Making It Up As I Go Along #369

MONDAY...
— Work is a course today... so I’m in for 8:00 instead of 6:00. Nice day.
— We win our first slow pitch game. 15-8... good stuff although I make a stupid error in the last inning.

TUESDAY...
— More course followed by two hours of CPSIC work. So sort of a slow, dull day followed by two hours of being busy.
— A few groceries on the way home.

WEDNESDAY...
— Long day of the course. Then home after some running around with Nick and Steve. Sheila and Nicole come over for the hockey game and pizza. Dud game with Pittsburgh winning 6-2.

THURSDAY...
— This course must soon end. My abilities to focus is almost gone.
— Small nap once home... a little review... and off the fastpitch for 9:00. I’m not pleased with my play. Two plays at SS that I should have handled better and runs scored in those innings that wouldn’t have had I made the plays. We lose 6-3. I go 1 for 3 at bat with a double.

FRIDAY...
— Tired of the course. It’s been interesting but draining as well... and I’m not used to hanging out with the same 25 people each day.
— Traffic is another thing driving me crazy. I’m going to the office and leaving in peak traffic times. From the time I leave today after course, getting to the bank and grocery store then home... it takes me about an hour and a half. That’s too many people in the way and too much traffic on the road to go 20 km, stop at the bank, and get five or six things at the store in an hour and a half. Blah.
— Relax tonight. Watch a movie and nap a little.

SATURDAY...
— Rainy day means I’m in the house catching up on shows I recorded on the PVR.

SUNDAY...
— There is no such thing as a good toilet paper commercial. They are all stupid.
— Go to Star Trek with Sheila and Nicole. Fun movie... I like it.
— Conservative Party have begun taking shots at Ignatieff. And it’s hilariously bad... “just visiting”... ba ha ha! You know there’s no ammunition when the angle is “this guy isn’t really a Canadian.” So now Harper has decided Mulroney isn’t a Conservative and Ignatieff isn’t Canadian. A fine leader Stevey Harper makes.

MONDAY...
— Holiday Monday. Watch some baseball and TV... go meet Laura, Janice and Cara Lea for supper and drinks.
— Ball game after that. Slow pitch. We lose even though I thought we were ahead going into the last inning. Blah.


Gum Wrapper Taunting
Too many people in my world last week. Just too many.

I’ve become used to the CPSIC way of life. That is to say, I’m driving to work with few others on the road and working in a section with only a few others. The night shift has only two to four people in the building for much of the time, and downtime has me going out doing things when most others are at work.

So last week was difficult for me. In on a course for five straight days. Each morning having to drive in the heat of the traffic. Yes the extra two hours of morning sleep were welcomed but then, each day, the drive in would take more than a half an hour.

Ottawa traffic reminds me of caravans of camels wandering through the desert. A long line of vehicles slowly roping through the concrete wasteland which ribbons through the city. For much of the trip, you continue one looking at the back end of the same car the whole way.

It can be most tiresome to look out my windshield at the silly personalized licence plate. To see the bobbing head of the driver as they continuously prob their glove compartment or middle consol... seeing them forget that red lights do eventually turn green and watching them pull away at the last second, leaving me at the next red when I should be up there, further ahead in my trek across the land.

But never fear, the Ottawa morning caravan brings you back behind the head bobber once again, for the journey is far and, like those desert camels, the cars must pace themselves... slowly meandering along the way.

On this past week, I had to deal with these traffic caravans twice a day, all five days. The CPSIC shift gives no more than two trips through such traffic. Oh how I missed the avoidance of others on the roads of the city.

All five days this week, I also sat with many others. Used to sustained contact with no more than five or six, suddenly I’ve been thrust into a world of twenty-five... one of whom (the course instructor) would never cease to talk. Hours upon hours of another’s voice. It reverberates through my brain still.

And once day two ended, my internal clock was telling me I was off for the next twenty-four hours. Time to stay up late and get into night mode. But day three came and I had to still get up early... and still sloth my way through the asphalt camel train... and arrive to all those people still there, bouncing into my personal space and still talking of those things that slip out of the brain soon after they entered. I have had a week of forgotten socializing.

Day four came and I felt it should be my last. All work weeks are now four days long. Yet still I went home that night, dragging my way behind another head bobbing forgetful camel rider. A gum wrapper flicked from their slightly lowered window slaps off my windshield. They taunt me for being constantly twenty feet in front of me on this slug’s race home. And through this all, I still must endure a fifth day. Five days. Oh how a sick day would be a welcomed change rather than go through this yet again. But a sick day would make the course irrelevant, and the previous four days sacrifice... worthless.

Funny how it works. I worked an extra day this past week, yet was actually at work for eight fewer hours than normal. And the lighter work load made me more tired. For a full day after the week was over, I had only the energy to climb out of bed and to the sofa.

Tomorrow brings back the CPSIC schedule. Back to the life I’ve come to know. Where the camels upon the highways will be hours behind, and I’ll be galloping the trail unimpeded like a stallion... no gum wrappers to taunt me. Tomorrow’s race to work will not be close... sweet victory.