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- Written by: Rod Boyle
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It has been the most boring last couple of weeks imaginable.
Started a painting, but it goes like they always do in the beginning, and so I take a break from it.
Work, not busy, long hours pacing the restaurant. Extra long hours, as I requested extra shifts and they kindly obliged, I'm inundated with bills that need be addressed sooner rather than later. As of today I am 3 pay periods behind; they always pay but they don't always understand the "urgency" of regular payments.
The neighbour, well, upstairs one has been in her own world, "Kramer" pops by on occasion to get a cup of sugar, "borrow" some cash, get me to cook for her, I'd given her a couple of books, including a Bible, which apparently she lost/mislaid so she pops around to indulge in a bit of "Bibliomancy", wherein you open to a random page and put your finger on a verse and try and divine some meaning in it.
My god there are better dates.
Autumn, here already, days bright, evenings crisp and cool, no need of the AC or the heater, a beautiful time of the year that would be even better if I had wheels, a destination, but first I need cash and when the bills are paid I can worry about this.
This winter, probably long, I need another job, something to keep my busy, keep the bills at bay, something that I can use to save up for the long overdue jeep, take some time off of work and get into the country, out of the country, something, anything, my life has grown far too boring...
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Blog
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So I'm behind on a few bills and have been picking up extra shifts at work.
I hate this, but here we are and here we go. If I want next summer not to be the write-off this summer was I have to do it.
Work, this weekend, slow, despite the "Road Kings" car show in town, we need more publicity, a better PR strategy. I was worried we'd be busy, not busy-busy but that run-off-your-feet sort of panic, never caught up, never on your game or caught up.
It never happened.
Long days that I brought upon myself, Monday, Thursday, Friday-Saturday doubles, Sunday, slow, 3 tables, a few to-go and delivery orders.
September, and while the tips have dried up I need the hours, need the jeep that will follow, need the time off that has to be paid for while I'm off putzing around in the bush, and this is the beginning...
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
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This week Tuesday off and I'm broke as F***, the Tuesday off because I have a Doctor's appointment that effectively takes up my entire day, first stop is to the used bookstore with another 30 lbs or 3 feet of books which nets me a total of $23.00.
I really should get into the used book business. I hate parting with them, as that begs a reliance on the internet, and - well, we know that at some point in the not too distant future things are going to go sideways and the world will need to be rebuilt.
But there's no place for them in the flat, the place already cramped with boxes and things that can't seem to find a place, slowly slowly letting go of them all.
The twenty-three dollars, choices, choices, it's burning a hole in my pocket, Vodka, Cigarettes or Groceries?
I know what the Doctor would say, and my fridge is bare, but I settle on Vodka.
***
The Doctors Encouraging, results much better, heart rate steady, blood pressure normal, I spent the morning drinking a tea of my own devising, cinnamon, ginger, tumric sweetened with honey, my own quack-medical holistic approach, which probably helped fudge the BP, but - really, time to shed a few bad habits and acquire good ones.
He updates my prescription and I think to refill it - but I've only $23 and that's earmarked for something else...
I read the labels, some of them need to be taken with food.
These meds, I find out, I'll be on them for eternity. "Until Death does us part".
Then back down the long flight of stairs, past a man harvesting apples, he gives me a couple and I think to myself "An apple a day..." but - really, I don't like apples or doctors, even though they've been nothing but kind. What really annoys me is that this was entirely avoidable...
A big pile of bear scat on one of the landings, which explains the man harvesting his apples. This is a popular spot with the wildlife. Step around.
***
On that note, faced with the imminent possibility of my own demise I'm speculating on which next of my neighbours will go first. I, while I present as healthy need to get even healthier and mine own can not be ruled out but I have a few things to sort out first. The death pool - barring surprise, I have 4 top picks. The hard-living tenants of the building, or just plain old, you can see it in their faces, and of those 4 two have been strangely absent the past couple of weeks...
***
The day degenerates, the neighbour pops over, wants company that she doesn't provide, just wants out of her flat, brings her laptop over and makes a space on the counter for herself, sets up, and for this I need another drink, she has no conversational ability, just sits withdrawn into herself, and unable to start or carry on a conversation, and I'm ill inclined to, we each sit in our own little worlds ...
***
Today, now two paydays behind and out of cigarettes and vodka and food I text the owner. One cheque comes in and I do the smart thing, pick up my prescription, pay my credit card, pick up a very few groceries, a scrap of canvas and I'm once again broke. The tip cheque, all it would do is pay a few more bills, it's behind, but I hate begging to get paid, even when it's dire.
