11:50 PM - 15.04.05
Loose Ends
Last evening was really busy. Arrived home to find voicemail from my aboriginal friend setting a time to talk. As I was putting th phone down it rang for real. Number three son. could he and his girlfriend come by for a visit. I never turn down time with my young men. If they can fit me in to their busy schedules and make the effort to call then I'm really happy. I needed to pick up some things at a couple of stores and offered to buy supper in exchange for chauffeur fees. Good exchange. Most of my guys prefr healthy take out - Subway was the choice last night. The young lady serving us was having a very bad night. She started making one sub that none f us had ordered. When we pointed that out she nearly started to cry. My son said that he was happy to have it as a substitute for his original choice. I told her to make the extra sub as well, so everyone got some of what they wanted.
Just after we arrived home there was a knock at the door. The one woman who was a problem last election has been calling and emailing me several times per week the past month or so. She was standing at the door. I quit responding to her about a week ago, after the last call where she demanded not only that she have one of the highest paying jobs in the office, but also that one other person be displaced for part of the event so she could make more money by doubling up in his position. Now last election there were over 800 positions listed on our payroll. I'm not certain why she believes she deserves more or special consideration, especially after the really destructive behaviour she indulged in last time. I go to job interviews on a regular basis to secure consulting assignments. I suspect that if I showed up at an interviewer's home after multiple calls to their work place with unreasonable demands that not only would I not get the job, but that I might also find myself talking with police about my behaviour. I'm not quite ready to do that in this case, but her actions are becoming very close to harassing. I just asked my son to tell her I wasn't available and left the room. Maybe that is rude, but I'd just walked in the door from shopping, I had company and I was really tired to boot.
The stupid thing is there isn't likely to be an election before the autumn unless one of the political parties makes a major misstep. You see, there is an election in the westernmost province of British Columbia starting next week and culminating on May 17. In the election last June, the vote was so close that the winner couldn't be declared until the winners in some really hard fought battles in that province were determined. They are the swing vote right now and no politician is going to want to tick them off. In addition, federal politicians don't like competing for media coverage with more local forms of government because voters are more interested in what is happening in their own backyard. The mandarins in Ottawa are pretty remote in comparison. Shortly after that day the Queen and Prince Philip are due to arrive in Canada to help the provinces of Saskatchewan and Alberta celebrate theri 100th anniversary of becoming part of Canada. They will not come if there is a federal election. Federal politicians who mess up our party times are not likely to find themselves in the winner's circle either. Poll after poll also has shown that Canadians do not want another election so soon despite the "scandal" going on. Even in my current assignment the comment has been that it would be a waste of an awful lot of tax payer dollars for no real change. Daily headlines demonstrate that there are corrupt individuals in all the political parties and the voters know that. It's that thing about power corrupting. I'm not certain that is so entirely, but power certainly attracts people who are already corrupt who see it as an easy way to expand and consolidate their activities. Then again politics has very little to do with logic, so we could see a call anytime I guess. Doesn't matter really - whenever it comes I'll just find a way to do my job. I can't offer anything else.
My aboriginal friend telephoned just after my son and his friend left. She's in a women's shelter again. She has several serious chronic medical conditions and had been in hospital for a good part of last month. She said that the staff were trying hard to get her back on her feet physically so she could try making a go of it in the community soon. She was asking about some renting issues since she's found a place that she would really like to move in to at the end of the month. Most of our conversation was just catching up on each other's news since the last time we talked, I think during the June election. I worry about her but I can't do much for her in the current circumstances.
Work today was fine. I had trouble getting out of bed this morning becuase I still seem to be fighting that throat infection. My rationale was that I hadn't yet received the pay cheque the agency I work through promised to drop off this week and I also had to file my timesheet for next week if I wanted that payment to go through on time. Fiscal reality trumps physical reality at this point in time. At least today I wasn't having trouble staying conscious. Yesterday, I think becuase the political shenanigans were causing me so much stress, I found that I neaarly fainted a couple of times during the afternoon. Just the extra stress, that's it. I always thought those women in the romance novels who fainted all the time were wimps, but I seem to have joined their ranks. However their little episodes were at least about something fun - romance. Kind of dull reading when it's about work instead. Right dear diary.
I left my timesheet on my supervisor's chair early in the day. When she came by we chatted a bit about the meeting for next week that I asked for to review the work I've done. I think even that will reduce my stress level significantly. I explained that I also wanted to show her what I had done to prepare the work so someone else could continue on a go forward basis if she wanted the project to continue while I was working on an election. I've set up some tasks that are manageable and stand alone projects that someone like a summer student could tackle without too much supervision from a technical point of view. They also have an educational component in that they can familiarize some one new to the data in an organized and structured fashion something like a tutorial. The supervisor who doesn't like Aquarians was in a better frame of mind today as well. She seemed to be making an effort to be nicer to the co-worker who sits at the desk next to me and that was a good thing. I talked with the owner of the dance studio again today about the prizes we are to provide to each participant. He had a couple of really good solutions so I think that is dealt with too. That is the other task I want to be certain is under control so that it can go forward without me should an election be called. Truth is I can co-ordinate most of it during an election just by working through email from home, but the more prep work done up front the better all around. Right?
Good photographs of the eclipse in my inbox tonight as well as this story about where to find really good sites for international_music including the collection at the Smithsonian and a new book about the source of some very unique words and phrases that tell us a lot about how other cultures think or process information - the book is called "They Have a Word for It". It sounds really entertaining. Anyway the cats made me feel really guilty this morning when I was leaving, they wanted me to stay and cuddle them. They are still trying to claim their time with me now so I guess I'd better go be a good "mom". Good night dear diary.
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