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Written by: Rod Boyle

Category: Blog

Published: 22 April 2026

Hits: 62

And, the news a couple of weeks ago that my credit card had been compromised, a 2 week wait until another one arrives. I blame TEMU, from now on it will be Amazon if I need to do an online shop.

And the locker, planning a trip, I thought I had a key, turns out I don't, and so have to wait for one in the mail via my son.

I have to take some stuff to it - my Stormy Artwork, and take some from it - a proper sized parcel of buttons to sell.

After the boys visit I sorted junk out, some to the Antique shop, some 5 boxes of costume jewelry, cufflinks and scrap silver to a lady I know who wants to up-cycle it, the place, it's still crowded but the more I get rid of stuff the easier it is to let it go. Hopefully by the weekend I'll have my locker key and can begin the grand unboxing...

Things I noticed, my desk chair and a certain vintage pole-lamp, cast brass and copper, missing, the boy has probably adopted, the metal detector - gone - and where? It probably was lost in my car and got stolen by tweakers. They're thorough. Then there's a variety of smaller things, all of which could be in boxes - various antique telephones, mixed media props, some of these things no doubt got inadvertently donated to the CYPT props department, others will turn up in the grand unboxing. I was surprised to discover even more boxes of Stormy shit in the old locker, my god he was prolific, and when time permits I'll have to do some proper archiving of it all...

I've come to view possessions as trauma, the hold we allow our possessions, our past to have on the present and future creating a narrative of our life that we'd all do better to reject. 

***

Then there was the upstairs neighbour has gotten suddenly friendly and she's going on about how she's so done with Fred, and I take the opportunity to ask why it was I saw him leaving the police station the other day and she abruptly changes the topic...

***

Which brings us to today, a couple of late tables/deliveries the last couple of nights, otherwise work goes fine. A couple of the new girls have been disgruntled by the fact I argued to change the tipping options on the machine to 10-15-20%, in line with acceptable standards, I haven't noticed any change in my earnings but apparently they have. I find the whole predatory tipping thing reprehensible, and it was good there came a time to address it, but not everyone's a fan. Coincidentally (??) they are the same 2 waitresses that are perpetually trying to get out of shifts with imaginary ailments, sad boyfriends, etc, etc.

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Written by: Rod Boyle

Category: Blog

Published: 22 April 2026

Hits: 59

So, some 15 years with Virgin Mobile, pretty much like every relationship I've had the past 15 years proved a small masterpiece of gaslighting, manipulation and abuse.

Story as old as time. 

So my phone's been paid off for a couple or three years, an S22 Ultra, it's still good although as of late I've broken the screen and will need to look at getting a replacement. But - it's served it's purpose. 

Anyways, the past 3 years just paying for the plan, not the phone, $65.00 a month and unlimited text/call in Canada, 90 GB data. Rarely do I use that much data, but it's good to have just in case. 

Last phone bill I wondered why it was so high. It's $85 a month, and when did the price go up $20 a month and why was I not informed?

I'm annoyed. I get online and search for better deals. And, let me tell you, there are better deals. Fizz, Public Mobile, there are others. I sign up for Public Mobile, which promises me unlimited text/call in Canada, 80 GB data that rolls over the unused data to the next month *(!!!!!) - meaning that for all intents and purposes I have unlimited data, and - all this for - ready? $35 a month. 35 fucking dollars. Virgin was charging me eighty-five. 

Fuckers. 

It's a no brainer, sign me up, deal with the hassle of call centres, CSR's with no training in remedial English and accents that are too thick to interpret, to the deadness of AI operators that route your call accordingly, to the looking up of old contract numbers and e-sim cards, etc, etc, but I get it done. And - to put the icing on the cake I call Virgin just to ensure they've cancelled my account. 

Another thick accent, the CSR trying to persuade me that I'm on the BEST PLAN and I regretfully disagree and terminate the call.

So, on to Public Mobile. 

I get a saves call yesterday from Virgin Mobile, they leave a message, loyalty, rewards, they can give me a new plan, the standard unlimited and 100 GB a month for $30....

This just angers me - it means I've been overpaying $35-$50 a month for years now.

I'm not switching. I have no illusions about Public Mobile, Telus (their carrier), they're BS as well, but - BS in a different pile and Virgin - well...they had their chance and they blew it...

