually a dinosaur attempting to eat a turtle.
Vincent from Bodkin actually re-drew all my previous tattoos as well,
so they are all the same colour and the line all one thickness. They
look good.
The planes have been flying low from takeoff at the airport, and are
louder than usual. A real nuisance. But a much lesser nuisance than
having the state of Israel build illegal settlements and then bomb the
heck out of hospitals and children in Gaza.
-chris
from chris lloyd
to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Thu, Jul 24, 2014 at 9:39 PM
subject Le Canada impose de nouvelles sanctions contre les rebelles ukrainiens; Canada urged to beef up security at border in wake of Hasibullah Yusufzai case
Dear Stephen,
I am still alive. I survived another day of work, and then a small
informal Skol CA meeting at Alexandraplatz, then a Klezmer band on the
steps of the St-Cecile church near our apartment after supper. I’m
working on an application to show some Everyday Goalie videos at a
festival in Kingston at the end of August. Fingers crossed!
-chris
from chris lloyd
to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Fri, Jul 25, 2014 at 10:14 PM
subject Israël: Baird couvert d’éloges par une radio conservatrice américaine; Offender with ‘disturbing parallels’ to Ashley Smith was in prison despite watchdog warnings
Dear Stephen,
I am still alive. I survived a trip to IKEA and Home Depot as we
research kitchen renovation options. My two favourite hells on earth.
Had lunch at the Pick-Up. We bought an old tuner. Picked up the kids
after daycare and went to a park before supper. We are still
vegetarians. Took Rose for ice cream while Clo put Sol to sleep and
then we watched half of A Christmas Story. For some reason Rose got
the story in her head about Flick sticking his tongue to the metal
pole. Tomorrow we’re off to Nominangue for the rest of the weekend,
but first we will try to clean the apartment a bit. The place is a
mess. I’ve misplaced an artwork that I need to find for a travelling
show, that Peut Faire Mieux show that Emmanuel Gallant organized back
in ’09 I believe. The show is up at Clark and will travel to some
other venues around Montreal, mostly Maisons de Cultures, for the next
couple years. I really don,t know what I did with my piece, though I
moved it somewhere in the house just a few months ago during a
cleaning binge. Damn, Rose is still awake. The gomme-ballon flavoured
ice cream and hour of video before bed obviously didn’t help…
-chris
from chris lloyd
to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Sun, Jul 27, 2014 at 10:36 PM
subject Le nom de Thérèse Casgrain relégué aux oubliettes sous Harper; Shuttle service expected to save money, Foreign Affairs says
Dear Stephen,
I am still alive. I survived the weekend in Nominingue. The kids
learned t fish from Jean-Michel, who caught one large enough to keep
early this morning, so they also learned how to cut up, clean and
fillet a fish. It was a mostly relaxing weekend, with Rose having a
couple crisis’s mostly due to being overtired. We spoke politics, of
course, as Kim is still planning to campaign as an independent in
Papineau next year. I really have to get my application in but will do
so while recovering. I’m going to try to use “If you can’t beat ’em,
join ’em” as my campaign slogan. Do you think this will pass with the
higher-ups at the CPC? Let’s wait and see how my application goes over
first. I’m not sure if I’ll get the 24 votes from members, as I don’t
think there are that many members left. I’ll check with the new
regional coordinator (I see that Louis-Phillippe’s replacement only
lasted a month, to be replaced himself). Again, planned homework for
my recovery. Had a shower after listening to the Anne of Green Gables
soundtrack while putting the kids to bed, now off to bed myself. Busy
week ahead.
-chris
from chris lloyd
to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Mon, Jul 28, 2014 at 9:30 PM
subject Retrait du Prix Thérèse-Casgrain: les conservateurs critiqués; New hunt on for lost Franklin ships
Dear Stephen,
I am still alive. I survived one heck of a depressing and difficult Monday. This was one of those Mondays that Garfield the cat despises. First I had a meeting with Tammy and Michel to discuss my knee surgery and it turns out I will be getting 0 days paid sick leave. I’ll have to go on EI, which sucks because it pays only 55% of my salary. It also means that the work I was planning to do from home I will no longer be doing at all, which I suppose is a good thing. Now I can concentrate all my time on personal art and kitchen re-design plans.
