Flu and Go

I had the flu last week, which isn't fair because I had my flu shot, and last year, I also got the flu even though I had my flu shot. Otherwise, I can't remember getting the flu since I was a kid. When I got my flu shot, everyone in the community was like "The flu shot gives you the flu!" and I was like "Ignorant people, you just don't like getting shots, and just because you know someone who got the flu after getting the shot doesn't mean it gives it to you. That's corroboration not causation, it lowers risk, it doesn't give immunity, so there's bound to be a few people every year who get the shot and sick anyway, but it doesn't excuse not trying to prevent it."

But then I got sick and nobody else did, which really made my logic look iffy. Oh well. I kind of like being sick, though. Forces me to just concentrate on myself and my own well being. It's like being on vacation with the added bonus that you're too delirious to worry about life's troubles.

My brother and mother both got the flu, and nobody else in Guelph did, and I didn't even see them in person, just talked to them over the phone. It's like I spread it through the phone line. Maybe it's a family thing, some genetic vulnerability.

My temperature peaked at 103.6. Before this, I wasn't even really sure what constituted a temperature. I first checked after a morning shift when my legs felt like they would give out, I was feeling short of breath and seemed to be complaining about the cold more than other people. I had an evening shift that day, and I usually don't bother to go home between shifts on days like that because I spend more time on the bus than at home if I do, but this time I thought I should at least check my temperature. Read 101.5, looked it up and saw that was a significant fever. Called my evening shift and read them the facts.

Good thing, too, because my temperature would continue to rise. First time I broke 103, I looked up the levels of fever, and it said "Adults should be able to survive temperatures of 103 to 104 for short periods of time" I was like, "I can survive this for a short period of time?!" Yeah, worst part of being sick. That didn't feel like vacation. I was going to take a Neocitrine, which "May cause drowsiness" but took Tylenol instead, because I wanted to be awake so I had a fighting shot of saving my life if my temperature continued to rise.

My grandmother said that the people who get hit hard often seem to recover faster. Like they just get it out of the way. I thought that seemed like a funny idea, like the virus shows up in my body, and my ornery cells are just like "BURN IT TO THE GROUND!!" and raises my temperature to near-fatal extremes just to get things done and out of the way. Next time guys, can we leave it in the 102 range?

I got to ride the Go Bus recently. In the next week and a half, I've got to be in Hamilton and Oakville for training. Oakville isn't connected by Greyhound, and I had to be in Hamilton earlier than a Greyhound could get me there. So curiously, even though I've never been called to use Go before, I'm now being called to do so due to two unrelated circumstances, six times in the next week and a half.

I was super sketched to be using a new transport system for something that required certain results. Go has its own trip planner, so I printed out my plans and went to buy my tickets from the terminal. I couldn't buy online, which seemed weird. I showed up, asked if I could buy a ticket departing from Guelph in the Kitchener station. She told me to buy it in Guelph and asked me when I was leaving. I said Thursday (I think it was Tuesday at the time), she said the tickets are only good for four hours.

So then I point out that my departure time is like, 4:00 AM and there's no ticket places open at that time. She says that I can purchase tickets from the driver if I have exact change. I ask if it's a flat rate for tickets and she says I'll need to know my exact distance.

SKETCHED! I don't know how a system can operate, where everyone potentially has to have an on-the-spot discussion about mileage with the driver when they get picked up.

I wound up buying something called a Presto Card, which is like a pay-as-you-go card that you tap in and out with when you ride. I take a Greyhound to Guelph to station myself for training, as it takes a half hour of travel out of each side of the Hamilton trips, and fifteen minutes of walking. That's an hour and a half saved per day. Mom's still got the flu though, so I'm really banking on our flus being the same, as I could otherwise be infected again.

But it's still all so new. It occurs to me (as it has before) that while I see Go buses all the time, and Go stops, I've never seen anyone board one. They just drive by, with people on them, but don't seem to have any interaction with the rest of the world. Like decor, or some kind of foreshadowing that I would eventually need to use one.

I actually begin to feel like the protagonist of a story, with this element introduced but left inactive because it would be pointless to involve it earlier. I'm further creeped out when I see that there is a Guelph bus that leaves every fifteen minutes, and it only goes one direction, which is the way I need. The first conversation I hear that day is about the roundabout transit system for traveling to Hamilton. I'm like, how could I have possibly never seen one board if they come to the main station every fiteen minutes?!

I've got nightmares that the bus driver won't take Presto because we're leaving from Guelph and not Kitchener, and then he won't be selling bus tickets because even though the bus lady said they did, the website said not to purchase from drivers. I'm worried I won't know how to signal I want to stop and that I won't recognize my stop since it's a foreign city.

Turns out, the Go is exactly like a city bus. There's an electric sign that says which stop is coming up (sometimes with a list of the four following stops!) and a voiceover. There are "Stop" buttons at every seat that you can press to signal when you want to get off. Presto tap was easy. I got to ride in a double decker! I sat in the seat above the driver and pretended I was driving the bus from my tower in the sky!

