Corner of Bourbon & Division

The conclave has ended, and we now have the first American Pope in history. Of course, it's still an old white dude, so not much has changed, but this guy seems to be a moderately controversial pick. I was very casually following the papal election, and I don't recall his name being among the front runners, but I may have just missed it. Leo XIV, as he will now be known, is comparatively young at 69, which means we could easily have him as the Pope for the next two decades or more.

Right now I've been seeing a lot of conflicting information about him and where he stands on the political spectrum. It's alleged that he shielded many of the child molesters during the many years of scandals, which is disappointing in the extreme if it turns out to be the case. On the other hand, he appears to have been critical of Trump and Vance, and certainly the American right-wingers have been screeching about his being a Marxist, so that has to be a plus.

I don't know, I guess time will tell what sort of Pope he will be.

I have received an expression of interest from a private company who wants me to come be a dispatcher for them. They appear to be a purveyor of temporary/mobile business spaces, anything from office trailers to fences to giant expo spaces. It seems interesting enough, and it's a decently big company. Since there's a decent chance my contract won't be renewed next year, I would be silly not to consider opportunities coming my way. The pay is so-so: their highest pay echelon is the minimum of my current salary, so I'd be staying at the same level pretty much permanently unless I move up in the company, and there's no shift differentials or overtime. It's also full-time in-office work, albeit not shift work, which means I'd be in Ottawa five days a week from 8 to 4 or 9 to 5 or whatever, which is not my favourite thing. I like shift work better than regular office hours for the flexibility. I do think there's some room to negotiate my benefits and possibly even my salary, and I might be able to finagle some better office hours (maybe a flexible work week, or at least a 7-3 day). The office is considerably closer to my house (I'd be shaving 15-20 minutes off my commute), which is a plus as well.

So I've told the guy who reached out that I'm interested in finding out more, and we'll see how it goes from there. There's a risk in moving to the private sector, but there's also a risk in staying where I am when there's very little guarantee that I'll have a job in a year's time. The government is cutting costs wherever it can, and I've had very little luck in even finding positions I can apply to. So, yeah, we shall see. I am not going to close the door on this until I've investigated it thoroughly.