Back when I was working in the grouphome, city bus driver's threatened to strike. At the last minute, they came to an agreement with the city, and the strike was called off. Recently, there was another threat to strike, and once again, at the last minute, a tentative agreement was developed. However, after consideration, the drivers decided that the agreement was not satisfactory, and last Tuesday, they decided to strike.
So it's been five days without busses. Their accessibility service, Mobility Plus is also unavailable. It hasn't impacted me too badly, because surprisingly, the Ion drivers are not striking. I had assumed that all transit workers would be allying together, but that appears not to be the case.
I am in the very fortunate position that, despite using buses regularly, pretty much everything I need to get to professionally is on an Ion route. I've got to walk maybe ten minutes to my train stop in the morning, and ten minutes after I get off when I go to WALES. The Men's Group I run and all my Direct Support Work are all accessible by train. However, not everyone has the privilege of living and working near an Ion station.
After living through seven years of construction, with the city spending over a billion dollars on something little more tha a streetcar, I wasn't expecting to champion the project less than a year after it's introduction, but here we are.
If anything, the treatment that the Ion drivers have received seems to have exacerbated how the bus drivers feel. The last time they striked, they demanded a pay raise and shields between themselves and passengers. This time around, the demands are the same, and it's hard to ignore that the Ion drivers are paid more and they also have barriers put in place.
Last I heard, the city offered a 6% pay raise for bus drivers and shields next to every driver within the next three years, and I have also heard rumors that the drivers want security cameras on their vehicles taken down, but I don't have a credible source to back that up.
Before I get into the city buses, let me go on a bit of a tangent regarding our Light Rail Transit.
When you're riding Ion, there are these buttons dispersed thoughout the car. At every stop, this electronic voice will tell passengers the station that they're approaching. If you push a button, a signal will light up to stop at the next staftion. Since most stations are quite busy, it toook me awhile, but eventually I came across a situation where no one was boarding or exiting, and the entire train still stopped. Just as I suspected! They have to stop at every station or else they will throw off their schedule, so what's the point of the buttons and the stop alert?
They even have an accessible alarm system that can be reached from a wheelchair, but it just sounds the same alarm. In Toronto, the accessible stop pulls out a ramp, but the Ion is accessible at every door. One of the few advantages we have over Toronto's streetcars.
Anyway, back to the buses. Honestly, I'm not sure if the drivers should win this time around. I'm on record saying that they have a difficult job. No on-site security, people trying to cheat the system all the time, people expecting them to be on-the-minute according to schedule when there are a ton of variables in what they do.
But I think what the city offered them is fair. It's anecdotal, and I'm sure I've said this before, but back when I was working at the grouphome, I was being paid $13.50 an hour and being assaulted regularly. This made the bus driver's concerns about wages and security seem laughable to me.
While we're on it, I just haven't had a great experience with Grand River Transit over the years. We have some really great drivers, but I have also personally seen multiple cases of drivers being discriminatory based on race, level of ability, and language and country of origin. I've personally been mocked and yelled at for basically nothing by drivers.
And the social worker in me can't ignore the fact that by striking, they're putting vulnerable populations at risk. People that take the bus include the poor, the elderly, and the disabled, and they are using them as leverage to get what they want, even after being offered a deal by the city. TGhey don't even have any talks scheduled to come up with a new deal, at this time.
Sunday, January 26, 2020
Tuesday, January 21, 2020
Rest in Peace Uncle Steve
My extended family received some sad news this morning. A beloved family member passed away.
I won't lie, I didn't know him well. I think the last time I saw him in person was at a family reunion back when I was fourteen. That's over half my current lifespan, and I don't feel like I can meaningfully contribute to the discussion of his passing.
But Steve had a close relationship with a number of my readers, and his condition has been a source of tension throughout the family for some time. I felt bad that I made a fun little update about dating my girlfriend and showing off cute cat pictures last night, and that my readers, on receiving the news of Steve's passing, would see that as my follow-up post. To be clear, I hadn't learned the news when I updated.
