00:41 - 21.11.06
Jolts
It's been one of those days dear diary. There was an accident not far from the crosswalk where I was nearly hit twice last week. Three teens were broadsided by a jerk in a pickup truck. One is dead, one is fighting for his life and one will survive - at least that is the state of things at this point in time. There was also a shooting on a train platform early Monday morning that figured into the day too.
The preparation for the day began ok since I usually get all that I need done except dressing for outside the evening before. Less chance of forgetting something that way. Made it to my bus stop in plenty of time. A dealy further down the route meant that the earlier train that I have been catching was pulling away from the station as we climbed the stairs to the platform. That was fine though since I had met one of my friends from another contract on the bus and was busy catching up on news. As with the bus, the train experienced delays at a number of platforms. Two stopps ahead of my debarking point, the woman sitting next to me on the bench dropped her thermos cup as she was gathering up her other belongings. It landed on my coat dispersing some of it's contents as it did so. She apologized profusely while digging out a kleenex to offer as a tool to clean up the mess. In my head I was being thankful that it wasn't on a spot that would have contact with my skin and that the day was quite warm - for a November. It is very dangerous to walk around with wet clothing when it is a real winter's day you see. I told her not to worry because no real harm had been done and it was just one of those early morning snafus.
At my crosswalk to the connector bus stop I watched that bus whizz by. Great. Sometimes there is a second bus right after the first when traffic is snarled so I stood at the shelter hoping today was one of those days. Lo and behold another of that route's busses pulled up not five minutes later. Hopped on that bus and even got a window seat. The bubble burst just half a block from that train platform where the shooting had occurred earlier in the day. The driver stopped the bus and announced that everyone would have to get off since he was now going out of service. Geat again. At the stop I had been at to begin with I could have tried out one of the alternate routes I had researched. At this stop I was looking at police tape, scared looking fellow travellers - I don't think anyone including me had caught the story on the early morning news - and the fact that only the one bus stopped there. Captive to circumstances as it were. The next bus wasn't that long in coming but sunrise was definitely upon us by then. I arrived at the stop near my son's home 15 minutes later than usual. Given that I had heard the story about the one accident the evening before I was nervous about using that crosswalk again. Everything went fine though and when I arrived at my son's door I saw a little face peeking out looking for her Grandma. Her face lit into a smile so the earlier part of the day faded away at once. My son finished getting his gear together for his morning commute and headed out the door.
I made breakfast for both of us since we both were hungry this morning. My granddaughter had already had her first bottle. She seems to be in the midst of a growth spurt right now - having outgrown some clothes that fit her when I first started looking after her - so she requires more fuel to keep her going. It was apparent she had developed a cold and her teeth were sore too. Even so she was in a happy frame of mind while I fed her. By 9:30 she had a fever and was making it clear she wanted to go back to bed. She had scarfed down most of a second bottle by then. I gave her the minimum dose of her antifever meds just so she could sleep long enough to fight the virus that she had caught. Tucked her in and went on with the day. Read email called elections Canada back about an invoice they still hadn't paid. I had faxed a third approval back in June so wasn't very happy having to deal with it now. It is going to cost me supplier's goodwill and services if they aren't properly reimbursed. Had a nap too. I finally had to wake my granddaughter up in the early afternoon because I didn't want her to be awake all evening for my son and daughter in law. She was having trouble breathing because her nose was plugged so I cleaned that out and changed a very full diaper too. She was still showing very low energy although she was still a happy girl. My son had rented The Black Cauldron over the weekend so I popped that into their DVD player while I fed her some more pablum and then her bottle.
My daughter-in-law arrived home earlier than usual stating that she had taken one of the alternate busses just to see how the service was. She said it was much faster since it didn't travel through downtown. Instead it takes the inner city ring road dropping her off just steps from the house. Bonus. She said it had been a frustrating afternoon because of some accounting issues - their tellers hadn't balanced and no one seemed to be able to account for a sizeable amount of money that was missing. She is supposed to try and work that one out tomorrow morning. At that point she started asking questions about my son's former girlfriends and sort of lobbying me to talk to my son about some of his habits. She thinks he should drink more water for example. It's the one caution I had when I agreed to look after my grand-daughter. It is also obvious that they don't always agree on parenting techniques. Part of her talk today also seemed to be aimed at drawing me into the dispute. The one thing i don't want is to end up alienated because of being caught in the middle of any of their issues. Bad (adult) parenting 101.
As my daughter in law was talking the phone rang. It was my youngest. He had spent part of the day at my oldest son's home setting up their computer - new old hard drive - then had caught a ride with number three son on some of his errands. One of our heaters for inside had broken at the end of October so my youngest agreed to pick up a replacement with his brother providing cartage. When he plugged it in, however, the fuses blew and he found himself in partial darkness. To add to his woes, one set of our bad neighbours, he wasn't certain which set or if it was both, were out front of the house yelling and fighting. I told him to lock the door first and then to proceed to the electrical panel in the basement. He tried flipping some of the switches but couldn't figure out which would reactivate the electrical outlets that weren't working. He said that there was enough heat and light to be getting on with until I returned home so I asked him just to leave the panel alone but to maybe redistribute some of the electrical plugins that were all concentrated on one or two outlets. When I arrived home one neighbour came outside to check who was pulling up so my number two son waited until I was inside the house before he left. I checked out the electrical panel and found the offending fuse/switch after climbing up on to the dryer to reach it. My son thought that was entertaining in itself.
Checked my email after that and found a snotty note from the local rep and an update from the cousin's uncle about the hubby hurt in Afghanistan. Decided to ignore the local rep. Responded to one of my staff who had emailed me to update me on some of the work he had done then called my Dad. We chatted for about an hour as I reported the news from the cousin and gave him the stories of my son's various adventures this past month. Just finished cooking supper for my oldest and youngest sons now as my oldest walked in the door from his second job.
So now with the day set to rights - maybe - tomorrow will flow more smoothly. Good night dear diary.
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