Days off, Dames and Drives

The word of the week is perspective: it can always use a change.

Nov 29 – Call Of Contact

A day off should not start with the work cell ringing at 8am... but it did. Could I fill in at Millstream, as the manager there had injured his back and was on the way to the hospital? Sure, why not; nobody else could, as his co-worker was over in Vancouver and no-one else available in the area had training with the open-concept store. In I went, and was run off my feet for the day – of course. “No good deed goes unpunished,” as they say... also, the phrase “Nice guys finish last” keeps going through my head of late. I knew a guy in university who confided to me that he had decided to become a jerk, in order to get ahead. I met him again a few years later; he was married and had a decent job... but he looked and acted very angry. Maybe getting what he wanted didn't turn out like he thought it would, while acting like a jerk? I could have told him that.

What did ppl do before email, texting and Facebook to keep in regular contact? I printed up the family Xmas letter today for my mom, spruced up( hollied? )with some nice colour graphics and tucked into cheery holiday envelopes. I can't recall the last paper letter I wrote to anyone( especially since I write this blog that anyone can check on at any time )as it seems like such a slow way to communicate. Nowadays we count the minutes from the time an email or text hits the 'net – we consider it the height of rudeness if it takes until the next day for a response! Weird.

Nov 30 – Dead Phones

I filled in at the Millstream branch for the second day in a row today; so much for a day off. I was late in getting there, as I had an appointment to go see someone about funeral arrangements – yes, I know what you're thinking: morbid. But I think about these sorts of things( insurance, wills, etc )to ensure my family is taken care of in case I'm suddenly out of the picture; responsibility. It wasn't as expensive as I thought: for about $100/month over a few years, a plot of dirt was all mine. I'm not for leaving a lot behind, as in a few generations the only people coming by would be those seeking to trace ancestors – I'd love to stick my head in a freezer, but that's incredibly pricey and there's no guarantees. I don't want to end up as some component in a future tax preparation bio-computer or something... and now I know about the costs involved.

I called Telus again later in the evening to see about brokering a phone deal – they said no dice, suckah: yer on a contract for 2 years so man up. Guess it's back to my old phone, which isn't ‘smart’ but gets the job done. Oh, and the cheap little bluetooth keyboard I bought from eBay doesn’t work with my old phone( it's fine with a co-worker's newer iPhone )but doesn’t matter as I’m not texting much any more at all to a certain someone. No smartphone needed for me now, though I’d like to have one sooner rather than later, before I get a tablet in a year or two. *sigh*

Dec 1 – No Malls For Me!

Welcome to the Christmas Crazy Time; I'm so glad I’m not part of it any more. My personal rule for the holidays is if I haven't already purchased presents by today, then I don't set foot in a mall for the rest of the month. Big box stores are all right, but again I won't go near a mall for the entire month – the stress, the traffic, the harried looks on the faces of both shoppers and clerks alike... no thanks. I've been shopping online for years, and I don't have very many people to buy for now anyway; I've never really done a Secret Santa with friends, or even Xmas cards. Odd, now that I think about it – time to start a new tradition, maybe?

After work today, I felt a little worn out, but oddly inspired to do some tech work. So I burned a bootable copy of Fedora Linux 13 and installed it on the old laptop. Tada! Now I can dual-boot the old crate in about 120 seconds, compared to the 15 minutes it takes Windows Vista to haul itself into the system's hardware. Linux runs a helluva lot faster and is perfect for websurfing or word processing... heck, there's literally millions of free programs out there for the Linux OS. When I get some time( make some time )I'll acquaint myself a little better with the OS, as it's tricky to get your head around things like mounting disks, command line parameters and the like. So now the old laptop is the perfect coffee-shop companion: pop it out, boot it up and be surfing in seconds, not quarter-hours. As it should be!

Dec 2 – I met a girl; she was nuts.

Well-met... I think? My day off started with an early appointment at a local mechanic's to get the flat tire fixed and the brakes seen to. Just as I saw down to wait, a gorgeous girl walked in( let's call her Tia )with car problems. Since it was going to be a while for both our cars to be worked on, we got to talking... and ended up taking a walk over to Starbuck's, along with her dog. In briefly getting to know her, I got some sobering perspective on life's problems, as she had some doozies – she was sweet, beautiful, friendly... and had more personal issues than anyone I've ever met. A biggie was religion, which I won't get into here... but by the time a few hours had passed, my own problems seemed to pale in comparison to this lovely girl's,  such that I was shocked she could function day to day( she doesn't / can’t work ). A lesson in perspective, indeed; seeing the people I do at work every day also reminds me that I don't know much about them, or their own stories, just those things that come up when we interact. So there you go: look outside the box of your life.

