I've decided to do these updates Sunday nights, so that those tuning in will know when the next update will be. Of course, your best bet with the time difference is to check Monday morning, as I'll likely be updating after work... more on that later. This blog runs until mid-week in late Jan as well, so the next one will be a bit shorter... going easy on my readers, I guess.
Jan 20th - A short Day, with Vampires
I worked a short shift today, none of it on counter duty( well, save a few 'helpers' when it was busy )so that was nice. Now that our hours have been cut back due to things being slow, I can actually get a few days off in a row... good for the mental health, bad for the pocketbook. Oh well... one of these days I'll parlay my vast life experience into a career of some kind, instead of learning to deal with soul-vampires disguised as people every day. Where's my garlic....?
Jan 21st - Same Crazy, Different Location
Basically today was working at another store, my first time doing so here in Victoria. It was rather different, as any new place will be. Though the daytime was rather slow, the evening picked up considerably, so much so that I was glad to simply escape back home afterwards. Interestingly enough, there were no crazies today, for a change... and change was what this place was all about, being on a busy urban corner on Quadra - everyone wanted change, for their laundry, small business, or what-have-you.
Jan 22nd - Cloudy ... no wait, Sunny. Nope, clouds... and sun?
The weather here in Victoria is rather varied. When the forecast calls for rain, it doesn't seem to mean it will be JUST rain all day; the pattern seems to be morning rain, some sunny breaks, afternoon rain, a nice sunset, and rain overnight. Rather more pleasing than simply having grey skies and buckets o'water from the sky straight on all day. The temperature curve is rather steady as well; instead of a crazy up/down zig-zag pattern, it's more of a gentle median curve that hovers a few degrees above zero; cool, but comfortable enough if you dress for it. The ocean being so close means that wet cool winds do crop up, so ensuring you're not under dressed is a must. Oh, and I worked until the early evening today. Nothing exciting to report, thankfully.
Jan 23rd - a Bit on Local Scenery
I worked in the early-ish AM today, and was home by dinnertime, which was almost like having a normal daytime job - weird feeling, that was.
Here's a side note on Victoria: it's not your typical suburb-mall-suburb layout. Not at all! What I LOVE about this city is the fact that it's NOT your typical city layout, where vast tracts of suburbs are interspersed with the occasional strip mall or plaza, with separate downtown and commercial areas. Instead, Victoria( see the huge local attractions list here ) manages to blend it's very urban downtown core with a mix of surrounding homes, businesses and several shopping areas. The rolling rocky hills of the city provide pleasing vistas to the eye, as each property has different attributes depending on how it is blended into its own local space - rocky walls, mature trees and other geographic features make each yard, park or other zone unique. Winding roads meander through heavily-treed suburbs of unique homes built on hillsides covered in trees and mossy rocks; no cookie-cutter suburbs here. Heck, down the street from my new place, there's a WALL of rocks, cliffs really, that are part of a small park that goes VERTICAL - all part of the visual candy here. There's even the Galloping Goose Cycling Trail that runs 55km through all this beauty.
Jan 24th - Fixed another problem
I went and saw a few people today about my parent's situation, and made arrangements to take care of that. No details, sorry; this sort of thing doesn't lend itself well to metaphors, but let's simply say that stormy skies are now looking much more calm, with a hint of sun later on. :)
I also have a visit from the Victoria Welcome Wagon, that I almost missed due to all the running around. The nice woman by the name of Pat, dropped by to drop off a TON of great info and small gifts from local merchants. It's a great idea, and I have a stack of local info now to go through to help me better know Victoria.
We went off to Sears after that to get our orders seen to, all of which came in THIS week, of course. I helped get my parent's items over to their place this evening, which was a lot easier with the loading dolly I had purchased( with amazing foresight, I might add )in my first weeks here in Victoria - it's come in QUITE handy since then for all the various moving jobs we've had.
Jan 25th - Workaday, workanight, repeat.
