02:54 - 21.06.06
recruiting
Most of today was spent working on the election assignment or cleaning up. Phone calls, emails and research took about three hours once callbacks were factored in, I guess. I really didn't need the vacancy rate verified but there it is. The second in command tech said he was waiting for a response on a job interview he did yesterday, before he can respond to my call today. As a result and just in case, I called a second choice for the position. He will call me back on Friday. I can't push the river regardless of the deadlines Ottawa says we must meet. I want someone who can do the job well and who I can also trust. Big issues for me.
I should probably clarify that I didn't do the dishes yesterday because of all the lightning flashing up close around my home. Remember, I assisted with the care of burn patients, including those struck by lightning, when I worked at the hospital. There are calculated risks and then there are stupid risks. Nice to know that housework can actually be a dangerous risk. Other dumb things to try in the rain are mowing one's lawn or golfing. Those sort of things.
In the breaks in the weather I managed to set out a new rain barrel under the eaves downspout, so that's a bit of a water saving measure implemented. I had watched another of the Code Green environmental retrofit shows on Sunday, you see. It had jogged my memory about that tactic. As I worked outside - garbage day - I noted that the children next door had been at their worst again. Earlier in the afternoon I had heard them outside the front of the house - cursing at each other. I had removed the mail not long before and had heard the clanking of the lid not long after, but just assumed I had forgotten to close it. Guess not, sigh. Not long after I noticed broken branches from our tree, a hawthorn, in front of the main door scattered across the step. Glanced at the mailbox - it had been vandalized.
I did get more of the basement cleared out and that was a relief. I have to be careful because my asthma is triggered by dusting. Dusting is dangerous too don't you know. The problem is also the accumulated dust. Catch 22. I do a little at a time, but I've learned not to push myself to the point that I have to spend two days dealing with inflamed lungs and breathing problems.
A couple of people have called me again, asking if they really have to respond to the federal census that is occurring. That has nothing to do with the election administration I do, but a lot of people don't distinguish between levels of responsibility or government either. It is kind of like calling someone in the oil patch about insurance premiums, but whatever. The census department is having a lot of trouble getting the forms back. Their deadline was May 16. They also can't keep the people they hired to do the door to door work. No surprise there either. They don't pay well enough and the people who are resisting submitting the information can be rather cranky. A lot of people haven't filled out the long forms because they are worried about the US company that has the contract to collect the data. I received the short form and I know that the government already has all that information requested about me anyway. If I was one of the households who received the long form I think I'd be equally as concerned though. It isn't that anyone is doing anything wrong, but why do some statistics even need recording? The year I received the longer survey it asked about how much toilet paper we purchased in a year. Quite frankly I don't know and I don't care. When Abraham Lincoln was asked how long a man's legs should be, the story has it that he responded that they should be long enough to reach the ground. For how much toilet paper? Enough to do the job, don't you think? Dumb questions that are meaningless in the grand scheme of things I think and I don't know why money was wasted trying to tabulate something that likely wasn't accurately reported anyway. Ask me something that matters. Not much else to say today. Good night dear diary.
�
�
