ReStore, Comic

I went and volunteered at the ReStore today. They take your application more seriously there than they do at the Food Bank. They toured me around, made sure I knew WHMIS, made sure I was wearing steel-toed boots, knew where all the safety equipment was, and had me take a safety quiz. At the Food Bank, you just fill out a simple application form and have you sign in and out, which they also do at the ReStore.

At first, the tasks there seemed sort of disorganized. I was just supposed to find items with green stickers on them and transport them to the front of the store, and it wasn't long before I ran out of things to do. But after a bit, the store manager came out and introduced himself to me, and had me help him out setting up a kitchen and constructing a table. I liked that guy. He was a really thorough talker. He already knew my name when he introduced himself, he asked if I liked being called "Gryphon" or "Gryph", wanted to know how I'd heard about them, wanted to know about why I was volunteering and what types of things I was interested in, told me what types of people volunteer there, how many hours in total they'd gotten from people last year, told me about the various places in the store, and told me why and how they were used.

By the end of the day he told me that what I could get out of volunteering there was, they could give me a reference if I needed a job, and also, every year they grow by about 30% and every paid employee they had working there that day started out as a volunteer.

As far as tasks go, it looks like there's room for expansion. They operate power tools there, which they're willing to teach me how to use, they go on a weekly trip to Toronto, which I could get in on, there's computer and retail work to be done, and the next project they're undertaking takes place near where I live, and I could get in on that, too.

If I wind up moving out of Guelph, it's a bit disappointing it took me this long to realize this place

The Food Bank and the ReStore are kind of the go-to places in terms of volunteering here in Guelph. I learned that from my employment counselor at Welfare a week or two ago.

I'm a bit nervous, though, because when I was working, some guy said to me "Excuse me, I'm looking for a big guy."

Well, I'm used to hearing this. I'm 6'4" and 285 pounds, and when people say this, usually they need some kind of large object moved, so I was like "Alright, what can I do for you?". He responded, "No! I'm looking for a big, big guy!". One of the regulars asked if he could help, and the guy said, again, that he was looking for a big guy. The regular said "You mean the big, big guy?", the customer said yes, and the regular replied "He's in a meeting."

So apparently there's some guy who dwarfs me working in this place. That's never happened before!

I managed to update my comic again today. One more strip and I'm done my first story arc. I plan on doing that on the first day of the new year.

Anyone who uses deviantART should know the site has a tendency to make it impossible to click the deviation in the upper right corner of your gallery. And that it also has a tendency to reorganize your gallery randomly, and to make certain deviations disappear and reappear. These things make it troublesome to write a continuing story arc, so I've been putting in links to the separate strips in the comments section, with each page numbered so the story can be read in order.

After I finish this arc, I'm going to use the folder function to separate it from the other comics. I've still got a number of shorts before I run out of material on this computer.

If I wind up leaving Guelph, I get to take my laptop and the old scanner, so I'll be able to keep updating.

There's going to be a blue moon on the New Year. That means the second full moon in a month. If it isn't cloudy tomorrow, I'd like to take a picture of it. This feels like a good way to end the decade.