I am talking about Prinz Willem, the nursing home although I don't think they call them that here. Not sure what they are referred to but I don't really care so let's not talk about it. I have someone coming in soon to have me set up their printers. It would seem that they lost all the printers during the week and some people are still having trouble getting them back. Since I only work on Fridays, it is up to me to fix them all and they have to bring their laptops in for me to do it. But again, I am tired of talking about this place so let's move on. Although I was just ask to set a printer as the default printer for someone in this office so I had to show them how to do that.
Now for more good times. I have never sent William's thing into the army for him to attend this get to know the army camp next month. I have until tomorrow to do it so guess I will be doing that when I get home. I am not sure he is keen on doing it but we will send it in and see what happens. It should be ok and I think he might even like it but he is building stuff in his construction class and he seems to enjoy that. Not that he is building anything useful but I think they are just giving them access to the equipment and they can build what they want. He built some necklaces for Juanita and Maeghan and he built a tool box last week. I have not seen it up close yet but it looks ok. He still likes going to school but I think it is only because it is so easy for him. He is taking reduced requirement classes which seems to mean they do the minimum of what is required to pass the eleventh grade. He says it is so simple, he has done all the work required already and has nothing to do when he is at school. But he likes that.
He doesn't like having to take the bus and the train and then another bus to school and then again to get home and will find any excuse to not have to do that, which means he misses as least one day a week. His usual trip is to take a bus from our house to the train station. Then take a train one station further on and get off there to wait for the school bus for his school. He says it is a 45 minute wait for the school bus but if he takes a later bus from home, he will miss the school bus. There is nothing to do at the train station, although there is a small shopping centre across the street, so he has to wait with nothing to do. If he ever discovers he can go over to the shopping centre I am sure we will begin to hear about him missing the school bus because he was across the street. But so far he has not done that.
One of the reasons he has to take this trip now is the ever rising price of petrol. Even at Costco, it has risen to $2 a litre. That makes a tank of petrol around $150 to fill up. That is a significant expense and one we can no longer afford. Taking the train and bus only costs about $3 a trip so it is way cheaper. I am sure they will be raising the price of that soon but for now, it is the only option.
I am trying to find ways to only work jobs that are close to the train stations. I get lost on the bus systems but trains are ok. Most of the time, it is not too far off track for me to take a train and then walk to my destination but in some cases, I still have to drive. Since it takes a half tank of petrol to get to the other side of town, where most of my work is, that is something I cannot afford. It cost me more to get there and back than what I am getting paid. In some cases, they will pay mileage but in most, they do not. I have told them, if it over 100 kilometres, then I expect them to pay for it. So far, they have done so but even then, what they pay is not the full cost of traveling to some of these places. It just gets harder and harder with no end in site.
Now I am moving on to other news. Maeghan seems to be enjoying her classes also, but I think she is getting bored with it. She goes in and does different art classes each day, except Wednesday, and creates something in a different media each time. One day they do painting and another they do clay and then etching and something different each time. I am not sure what the point is but she is graded on them and works really hard each time. I just don't know how they grade art. That seems very subjective to me and is not a pass or fail type of thing. But it is a college level class and I am sure it means something to someone. She likes it but I have noticed she is missing more days this year. Generally just not feeling like going in as she takes a bus and then a long train ride into town each time and that is not the most exciting thing to do. She used to like it but now it takes so long that she is getting bored with all the travel. Next year, the plan was for her to go back to her original child studies but she will need to apply for assistance or a grant to get that as it is no longer free. The only reason she did not do that this year was she was too late when she tried to apply for assistance and she decided to pay for this class herself out of her car savings. At one time, she had over $5000 saved for a car but that is no where near what it will take to get one and she has not saved a lot since then to improve on it. I think she still has the original $5000 but has not added to it lately.
Let's talk a little about the horrifying home life we have. We now have eight adults living in the house. Not full time but at some points, all eight are there. We have me, Juanita, Maeghan, William, Adam, Leslie, Anna, and Anna's new boyfriend. I have no idea what his name is but I think he works with her, but I am not sure. He doesn't actually live there but he is always there. So far, they stay in their room and I do not have to feed them but I am sure as he gets used to us, that will change and he will be in other rooms and doing other things, like eating our food and watching our TVs and playing our games. He never comes out now, but I know that will not last long. I have actually only seen him once. Not a pleasant experience but who am I to judge. They are adults and I have no say in the matter. But he is not the sort I would like to be living in my house if I did have the choice.
Of course, we still have the dogs and the cat and the bird and whatever else wanders in. The cat smells, the big dog is too big to be in the house and the little dog chews his fur off so he is not pleasant to look at with his patchy fur. We have thought it was flees but we use all the flea stuff and he still chews his fur. Can't really explain it. The bird is loud and messy with feathers and bird seed all under his cage all the time. The big dog wants to get the bird out of the cage and we have to constantly watch it to keep it from jumping up on the cage. The cat used to watch the bird but the cat lives almost exclusively in the garage with Adam now so he never sees the bird anymore. It's a real menagerie. If it weren't for the cat smell, it wouldn't be so bad but that cat stinks and no one seems to care except me. I keep the door to the garage closed all the time but no one else seems to close it so I have to constantly keep closing it myself.
I had to do some work so I have forgotten my train of thought. I think I was complaining but that doesn't sound like me so I was probably doing something else. I think I am going to hang this one up. I am pretending to write a note to my employer about the accident I had this morning. Briefly, I will go into that because I have a few minutes before I can sneak out.
I fell out of a bus. I have said we are trying to take public transport now and I usually take it to this place on Friday's. This morning, I was getting up to get off the bus and trying to do too many things at once, get my card out, put my bag on my shoulder and walk down the stairs to the bus exit. I missed a step getting out of the bus and went flying. Fortunately, I grabbed a poll and spun myself around to fall back into the bus but it caused a great deal of ruckus and a lot of people were trying to get off at the same time. All of them tried to help me and a couple of people who were waiting tried to help also. No one actually touched me, COVID and all, but they all kept asking if I needed help or asked if I was alright. I wasn't that big of a deal but in hindsight, I probably should have stayed down a little longer as I have been woozy all day and now my back hurts. My back always hurts but I made the mistake of telling these people at work what happened and they started noticing me limping and being in pain. They said I had to report it to my work as it was part of going to work and would be covered by something or other. Since my back has hurt for years and I have not made a secret of it, I was not going to report it to anyone but they said I had to. So now I am pretending to write my work and tell them when I am actually typing this sentence you are reading now. It all works out.
But that's enough for me. I want to go home and make dinner or something. Maybe I will take a nap. I have to walk the twelve miles back to the train station but I am sure it will pass quickly. Maybe the ducks with knives will attack me. Only Maeghan will get that joke so we will see if she ever reads this. I know she doesn't. But that's it, I'm done, I am outta here.
Until next time,
Later
No comments:
Post a Comment