Propane
Today’s rewrite (I will get to other things soon) is of J.J. Cale’s song “Cocaine.” Usually attributed to Eric Clapton, who had a hit with it. We were having a BBQ at my housing co-op to celebrate signing a new lease with the city for the land under our building. Now, the city does not own the land, it being land stolen and unceded from the hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓ and Sḵwx̱wú7mesh speaking peoples, the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations, which should be returned to its rightful owners, but as a practical matter we still have to deal with the oppressor in control. And they haven’t made it easy, we’ve been trying to renegotiate this lease for over five years (some co-ops have been at it for much longer). And there will be more renegotiations in the future, but for now it was worth celebrating a minor win.
As we were cleaning up, a couple of lines of this popped into my head, and the rest came with very little effort. It’s like this was the song it was always meant to be.
Propane If you wanna grill meat You’ve got to turn up the heat Propane If your beef is ground And you want it browned Propane [chorus] She don’t fry She don’t fry She don’t fry Propane If you got some wings You want to grill those things Propane Forget what work’s about Just get the grill out Propane [chorus] You’ve got steak on the bone You won’t eat alone Propane Don’t forget it’s gas You better light it fast Propane [chorus x 2]I haven’t done any grilling, or much cooking, for the past week as Vancouver has been both too hot to function and hazy with smoke from forest fires. My poor cats have melted into little furry puddles in the heat. But there is the possibility of rain in the forecast, so hopefully things will cool down and the smoke will clear. It doesn’t look like enough rain to actually help with the forest fires much, which is awful but unsurprising. I mean, it’s almost, but not quite, too hot to make zaru soba.
I hope that Summer treated you well, and you avoid the worst of back-to-school-shootings season. Covid is real and surging, so mask up. And remember, we’re all in this mess together, so treat each other well. In the end, each other is all we’ve got.
Oh, and as an update to my earlier post about Red and Paperclip, Paperclip has learned to love the new cat tree.
Red still holds on to the old ways, preaching the Gospel of Box.
Thanks for dropping by.
Read →
Red is black and white and Red all over. Paperclip is long, thin, grey, and could probably be used to pick a lock in a pinch. They were rescues from one of the gulf islands, found by my friend David, and presumably sisters. From an early age, Paperclip showed her proclivity for being a shouldercat.
They were approximately six weeks old when they acquired me, and rolling back six weeks from them we calculate their birthday was last Thursday. I got them a new cat tree to celebrate, and was going to post about their birthday once they were on it, but they have been ignoring it for days now (even after sprinkling catnip on it), so I’m going to appreciate them anyway.
When they were very smol they would cuddle with each other, which was very cute. These days they don’t spend much time next to each other, but if one is away (vet visit or nail trim) the other is distraught. I do wish they’d cuddle more with each other, but it’s their life.
Despite mostly ignoring each other or play-fighting, when they’re resting (90% of their time), they are often in the exact same position or mirroring each other.
But Red has more of a tendency to curl up and express her roundness.
While Paperclip likes to demonstrate that long cat is long.
Red’s favourite thing is boxes, and cardboard generally.
Paperclip’s favourite thing is ear rubs.
Both cats are expert snugglers. Red likes to rest her head on the “papa shelf” that my stomach forms when I recline.
While Paperclip is happy to lie down and be held.
Here, Red is ferociously guarding 12 boxes of Star Trek memorabilia that my Aunt Jane bequeathed to me. A bit more than half was Kirk/Spock fanzines, which went to the Internet Archive to be digitized and shared with the world. The paperbacks went to prisoners, to keep them entertained until we can abolish prisons. The hardcovers went to a local thrift store to support VGH. I kept a few things to remember my aunt with.
Paperslip’s favourite blanket for napping.
Red demonstrating the fate of any random papers I leave around by napping on them.
Paperclip continues to be a shoulder cat to this day. Red has a cataract in one eye and doens’t have the coordination for it.
This summer, while visiting my sister in Pittsburgh, I got this tattoo to give me more opportunities to talk about my lovely cats. It is by far my most commented-on tattoo.
And that brings us full circle. I hope you enjoyed these bundles of cuteness. I can’t even image getting through the past few years without them–we’ve kept each other together in so many ways.
Thank you for being here!