00:26 - 07.11.06
Monday, Monday
There was a tap on my shoulder just after I sat down on the bus this morning. One of my favorite walking companions from several contracts ago. She had missed an earlier bus that goes through her community that usually gets her downtown. My gain. She was the one who was being harrassed by a permanent employee in her workplace. She has now been moved to a different department. She said three quarters of the staff were now contractors. That suggests to me that the company is about to divest or merge in a big way. She asked me about the last contract I worked. She knew how bad working conditions were for me there and I think was wondering if I had returned after the last event. She seemed to know a lot about the sale of that company that occurred just after I left when the election was called last year. After catching up on work news we chatted about family affairs until we reached the train platform. I need to be in the front car in order to have a chance of catching the connector bus and she needs to be in the rear car. We said our goodbyes and headed off for boarding the train. At the first downtown stop some of the people got on from the homeless shelter. One of the fellows was being really obnoxious to one of the young women. These days it is called sexual harrassment. There was a certain amount of tension in the car as a result but sometimes it is wiser not to intervene directly so that the jerk has no excuse to up the disturbance he is creating. I did notice a few of the males in the car stood up and headed toward that door where the incident was occurring as if as though they were planning to debark when they really just wanted to be close to the young lady in case she required help. All the females who needed to leave headed in the opposite direction so that they wouldn't become a target either.
Hopped off at my stop and headed off toward my next bus stop. The bus that brings the homeless families from whichever church they've spent the night was just letting off it's passengers for the day too. The one good thing for them is that today was much warmer that last week. The weather forecasters are having a very difficult time foretelling the weather this week because of the volatility of the jet stream. Our temperature and wind conditions are solely dependent on where that phenomenon sits. Today it was right over the city meaning we had fog all day and temperature variances of several degrees Celsius depending which part of the city you were in.
The day with my granddaughter was pleasnt. We played with her new toy that her parents had bought for her on the weekend. My granddaughter wasn't all that excited by it but that may change later. My granddaughter thought my attempts at yoga stretches in a supine postion were very funny. At least the downward facing dog asanas didn't hurt so much this week. I'm still not working through the entire tape but that is more because my granddaughter gets too fussy midway through. I am doing the first and last third of the tape so that is progress anyway. My daughter in law asked if I would have supper with them tonight and that was pleasant. Most of the discussion was on financial issues because of the big tax changes made in parliament last week. We also touched on family support issues as news about how the homeless population were going to be cared for for the balance of the winter was discussed. We have close to 4,000 souls who are struggling to survive living mostly outside. The city only has space to help about 3000 of those people and even those spaces are less than adequate safety wise. All sorts of solutions are being discussed but action is what is needed within the next week. Otherwise we are going to start hearing of deaths from freezing. This is a very wealthy province - there is no need for the numbers of people going without shelter all across the province. It isn't failure to plan; it is the choice of the provinccial government to hope that the average citizen won't notice or make an issue of it. I'm happy to say that the average citizen in this province has noticed, does care and doesn't mind if tax dollars are used to help out. Got home and watched Over the Hedge with my youngest. I think it was funny but quite honestly i was too tired to really pay close enough attention. However, most nights he works my youngest goes straight to bed after supper so the fact he wanted to spend time with me was the reason for seeing it tonight. The cats were all for it too since it meant our laps were available for cuddling up. Nice to know we are appreciated. Time for bed now though good night dear diary.
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