stormdog | Entries tagged with hamilton

I thrifted this set of plastic shelves on the left for $35 while out with Miriam yesterday. This our little kitchen space down here now, with fridge, freezer, microwave, and toaster oven. The added shelves make everything rather tidier and more accessible.

I wish that I didn't think it was best to potentially settle in like we're going to be here for a long time. But it won't hurt if we're not, other than having more stuff to move, and if we are, I would like to be as comfortable as possible, and as independent from having to use all the kitchen stuff upstairs as possible because it makes me feel anxious and in the way.

Image below is the corner of a basement. The floor and the wall on the left are concrete. The wall on the right is covered in plastic-covered insulation material. In the lower right are a mini fridge, a mini freezer, a toaster oven, and a microwave. Beyond them, against the wall, is a black folding table with a few dishes and things on it. At the left, against the left wall, is a set of black plastic shelves. They are about five feet tall and have cereal boxes, condiments, boxes, and other things on them.

Hanging from the ceiling in the upper middle of the image is a plastic bag full of old curtains. In the lower left is a small shop vac and a garbage can.

On the day after my birthday, I went out to my appointment at the gender clinic here in Hamilton and, I dunno, I just thought I looked kind of nice?

The doctor I saw was fabulous. As I thought, the clinic here doesn't offer family doctor services. She wasn't sure if the one in Milton does: if not, I'll just keep going to the Hamilton one and wait for a family doctor to open up. If the Milton clinic *does* offer family doctor services, I'm going to get set up there.
So I have an appointment in Milton on the 22nd to do a meet and greet and find out what's up. I also have a follow up appointment in Hamilton in 2 weeks to talk about bottom surgery and try to figure out how changing provinces affects that, and to and see how my bloodwork looks.

She also refilled my prescriptions, switched me to micronized progesterone (she was really surprised that SK makes you start on the other stuff!), and got me an STI screening so I didn't have to make another appointment for that. And I got the blood draw done before leaving. It was a really nice visit!
The waiting room staff who called me for my blood draw used my deadname, and I actually corrected her, so go me 🙂

I parked in a public parking lot. When I tried to pay on the way out, it would not accept a debit card or cash, and I don't have a credit card. I had to use the help call button, and the person there let me out for free. The sign just had the Mastercard and Visa logos. I had an issue in Toronto where I couldn't park with a debit card too, but at least I didn't get stuck in the lot. I may have to try and get a credit card *just so I can park my car* which is really annoying.

( Picture behind the cut )

Why do I have all the fasteners for the furniture I disassembled *except* the bed frame? Now I have all these pieces of bedframe sitting around and nowhere to put them because they weren't going to be taking up space.

I'm so tired of moving. Including places I lived when I was a little girl, this is the 18th place I've lived. I'd really like to just *be* somewhere for a while.

My options with the bed are to go back to the U-Boxes and take out potentially 40 boxes full of stuff and the remaining furniture and go through them looking for those fasteners, or to order them from IKEA as spare parts.

So I'm now going through the Brimnes instructions to make a list of parts to order.

I just blocked someone in a trans group who is arguing against voting for Harris or Trump because they're equally bad. I have no patience for trans people who are complicit in their own oppression, and I certainly don't need to hear what they have to say.

And yes, that's where I'm at because that's where we're *all* at. If you're not voting because they're both just as bad, or "red fascist vs. blue fascist" doesn't make a difference, you are disconnected from reality and causing me direct harm.

The people who encourage everyone to vote, no matter who for are well-intentioned, but still supporting fascism. I want everyone voting for Kamala Harris to get out and vote. I hope everyone else has their cars break down or they get lost on the way to the polls or something.

My home country may or may not be about to vote a party into power that acts as though I am fundamentally a sexual predator who deserves jail or death, but at least I have a mini freezer set up in the basement now? I just picked one up while out this morning.

I loaded and unloaded a king bed frame, a two seat sofa, a TV stand, and a bunch of miscellany, so I'm pretty wiped. But after I rest, I'm going to get the bed frame put back together so I'm not sleeping on a mattress on the floor anymore. Once, I was debating whether it was worth bringing the frame down into the basement only to take it back out again once I'm working, but setting it up will help me feel a bit more like I'm settled in to a home.

Putting the rest of the sofa together and attaching it to the chaise, then raising the TV up on the stand will make it so I can sit next to Miriam and write or play games, and will give me an at least sort of comfortable space to invite people over for yuri and snuggles.

I got my plastic rolling drawers full of electronic and stuff too, along with two of my toolboxes: the one full of typical hand tools, and the one full or random fasteners and other things. I ended up not finding that last remaining box with two more monitors in it. All the furniture came out of one U-Box, and I decided I wasn't up to unloading the whole other U-Box looking for that, or our winter coats. The coats were in the very first box I packed ("won't be needing those for a while!") so they are probably all the way in the back and at the bottom.

So as well as not being able to get a cargo van, When I got there, I saw two U-Boxes outside and thought they were ours. One was turned so that the door couldn't open, so Miriam and I went around front to ask someone to move the boxes.

It turned out those were not ours, but they got someone to bring ours out pretty quickly. They brought out two boxes, but one of them was the wrong one. So, last time we were there, we took enough stuff that we repacked our 3 boxes into 2. They brought out 2, but one of them was the box we left empty last time.
So I had some moments of fear about what happened to the other box, but it was still there, and in fact, our record hadn't been updated to show that we were no longer renting that third box.

So hopefully that's all been fixed now!

I would really, really like to find enough income to be in our own space again, unpack all of our stuff, and feel stable. Some day, right?

A couple updates from today that I am shamelessly copying and pasting from Danae's Facebook page.

"So Chris and I managed to dayshift and got up at a semi-reasonable hour. We captured our kitty and put him in the carrier and went to Pet Valu, where we fitted him for a collar. It looks really pretty on him, and when he becomes less skittish, I hope we can get a picture to show you all how handsome and adorable he is. (ETA: Cute as it looks, we bought it so that we could attach a little capsule that contains our contact information in case he ever gets out again.)

We drove by Jysk, which is kind of like a cross between IKEA and Bed, Bath, and Beyond, and it looked low-traffic, so after returning the kitty to my parent's house, we went back out in the car. This time we experimented with running a USB-powered humidifier and AC at the same time. See, thing is, it's about 32 Celsius/90 F here, and the humidity is really high. So high, that I am actually pretty functional in terms of coughing and talking etc., if I am outside. But, I don't sweat much, so I don't cool down properly, so I overheat really easily. So it's all about trying to strike a balance between these things.

Anyway, we grabbed some tasty burritos and then ate them at some outdoor tables, and then put our masks back on and ventured into Jysk to try mattresses, couches, and feel linens to see if they were too rough. We were helped by a very nice fabulous gentleman who I assumed was gay by his mannerisms and rainbow glasses frames. We're going to try to get a canopy bed so my Princess (Chris) can have a Princess bed like she's always wanted. 🙂

By the time we got home I was pretty wiped out, so I lay down for a nap. Then my parents and I drove into Toronto to have dinner with my brother and his partner. Dave ordered takeout in advance and reserved the rooftop terrace in his new building, so we had a nice safe way to see each other for the first time in years. The temperature was dropping and with it, the humidity. That made it way more comfortable in some ways, but it meant that when I wasn't eating I had to suck on lozenges and take breaks from talking. 🙁

Chris took advantage of having the house to herself to go wild. By "Go wild", what I actually mean is, she played loud music, sang, and started packing the roof bag we bought for the car to give us a little more cargo space. Since getting home I have played a little Genshin, managed not to throw up from a coughing fit after too long in an air conditioned car, attempted to look up the specs on my father's computer so that Dave can buy him a car racing game, and run the wash. It should be done now, so I will move it to the dryer and then get into bed. A busy day, in comparison to what we've been doing the last few weeks!

----

In other news, Chris and I both had our own episodes of slapstick this evening. Upon arriving at my brother's apartment, my mother graciously told me to go ahead and use the bathroom first. All was going as normal, until a jet of water began fountaining out of the toilet bowl and onto the floor. I shrieked and/or swore loudly in dismay; I think I may also have told the water that I didn't want it to do that. Whatever I did say, it alarmed my family, and they started to inquire as to my well-being.

As they did so, my mind worked frantically. What could explain this phenomenon? I concluded that the toilet must somehow also be a bidet, and looked about for the controls. I found them, and flustered, chose a button-- any button-- in the hopes that it would stem the tide of water spraying onto the floor. It did stop fountaining out of the toilet bowl, so I thought I had turned it off, but alas, I was in error. I called out to my family, embarrassed, that I was fine, finished my business, and exited. But when my mother tried to enter, it was still leaking water on the floor. So my brother had to turn it off , mop up the water, and give my mother a tutorial on how to use the bidet before she could finally use the facilities.

Meanwhile, Chris was at home, packing clothes into vacuum bags. One of them came with a hand controlled vacuum pump. And, like you do, she was messing around with it. A lot. So I get home and there is a crescent shaped hickey smack in the middle of her forehead, of which she was totally unaware. "What happened?" I asked, concerned. Chris was puzzled, but once she figured out what had happened, we both had a good giggle over it.

Current Mood: okay
Crossposts: https://stormdog.livejournal.com/1396890.html

Danae's parents bought me a one-month membership with the Hamilton bike sharing system because they are caring and thoughtful!

