23:55 - 10.11.06
buss ted
It took me until about 10 in the am today to warm up from yesterday's morning commute. You see the late night snow fall from the previous evening turned into freezing rain. Ice was the order of the day, with temperatures dropping dramatically too. I was already tired because of the late night the day before and that virus that my granddaughter and I seemed to have shared. The first bus from my community was on time. Arrived at the train station and that was ok too. Then things went sideways. First, some passengers decided it would be fun to stop the doors from closing once everyone else had boarded. The train can't move if they are open, of course. The driver finally dealt with the miscreants when it was clear that they were being obstructive to our travel, rather than just being courteous to late arrivals to the platform. It was probably just school kids being thoughtless, but those delays mean that anyone having to catch a connector bus downtown wouldn't likely make it. Then at the second to last stop on the route, the power on the train went out. It is still very dark now when we travel into downtown in the mornings. When the lights on the train went out where we were located in the river valley, it was as though we had been transported to the middle of a mountain retreat. Personally I'd love to have that experience, but not during the morning commute. The outage didn't last long, but as you can guess, I didn't manage to catch my connector bus to my son's home. The wait for the next one was half an hour long. I stood at the bus shelter getting progressively colder, even though I was dressed adequately for a regular commute. Ice storms aren't part of a regular commute. Over that length of time, with a cold wind blowing, I could feel my feet starting to go numb. Bad sign. The bus arrived just as I was starting to really worry about my ability to withstand much more outdoor time. The thing that kept me calm was thinking about all the homeless people that had slept outside that night. No room at the inn. The homeless shelters were turning people away too. I didn't feel as though I had any right to complain by comparison.
My son was waiting when I arrived, but had expected the delay based on my experiences last week when it was cold. He and my granddaughter seemed much healthier than they had appeared the days before. He shoveled their and the neighbour's walk before leaving for the morning to avoid having to deal with sheet ice on the pavement when he returned later in the day. My daughter-in-law had called to tell him about her experience with a homeless person on transit on her way to work just before I arrived. It was just like the other day when one of the aggressive ones was picking on that young woman on my train. He had decided that my daughter-in-law would be a good target. My daughter-in-law decided she wasn't having any of that. He started to try and push her over as she walked away from him toward the crosswalk. She made a really public scene about it. They were directly in front of the main police station, so my guess is that the male was trying to get arrested so he could have a warm cell as accommodation. It is a common strategy for some of the single people who are homeless, since they are last to be housed. They feel that at least that way they will have a warm place to sleep and regular meals. Lock up in jails per person here costs about $80,000 per year. There has to be a less dangerous, destructive and cheaper way of addressing the homeless problem.
The day yesterday was enjoyable. My granddaughter and I watched Alice In Wonderland again, read more of the Harry Potter story and we sang a lot as we played with her toys. Her parents had gone toy shopping on the previous weekend to celebrate my daughter-in-law's new job. I think they enjoy that new purchase even more than my granddaughter, who is still a bit overwhelmed by all the magical things her new toy can do. I managed to work through my complete yoga tape as well. My grandaughter liked Namaste best, because to her it seemed as though we were playing peekaboo - one of her favorite games at the moment. What I liked best is that I could feel some energy and flexibility returning to my spine. Downward facing dog doesn't hurt any more, although I admit my technique isn't all that pretty yet. There was some leftover seafood pilaf from the night before so that did warm me a bit along with the exercise, but I was still having chills even by the time my son drove me home last night.
This morning I still felt cold in the core of my body, so I climbed into the shower after I got my youngest off to work and just stood under the shower until all the hot water was gone. Finally felt normal. The cats were pleased because I was home for the day. They followed me everywhere as I did housework and laundry. Spent some time dealing with the one staff member for the next election too. That Mercury retrograde seemed to mess up communication with all three of the outreach team in different ways. I think we've finally worked out all the misunderstandings as of supper hour tonight. I get the last of their spreadsheets tomorrow, so I'm hoping maybe I can wrap that assignment up then. I've already put in about double the hours I was allotted to do the work, but there is no point in arguing about it with head office. I couldn't have predicted the weirdness of the mix-ups with the young people. The fact that each of them would require extensive coaching wasn't factored into EC's estimates of time on task. They assume, I think, that there is an unlimited pool of retired or non-waged people to draw from, who wouldn't mind contributing free labour to the project but that isn't so in this city. I think I'm lucky that these three are willing to make a commitment to the task even without knowing when they might be called into action.
Anyway time for bed dear diary. Good night.
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