Technically, I think he was my Great Uncle Steve, but I think a lot of people called him Uncle Steve. He was also known as Uncle Cheese, although I'm not sure what the story behind that was.
I mentioned in a previous update that Uncle Steve had suffered from liver and kidney failure unexpectedly, and that despite his diagnosis being one that usually proves fatal, he had pulled through. I think that's one thing that sort of contributes to how painful this is, he had already pulled off a miracle recovery. Unfortunately, the source of his initial diagnosis turned out to be cancer, which was already advanced, and because his body had already taken damage, surgery and chemotherapy were considered to not be viable options.
There was still some hope, and we thought we had a little more time with him, but this morning we learned that this was not the case.
I'm going to be real... I have only four concrete memories of him. I remember him talking about the normalcy of divorce throughout the family, I remember him talking on the inconveniences of ageing, I remember him offering some sympathies to me regarding some issues my mother was going through, and I remember him talking to his struggling sister, urging her to get help and saying that it's never too late for a person to get better.
At the time, he came across as someone who would speak straightforwardly. He seemed stable, honest, practical, hardworking, compassionate, and he seemed to have a sense of humour.
I know he was a fire fighter, and in the later stages of his condition he received some support from other fire fighters, his reputation still holding influence in that community.
Even if I didn't know him well, his conditioned has weighed more heavily on me than I think I deserve to feel, and I still tried to donate my energy to that metaphysical web that Aunt Laura said she opened up for family members.
I'm sure that I am underselling his legacy, and as I've said, I'm not the guy that can speak best to who he was, but I wanted to at least make a post in his honour and to pay my respects. Rest in Peace Uncle Steve.
I won't lie, I didn't know him well. I think the last time I saw him in person was at a family reunion back when I was fourteen. That's over half my current lifespan, and I don't feel like I can meaningfully contribute to the discussion of his passing.
But Steve had a close relationship with a number of my readers, and his condition has been a source of tension throughout the family for some time. I felt bad that I made a fun little update about dating my girlfriend and showing off cute cat pictures last night, and that my readers, on receiving the news of Steve's passing, would see that as my follow-up post. To be clear, I hadn't learned the news when I updated.
Technically, I think he was my Great Uncle Steve, but I think a lot of people called him Uncle Steve. He was also known as Uncle Cheese, although I'm not sure what the story behind that was.
I mentioned in a previous update that Uncle Steve had suffered from liver and kidney failure unexpectedly, and that despite his diagnosis being one that usually proves fatal, he had pulled through. I think that's one thing that sort of contributes to how painful this is, he had already pulled off a miracle recovery. Unfortunately, the source of his initial diagnosis turned out to be cancer, which was already advanced, and because his body had already taken damage, surgery and chemotherapy were considered to not be viable options.
There was still some hope, and we thought we had a little more time with him, but this morning we learned that this was not the case.
I'm going to be real... I have only four concrete memories of him. I remember him talking about the normalcy of divorce throughout the family, I remember him talking on the inconveniences of ageing, I remember him offering some sympathies to me regarding some issues my mother was going through, and I remember him talking to his struggling sister, urging her to get help and saying that it's never too late for a person to get better.
At the time, he came across as someone who would speak straightforwardly. He seemed stable, honest, practical, hardworking, compassionate, and he seemed to have a sense of humour.
I know he was a fire fighter, and in the later stages of his condition he received some support from other fire fighters, his reputation still holding influence in that community.
Even if I didn't know him well, his conditioned has weighed more heavily on me than I think I deserve to feel, and I still tried to donate my energy to that metaphysical web that Aunt Laura said she opened up for family members.
I'm sure that I am underselling his legacy, and as I've said, I'm not the guy that can speak best to who he was, but I wanted to at least make a post in his honour and to pay my respects. Rest in Peace Uncle Steve.
