22:16 - 25.12.05
Christmas05
Merry Christmas dear diary. It was a brilliant blue sky that greeted us when we woke up. Temperatures were in the 60s F/teens C. For this time of year that is quite balmy. I called my Dad mid-morning and we talked for a while. The family gathering has always been from noon to about 4 pm. I had to be present in the office during that time, so it meant no turkey or visiting this year. Truthfully, I didn't mind. My youngest is still quite sick and my antibiotics are working, but slowly. I still don't feel all that great. Sleeping when not working appeals more right now. I woke my youngest up and gave him his gifts. Gave him the option of going to my Dad's, coming to work with me or staying in bed to sleep. He chose bed - smart man.
When my assistant and I arrived at the building, we found that the outer doors had been propped open. We thought that was odd, because when we waited with one of our young female staff until her boyfriend arrived to collect her last night, the security alarm went off when she held the door open for more than a minute. For whatever reason, that alarm appeared to be disabled today. We were cautious entering the building, but didn't see or hear anyone moving about. Nonetheless we left the locks on the main doors upstairs, relying on the intercom system on the main entry to alert us to visitors to our office.
We had been instructed late yesterday afternoon to forward all our phone lines to one unit for ease of managing communication. When we checked to see if it was operational, we found that it was ringing busy or delivering a message that said we were not open today. Great. Called the support desk in Ottawa. The young woman who answered was in a great frame of mind and it was a pleasure to work with her. It took about an hour before all the bugs were worked out with the three of us working together. In between I receivd a call from one of the senior staff in Ottawa checking again about the status of the one new candidate's nomination papers - why weren't they approved. I explained that we were waiting for more signatures to be delivered and he was happy with that.
My assistant was working at the reception desk checking her one son's homework while I started crunching more numbers in my office. Number two son and his partner had given me one of the heat/massage pads that attaches to one's chair, so I was quite comfortable while I worked. Put on a CD and was quite happy about the state of my world. My line rang and it was my assistant. "There's a photographer from one of the two daily newspapers here and he says the reporter is on his way. I checked his identification and he's the real thing". Now more than anything else, Ottawa has sent interminable memos telling us not to speak directly with any media. A gag order per se, since there is nothing in our contracts or in the Act that bars contact - provided we are not partisan in our comments, of course. Decided I would play the game anyway. Finally tracked down the media relations contact name by calling one of the other Returning Offices. The contact gave the go ahead, so I invited both for a tour of the different work areas and ended up in the special ballot area. The focus of the election coverage this day. The reporter seemed to have done a lot of research with respect to the electoral process, so it was actually a pleasure to work with him. Guess I'll wait to see the text before I feel I managed to do a good job with him though. This reporter was a younger man who had volunteered for Christmas duty in the newsroom because he didn't have children and felt his co-workers would have more reason to be at home with their families than he would. Generous guy and very well spoken too. One of those still waters run deep people, I think. Know that tomorrow anyway.
The photographer was a really interesting man and handsome to boot. He allowed that he was on call for the day until midnight and had just come from the Bow River where he had been taking photos of the fly fishermen trying out their new Christmas presents. Trout or perch for Christmas dinner in a few homes maybe. He said he was going to continue with getting candid Christmas day photos at the park that I had helped raise funds to build and I was pleased to hear it. The one thing that makes me happy about that long contentious project is seeing children and families having fun there. I didn't mention my connection to the park, because it didn't seem appropriate at the moment. We talked about the weather patterns and he allowed he had spent yesterday watching and photographing the sunrise. Intersting person, raised in the desert-like dinosaur heritage site region of our province. I hate having my photo taken with a passion, so he sort of eased into that part of the process by talking about the election and asking questions along with the reporter. Once the two of them had seen the different work areas he settled on the office for balloting for his background and chose the props that would best convey the information that was most pertinent to the story. Settled on me standing in front of the ballot box and voter screen holding the registration kit that can be mailed out for registration. He tried a few shots and declared the light too harsh. Got another attachment for his camera and tried again. Relatively painless I guess. I hate having photos taken.
Not long after they left and I had just settled in to my number crunching again, another call from my assistant. The candidate was here to submit his extra paperwork. He had brought his partner - a very pretty and articulate young lady. Since there was no really pressing work to complete, my asisstant and I verified the signatures on the spot so that they could go and enjoy the rest of such a pleasant sunny day. It took about half an hour. Then I was back with the numbers again. Finished off about 15 minutes before 4 pm and confirmed that we were about 10,000 names short on our voters list. At least now what I do know is which areas are most likely under-represented. Some are very high mobility areas, but they are also ones that our enumerators have visited and where data entry has occurred. Next up will be an assessment to see if the data we've entered is actually being captured and saved by the system. Deal with the other options if that doesn't appear to be the issue. That's tomorrow's task though. Sting was doing his techno version of Desert Rose as I finished off so I danced along getting in the belly dancing that I really miss now that my work-in-the-office hours are so long. Needed my veil though.
Went home and my youngest was still sleeping. Woke him up, because one of his buddies was calling. Number four son had invited us to dinner at his place, but called to say he and his girlfriend were quite sick too. Could we reschedule. Quite honestly I couldn't have been happier about that. All I wanted to do was crawl into bed and get some sleep and that is exactly what I did. My youngest and I might watch a movie tonight, but that is yet to be determined. Time for a bit of supper though. Have to keep our strenth up for the next half of the election period. Only 28 days to voting day.
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