On Strike...
Things have gotten rather complicated and rather dull all at the same time. For the past 4 weeks now I've been on strike. Not from this blog but from my actual job.

Complicated in that being on strike involves a series of issues and rumours and tactics. Dull in that it mostly involves being on the picket line walking around in circles for hours at a time. It's like an extended smoke break when you don't smoke. I'm not going to get into the nuts and bolts of being on strike, because, well, I barely care about them so how could I expect you to, but I've noticed a couple of odd things have happened because of this.

There are a few things that you're not supposed to discuss in company; politics and religion, right? Maybe we should add organized labour to that list because you certainly find out where people stand. People who you would think are fairly liberal and open-minded turn out to be junior republicans. And intractable. It seems to be one of those issues that people have long-standing and immovable opinions on. Discussion with them is pointless and your announcement that you're on strike seems to spark them to broadcast their point of view with a certain vehemence.

I was sorta lukewarm on the whole going on strike thing in the first place, mostly because the stuff that's at issue doesn't really apply all that directly to me but I'm a union member and I toe the union line. I figure that I was due anyway; I've managed to go almost 20 years in the union without having to walk the line, it was inevitable that it would happen eventually. Despite the fact that I was not all that committed I have found myself defending the strike and organized labour generally. It's odd how the person on one side of a conversation who veers dramatically to the right inclines the one on the opposite side to veer farther to the left regardless of their level of passion for the issue at hand if only to add some balance to the discussion.

I'm going to let it go at this especially since it's taken me the better part of a week to post this.

Where'd the summer go?

You know, I had really intended to post updates like I had promised in my last post but things had just gotten a little insane over the past month or so and, well they still are, but I would be remiss if I didn't keep all my reader happy and filled in on the goings-on in my hectic last month or so.

Ok, so where did we leave off? Oh yeah the house for sale thingy. When last you heard from your intrepid reporter he was in realtor imposed exile from his own apartment so that showings could proceed. Over the next couple of days there was something like 17 showings. My realtor was wise enough to allow for offers only the following day. Such is the dearth of available condos (at a reasonable price I might add) in my neighbourhood that I was the only one within probably a mile radius, hence, all the activity. By Friday noon, a whole 30 hours after the initial showing, I had an offer and a decent one at that and rather than shooting for the moon and trying to stage a bidding war that may never happen I figured an offer at asking was too good to turn down. I know what you're all saying "An offer of asking price within the first 2 days means that you weren't asking enough". That may be true, but I also didn't want to be waiting out a better offer given that I only had about 4 weeks to sell in order to make the bridge financing work. Besides I made a pretty sweet return on a 3 1/2 year investment. I got the old place sold in time to make the trek to Thunder Bay without it hanging over my head.

What to say about Thunder Bay? I'd been there before, back in 2002 for a shoot but that was in March and the ground looked considerably different in August. The 17 and a half-hour drive wasn't too bad and there's certainly some spectacular scenery along the way but there's no lack of featureless nothing along the way too. We were mostly there to help Deb's daughter get set up in her new apartment so after arriving followed a few days of visits to home shops, installing shelves and building bookcases. We did take a nice leisurely tube ride down the river whose name I couldn't pronounce and Deb got to be the Mom for a few days.

Other than that, just work and prep for the move/closings. We finally closed on the one upstairs last Friday and spent the weekend painting and installing closet organizers. I think installing closet organizers may be the theme for the summer of 2009, I'm at 6 and counting for the summer. Overlapping the moves may be the smartest thing I've done in a while; having 10 days to get everything ready and move a piece at a time is definitely the way to go. It will be some time before I paint anything again though...

Relying on karma...

There is some truth to the old maxim that you only find what you're looking for when you stop looking for it. The whole house hunting thing had been an education in managing one's expectations and we had resolved to stand pat right where we were and in fact had grown to be happy with the resolution. While we had stopped looking for a place we were continuing to receive the updates from the realtor just in case by some strange confluence of events we happened upon the perfect place.

Well, some two weeks ago that's exactly what ended up happening. An email with the details for another apartment in my very building landed in my mailbox. About two months ago i had spoken to the folks at the condo board and asked them to keep their ear to the ground about any available apartments in my building and they gave me the name and number of someone who had expressed an interest in selling their 2 bedroom unit. I had called and never gotten a reply. Turns out it was this very person who was now listing their place. So we saw the place the next day and given that we are both interested in staying in this building jumped at the chance to buy it. So we made an offer right away; and thanked my stars that I'd had the foresight to speak to both my mortgage broker and lawyer some time earlier, and following a short bidding war ended up with the place.