I worked later in the morning today, which turned out to be a nice day save for one person, whose brittle nasty attitude again made me wonder how he's managed to almost reach retirement age without someone rearranging his face( or other body parts )for him in painful yet interesting ways. Part of my job that I can tell you about is updating people's information in the computer; pretty standard stuff in customer service, confirming that their phone# is the same, etc. When I asked about other info, he lost it totally, for no reason at all, suddenly launching into a rant about having lawyers investigating misuse of his information and a ton of other paranoid babble that made me question his sanity. Needless to say I did my best to reassure him, but sensing he was simply looking for someone to vent on, I got him out of there pronto. Would that I had the gumption to simply tell him he was a crazy old man and that he could find somewhere else to do business... but I don't take that tack, even though by the end of the 'conversation' I wanted to tell him EXACTLY what I thought he should do with his attitude. Some of these stories and more can be found at CustomersSuck.com - check it out. it's rather amusing there.
Fortunately, he was the only Idiot Of The Day, which was a miracle for a Friday....
Right after that I went to Sears to pick up my bookshelves, which have finally come in. There were quite a few, along with a dresser, so it was a job to get some of them back to my place in the evening. We managed to only get about half of them there, as it was a big order and I was the one carrying them, box by box, from the car and then up the three flights of stairs. Only after I had got the second batch up the stairs did I discover that the very nice folks at the Sears loading dock had given us ALL the bookshelves... including the ones we hadn't paid for, and that I had no room for either. While it's nice that Sears doesn't mind if you over-order, I don't believe they'd be in for giving out free product... and to be fair, it was both a large AND complicated order that took some straightening out in the first place yesterday. Nice CSR's they have at Sears here!
Jan 26th - The Work Weekend Arrives
Cutting short my morning cartoons( the sacrifices I must make... )to get an early start on the day, I headed back to Sears to get the remainder of my bookshelves straightened out. Good thing we know exactly what will fit in my place... as well as the rental car. We had it all finally in my place by early afternoon, and spent the rest of the day and well into the evening putting the things together. Only a few tiny missed nails in all that too, and I was quite grateful to have an understanding downstairs neighbour( whom I had warned beforehand about the imminent noise for today and tomorrow ). That's pretty much the word for the day: bookshelves.
Jan 27th - The Build Job is complete
Another early-ish day; up and building bookshelves until well past 4pm, but we got the job done... finally. I put out a ton of empty cut-down cardboard boxes, whose contents are now sitting in a somewhat organized fashion on my new shelves that line the entire outside wall of my apartment( and incidentally add another layer of insulation to the place! ). I'm also going to be putting in a layer of Styrofoam behind the shelves to add to the insulative effect; I have a pile of saved styro from various furniture and other boxes from the move that I can now put to good use, as it's almost all in thin sheets. Waste not, want not, especially here in Green B.C.
I must say, the place looks a LOT more like a home now with( almost )all the boxes gone and shelves making neat rows along the walls. It feels less cramped as well. Now all I have to do is get it organized.
Jan 28th - Day Three of Four days off.
I wish I had something more exciting to put down here for today, but all I did was rearrange things from boxes. Oh, and finally get around to wiring up my sound system, so that I can bypass that pesky problem with my Xbox's sound - no luck in getting either LG or Microsoft to find and/or fix the problem, so I can either fix it myself or return BOTH the TV and the Xbox... which I'm not willing to do, with only the one issue( annoying as it is ). At least the speakers seem to have survived the trip intact; amazing to think that a cheap eBay purchase could sound so good, given the mileage on them. Goes to show that money spent wisely can pay off sometimes.
I was beat by the end of the day, but the place looks MUCH better now; I'm about 80% done, with a lot of move-this-there and that-to-here organizing I can do on and off in the next few weeks. The important thing is that the MAJOR bits are in place, now it's all fiddly from here. Once I get it looking tidy, I'll post some pics - trust me, it will look quite neat and cozy!
My movie choice tonight was Underworld: Evolution in HD - Kate Beckinsale looks great in Hi-Def, even with the vampy overbite, and who cares if the plot stinks? Just hit 'mute' and put in your own dialogue, like the old Mystery Science Theatre 3000 did, which incidentally is being reborn for a new generation, check out the news here. Heck, the show is very similar to the old Rick Green series Prisoners of Gravity, which is one of my favourite TV series from my early formative years watching TVO... and would explain much about me for the years following.
