11:07 AM - 14.03.05
Omens
A comet streaked across the western night sky last night. A band of white light, a Portent, a Meteor. All occurring on a Jupiter/Neptune trine. In all the Arthurian legends, the sign of the birth of a leader of humanity to the next level of civilization. Well, one might as well find the positives where they can. If nothing comes of it 20 or 30 years down the road, it has still got you to put one foot in front of the other simply on the offer of hope. In the movie "Jakab the Liar" that was the bane and the saving grace of the community it depicted. Good story, Mr Williams.
At work, that ghost I was told about the first day has taken a turn for the naughty. Friday morning I went in to the washroom to put my contact lenses in. This time of year the wind and the dust make it wiser to wait until you arrive at your destination before wearing them. Reached in to pick up the one for the right eye and it came out alright - in two jagged pieces. These are the ones I just replaced at the beginning of February. I called the optometrist's office as soon as they were open and the receptionist started to give me a hard time - she "wasn't happy" with my call. "What had I done to cause the problem - they don't break on their own you know". "Well, I picked it up on my finger tip - the same way I've been doing it for over three decades". Uh huh. Next up, I realized by the end of the day that my watch had stopped working. My Mom's watch in reality. I think it is quite an expensive one, so that was really upsetting too. Opened the one pocket in my new purse and found the bottom slashed open when I got home that night. Oi. Had I locked my storage drawer each time I left my desk? No, but mostly. Besides there isn't any reason for anyone to do me harm at this assignment. I've just been there a week and all I've done is sit with my headphones on - working - or talking with my supervisor and the specialist from Texas. This afternoon I came back from a very short powder room break to find my telephone had been disabled. The clue was that the lcd display didn't have the regular time/date light on - just the number "7" showing in the upper left corner. I joked to the one co-worker, whose desk is next to mine, that maybe the ghost was trying to help me pick the right lottery numbers. Only 6 more to go. On the radio, when I put my headphones back on, a new song started playing called "Never Say Goodbye" that was written as though it was being sung by someone who had just died. I admit the hair on the nape of my neck was rising as I listened - spooky. The next new release was from Will Smith's new movie. The level of energy in it was enough to wash away the impact of the first song - almost. Phew.
My supervisor came by early this morning. She said she just wanted to apologize for abandoning me last week. Quite honestly, I thought she had done a great job of providing support and guidance. Just enough to keep me going, but not so much that I felt someone was looking over my shoulder all the time. I like that "works well independently" thing - it used to be considered high praise at report card time in school. When I did have questions or concerns, she always found time to respond within half a day. As you know dear diary, sometimes I never got responses to questions I had in other assignments. Just sort of a blaming, complaining litany of excuses. She sat down and showed me the modifications she had come in to work over the weekend to make to the software, to accommodate some of the concerns I had raised about data capture last week. That meant I had to go back and redo some of the series of records I had coded last week, but that improved what information was available by 100%. That is a good thing.
Heard from the legal department about one list of information we had requested from them. The data we asked for is very sensitive and further thought has to given to what can released. Fair game. I just responded that the only reason we asked is that some documents will be destroyed per the retention schedule the company has set up and we wanted to be certain due diligence in maintaining critical documents was met. Touchy, but something will work out I'm sure.
Went walking at lunch for about half an hour. My cell phone had rung a lot this morning, with responses from various services, some of my staff, and suppliers I needed to talk with about the election work. I had banked more than enough time last week to accommodate that, but decided that maybe adding a little more to the pool was a strategic choice. Almost everything is dealt with - except for finding an office. Even the Federal public works person couldn't come up with anything and he had obviously tapped a lot of contacts trying to help out. I allowed it was almost the season for tents anyway and he laughed about that. Whatever it takes, I guess.
The weather had turned quite blustery just before lunch, so I took the plus 15 (second story mall) route. It meant that I had to walk through the main concourse of the building where I had had to walk away from that assignment in October. First time I'd been back in there and it took a lot to walk in at all. What if I ran in to that liaison or her brother? Then on the other hand, the liaison of the assignment that I was working with during the election - one of my favorite people - also works in that complex. The odds of meeting her were about equal to meeting the others. Right? That complex probably houses several thousand people in all it's towers, so I decided to just act as though I had every right to be there. Realized that was the truth anyway. That walk took me through a large circle of towers and mall space. All of it seeming like a kaleidoscope of colours, noise and images; each building having its own character and flavour. Got back to work much more grounded and relaxed.
At one point in the day my co-worker from that previous contract about six or seven back came by to say hello and to touch base. We chatted very quickly about what we had been doing since we last saw each other last fall and set up a time to go walking this week. Hopefully the weather will co-operate. Looked out of the window just after returning from my walk today and realized I could see - nothing. A few minutes before, I had commented about the massive black cloud on the horizon to the north to the woman who sits at the next desk to me. She looked up and groaned saying she hoped it held off until she was home at the end of the day - about two hours away. I said I thought it might arrive and be done with us by then. Not so bad, since most workers would still be at their desks for a few more hours - save the problems with rush hour. The nothing I saw a short time later proved me right - a white out. "Tales of the North Country" - the blizzard of '05, don't you know. Lucky thing our specialist from Texas was already safely home. It wasn't really a blizzard because the one criteria is that the temperature has to drop to about -30 C/darn cold F. It didn't. The whole thing only lasted about half an hour. Bright sun and no wind, then about an hour later an identical half hour of white out again. Calgary weather - just the normal routine for a March day.
By the time I left, there was a bit of rain falling. As I walked out of the elevators, heading for the rendezvous with the neighbour I commute with, I met one of the scanning programmers from the contract that I had had to leave in October. He was sitting on a bench with another person by the coffee stop. Just coincidence I guess. Odd what a storm will wash up on the shore - or to a coffee kiosk - isn't it?
Only excitement after that was the fender bender we witnessed as we were just pulling up to the turn into our community. Two males, both causcasian, but one driver was about our age, the other the age of our sons. It was the male our age in his brand new sporty black trophy car who was at fault. Following too close, speeding and trying to run a red light, ran into the back of the young guy's little old economy car where he was trying to stop for said light. The impact broke off the back bumper and pushed the young guy's car right through the intersection. Good thing the drivers who had the green light were all on the ball. They all waited until the young guy's vehicle had slid through to the other side of the crosswalk before proceeding. At least there were no obvious injuries to the drivers. Good thing - the only thing I could think of, as I was watching the drama unfold, was whether I remembered enough of my CPR/medical experiences to be of help to anyone who needed it. Thankfully I didn't have to test it out. There was a notice in the company e-mail offering a first aid/safety course a little later on and I had been thinking that I would ask for permission to take it, just as a precaution. Maybe that little fender bender was like that comet on the weekend. A sign that that choice might be a good thing after all. We'll see.
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