20 February 2007

Vroom!

I have a truck now. Look! Look!




It's a 1999 Dodge Dakota Club Cab 4x4 with the Sport appearance package, which means it's got aggressive tires and a slightly higher suspension than some of the other 4x4 Dakotas I've seen (It's used, don't pester me about it being a specific option you can choose and blah blah blah.).

Because of the light dusting of snow we got last night, the driveway here was just a little bit slippery, so I had to switch it from 2wd to 4wd (seriously. no weight in the back plus a slippy inclined drive equals no chance in hell of getting up it). The only tricky part about backing it up in the driveway is the neightbours who park their SUV with the passenger side wheels on our side of the drive. It's been a minor point of contention ever since my gf got her car, but normally the drive is long enough to handle that, since they park further up. One of these days, they're going to park too far over, and I'm going to scrape them, and it'll be their fault for not giving me enough room.

See what I mean? (Okay, you can't see it very well, and now it's too dark to take a good pic of it, but there's about 14 inches between my truck and their SUV)


Aside from all that, the lack of normal work hasn't kept me from making money. No, I'm not doing anything illegal, I'm just helping do some work at a few BouClair stores in the area. The Merivale location is renovating their Blinds department, which I knew about before I left. I don't know what it was that made me think of it, but when I found out I wouldn't have work for a month, and happened to be in the store shortly afterwards, I stopped in and spoke with my former boss about it. She told me the dates that they would be doing the work, and when I mentioned I would be available prior to that, she told me that she migh need me for a few weeks before that, too. Last week I relocated a series of shelf bases (they call them "gondolas" which I think is the french term for them, BouClair being a Montreal-based company) and moved a lot of blinds and such. Due to difficulties with the truck (a clamp for one of the rad hoses broke and emptied the radiator onto the road as I was driving it home on Saturday after taking delivery of it) I was unable to work Monday and today, but I'm out in Barbequehaven tomorrow and Thursday, and back to Merivale after that.

I have a truck! Glee!

02 February 2007

Goings on and such.

Well, work is temporarily on hold indefinitely. Turns out the site we're supposed to be at is so screwed up that the engineers came in, and went over the entire first story of the building and halted any further work until the building is completely re-done. Apparently it'll cost about $100,000 to fix everything that's wrong with it, and we can't do any further work until that's taken care of. My boss said that they might just build another one next to it instead of re-doing it, because it would be cheaper. It's a government building, so it's not like they have a shortage of money :P Until Doug (boss) can find another job for us, there's not much that we can do. Which reminds me, I have to get in touch with him to get my last paycheck.

My grandparents loaned me some money, and I think Mom is cashing out my RESP (with help from my brother - thanks, bud!) and I'm in the market for a truck or a Jeep (something with 4x4 to get around, and out of, jobsites - the snow is often deep, and they get muddy in spring and sometimes in summer). We shall see what I come up with, but once I have a vehicle, my pay goes up a dollar an hour, and in three months, goes up another dollar. Woo!

Ear mold appointment today, since my hearing aids are whistling a lot due to feedback caused by mold shrinkage. Eye checkup on Monday, as well as new contacts, and a hearing test to see about getting my aids' amplification updated if it's necessary. I haven't had one since 1998, when I went to CHEO and got paid some money to participate in a study for a new method of hearing testing. It was cool, since I got time off school, and got to sit and read for 45 minutes straight, in a quiet room.

I think that's about it for now. Further updates as events warrant!