00:14 - 24.02.06
grouch and the cat in the hat
"Odd" seemed to be the continuing theme as yesterday and today carried on. Just as I was posting to you last night, dear diary, a knock on the front door. We don't like strangers here. My youngest was talking with the unseen caller. I heard something about charity and called him in to the workroom. Did the person have the identification card issued by the city for doing door to door solicitations. Yes they did. He wanted to make a contribution. Who was it for? A disability organization from another city. Huh? A disability group and the kit being sold is to teach one how to collect and preserve DNA samples from family members for future reference, as in, in case they disappear or are killed in some major disaster where their remains are unidentifiable otherwise. No tax receipt issued either. Seems really odd to me, but after the dinner hour the licencing department of the city isn't answering their phones. Check into that later.
Next up this morning I found that my breathing was still really compromised. Whatever had caused the asthmatic reaction yesterday while I was out walking seemed to have had a longer term effect than I thought. When my lungs are hurting I find it saps all the energy out of my body. Guess that little thing about oxygen being the body's real fuel is true then,eh? Next question? Why does the body insist on other fuel then - you know that stuff called "food"? If I just stuck to oxygen, then I wouldn't have to worry about my girlish - or otherwise - figure now would I?
I had planned to finish off and mail all the financial documentation today, but I'm still receiving invoices from different services and suppliers. The latest is from the school board with it's overtime charges for their janitorial staff. I got the spreadsheet for the whole of the city. Sent it off to the other Returning Officers who I share responsibilities with in the urban ares, with a note to choose their own accounts. Called some more of my staff asking for the incident reports they are required to provide to me. The ones that still haven't shown up in my mailbox. It won't be long before I'm getting calls from Ottawa asking for them, so I'd might as well try to get my ducks in a row now.
I spent most of today resting, waiting for the guck to clear from my lungs. That was a slow process and I'm just starting to feel better now. I was fine until I tried to eat this afternoon, you see. Eating caused the need for nap time in order to deal with both the nausea and the breathlessness. Maybe it was food poisoning instead of asthma that was the cause of my discomfort yesterday. I had brought home some of the local delicacies from the place where I had had my meeting with the candidate and his brother so that is also a possibility.
I got to thinking a little bit more about that interview yesterday. I found some things just didn't add up, but then again, I guess that you've already picked some of that out right, dear diary. For instance, the two brothers left together in one vehicle. I was waiting at the counter to pay for my purchases, you see, so I saw them get into the same car and drive off. Yet when we met, the brother who was the candidate entered the restaurant on his own about five minutes after I arrived for the meeting. The brother walked into the building about 20 minutes later. Did he go run an errand first or was he waiting out in the car all that time?
When he arrived it was then that the first brother started in about divorced women - "no respect for their spouses" was the conclusion about them. It appeared that they already knew I was divorced, although that is not a fact I advertise about myself. It is one of the reasons I ask my sons to be visible at the office during elections as well. Heads off any male who has interests other than specifically electoral ones you see. I rarely speak of the boys' Dad except with people who knew him - a very few of my core staff who co-voluteered with me years ago when the boys were still small. I try to be very certain there are no other people involved when those topics arise. So how did these two so clearly know about my legal status.
The candidate started to get quite snarly about the divorce issue and I did the "now wait a minute" thing pointing out that no one shold be required to live with a violent or dangerous spouse - male or female. "Well setting that aside". Well not, thank you very much. What is unacknowledged in most societies is that family violence is a lot higher than most will admit. Condemning someone else to cope with it because the alternate of divorce is inconvenient or "disrespectful" is unacceptable too, as is living in fear in one's own home. The "you made your bed, you lie in it" crowd don't acknowledge that that side of a marital partner's personality may be hidden until after the nuptials and so the choice made by the victim is not one they made with full disclosure. Not many people I know grew up saying that they wanted to be a battered spouse when they grew up. It just isn't one of those life choices most people even know may be an issue for them. I certainly didn't. When I spoke of having to make a choice between the boys' dad and the boys themselves, with no alternatives based on the safety issue, they both backed off. It was then the anger shown by the brother of the candidate became the "looking to make a connection" thang. Talk of his prospects and current lifestyle. Maybe I misread it, but both the initial discussion and the subsequent reaction took me off guard. Didn't sink in until today.
The other comment that bothered me was the one about that community not understanding that the laws of this country are binding on them, because they don't know about those laws. Ignorance of the law is not a defense in our country or theirs. Claiming immunity based on different values doesn't cut it either. Violence against one's fellow citizen or breaking of our laws are not negotiable. Period. I'm hoping I'm reading that bit wrong though, because the extension of that last verbal foray would be that the incident on voting day where the police presence was required was what they were getting at. Doesn't wash. The legislation with respect to breaking the electoral laws of this country were posted in every polling station and my office so that no excuse would be allowed. Posting that information, or drawing it to a would be offender's attention, is not "threatening them" it is called advising them of their rights.
Anyway I hope that all it is, is that I am being grouchy, because I don't feel well and that stems from going out to that meeting yesterday. I have to admit I feel frustrated with the fact that the planned housework and paperwork again did not get done, because I spent the day needing to sleep. I would just like to get that all dealt with before I have to go back into the regular work force. I did watch the animated version of Return of the King with my youngest as well as a cartoon story about an encounter between the Grinch and the Cat in the Hat. Couldn't sit through the Wallace and Grommit cartoon though. Very obviously aimed at a pre-school crowd it just didn't have any appeal to me at all. Just a grumpy old female today I guess. Maybe tomorrow will be better.
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