The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
May. 31st, 2014 04:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mousmeNot necessarily in that order. Come to think of it, when all the craziness has died down I may well do a Sergio Leone rewatch. It's been a while since I enjoyed a good Spaghetti Western. :)
My week continues to be busy. I had a very long day at work yesterday. My coworker is back at work, but only four hours a day, Monday to Friday. To be frank, he may as well not be here. He tends to come in a little late, putzes around for a while, takes a coffee break, putzes around some more, goes to lunch, and then goes home. I find it a lot more stressful when he's here than when he's not, because I'm still doing all the work, but everyone assumes that we're two people working and so they tend to pile more work on me. I'd rather he just stayed home or worked on the "special project" that my boss invented to keep him busy when we're at full staff. It's incredibly frustrating and, like I said, also quite stressful.
As I'd promised myself, I went to Costco after work last night in order to grab a few essentials and also to put gas in the car (I love the lower gas prices at Costco: the membership has paid for itself a hundred times over in gas alone). As soon as I'd stepped through the doors and navigated down the first aisle, I realised that I had made a terrible mistake. I keep forgetting that even though it was a work night for me, for everyone else it was Friday night. The place was packed with people and teeming with children of various ages running around and trying, it seemed, to get steamrollered by one of the giant Costco shopping carts--didn't seem to matter which cart, either. Everywhere I turned there were people stopped with their carts positioned perfectly to prevent anyone from passing them on either side, and invariably these people were texting or talking on their cell phones. When they weren't engaging in social media, they often turned their carts so they'd be perpendicular to the aisles while they gazed earnestly at the contents of the shelves without ever picking something up to place in their carts.
I did manage to get out of there without murdering anyone, but it was a close thing. There was a bonus though, as I discovered that someone had forgotten their carton of 18 eggs in their cart when I went to bring mine back. I looked around for their owner, as the carton was still cold to the touch, but no one laid claim to it. So I took it home with me. Bonus eggs! \o/
The better news than my Friday night Costco frustrations is that I've been in touch with the contractor for the fence (again), who helped me clear up a problem we were having with the type of fence I had asked for. It turns out that the model we'd agreed upon ("victorienne") is no longer being made, but the model that matches the neighbours' fences (amusingly, "bon voisin") is slightly more expensive. Note that, to the untrained eye, they are identical. To the trained eye I'm sure they are vastly, vastly different. :P Anyway, the guy told me that he would not modify the original price I was quoted, so yay! If all goes well, there should be a fence up within three weeks. As far as I know it's a one-day job, so I'm hoping they get to it sooner rather than later.
I also got an appointment with (yet another) contractor do come and install flooring in the basement. He's going to come by next Thursday and take a look at the work that needs to be done, which is great. I'm on a pretty tight schedule these days (and an even tighter budget, but that's another kettle of fish), so the sooner we can get this show on the road, the better. Of course, it means I'll have to do a big push on getting the basement clean and free of all smell of cat (I love my kitties, I do, but man do they generate a lot of extra work sometimes!), but if I can get this all done before the end of June it will be fantastic. There's a lot of work to do and not a lot of time, especially since I'm gone about 2/3 of the time these days.
The ugly part of the news is that the dry throat from yesterday has decided to become a chest cold, complete with laryngitis. My voice is coming and going today, making me alternate between a hoarse phone-sex voice and highly undignified squeaking, with the occasional foray into no-sound-at-all. It's not too bad yet, and so I'm hoping it will stay at the current levels of suck as opposed to getting exponentially worse. I absolutely do not have the luxury of being sick right now, so regardless I'm going to have to carry on as if I'm not. It would, therefore, be really nice if this turned out to be just a mild cold. On the plus side, a single dose of Nyquil knocked me out for nearly seven hours last night, so I can't complain too much (except for how I overslept and was nearly late for work this morning). I have armed myself with lozenges and tea and am attempting to drown the virus into oblivion. :P
The plan for this week is to work until Wednesday morning, then zip back into town, stop at Réno Dépot in order to pay for the new fence so work can start ASAP, and then spend Wednesday evening and all of Thursday scrubbing the bejeezus out of the basement. If the weather permits, Friday and Saturday will be spent finally finishing up the Paving Slab Project That Would Not Die, as well as weeding all the flower beds and maybe actually planting something to make the garden look pretty for the rest of the summer. I'm hoping to find some low-maintenance annuals that won't require much attention, since I won't be home much to water or tend them this summer.
Next Sunday is my eldest uncle's 70th birthday, so I have to make an appearance at the family party at my cousin's place, even though I don't particularly care for any of my father's family, to be perfectly honest. We have nothing in common except a familial bond, and they have repeatedly been rude to both me and my parents while at the same time expecting us to host Christmas and Easter lunches every year ever since I was one year old (after my paternal grandmother passed away). I might add that on those occasions they never once offered to contribute so much as a salad, expecting my parents to provide a meal for 12+ people each time entirely on their own dime. Unfortunately for me, my father is really attached to his family, and because I love him I am willing to put on my game face and go for a few hours to put up with my cousin showing off how wealthy she and her husband are. For the record, I don't care how much money other people have, but I've inherited my mother's distaste for people who feel the need to flaunt their cash in ostentatious displays of 60-inch TVs in every room and who can tell you exactly what everything in their house cost down to the last dime, as if having a $75,000 kitchen somehow makes you a better person than everyone else. Does that make me a snob? Probably. Do I care? No. In this one instance, I agree with my mother that it's just vulgar to do that. Then, of course, there's the entire family's propensity to drink too much and then trot out grievances that are now well over fifty years old, and get maudlin and even drunker, and then get belligerent. And let's not forget everyone's favourite misogynistic (and misanthropic and racist, as he believes in hating everyone for different reasons) uncle, who will no doubt say something so offensive it'll make my blood boil. Still, I am my mother's daughter, and I can socialise politely with the best of them, and that is precisely what I intend to do.
And after that I'll be heading directly to work after the party, ready for a short week of only four shifts instead of the usual five.
My week continues to be busy. I had a very long day at work yesterday. My coworker is back at work, but only four hours a day, Monday to Friday. To be frank, he may as well not be here. He tends to come in a little late, putzes around for a while, takes a coffee break, putzes around some more, goes to lunch, and then goes home. I find it a lot more stressful when he's here than when he's not, because I'm still doing all the work, but everyone assumes that we're two people working and so they tend to pile more work on me. I'd rather he just stayed home or worked on the "special project" that my boss invented to keep him busy when we're at full staff. It's incredibly frustrating and, like I said, also quite stressful.
As I'd promised myself, I went to Costco after work last night in order to grab a few essentials and also to put gas in the car (I love the lower gas prices at Costco: the membership has paid for itself a hundred times over in gas alone). As soon as I'd stepped through the doors and navigated down the first aisle, I realised that I had made a terrible mistake. I keep forgetting that even though it was a work night for me, for everyone else it was Friday night. The place was packed with people and teeming with children of various ages running around and trying, it seemed, to get steamrollered by one of the giant Costco shopping carts--didn't seem to matter which cart, either. Everywhere I turned there were people stopped with their carts positioned perfectly to prevent anyone from passing them on either side, and invariably these people were texting or talking on their cell phones. When they weren't engaging in social media, they often turned their carts so they'd be perpendicular to the aisles while they gazed earnestly at the contents of the shelves without ever picking something up to place in their carts.
I did manage to get out of there without murdering anyone, but it was a close thing. There was a bonus though, as I discovered that someone had forgotten their carton of 18 eggs in their cart when I went to bring mine back. I looked around for their owner, as the carton was still cold to the touch, but no one laid claim to it. So I took it home with me. Bonus eggs! \o/
The better news than my Friday night Costco frustrations is that I've been in touch with the contractor for the fence (again), who helped me clear up a problem we were having with the type of fence I had asked for. It turns out that the model we'd agreed upon ("victorienne") is no longer being made, but the model that matches the neighbours' fences (amusingly, "bon voisin") is slightly more expensive. Note that, to the untrained eye, they are identical. To the trained eye I'm sure they are vastly, vastly different. :P Anyway, the guy told me that he would not modify the original price I was quoted, so yay! If all goes well, there should be a fence up within three weeks. As far as I know it's a one-day job, so I'm hoping they get to it sooner rather than later.