I get to my destination and it turns out my training isn't Thursday and Friday, it's Friday and Saturday! I was given bad info! By some miracle I actually am free on Saturday. At least I got to get used to the system, but that's $27 and five hours on the bus for a practice run... I was thinking of renting a motel room before I found out day trips could be an option, good thing I didn't do that!

Burritoes

Hi everyone. Sorry it's been a bit. On review, my post frequency has been trending down year-by-year (although the posts have become longer and my views keep going up), so I made it a bit of a New Year's Resolution to post more often. First half of January, this was coming along just fine, but come February and I lapsed. I just need to fit in three more posts before the end of February and I'm back up to speed (I average one post per week)

I've been posting mainly on major-ish events as well, instead of more slice-of-life observation stuff. Another blogger that I'm a fan of, Ali Brosh from Hyperbole and a Half, as she began posting less and less, justified it by saying when she writes about the little things, it's like a burrito, which is nice, but when she'd write about big important things, it's like a jet plane, which is amazing. And after she's made so many jet plane posts, she doesn't want to disappoint her fans by giving a burrito.

But personally, sometimes I don't want a jet plane. Sometimes I want a burrito. Sure a jet plane is awesome to watch and more difficult to produce, but a burrito is nourishing and relatable. Some of her best stuff were burrito posts, and I actually make an effort to alternate between jet planes and burritoes on this blog. The reason Seinfeld was the most popular show on TV during its run is because there is an appeal in the smaller things in life.

Remember that post I made about going for a walk in the woods after finishing my last ever college class with two of my fellow graduates? We got scared by some snakes and we stalked a guy into the woods because we thought he might try to kill himself. That was one of my favourite posts, and I'd call it a burrito, since nothing in it happened which had a lasting effect on my living situation.

So the excuse for not updating is because my days are divided between work and travel. And because of the nature of my work, confidentiality has to be considered in everything I do. And since traveling by bus takes such a ridiculous amount of time, I have those large lengths of time where not much happens (usually. Remember when that young guy and older woman got in an argument about priority seating, he attacked her and I jumped between the two and took the hit?)

But even if there's nothing life-changing, I should be able to come up with something to talk about.

I finally got a coffee maker. Remember how I was missing the coffee filter basket, and the only way to get a new one was to order it in? The price was reasonable but hsipping and handling would cost more than the piece itself, which struck a wrong chord with me on a moral level. And then, it would be easy enough to buy a $15 coffee maker from the secondhand store across the way, but I didn't want to buy a whole new maker when I only needed a piece of plastic. But eventually I just sucked it up and got a whole new maker.

The other day, I was going through my backpack for paysheets and found a Christmas envelope addressed to me that was still sealed. It was from someone who'd given me a present, and I guess I put the envelope in the front pocket of my backpack and forgot about it, even though I put the present under the Christmas tree. I open the envelope and there was a $100 Fairview Mall gift card! Suddenly my expression of gratitude toward him seems a little lukewarm on reflection.

I recently found out that I can get reimbursed for a loud of things during my work that I've been paying out of pocket for. A year and a half in and I just found out about something called an "expense sheet". Yeesh.

I saw some turkeys last Friday. I wasn't sure if they were domestic or not, as they were on somebody's property, but they were just out and about, not restricted by anything. House by a highway. I approached slightly to snap a few pictures, but when they noticed me I backed right out.

I don't think it's a breach of confidentiality to mention that sometimes in the work I do, I go bowling. I used to be a terrible bowler, but I'm actually pretty decent now just through my experience at work. But last time I went, I saw the best bowler I've ever seen in my life. He was in the lane next to us, and he'd come alone.

Before he started, he slid all over the floor in front of the lane, I guess judging it's smoothness, and for any knicks that might throw his concentration or shift his gate as he approached in whatever minuscule way. He'd brought his own balls of course, and every time before he'd throw, he'd wipe them with a cloth. His actual throw was interesting.

I always throw the ball to travel straight. I try to have it travel just off-centre so it hits the head pin at an angle. Almost all semi-professionals, however, do this weird crescent moon shot, where it curves out, skirts along the gutter, then comes back to hit the head pin at an angle. I don't know how they do this, it looks magic.

This guy had an even stranger throw, though. He'd throw it so it traveled straight, until it was almost at the end of the lane, and then it would jet out, hit the gutter's edge, then jet back and smash the headpin at an angle. It was seriously like he had telekinetic powers.

In his entire first game, he only got strikes. That's a perfect game. Like, why would you even continue to play after you'd perfected your technique? There would be no variety anymore.

Even though he was playing alone, he wouldn't play rapidly. After every turn, he would sit down and gaze at the alley meditatively.

His second game wasn't perfect, and it was funny because he couldn't do precision hits. He was so used to getting strikes that if he had to hit at a different angle, he could never do it.

There was a full moon yesterday, a minor eclipse, and we had a comet come closer to the earth than one has in the previous 30 years. I forgot to check for the eclipse and the comet.

Life has been pretty dynamic over here. Actually, I'll have a lot of stuff to talk about once the dust clears, but I can't really talk while things are still up in the air. You'll understand when I'm more free to talk about it on here.