- Details
- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Miscellany
- Hits: 2582
Following the election results - amazing. Thought he was a goner, but his victory is exposing every crack and chink, every flaw and worm in the system. The people have spoken and they've voted not for evil and competent, but evil and interesting, entertaining, and just maybe, just maybe...
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0GFRcFm-aY
What have we come to that this is the better of any two options? The Republicans, so riddled with misgivings and remorse over a clearly bad choice, are going through nothing compared to what the Democrats are going through...time to say it, folks, the system is broke...
I look forward to their introspection. John Oliver, Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, SNL, anyone? This will be good. Prepare for an influx of quality entertainment, Canada...
- Details
- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Miscellany
- Hits: 2196
The nephew calls me up, after work, we go for drinks. He's seriously frayed, coming undone, the hours, too long, doesn't want the responsibility, he's adjusted the tip-outs to reflect the fact he's now working, no longer content with an even cut he's taking double what the others are getting. He's not putting up with it.
I knew it. It's not unfair, well, not entirely, some do more than others, but when I was working he sat on his chair on the phone the entire day and was an equal. As were the part-timers, or close enough, 75 or 80% cut minimum, but he's cut them back to 50%, and there's been some grumbling...doesn't matter, he'll fire them, get others, he's leaving anyways, told the owner, he's only got a couple of months left, he'll be leaving January 5th, he told him, there was a scene...
There's been a few scenes as of late, the owner, selling, waiting for "his price", but in this economy nobodies getting their price. And his selling, it's half-hearted, he's not ready for a retirement spent with his girlfriend, who would happily retire as well and move in with him to make his final days a living hell.
He's coming undone, M******, the new waiter, he's caught on, already threatened to leave, ask for news of the old Italian waiter, returned to Italy, he's good, off his anti-depressants, they were entirely related to the job, the nephew, he's telling me about his anxiety, unable to sleep, his own anti-depressants, he can't wait to leave, this is no life, no way to live, he wants friends again, to go for drinks and have fun, and I know what he means, but after 7 years there I've almost forgotten, now, trying to remember a life outside of work, it's hard...
- Details
- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Miscellany
- Hits: 1734
Packing, now, all the shit that won't be coming with me. Despite only being here a year, maybe 2, there's a lot of shit.
Treasures, new candlesticks, old candlesticks, chambersticks, inkwells in colors of pale violet to mercury blue, glass pens, ancient keys, dinosaur bones, knick-knacks, breakables, delicate curiosities, to return to the locker. Furniture, to be given away or placed in the alley (where it disappears suspiciously quick). Separate the shit I'm taking from the shit I'm leaving. This is not so hard, I'm still taking far more than I should, I need, better to be prepared, but whatever I leave will be what I miss most.
A shame, this packing of the treasures that have been acquired but barely enjoyed or appreciated, a good many of them are given away to appreciative audiences, I console myself, do this right in a year or two you can be unpacked. Properly unpacked. Looking at real estate - Kaslo, 10 acres, walking distance, under 100K. I could do this, better in the spring, of course, time to build my homestead over the summer, but this - 100K, this is not impossible...
I think I'm top of it, that I've thought of everything, but thoughts percolate to the surface, the need to fix the jeep, to clean, to make it to the consignment shop, slight commitments to art projects, paintings, other, a hundred tiny things that distract me...
Tomorrow, everything to the locker but the bed and what's coming with me. The bed, it goes on Sunday. I'm living the Zen, but at the moment, surrounded by a hundred semi-packed boxes of treasures and trifles I'm living the nightmare. Soon...
- Details
- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Miscellany
- Hits: 2149
Anticlimactic, this final leaving, Friday, slow, Saturday, while by all appearances busier, equally slow. Goodbye to one of the regulars, gruff, "Good Luck", hug, he was the philanthropist who occupied the private room, the owner told him I was leaving, he knew, but the immediacy, "Tonight's the last night" surprised him.
The new waiter, he's catching on, slowly, by no means the brightest lantern, trying to teach him how to cash out for a week, he doesn't understand, and when the rudiments of understanding cross his brow he disagrees...the nephew, he takes over the cash outs, he's not so bright but he's better than this...
...funny, you can see the dissent forming, power corrupts, absolute power absolutely, and I can see the division of tips now, joking with the expediter/hostess that she'll remember these days...
The new waiter, lacking a sense of humour, takes offense where none is given, bad breath, telling me that he plans as well to move to BC, about a place called "Trout Lake" where you'll be safe from the Armageddon that surely must be coming...he's one of those...
Joking with the nephew, need a saddle for the new waiter so he can ride him about the restaurant calling himself king and introducing the new talking donkey that will be taking their order, he laughs, he gets it, he'll miss me, the old talking donkey...and threatens, himself, to be leaving soon, no later than January...the world turns.
The end of the night, early for me, hand over the keys, goodbye to the staff, most are new, there's no connection, the nephew, the chef, the owner, the salad girl, they all have plans as well, and I doubt the restaurant will be here in 3 months, a year, but I'll pop back in for a visit. A rare thing, this hat-trick of leaving, twice on good terms, but there has to be more out there than this, and I am off...
- Details
- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Miscellany
- Hits: 2264
...She polled into the booth and looked at the candidates...
"Lethal Injection" vs "Slow and Painful Electrocution with a good possibility of Nuclear War".
There were a couple of others, but these were the ones she knew, knew the party, knew the logo..."incompetent strangulation" was one she didn't know, but there were always a few fringe candidates...
It wasn't really much of a choice...