All for now - Comments are as always welcome.
Jan 20th - A short Day, with Vampires
I worked a short shift today, none of it on counter duty( well, save a few 'helpers' when it was busy )so that was nice. Now that our hours have been cut back due to things being slow, I can actually get a few days off in a row... good for the mental health, bad for the pocketbook. Oh well... one of these days I'll parlay my vast life experience into a career of some kind, instead of learning to deal with soul-vampires disguised as people every day. Where's my garlic....?
Jan 21st - Same Crazy, Different Location
Basically today was working at another store, my first time doing so here in Victoria. It was rather different, as any new place will be. Though the daytime was rather slow, the evening picked up considerably, so much so that I was glad to simply escape back home afterwards. Interestingly enough, there were no crazies today, for a change... and change was what this place was all about, being on a busy urban corner on Quadra - everyone wanted change, for their laundry, small business, or what-have-you.
Jan 22nd - Cloudy ... no wait, Sunny. Nope, clouds... and sun?
The weather here in Victoria is rather varied. When the forecast calls for rain, it doesn't seem to mean it will be JUST rain all day; the pattern seems to be morning rain, some sunny breaks, afternoon rain, a nice sunset, and rain overnight. Rather more pleasing than simply having grey skies and buckets o'water from the sky straight on all day. The temperature curve is rather steady as well; instead of a crazy up/down zig-zag pattern, it's more of a gentle median curve that hovers a few degrees above zero; cool, but comfortable enough if you dress for it. The ocean being so close means that wet cool winds do crop up, so ensuring you're not under dressed is a must. Oh, and I worked until the early evening today. Nothing exciting to report, thankfully.
Jan 23rd - a Bit on Local Scenery
I worked in the early-ish AM today, and was home by dinnertime, which was almost like having a normal daytime job - weird feeling, that was.
Here's a side note on Victoria: it's not your typical suburb-mall-suburb layout. Not at all! What I LOVE about this city is the fact that it's NOT your typical city layout, where vast tracts of suburbs are interspersed with the occasional strip mall or plaza, with separate downtown and commercial areas. Instead, Victoria( see the huge local attractions list here ) manages to blend it's very urban downtown core with a mix of surrounding homes, businesses and several shopping areas. The rolling rocky hills of the city provide pleasing vistas to the eye, as each property has different attributes depending on how it is blended into its own local space - rocky walls, mature trees and other geographic features make each yard, park or other zone unique. Winding roads meander through heavily-treed suburbs of unique homes built on hillsides covered in trees and mossy rocks; no cookie-cutter suburbs here. Heck, down the street from my new place, there's a WALL of rocks, cliffs really, that are part of a small park that goes VERTICAL - all part of the visual candy here. There's even the Galloping Goose Cycling Trail that runs 55km through all this beauty.
Jan 24th - Fixed another problem
I went and saw a few people today about my parent's situation, and made arrangements to take care of that. No details, sorry; this sort of thing doesn't lend itself well to metaphors, but let's simply say that stormy skies are now looking much more calm, with a hint of sun later on. :)
I also have a visit from the Victoria Welcome Wagon, that I almost missed due to all the running around. The nice woman by the name of Pat, dropped by to drop off a TON of great info and small gifts from local merchants. It's a great idea, and I have a stack of local info now to go through to help me better know Victoria.
We went off to Sears after that to get our orders seen to, all of which came in THIS week, of course. I helped get my parent's items over to their place this evening, which was a lot easier with the loading dolly I had purchased( with amazing foresight, I might add )in my first weeks here in Victoria - it's come in QUITE handy since then for all the various moving jobs we've had.
Jan 25th - Workaday, workanight, repeat.
