Thursday, October 21, 2021

The Reality Has Set In and It Doesn't Look Good

For two days, we lived vicariously through the thoughts of "what if"?  Can you imagine how different our lives would be?  How much better the lives of everyone we care about would be?

To clarify, the big lottery, the Lotto Max, had it's $55 million jackpot won by a single winner, located right here in Saskatoon.  As an avid and faithful customer of the lottery, I always have my fingers crossed, but am greatly skeptical when I hear a jackpot has been won.  Especially, when it happens practically in my backyard.  I'm not being cynical, but rather, I know how shitty my luck is and when a big prize, like the afore mentioned $55M, I am almost certain that the lucky bastard who won, will not be me.

However, for two days, my workmate and I have been dreaming about the what ifs.  Dreaming of what we would do and how and where and all the dreams that are associated with a vivid imagination.  All fun and games, but in the back of my mind, I'm thinking, "Seriously... What if?"

In the days leading up to this exciting news, I've been overwhelmed with feelings of deja vu.  This rarely happens to me, but when it does, something good usually follows.  I was coming home and thinking about how I would renovate my house.  I've had grand illusions of how I would change things up in my humble abode.  Of course, I'm not the only person I was thinking about.  I would take care of my family, too.  Though I'm a single fella, I'd take care of my sister's family.  I have a nice plot of land, just south of the city, that I've had my eye on for awhile.  It's a blank slate, ready for me to move in and for the right budget, build my forever home.  Then, to the east of that I could parcel out a portion for my sister and her family to build a house, too.

Then there's my mom.  She's done SO MUCH for me in my short shitty life.  She's so helpful and generous, that if nothing else, I wanted to win that money to take care of my mom for the rest of her life.  Get her a new car, something safer than what she's driving now.  She'd live rent free, as I doubt she'd want to move again.  Basically, I wanted to give my mother a life of no more stress or worry.  Nothing but clear sailing.

That was two days of bliss, but like all good things, it came to an end.  I checked my ticket and unless I have another that I'd forgotten about, I'm afraid that I have to remain satisfied with the freeplay that I'd won, in place of the fifty-five MILLION DOLLARS.

What sucks most is... I'm forced to stay employed at the place I'm at.  Nothing would have made me more happy than to walk out of that place, head held high and never looking back.

So now reality has set in.  My life is as shitty now, as it was before.  The only ray of light is my cat, Monkey.  For richer or poorer, he's right here, by my side.  I'm so lucky to have that cat.  Most days I feel so overwhelmed and disappointed in how my life turned out, but then I look at my little boy, looking up at me with those gorgeous eyes, I thank the powers that be, who brought that little tabby cat into my life.  Now if those same Powers That Be, would get their heads out of their asses, and award me with a major jackpot, I'd be perfect!!

Saturday, October 2, 2021

Two F**ks?!

 


Do you think your cat really gives
two f*cks that this smells like Pumpkin Spice?!?

FRIDAY - It's a Bitch Session

  Fridays.  As frightening to me as Monday's, but for a different reason.  Everyone hates Monday for the obvious.  Weekend was too short.  Work week is too long and no fun.  However, as much as I hate getting up bright and early Monday and driving into work, the process doesn't scare me near as much as it does on Fridays.  No matter what I might encounter in the days leading up to the weekend, nothing concerns me as much as Fridays, or more specifically, Friday afternoons.

It seems like, after lunch, everyone's brains head home early for the day and people get reckless & dangerous behind the wheel of their vehicles.  Everyone is in a rush, even though they don't need to be.

In the job I have now, I'm required to drive in traffic daily, destinations set from downtown to just a few miles from the shop.  Every day, I have a front row seat to how drivers in our fair city respond to whatever day of the week it is.  Mondays seem more relaxed.  No one is in much of a hurry to get anywhere and every subsequent day, is nearly the same, peppered with a few anomalies, because nobody is perfect.  Fridays, though.  Gives a whole new meaning to Freaky Friday.

My new job has me working at a facility in the south industrial section of our city.  We make RVs which are sold all over North America.  Most notably, is the Prince of Darkness, himself, Ozzy Osbourne having purchased two or three of the RVs.  There is a promotional poster hung all over the plant of Jack (Osbourne) and Ozzy posing in front of their beloved RV.  Come Friday afternoon, at quitting time, it's a mad dash by all to vacate the facility.  A couple of weeks ago, I had made a right turn onto a street, turning into the right-hand lane before signaling to get into the left.  That's when another fellow, who also works for the company that I do, decided that he was going to circumvent the normal rules of the road and rip into the left lane, Mad Max-style, nearly side-swiping me in the process.  He was clearly in the wrong, but holy f*ck if that guy doesn't hold a grudge.  That day, he slowed right down, trying to egg me on to a fist fight and in the weeks since that incident, he's treated me like a cockroach.  (He's one of the "higher-ups" in the company, so I just shrug it off.  It's his life that seems to be the most effected by the near-miss accident.)

Leaving the south industrial area is a breeze, every other day, but Friday.  At the conclusion of my first week of work, it took me 45 minutes just to leave the area, due to an extraordinary build up of traffic.  It was enough to nearly make me quit the job, I was so frustrated.  Every Friday afternoon, since that day, traffic is notoriously bad and when freedom is finally accomplished, the craziness doesn't end.

Let me breakdown yesterday, October 1st, 2021, for you.  After making a stop at Wal-Mart for milk and bread, I was lucky enough to leave Stonebridge (which is adjacent to the south industrial park), my adventure homeward was only beginning.  There was a near miss as I merged onto the freeway.  Likely someone with their nose buried in their phone, rather than focusing on the road.  Next was entering the clover-leaf, as nobody seems to know how to yield to oncoming traffic.  That's where a young lady had been rear-ended by another unattentive driver.  I foiled that debacle, steering around the scattered panels and marker lamps.  Around the loop and heading north, I managed to escape a driver whom I can only assume was Mario Andretti.  Although it was not a Formula One Ferrari blowing by me, it was a sporty Dodge Charger going like a bat outta Hell. (Maybe it was Meatloaf?)

I finally round the off-ramp that leads toward my house and this is where it's always f*cked up, regardless of what day of the week it is.  I don't know who designed that flow of traffic, but they should have had their head smacked.  It is completely R-worded.  Then, as if that overflow of traffic wasn't bad enough, there's a van stalled at the next set of lights, but the dummy behind the wheel didn't bother to put on her 4-way lights to alert other drivers that she was inoperable. Hoards of drivers were stuck behind her, myself included, all of us unbeknownst that she wasn't going anywhere.  Drivers are already being dicks and not allowing people to go around her, so many of us were stuck.  I was two cars behind her stranded van and I was there for nearly 15 minutes or roughly three songs on he radio.  They weren't even good songs, which made the experience even worse.
I love my truck.  I love driving my truck.  What I don't love is driving my truck in this minefield of ridiculous drivers.  As much as I think small towns suck, I doubt they ever need to deal with this much bullshit.

I don't have a point to this blog.  Not today.  There's no humour.  No thought-provoking discoveries.  Just a bitch-session.  In fact, I think that's what I'll title this blog, today.

Ozzy Osbourne posing with his Pleasure-Way RV.

Jack & Kelly Osbourne posing
with Ozzy's Pleasure-Way RV.