Vexation, Vacations and Vitriol

The word of the week is vexation.

May 23 - Me, Myself and Spock

Leonard Nimoy, aka Spock, was a big influence on my early years - I'm sure those of you who know me well can pick out similarities well beyond my amazing ability to raise one eyebrow by itself. Yet Nimoy is not Spock, at least not all the time( despite his writing two autobiographies I am Not Spock and the later I Am Spock ). This revealing music video of a senior Nimoy simply getting on with a lazy day is well worth a look, if only to picture what Spock as a lazy bum might do on an average day on Earth:

May 24 - Waiting for Godot

It's nice to have a Tuesday off, one of the( few )benefits of my current job that's not 9-5 Mon-Fri. I spent a few hours outside at the Bean, soaking up the sunshine and trying to adjust my laptop screen to cut down on the glare – not an easy task. I'm hoping my new Asus Transformer will be more forgiving of sunshine-glare, as I plan on taking it more places outside as it's far more portable than the 2.5kg brick of a 2005-era Compaq laptop. Which is still nice to have, mind you, just not nice to tote around. Just walking around the Bear Mountain area is fantastic, with green trees falling to the eye over the hills wherever you look. It really does feel like a resort here, yet it's so close to the city when needed. BONUS: I've seen the Langford Trolley( check out the picture of Mt. Finlayson, I live right below the word 'Questions' )three times in the last week making its way up here, so maybe there's summer service? If so, I'll be tickled to have it as an option instead of walking for an hour uphill – IF I time it right.

May 25 - Lego Legend

Now this is a blend of Very Cool and OCD, using Lego bricks to realize the dream of many a Lego-wielding child with limited time and a small allowance. Gerry Burrows is building the 'Garrison of Moriah' in his specially-made basement room and he's already used close to 250,000 bricks in the process. As a kid, I dreamed of making massive Lego structures built to the scale of the Lego mini-figures, but even my creative mind-pictures pale next to the reality that has taken shape in Gerry's home. Truly a work of original art, my only question is this: how can he take it on tour to Lego conventions if he can't get the structures out of his basement? A shame.

May 26 - Weird Weather

The weather out here in southern BC has been rather cold and wet this spring – a big change from the extreme heat of last year. From historical records, we should be seeing things warming up quickly here in a few weeks, when the Island begins to dry out and the forests that cover the land all around become tinder-dry. Which worries me somewhat, given events like the massive wildfire that wiped the town of Slave Lake off the map. In a weird turn of technology, Google Maps is being used to compare before-and-after images of the town for damage assessment, something that has been used in the USA as well during the recent spate of deadly weather there. Many destroyed homes and businesses now only exist in digital form – very creepy.

May 27 - Farewell, Zack Allan    

Another light has been lost: Jeff Conaway passed away today at the young age of 60. He was remembered for his roles in the movie Grease and the TV series Taxi plus of course Babylon 5 – on B5 he played the character of Zack Allan, one of the 'regular guys' on the show dealing with all the crazy problems that life of a space station threw at them. I found him to be immensely likable as Zack, a trait that those who knew him said was innate to Jeff; he was the kind of guy who would give you the shirt off his back, which is something that I take towards myself most days. It is a tragedy that Jeff's substance abuse problems overwhelmed him in the end, as I had hoped his real-world life would come to a better end than the bitter regrets his character Zack Allan was left with at the end of Babylon 5: the road not taken.

May 28 - On Breakfast and Saturdays

Ah, breakfast: the most important meal of the day. Years ago, I dearly loved going out to brekkie with my friends a few times a week; our mutual schedules made it possible, even when I was working nights. Now, I breakfast alone, usually at A&W as they tend to have coupons on a regular basis – weird how only they and McDonald's do that regularly in this age of tight-budget consumers. When's the last time you've seen a coupon for Wendy's, Tim Horton's, or other chains? Anyway... I suppose what I'm saying is that I miss those breakfast get-togethers more than I thought, as they were relaxing breaks( -fast? )during hectic weeks when you could just chill with friends.

Like yesterday: a hectic day where it was insanely busy at work from the first moment, so much so that I sent myself home early just to recover... a nap, a shower, see a few TV shows on DVD then out to the Station House for the eve worked very well!

May 29 – Are you F*cking KIDDING me?????

Yesterday ended with me in a VERY bad mood: I learned that my workplace had unilaterally cancelled ALL vacations for our region due to not having enough staff to go around. This after two senior staff were fired for unknown reasons this week... so although its understandable that it'd be unfair to 'allow' some people to go on vacation while others work 6-day 10-hour shifts to keep the doors open, it's made employee morale plummet – mine included. I have 5 weeks of vacation time backlogged BECAUSE we've been understaffed for so long AND it's been ME putting in those 6-day weeks for the last year... so I've been looking forward to my vacation time to recover, avoid burnout and to visit my friends and family out east. Which has now been cruelly taken away by our current temporary boss PLUS it's not being discussed as to IF vacations will 'be allowed' during the next 2-3 months. [end rant]

I expect to see a fair bit of staff turnover soon, myself included, as people head for greener pastures instead of staying with a company that only pays lip service to caring about its employees. But I've known that for a long while now, in my bitter heart. Just up and quitting seems more appealing, but I just can't bring myself to be unemployed with no income, or to take a menial job that pays much less – I'm not making all that much as it is, so moving on AND moving up weighs heavily on me. Responsibility is like that - it sucks quite often.

Things change . The better or worse part is in how you embrace that change, or fight it. Or let it destroy you.