They call back again. Then - today; 4 times. I imagine the saves team gets a pretty big commission from every customer they bring back to the fold. 

I'm happy. This is a small victory, and a penny saved is a penny earned. And I have now a better bargaining chip when I go shopping for cell plans knowing what their margins are...

So - just a word to the wise out there - look at your phone plan, what you're paying, what you're getting, then shop around. You could be getting a much better deal...

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Written by: Rod Boyle

Category: Blog

Published: 17 April 2026

Hits: 73

Yesterday, first a trip to the Antique shop, part with a pile of things I'd unboxed - 100 pairs of cufflinks, more candlesticks, other things. The flat - as always - is extra-messy following the pilfering of the locker, if I make a single trip a week I could be done with it all in a year. 

That, at least, is the hope. 

Then a box of costume jewelry, some sales to a couple of the local consignment shops, very interested in the rest only business hasn't been so good.

List the big items, the Mennonite blanket chest, Teak Apothecary Chest online, my barbells prove to be the most popular and sell within minutes. And today a message on FB; someone committed to the Teak Apothecary Chest, meaning I'll have to get to the locker and find a way to free it from where we boxed it in.

This morning, again, another trip to the Antique shop. I've become his bread and butter.

****

So, that's it, things are selling, finally, and while the Antique shop promises me I'll have a huge payout it hasn't yet happened. 

Tomorrow, a trip to the locker to grab all the buttons. 100 litres of buttons, colour-sorted, and I suspect these as well will sell...

Which takes us to the moment. Work tonight, a text message this morning telling me that our head chef has left, a shame, I liked working with him, he was pretty chill and calm. Hopefully I see him around town. And now - back home, find a way to put away some of the mess I've made, take out some garbage, do a bit of painting and then to work...

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Written by: Rod Boyle

Category: Blog

Published: 16 April 2026

Hits: 86

...

Monday night, OK, Tuesday, a peaceful day only broken up by the owners coming in to the restaurant to have me try a half dozen new cocktails for our new menu.

Which, as they're mixing them at full strength highly discombobulates me, not a feeling I like at work.

In the evening the boy's arrived with a 14' truck filled with the last of my locker. So I need now to get another locker and we can unload it. 

Wednesday, outside cold, 1 degree, and after coffee in the morning we head down to get a locker at the junction - $170 per month. 8X10. And we look in the back of the truck and begin unloading. I still have a lot of stuff, and bad news, somewhen in the past couple of years the locker sprung a rooftop leak and clearly many of my boxes of books have suffered catastrophic losses. 

I find things that I might need and organize them beside the truck things I might be able to sell, drop off at the antique shop, and so we organize the new locker by what I might need (by front door) and what I can deal with later (in the back). The goal is to one day not have a locker. 

2 more boxes of candlesticks, 24, these to the antique dealer. art supplies out my yin-yang, cufflinks - 100's of sets, and the small box with a dozen of my favourites, luck would have it, was directly below the leak, all the gold-filled has turned green and with a few of them, later in the day, no amount of Brasso will repair.

Cloths, 100lbs, these we pile beside the van as well. And then it begins. The rain, snow, wind, it's the wintriest day of all winter on this, my moving day.

Everything is soaked, through and through, myself included. And those books not soaked in the original flood are quickly getting so in the gap between truck and locker.

3 hours later and it's done. Absolute shit-show of a miserable fucking day but at least it's done. Now a huge pile of stuff to be moved through my apartment on the way to the antique shop....

On a hunch we swing by the shop - he's usually open Thu-Sat, but for some reason he's there today.

This is the sole silver lining...

God damn! and so we unload the antiques...

Then home, and 4 or 5 loads of shit up to my apartment where I begin doing laundry - 4 loads; to clean all the locker clothes that were soaked in the deluge. Dinner and then the boy is off; there's a blizzard forecast for Calgary and he wants to get home before the snow, and I'm left polishing cufflinks, sorting through the boxes of shit I brought into the house, some treasures, for sure, but these treasures will later today find their way to the antique shop, for this lifetime at least I've had my fill. 4 loads of laundry later the closet's overwhelmed, and I'll need once again to do some sorting, take some shit to the thrift shop, but that can be done later. There's an inspection in May and I'd better be ready...