12:06 a.m. - 2004-02-13
Home Again
Well I'm back dear diary. The trip home went a lot smoother, although it was still over four hours on the airplane, as well as the three hours in transit from hotel to airport, the waiting at the terminal, and then the trip home. I was squished again between two other people and I'm beginning to think that the way the seats are placed and the extreme pressurization of the cabin are both health and safety issues that are really serious. I'm not a very big person, but even I had to keep my shoulders rolled in to accommodate the shoulders of my two seatmates. With circulatory and respiratory issues anyway, it was very uncomfortable. My lungs, right now, feel quite a bit like they do after surgery when they are still dealing with the anaesthetic that has to be dispersed. That's too much pressurization to my way of thinking. The gentleman (and he was) in the aisle seat was very big and the stewardess was able to offer him a more roomy option once we were airborne - that helped a lot.
There was a family of three traveling together - Mom and two teenagers - the daughter with the window seat beside me and Mom and her brother directly behind us. I felt sorry for the young fellow. He must have been at least 6.5 ft tall and all legs. His knees were digging into the small of my back for a lot of the journey. When the aisle wasn't in use, he was able to extend his legs out into it, but that wasn't possible most of the time. The Mom was an idiot, quite frankly. She kept reaching through to poke her daughter so she could tell her what to do - much to the young woman's frustration since she was just reading or watching the movie (School of Rock) quietly - but each time the Mom did so, she would hit me on the way to reaching her daughter. At one point, she shoved a tray of food forward with no warning to either of us and hit me in the temple with it. It tipped dangerously near to losing all it's contents on to us and it nearly knocked over my hot, freshly served coffee. Now I understand how air rage could occur. I just kept my headphones on and kept reading my book about the Vodoun. There was a really good album of drumming playing at one point - Mutabaruku? - Rasta man as it turned out. Good background sound for the text of the story, which was quite intense at the time.
My AC's family - Dad and seven children, were waiting for her at the airport - so they went their own way obviously very happy to have Mom safely back. My Dad was waiting for me when we arrived in Calgary, so we took my assistant home, then went for lunch. Just caught up on the weeks' news then found the starter on his car had died. Waited for an hour until someone could come by to get the beast going. Oh well, it was 11 C/50 F and sunny, so we just sat and enjoyed the warmth - no jacket required. It was at least good that we were earthbound at the time - right?
Got home to find four mail delivery problems that were waiting to be resolved. There was a box sitting on my doorstep clearly labelled for delivery to an address one street away. The label also indicated that the package was not to have a delivery notice left if the residents did not open their door. The contents would have been worth quite a bit of money.
There were two pick up notices waiting for me as well - one a final notice dated Feb 09, even though there had been no earlier notices and denoting Box 2 0f 2. Second notice also waiting for a new delivery dated today. I also received an e-mail notice from Chapters bookstore that an order of mine (used my gift certificates) should have been delivered today. That was confirmed in parcel tracking, although there was nothing at my door. I walked over to the Post Office to pick up the material. Received one map tube for the first "final" notice and one box for the second notice. When I got back home from that errand, I took the parcel labelled with my neighbour's address over to their home. Since they were out, I called and left them a voicemail as well. Later that evening those neighbours returned to my home with my missing package.
I received a lot of critical mail from Elections Canada today, including confidential and protected material, as well as very expensive and specialized software and electronics components for an assignment that begins immediately and has a very tight deadline. I also know my neighbours do a lot of business with Canada Post through their home based business. It was very disturbing to find so many errors in a short period of time. If my neighbour's package had been delivered to someone who had not been honest, they may have lost product and income, as well as having no way of knowing that something has gone amiss. That being the case I sent off an e-mail to the Post Office detailing the issues - not a very good way to start off the next assignment.
Anyway dear diary, I have an early appointment tomorrow and the cats - who are very upset with me anyway - want to be fed and bedded down for the night so I'll continue with tales of our training tomorrow.
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