In other bad news, I did not get the Canada Council travel grant to go to Calgary for MST. This most definitely means I will not be doing extra Everyday Goalie shoots in Fort MacMurrary; in fact, I may not go at all. The timing is terrible and falls just 2 weeks before the next opening at DHC; I will find it difficult to take a week off when it is the busiest time for my position. It really bothers me that a job I keep mostly for the stability will interfere so clearly with my art practice. Then again, it is fairly flexible and has allowed me lots of time off in the past (granted, a lot of that was vacation or parental leave, and we’re not having any more kids so that option is off the table). Even worse, this most recent rejection from CC just makes me question even more the validity of my own practice. Maybe my art really does suck.
What else is rotten today? The weather was shit, cold and rainy and I was soaked cycling home in the wind and rain. There is SKOL board bullshit to deal with, and on top of disappointing Nadia Myre by dropping the ball on a Sketchup design while on vacation, I also neglected to bring back any of Victoria Stanton’s artwork left at the Saint John Arts Centre (we had 0 room in our car), but all these things make me feel like crap.
On the bright side, I am still in a honeymoon period with my new tattoo, I quite like “Dinosaur attempting to eat a turtle”. The scabs are starting to fall away and my arm hair is growing back.
-chris
from chris lloyd
to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Tue, Jul 29, 2014 at 10:39 PM
subject Le Canada est à la recherche d’un système antimissile; Tiny drones catching up with hummingbirds – nature’s hovering marvels
Dear Stephen,
I am still alive. I survived another day of work, and some mild insomnia during the night. Both kids had ended up in our bed at 3am. After work I met up with Dan Joyce, former director at the Khyber, as he is en route to Toronto. We watched a bit of the HRM council meeting streaming live as a discussion was expected regarding the recent proposition by city staff to put the Khyber building up for sale as a “surplus property”. I firmly believe the HRM staff simply don’t want to follow-through on the recent directives from council the make the Khyber a cultural hub. In any case, the issue was postponed until a future meeting in September. I toured Dan and a friend around the Chapman show and we went for a quick beer at Pub Victoria before I streaked home to read stories and put the kids to bed. Clo went out to see a movie, Boyhood, the new Richard Linklater film.
-chris
from chris lloyd
to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Wed, Jul 30, 2014 at 11:44 PM
subject MacKay ne forcera pas le juge Nadon à remettre son salaire; Prime Minister Stephen Harper continues to blame Hamas after Israeli shells hit UN shelter in Gaza
Dear Stephen,
I am still alive. I survived another day of work. I also survived borrowing the rental truck from PHI, getting materials from Home Depot and building the wheelchair ramp for Jesse. It took a little under 5 hours to complete, and still needs a few finishing touches, like railings, but it is functional and looks pretty sweet, too. I decided last minute to use planks instead of plywood, as I was worried as to how it would weather. In any case, his plan is to make something more permanent when he gets the funding to retro-fit for wheelchair access.
Ran into James at HD (I had his car, actually, to return in exchange for the truck) and we chatted about life, renos and the return to work. He’s back from paternity in a week.
Do you think the unending issues in the Middle East, especially between Israel and Palestine, would ever become an election issue in Canada?
-chris
from chris lloyd
to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Thu, Jul 31, 2014 at 11:28 PM
subject Thérèse Casgrain: le PLC lance une pétition; Prominent Ottawa judge strikes down mandatory victim surcharge
Dear Stephen,
I am still alive. I survived my last day of work before knee surgery. I’m trying not to think too much about it, and when I do tell myself how it is very routine, a very common procedure, but there is something about the idea of totally losing consciousness weirds me out a bit. Probably because I really have no idea what happens to us after we die, or rather, can’t fathom the absolute nothingness. And if I remember correctly, from way back when I had my wisdom teeth hauled out, going under general anaesthesia is a bit like nothingness. It is only the return to consciousness that of course gives us this realization; there is no return from death.
So tonight Clo had an Oboro thing, but she still made supper before going out, which means that she made supper EVERY NIGHT this week. She also super-cleaned and organized the apartment. I picked the kids up after daycare, we went for ice cream and then the park. I put them to bed, too, with our new strategy of reading to them both in Rose’s bed, then putting Sol in his bed, lights out, and voila. Tonight I did have to recite a story (Peter Pan), but a few nights ago Rose conked out even before Sol did. Generally stories start around 8 to try to have light sout by 8:30. I hear routines are good for their development and peace of mind.
Rose just half-woke up crying in a weird dream state. She said her tractor didn’t have pins in it, then fell back asleep. I bet she has fascinating dreams.
I should get off Facebook and get to sleep. I have to be at the hospital at 6:30am. I’m hungry already but can’t eat anything, or drink anything, until after the surgery.
-chris
DEAR PM 