I also got an appointment with (yet another) contractor do come and install flooring in the basement. He's going to come by next Thursday and take a look at the work that needs to be done, which is great. I'm on a pretty tight schedule these days (and an even tighter budget, but that's another kettle of fish), so the sooner we can get this show on the road, the better. Of course, it means I'll have to do a big push on getting the basement clean and free of all smell of cat (I love my kitties, I do, but man do they generate a lot of extra work sometimes!), but if I can get this all done before the end of June it will be fantastic. There's a lot of work to do and not a lot of time, especially since I'm gone about 2/3 of the time these days.
The ugly part of the news is that the dry throat from yesterday has decided to become a chest cold, complete with laryngitis. My voice is coming and going today, making me alternate between a hoarse phone-sex voice and highly undignified squeaking, with the occasional foray into no-sound-at-all. It's not too bad yet, and so I'm hoping it will stay at the current levels of suck as opposed to getting exponentially worse. I absolutely do not have the luxury of being sick right now, so regardless I'm going to have to carry on as if I'm not. It would, therefore, be really nice if this turned out to be just a mild cold. On the plus side, a single dose of Nyquil knocked me out for nearly seven hours last night, so I can't complain too much (except for how I overslept and was nearly late for work this morning). I have armed myself with lozenges and tea and am attempting to drown the virus into oblivion. :P
The plan for this week is to work until Wednesday morning, then zip back into town, stop at Réno Dépot in order to pay for the new fence so work can start ASAP, and then spend Wednesday evening and all of Thursday scrubbing the bejeezus out of the basement. If the weather permits, Friday and Saturday will be spent finally finishing up the Paving Slab Project That Would Not Die, as well as weeding all the flower beds and maybe actually planting something to make the garden look pretty for the rest of the summer. I'm hoping to find some low-maintenance annuals that won't require much attention, since I won't be home much to water or tend them this summer.
Next Sunday is my eldest uncle's 70th birthday, so I have to make an appearance at the family party at my cousin's place, even though I don't particularly care for any of my father's family, to be perfectly honest. We have nothing in common except a familial bond, and they have repeatedly been rude to both me and my parents while at the same time expecting us to host Christmas and Easter lunches every year ever since I was one year old (after my paternal grandmother passed away). I might add that on those occasions they never once offered to contribute so much as a salad, expecting my parents to provide a meal for 12+ people each time entirely on their own dime. Unfortunately for me, my father is really attached to his family, and because I love him I am willing to put on my game face and go for a few hours to put up with my cousin showing off how wealthy she and her husband are. For the record, I don't care how much money other people have, but I've inherited my mother's distaste for people who feel the need to flaunt their cash in ostentatious displays of 60-inch TVs in every room and who can tell you exactly what everything in their house cost down to the last dime, as if having a $75,000 kitchen somehow makes you a better person than everyone else. Does that make me a snob? Probably. Do I care? No. In this one instance, I agree with my mother that it's just vulgar to do that. Then, of course, there's the entire family's propensity to drink too much and then trot out grievances that are now well over fifty years old, and get maudlin and even drunker, and then get belligerent. And let's not forget everyone's favourite misogynistic (and misanthropic and racist, as he believes in hating everyone for different reasons) uncle, who will no doubt say something so offensive it'll make my blood boil. Still, I am my mother's daughter, and I can socialise politely with the best of them, and that is precisely what I intend to do.
And after that I'll be heading directly to work after the party, ready for a short week of only four shifts instead of the usual five.
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Date: 2014-06-01 02:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-06-01 05:08 pm (UTC)