8:52 p.m. - 2003-08-01
Memphis - sorry Calgary - Blues
It was one of those days when my promise to myself to become a bag lady, once the responsibilities of raising six sons on my own was completed, was about the only thing that got me to the end of the day.
First thing this morning stepped out of the house. This was the day to go to the client's office, to tie up loose ends. Choking smoke from forest fires, made breathing tough. Caught the bus, then a train - no problem with that.
"Bring a book", said the client, "to read when it's slow." So I stopped at the bank and took out some cash. Grabbed a large coffee and a biscuit to go. Made it to their office with a few minutes to spare.
Then everything that could go wrong, did. Was it a test? Several changes in instructions, plus an endless series of technical glitches meant re-doing the same work several times. Little to show for a lot of effort. No time for a lunch break, meant no time to spend with my walking partner and no time to eat. Eight hours without moving from the tasks, before I was done.
First up, the client loaded a read only document onto my PC, then disappeared into a long meeting. I had to copy and save it under another name before I could edit. No problem. March on. An incompatible version of the same word-processing software between my PC and my contact's - thanks Bill Gates - meant loss of integrity of the formatting and difficulty converting between the two.
Formatting and editing conventions set up by someone else in the office on the original document, meant spending time guessing what they'd done, so I could accommodate the editing requested. Clarifying a difference in expectations because of the language used with respect to the term "split" between the contact and I, ate up more time.
Next request,import seven very large technical documents, with diagrams and charts nested in the text, willy nilly at the beginning of the presentation as attachments. Those were located only on the contact's laptop PC which he had shut off before going into his meeting. Formatting in three of the attachments distorted the original's formatting, plus that of the other attachments. After a lot more work, orders to remove them because the reformatting couldn't be completed before the legislated deadline for delivery to the intervenors at 4 pm. Less than two hours to redo it all once again. Done on time, more or less. Left to catch the train.
Blistering heat in a concrete canyon, no wind, and an even heavier pall of smoke. Breakdown upline, meant a long wait at rush hour with a lot of very hot and tired workers. Jammed up against each other in the car, no air conditioning or breeze to cool things down. Candid comments between two young men about their relationship trials with "their women", had several of us moms choking from trying not to laugh. Giggles did escape, despite our best efforts.
Got home to find a nasty note from my liaison at Elections Canada's superiors to turn in all work now despite the fact that means I will have to submit the only offer I have on the table for office space - the one for $50,000 - even though I'm in the midst of negotiating on the most recent one for $20,000. Oh well, it's just taxpayers money and a drop in the bucket in the grand scheme of things - right? I'll send it but under protest, I guess.
Last election EC's lawyer, on the day the election was called, yelled at me when I told him the only office space I could secure was going to cost $17,000 after the real estate agent increased his quote, from the month before, that day with a "take it or leave it" attitude and the comment he had me over a barrel, right? It took me several hours of begging before the lawyer would authorize it because "it was too expensive".
That delay cost me three day's worth of set up time I couldn't afford to lose, because the suppliers I'd booked two months earlier had been swamped with last minute political party and candidates orders for their limited supply of office furnishing and resources and they had more cash to offer for it. The telephones weren't functional for a day and a half because the technicians couldn't gain access to the building to hook everything up and the locksmiths had to wait too. Left us with no security, which also caused trouble in the office. There's no way I can completely guard against the same thing happening again with someone who already is overcharging. I can't win. Who says you have to be from Memphis to sing the blues. I'm going to watch the Muppets and sing myself to sleep.
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