Well last week’s blog got preempted by the Olympics. I was surprised with how much of the games I ended up watching. I had no interest going in, but once things started up, I found myself curious at first… And then drawn in as time went on. Well, drawn in with limits. I got sick to death of beach volleyball. That seemed to be the always constant of the games. And I ignored the opening and closing ceremonies. I just couldn’t be bothered with them. I also wasn’t a big fan of how the games were televised. It just felt to me as if the TV was little more than advertising for how you can watch the events via live streaming. There was more time spent giving us background on people and updates on where you can go to see this or that (be it what TV channel or what was available via apps) then there was spent on the actual events. In the end, I more or less stuck to CBC and ignored the Sportsnet and TSN coverage. It was just easier that way.
Speaking of sporting events, Sportsnet is ramping up the advertising for the upcoming World Cup of hockey. I simply couldn’t care less about it. It’s a money grab by the NHL and its players association. Twice before they’ve started up a World Cup, proclaiming how it’ll be a regular event and be the grand showcase of hockey. And twice before it fell by the wayside. A once a decade World Cup isn’t worth my time. This is just them looking for a cash cow so that they can pull the NHL out of Olympic hockey. I hope the final is the North American Young Guns (so stupid) vs the Rest of Europe (so very stupid) and nobody tunes in to watch.
A few blocks into my CPSIC return and it’s been going pretty smoothly on my body. I got used to the overnights again pretty quickly and the afternoon naps before those overnight shifts have been easy enough. I think my favourite part of being on the shift is how little I need to use an alarm to get up out of bed. Six out of eight days, I can just get up when I wake naturally. I can ease into the day. It’s so much better than going to bed knowing you must be up within six hours… Or five hours… Or whatever the number is as you lay in bed, hoping to soon fall asleep.
In exactly three weeks… From this very minute… I should be in the air somewhere near Montreal. I’m heading home again for the annual September trip. And this year there’ll even be a few days camping in Terra Nova Park. Haven’t done that in more than twenty years. I’ve come to really enjoy the September trips home. The city is running normally then. Not as touristy as a summer trip home. The weather is still usually pretty nice and it’s just generally a nice, relaxing time. I’ll probably be exhausted at the start of this trip. My flight is just before 10:00 in the morning and I work the night shift the night before. I think I’ll have just enough time to go home, shower and change, and then call the cab for the airport.
Accepted Garbage
Construction sites are the most disgusting spaces this side of a dump. In many ways, they are a dump actually. I’ve been walking through the new neighbourhood lately. Watching new homes going up and seeing the area slowly transform from woodland and fields to suburb.
At this stage of things, where some units are now being lived in while neighbour units are still construction sites… Where a new lawn still shows sod lines and, across the street, mounds of dirt remain as a constant source of neighbourhood dust… This is the stage where the garbage is most noticeable.
The dirt fringes of these new neighbourhoods become the dumping ground. Metal bands that once kept palates of bricks together now sit discarded among the rubble. Some of these bands have laid out here so long that they’ve begun to rust with the weather. Slabs of concrete, discarded fragments of wood beams, and left over pieces of PVC tubing also litter the dirt mounds.
But the garbage goes beyond this. We get to see the garbage of the construction workers themselves in these places. Which coffee company is winning the hearts of the workers? Count the paper cups and find out. So many Tim Horton’s and McDonalds coffee cups litter the edges of the site. There’s a Pepsi tin here… A Gatorade bottle there. An old construction helmet lays discarded as if it’s a reminder of a fallen soldier on the battleground.
So much is strewn around everywhere but I never have seen a cleanup crew. A water truck may slowly soak streets on a Friday afternoon as it tries to battle the dust of the area. But the garbage remains day after day… Week after week… And month after month.
I’m left to wonder what lays beneath my yard? My property was also once a dirt pit. Are there Pepsi tins beneath my lawn? Is there a discarded hammer head tucked in against my foundation? If you dig up my driveway, will there be a treasure of discarded 2x4 ends and nails strewn about?
I know there’s a lot of garbage created while a neighbourhood gets built. But shouldn’t there be some level of care taken by the workers? Is it so hard to spend the last ten minutes of the work day just cleaning up your discarded coffee cups? Shouldn’t old bits of PVC and those metal bands from the palates be tossed in a dumpster? And what of the fallen construction worker? That guy who left his helmet on the field of battle. Will there be a monument in his honour? And which house foundation sits silently and secretly… As his final resting place.
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