***
I've been interviewing staff, 2 girls last week. I get them to write out their availability. No sooner does the schedule come out with their training shifts on it than they both complain they can't work them. We worked around their availability and they still can't be bothered to show up. Fucking staffing in the Kootenays.
I'm picking up shifts left right and centre until I sort out these bills...
And, now, at the library, only $20 left in the bank and once again I have some choices...
The pills, checking the fridge, there is no food and do I take them or not? What would happen if I took a pill without food? Isn't a pill "Food" anyways? I mean...
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
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Working extra shifts this week, a little drowned in debt and this needs to be immediately addressed.
Work, busy, the last blaze of summer through the long weekend and then into ordinary time.
Thursday, some seniors in, one of them an older gentleman and I hear it mentioned that he's 100 years old. And yes, he's old, but lucid, conversational, mobile, fit, still downhill skis, and I'm so chuffed to have met him and I suspect that my enthusing over his remarkable condition makes him a little shy, he blushes, shrugs it off, but I've never in my life met someone doing so well at 100. Most seniors I've met start falling apart in their 80's, even earlier, and here he is up dancing a jig...
***
After work, home, outside having the prohibited fag and I'm remarkably impressed, trying to share with a couple of the neighbours the tale of the Centenarian, only Ben has his own tale. That they were watching a skunk walking down in the shadows when out from a bush stepped a homeless person, who immediately "Yeets" the skunk up by his tail and walks back into the bushes. The smell is still strong, but clearly this person didn't care, whether he was foraging and the skunk ended up being eaten, or whether he was just another crackhead doing crackhead shit is unknown...
***
Friday, busy, the waitress I'm working with has gotten another job, has to start at 7:30, has gotta be out of the restaurant by 7:00, it's not so busy she can't leave. But Saturday is busy, and when she dashes out the door she leaves the place a mess, not having set or bussed a single one of her tables, no side duties, and I've got a table of 11, 6, 7, 4, 2, 2, and they keep coming and I'm not keeping up; damn pissed at her but she won't be around for much longer, and I know - where she's going, the other job - well, they turn over staff like toilet paper, use a couple of times, throw away, find another, the standing order, perpetually hiring, and this girl, well, we put up with as many sicknesses and absences that others will not...
Wait and see. We'll already interviewing her replacement.
***
This morning, up and at-em, dishes, done, bed, made, kitchen floor, swept, hall, swept, pillowcases and sheets changed, my place is a mess, too much stuff by far, and for every 20 books I take to the bookstore I find 1 that I'm not sure I've read, or want to reread, and my desk is cluttered to the max, towers of books, shit that needs to be dealt with but just not yet, not right now, I sort a couple of boxes, nope, all the boxes here are full of books or old writings and empty journals. There's only so far I can go.
***
And the reason I'm being so productive is that I've been assigned a miniseries to watch, and have begun it, and while it's excellent (very well done) I'm loathing the story. I have no points of reference to any of these people, it's a British production, filled with characters that while true-to-life I despise and every episode is like sticking a needle in my eyes, brain, it's visceral in the worst of ways and yet - since I so frequently recommend films and series to others, I'm on the hook to watch this.
But it's a chore, not a pleasure, and we'll see what the payoff is...
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
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Meanwhile, Tuesday, day off, a few chores done before I flushed it down the toilet.
Books, done, I went light, big books, "The Complete Charles Dickens..." heavy to carry, light on the cash. But they took them.
An email from a local restaurant, I'm due a free Pho, "won", I downloaded their app and then never used it, probably a win-back on their promotions front. So - for lunch, Pho it is. Pho is good. And after Pho I get an email promising me a free dessert, but that will have to wait until next week.
Neighbour, "Kramer" needs a hundred dollars to invest in her online crypto scheming, she'll e-transfer me the money. "Sure" I say and duty obliged wait for the transfer. It's not forthcoming. She comes over and I am a little sauced and confrontational and mention it. No money arrives. Now - not a big deal, I never lend money (anymore, not since Sam at Da Guido's) with the expectation of return, but this woman has perverted the word "borrow" to such an extent I feel obliged to correct her.
She's not pleased. She's down thousands borrowing from the Bank of Rod, and Rod's been a little too lax in collecting. Bank of Rod owes the Bank of Alberta thousands due to Rod's easy lending policies. Bank of Rod is exhausted.
Neighbour is not happy.
Fortunately she walks out before things get ugly. They were already ugly, just getting more so, I hate dealing with money, find it vulgar, as must she, but sometimes things have to be said.
Today, work, another shift picked up, I have bills, need to work more so neighbours can "borrow" more, and bills of my own long overdue, so - Hi-Ho, Hi-Ho...