I've been out a couple times now and had good experiences. The bikes have a shaft drive instead of a chain or belt which is new to me. The gearing is a Nexus 3 speed internal hub, and the brakes are a matching Shimano Rollerbrake system. The Nexus hardware is pretty typical in the Netherlands, but rare in the US except for uses like bike share where they prioritize low maintenance designs. My bad weather bike (still in the states) has Nexus brakes and gearing, but it's a 7 speed, as was the bike I owned in Amsterdam.

Yesterday, I biked into downtown to buy SIM cards (unsuccessfully I might add) and back. Comparing the bicycle infrastructure here to the Netherlands just makes me want to cry, but other than that being out and active felt good. Today I rode for a while on the nearby unpaved Chedoke Radial Trail, which I believe follows a former railroad right of way up the Niagara Escarpment. Bottom gear on a 3 speed bike is just not low enough for me on lengthy hills right now.

There are stairs up the escarpment just up the road from where I'm staying, but my knees are still hurting from such a long period of being mostly inactive followed by lugging heavy suitcases around for a day. My knees have been hurting just going up and down stairs in the house here. That's an experience I've never had before and it's alarming.

I can't help but think of walking up the Manitou Incline in Colorado a few years ago and feel really disappointed in my physical state right now. Maybe that will provide sufficient motivation to do something about that. It helps that the scenery here along the escarpment is so enticing! Climbing up and down things and looking for sweeping vistas has always made me really happy. There's nothing much like that closer than a couple hours from Regina. If I manage to get a driving license, going to those will be worth doing anyway. That (the driving license) looks like it may be complicated for me...

Current Mood: thoughtful
Crossposts: https://stormdog.livejournal.com/1396469.html

I was about to go for a walk for the first time since arriving in Canada. We're in a place very close to the Bruce Trail and a number of waterfalls are actually in moderate walking distance from the house! I want to take advantage of that before I move to the euclidean plane that is Regina.

And just as I was starting to get ready, a downpour started. Well, maybe it will stop before dark and the waterfalls will be extra nifty with the extra water.

Current Mood: okay
Crossposts: https://stormdog.livejournal.com/1395807.html

During one of our earlier visits to Hamilton, Ontario,

danaeris took me on several wandering drives to show me the town. On one of them, up on the mountain (the upper 'half' of the town, sitting atop the Niagara Escarpment), we found several vantage points that afforded views of all of lower Hamilton and the steel plants. Exploring further, we bumped into an abandoned healthcare facility of some kind. She parked and we meandered around the grounds, talking and pointing out interesting details as I photographed.

These peripatetic drives to nowhere in particular are some of my favorite memories of our travels together. In December, we went on another drive up the mountain. This time, we found ourselves in Sam Lawrence Park, a linear green space that follows the edge of the escarpment near the Jolley Cut, a road cut into the cliff face. We parked and gave up the warmth of her car in favor of the chill mountain wind, tempted by signs and monuments scattered about the walking paths.

When I encounter a new space and spend a little time getting to know it, I revel in the sense of unfolding mystery. Whether it's an illicit tromp through an abandoned building or a simple stroll through a city park, not knowing what there is to find and see makes almost anything I happen upon a revelation. Most times, that thrill is a solitary one. As a photographer, the course and speed of my passage through a space is often constrained by the process of image-making; accompanying me on a photo trip can be an exercise in patience. I don't mind the solitude; I can connect with a space on its own terms and mine, spending as much or as little time as I please.

But I feel a different, equally special, thrill when I'm experiencing a new place in the company of another adventurer. Danae let me share my excitement with her, contributing her own as well as I bounced from overlook to interpretive sign to the top of a stone wall. Places and cities are meaningful to me; I find things to admire and appreciate in each one I visit. Danae knew this, and she shared a city, hers and her parents' city, with me. That sharing is an act of love. In a recursive way, that love is another part of what makes Hamilton special to me. And Danae's understanding of my desire to experience, and the way she demonstrates her care and affection in facilitating those experiences, is one part, among so many parts, of what makes her very special to me.

These are some of the most memorable moments of my visits to Canada with my beloved Danae. In these times, she gives me two things that are very important to me. First, her company and her own stories, experiences, and conjectures about Hamilton let me build a relationship to place that is both experiential and personal, adding to the historical and physical perspectives I can gain from reading about a city or exploring it with maps. Second, she gives me joyous time spent doing something personally meaningful to me with someone I love deeply. She takes joy in indulging my enthusiasms and seeing my excitement at the experiences she makes possible. When I think about standing at the top of the escarpment next to Danae, the two of us looking far out over the city below, pressed together against the cold and calling each other's attention to buildings or landmarks, I feel overjoyed that she is in my life. I feel loved.