10:12 p.m. - 2003-11-25
Changes
One of number four son's friends died of hypothermia sometime on Saturday. He'd been out at a party and decided to walk his regular route home. Hypothermia is a very difficult condition to detect. The major symptoms are that one begins to feel numb then warm even though weather conditions belie that and one feels very sleepy. The need to lie down and rest for just a bit becomes overwhelming. It appears that he wasn't dressed for the drop in temperature that occurred over that night. The alcohol may have been a factor in that the blood tends to draw into the core of the body both when drinking or when one is very cold. His body's thermostat might have been less able to adapt to protect itself or to detect the subtle symptoms of freezing to death. It doesn't really matter. The bottom line is that a very nice young man with a great deal of potential is now dead. His family did not find his body until late Sunday night just meters from homes in his neighbourhood. They must be devastated.
It might explain a call that came to our home yesterday too. The display read the Ismaili Center. There was some noise in the backgroud - like young girls who want to talk but are too shy. I thought because it was the first night of Eid, the Muslim celebration of the end of Ramadan, that some of my sons' friends might have been calling to share greetings. Some of them might have known the young fellow who died though, so maybe they were calling about that. There wasn't a second call so I'm guessing they tracked my son down on his cell.
When I heard about the tragedy, I remembered when I was working one day about 25 years ago. An RCMP Officer came into the store looking for our manager. Her son had died along with his girlfriend under similar circumstances. The officer had come to tell her that they had found the bodies. She had reported him missing three days earlier when he didn't check in at home. In that case, they had been in a parking lot in a car that was running with all the windows shut tight. From what I could gather they succumbed to carbon monoxide poisoning, but the cold was also considered a contributing factor. Eventually the car would have run out of fuel and it would have just appeared to passers-by that the couple was sleeping. Mother Nature doesn't fool around in this country and sometimes there are no second chances.
Work today was steady. I'd sent another e-mail to my supervisor, because I felt I had enough stats of substance for him to work out the contract with this company from his end. It is obvious that it is going to require more than the allotted time to complete all the work that wasn't anticipated in the original estimate. At the end of the day, my liaison from last time, who still is responsible for the negotiations, came by and brought up that fact herself. She seemed comfortable with that fact, even though I told her I'd do my best to meet the deadlines originally set. I'd spent four hours in the stacks this morning working on the existing files and had only taken 15 minutes as a break for lunch. There were no breaks in the afternoon either while I was at my desk. I think it is obvious that no time is being wasted - at least not by me.
Last contract, there was someone who would come around while I wasn't in the workroom and do stupid things like re-adjust the hole punch so that things would be just enough out of alignment, that anything that had been prepared in the last batch of work for filing would have to be redone. The "hole punch fairy" made their presence known last week and yesterday. It's petty and mindless behaviour, that's very difficult to prove or detect - unless you are the intended target - but it does make things look sloppy and it wastes time having to go back and repair the damage. The reason I had asked for a place I could lock up my stuff securely was because of that. Still no progress though and I'm not going to argue about it with only two or three more weeks worth of time left. Just irritating.
One of my other co-workers came by for a chat this morning. I had worked with her about six contracts ago. She came to this company through another agency - so it is just serendipity that we're working together again. She's from Wales and is really quite interesting to talk to, both because of her background and also because of her perceptions of the world as a result. She said she had been offered full time work from another company with good terms, but didn't want to take it because she and her hubby go away on holiday for about 3 months every year. She said she wasn't willing to forego that, did I want her to recommend me in her place? I explained that yes, I would like something more steady, but that the timing was an issue because of the imminent election. I'll need three months leave then, something most employers just aren't willing or able to grant. Although I didn't mention it, I still think I have a lot I could learn from my supervisor and I enjoy working with him. I hate to miss out on having a boss I trust and respect and good learning opportunities too. Of course, the trouble is that the data mangement company hasn't been able to keep me busy enough so that I can pay my bills. Maybe there is another boss or some learning experiences that I couldn't get other than through a change. Dilemmas - maybe they'll work themselves out somehow if I don't try so hard to push the river. Don't know.
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