So, my building 9 floors up on the same side with 2 bedrooms as opposed to the one I have now. All this means that now I have to list my place, in spite of all the recommendations to just keep it and rent it out(couldn't be less interested in being someone's landlord). Which all leads to this particular post. My place went up for sale yesterday and I'm sitting in a coffee shop because I can't get back in to my place for all the viewing appointments. I'm hoping it all gets resolved within a couple of days because we leave for Thunder Bay bright and early Monday morning and I'd like to not have to do all this over the hotel fax up there.

More news as things develop...

One of the times when my job is way more fun than yours...




I was working this shoot last week that involved loading and firing a replica musket. After all the taping was done, the armourer (the dude on the left there) asked if I'd like to try loading and firing it myself before he had to clean the musket. I'm not sure that I said Hell yeah! quickly enough. So I got to load it with black powder and a patch, prime the pan and fire it. All in all, a good day

The hot burning center of the universe...

You know, it would seem to me that if you're a professional touring musician it might be a good thing if you were to inform yourself about the place you're playing that night even if just enough to not insult the intelligence of the people who are paying to see you that night. Maybe political references could be kept to a minimum in countries other than your own.

I saw an act last night who insisted on proclaiming her adoration for the new president of the US and playing three songs in homage to him, in a row no less, to an audience made up of youngish Canadians. I appreciate that she is hopeful of the future of her country but, ultimately, her audience (under 40's) this night mostly can't be bothered to vote in our own elections much less to care about the politics of a country they aren't even part of. There's just this presumption on her part that the whole world must care about her country's politics as much as she does and so on and on she goes. Could she not have spent an additional ten seconds in composing her set list to be a little sensitive to the fact that she's not playing to an audience of Americans?

Another act earlier in the night insisted on introducing her band's Canadian members by giving not just their city of origin but their province and country; as though no one in the audience could possibly understand that Winnipeg is in Canada. What's even more, in introducing her band's American members she didn't mention their country of origin as though we should all know where Indiana is but are incapable of realizing that Manitoba is a Canadian province?

The sucker punch...

I really disagree with the Conservative party's smear campaign towards the Liberal leader. It isn't like they really give a shit about my disagreement with their strategy but I thought, you know, I might as well mention it. That the Prime Minister allows this kind of negative, nasty bullying of the fellow across the aisle from him especially when they aren't even running against each other yet strikes me as yet another thing to dislike about him. There's nothing statesmanlike about taking shots at your opponents in between elections and it isn't about his ideology or his policies, it's a personal shot. He wants to stay Prime Minister so badly that he's willing to lower himself to these crass attack ads when there isn't even anything at stake. Kinda makes me wonder what kind of tactics he'll stoop to when it actually means something. It's unsportsmanlike. I liken this tactic to one boxer delivering a low blow to his opponents coins during the ref's instructions.

How it looks, not how it is...



There's a huge difference between equality and fairness. Being treated equally isn't always fair. Back a dozen years or so ago when my ex and I were living in her first house, the initial division of expenses was basically equal but it wound up not being fair. At the beginning it was unfair to me and at the end it ended up being unfair to her. Either way, it was an untenable position for both of us and the resentment that followed was entirely about the perceived fairness of the arrangement. We both were trying really hard to make it fair but we were both young and inexperienced; we just didn't have the tools. What was supposed to be a basic financial arrangement translated into hurt feelings quite quickly. It really only got resolved, or mostly so, when we pooled all our resources a number of years later. It was only then that it felt like we were both pulling on the oars with the same amount of effort.

Anyway, I'm trying to put into practice the lessons learned then. Simple in theory, much more difficult in practice. I'm trying to be scrupulous about the fairness of the situation I now find myself in. There's no way it will end up as an equal division and finding that line where it's fair is a game of inches. It's easy for it to cross that line from balanced to unbalanced despite the eagerness of both sides to find a common ground. Is one side carrying a larger portion of the burden? Is that sacrifice being recognized? Is one side benefiting from the arrangement more than the other? What do you base all the calculations on? Is one side going to feel taken advantage of? Is it even appropriate for one side to observe or comment on the other sides contribution? What's important, what's insignificant and how do you weight them? How do you make it fair when it's unequal? It's not that it's all babysteps, it's about what direction those babysteps take?