I worked later in the morning today, which turned out to be a nice day save for one person, whose brittle nasty attitude again made me wonder how he's managed to almost reach retirement age without someone rearranging his face( or other body parts )for him in painful yet interesting ways. Part of my job that I can tell you about is updating people's information in the computer; pretty standard stuff in customer service, confirming that their phone# is the same, etc. When I asked about other info, he lost it totally, for no reason at all, suddenly launching into a rant about having lawyers investigating misuse of his information and a ton of other paranoid babble that made me question his sanity. Needless to say I did my best to reassure him, but sensing he was simply looking for someone to vent on, I got him out of there pronto. Would that I had the gumption to simply tell him he was a crazy old man and that he could find somewhere else to do business... but I don't take that tack, even though by the end of the 'conversation' I wanted to tell him EXACTLY what I thought he should do with his attitude. Some of these stories and more can be found at CustomersSuck.com - check it out. it's rather amusing there.
Fortunately, he was the only Idiot Of The Day, which was a miracle for a Friday....
Right after that I went to Sears to pick up my bookshelves, which have finally come in. There were quite a few, along with a dresser, so it was a job to get some of them back to my place in the evening. We managed to only get about half of them there, as it was a big order and I was the one carrying them, box by box, from the car and then up the three flights of stairs. Only after I had got the second batch up the stairs did I discover that the very nice folks at the Sears loading dock had given us ALL the bookshelves... including the ones we hadn't paid for, and that I had no room for either. While it's nice that Sears doesn't mind if you over-order, I don't believe they'd be in for giving out free product... and to be fair, it was both a large AND complicated order that took some straightening out in the first place yesterday. Nice CSR's they have at Sears here!
Jan 26th - The Work Weekend Arrives
Cutting short my morning cartoons( the sacrifices I must make... )to get an early start on the day, I headed back to Sears to get the remainder of my bookshelves straightened out. Good thing we know exactly what will fit in my place... as well as the rental car. We had it all finally in my place by early afternoon, and spent the rest of the day and well into the evening putting the things together. Only a few tiny missed nails in all that too, and I was quite grateful to have an understanding downstairs neighbour( whom I had warned beforehand about the imminent noise for today and tomorrow ). That's pretty much the word for the day: bookshelves.
Jan 27th - The Build Job is complete
Another early-ish day; up and building bookshelves until well past 4pm, but we got the job done... finally. I put out a ton of empty cut-down cardboard boxes, whose contents are now sitting in a somewhat organized fashion on my new shelves that line the entire outside wall of my apartment( and incidentally add another layer of insulation to the place! ). I'm also going to be putting in a layer of Styrofoam behind the shelves to add to the insulative effect; I have a pile of saved styro from various furniture and other boxes from the move that I can now put to good use, as it's almost all in thin sheets. Waste not, want not, especially here in Green B.C.
I must say, the place looks a LOT more like a home now with( almost )all the boxes gone and shelves making neat rows along the walls. It feels less cramped as well. Now all I have to do is get it organized.
Jan 28th - Day Three of Four days off.
I wish I had something more exciting to put down here for today, but all I did was rearrange things from boxes. Oh, and finally get around to wiring up my sound system, so that I can bypass that pesky problem with my Xbox's sound - no luck in getting either LG or Microsoft to find and/or fix the problem, so I can either fix it myself or return BOTH the TV and the Xbox... which I'm not willing to do, with only the one issue( annoying as it is ). At least the speakers seem to have survived the trip intact; amazing to think that a cheap eBay purchase could sound so good, given the mileage on them. Goes to show that money spent wisely can pay off sometimes.
I was beat by the end of the day, but the place looks MUCH better now; I'm about 80% done, with a lot of move-this-there and that-to-here organizing I can do on and off in the next few weeks. The important thing is that the MAJOR bits are in place, now it's all fiddly from here. Once I get it looking tidy, I'll post some pics - trust me, it will look quite neat and cozy!
My movie choice tonight was Underworld: Evolution in HD - Kate Beckinsale looks great in Hi-Def, even with the vampy overbite, and who cares if the plot stinks? Just hit 'mute' and put in your own dialogue, like the old Mystery Science Theatre 3000 did, which incidentally is being reborn for a new generation, check out the news here. Heck, the show is very similar to the old Rick Green series Prisoners of Gravity, which is one of my favourite TV series from my early formative years watching TVO... and would explain much about me for the years following.
All for now - Comments are as always welcome.