What did I do with the rest of my Only Day Off? Well, I popped a new hybrid 500gb hard drive into my newer laptop, achieving success after some hours of tricky work – now I have space for things again( like iTunes shows! ). I didn't have so much luck with putting the old drive I’d removed into my parents laptop, mainly thanks to Vista's quirks... many hours of copying data were wasted due to a poorly-documented TRIAL version of a bit of software I used; damned freebie luck. I soothed my frayed nerves by playing NWN for a great few hours, which were like old times thanks to the arrival of an old friend: Gwen! Years rolled back and we adventured like of old... it was very special.

Dec 3 – Glowing Soap?

Oh, fer; stop it, downstairs exercise nut! Why someone feels the need to use a treadmill at 12:15am, I have no idea. Sure, it's a free country, do what you like... but if you wake your neighbours, they'll get cranky and Do Something about it. Grrrr. I assuaged my anger by getting dropped off for work early and having lunch at McDonalds( a nice healthy chicken wrap and root beer! ). Did you know they've tricked the place out with contemporary colours, lots of stone, even a fireplace... plus free WiFi set at the WPA encryption level? Nice! I happily sat at the window watching cars go by under the cloudy sky, in the relative quiet of the post-lunch rush in the very spacious restaurant. It's fairly close to work, cheap, and I can get Things Done there. They even have a patio heater outside, though I'd save that for a less-wet day in-season. All in all, a pleasant lunch.

To distract you from days like today, I suggest surfing on over to PerpetualKid.com – they have tons of things that will make you smile as your inner child squeals with glee. Take for example, their Bacon section, or my personal favourite: Radioactive Soap. Just imagine leaving said soap for a house guest to find in the morning; joy!

Dec 4 – Minty Fresh Lighted Truck Laptops!

Finally! After waiting for a year, Mint.com is now available in Canada! For those of you unfamiliar with the site, it’s designed to integrate tightly( and securely )with your bank accounts online – all of them. It’s the perfect way to centralize all your finances, so that Mint.com can see the Big Picture and help you make your finances work for you. I was a bit leery when I first heard about it 2 years ago, but after using it this week I have to say it’s easy, powerful and has given me new insight into my personal finances. I’m sure that as time goes on, I’ll use it more to get a better handle on my financial future. Best of all? It’s free!!!

After work, I was home for a bit, getting my parent’s laptop data backup started – I’d given up trying earlier in the week until I found a decent program to do it: Paragon Drive Backup Pro. About 2 hours and the drive was backed up; I set it to the task of restoring the saved data to a faster / larger drive I’d pulled from my own laptop and headed out. Where, you ask? Well, I walked down the mountain( for the first time! )about 4.5 km / 3500 steps( thanks, iPod Nano! )to go see the IEOA Lighted Trucks Parade that takes place every year in Victoria. Dozens of heavy trucks are decorated to the nines with lights and paraded all across the lower island, ending up at the Western Speedway just at the base of Bear Mountain. I arrived a little after 8 after nearly an hour’s walk; perfect timing as the trucks arrived soon after I got there. Everything from big-rigs to dump trucks to delivery vans to fire engines cruised past, all individually decorated. I recorded it all, though the low-light limits of my camera meant the subtle details were lost. It was a cold but enjoyable few hours outside, and I certainly got my exercise climbing back UP the mountain later. Whew!

Dec 5 – Another Day Off Derailed

The life of a manager stinks most days; today was a good example. My newest CSR called me at 9am saying she( and her mom )have stomach flu... so she can’t work today. I keep track of these things, so I took her at face value and got ready to go in. Turns out it was a busy, busy day and I got very little ‘extra’ done for all that I tried to take advantage of an ‘extra’ / early day of work this week. It’s frustrating to be told to trim hours, avoid O/T if at all possible and ‘run lean’ ... yet on crazy-busy days what does one tell the customers who are kept waiting due to a lack of staff? Hypocrites – you can only save so much for so long by running lean before people will go elsewhere rather than wait for 30 mins in line. At least I was home for dinner and didn’t have to stay late again to catch up after the whirlwind...

Tonight I watched Up with my parents, opting for some oft-put-off family time. It was a stellar choice; I wasn’t expecting the film to be as sad and poignant as it was – I purposefully hadn’t read up on it as I’d heard it was great and so didn’t want to spoil things.

I’ve switched from using MS Word to create my blog posts to the Windows Live Writer this week. So far, it’s powerful, takes less editing overall and lets me connect directly to the blog. More as I get to using it; now it’s a-bed for an early day. *yawn*