Monday, January 20, 2020
I have 20/20 on 20/2020
Hello everyone,
Happy 20/2020, which is just a really fun number to say.
In December, me and Lee-Anne went to Pioneer Village in Toronto, which is a recreation of early 19th century Ontario. It's one of those places where all the employees dress and act like they are living in that time. They had a tinsmith shop, a leather shop, a blacksmith, a print shop, a church, an upper class house, a bakery, a grainery, a fire station, a barrel-making place, a doctor's house, a school, and some farm-like places.
The first place you reach when you enter is the tinsmith shop, and the person there set the bar really high. You could hear her working before you got in, and when you talked to her, she made it clear that she was legitimately apprenticing. She did a demonstration of how tin lanterns were resistant to wind based on how they were grooved, and gave examples of some early fire-prevention mechanisms.
The bakery was legit, and you could buy product. We got a couple of blackberry tarts, which were pretty good. You could also buy stuff at the print shop. As an aside, I decided that if I lived in that era, I would want to be a journalist.
There was a Scottish house. My last name is Scottish, but my father was adopted, so I'm not genetically connected. Still, some people have guessed me to be Scottish before knowing my last name, somehow. When we came to this place, the actor from that house was describing what a "Proper Scotsman" looked like, before the influence of invaders. She wound up describing me pretty much one-to-one, and capping it off by saying things like "This is the Scotsman that would attract many women" "He's the one the girls would want to introduce to their parents" "This is the Scotsman that would protect his woman". I maintain that I have no real Scottish roots, and I wouldn't ever claim to have them, but this woman wound up wing-womaning me in front of my date, to which I am grateful.
They didn't have many of their animals out, except for a smattering of birds, and somehow, some people were getting horse-and-buggy rides. But they did have geese, and the geese had waddles, or whatever those things are that hang from the throats of roosters. Got a picture down below.
There were these cards at each location that showed the journeys of significant people of that time, and they were framed in choose-your-own-adventure format, such as "Should you decide to protest, go to the print shop, Should you decide to maintain the family business, go to the grainery". Near the end of the trip, there is a house where each historical figure's life journey is described. They then had a wall for people (which would mostly be children) to describe how their generation would impact society.
The notes they offered started things off with, "My generation will..."
It was really depressing how many of the notes said something along the lines of "My generation will... be dead due to climate change"
It sucks to see such a pessimistic generation, but hopefully this means that environmentalism will be taken more seriously in the future generation.
Here are some photos I took:
I also got a proper eye check, somewhat inspired by my girlfriend's family having a background in optometry. I remember a few years ago, when I was having an ear/nasal/eye infection because of a recent ailment. I was unable to read to bottom line on one of the eye charts, only in the eye that I perceived to be uninfected. When I couldn't read the final line, the nurse tried to tell me it was okay, but I was like "I CAN SEEEEE ITTTT!!!!"
Me and Lee-Anne also did something called a Paint Night. This was actually a birthday gift from her, since she knows that one of my hobbies is painting. She gave me an "I Owe You One Paint Night" homemade ticket, which she honoured. I had never done something like this, but it turns out that it's pretty common for up-and-coming artists to host sessions like this at local cafes, bars, and eateries, in which there is a painting, and the artist helps teach the audience in a step-by-step format how to recreate the image.
Without giving you guys the reference image, here's how mine and Lee-Anne's paintings turned out.
I'd like to test which you guys think is which, but I have no way of verifying that, so I'll just tell you that I am on the left and she is on the right.
I had a blast. I think everyone taking the session made their foreground forests larger than they intended. I wish I had made my cosmic interruption, or clouds, or white accents, more horizontal and less vertical.
And here are some random cute pics of my cat
Thursday, January 2, 2020
New Year 2020
Happy New Year!!
On the night of the event, Lee-Anne came to Guelph and me, her, and Mom celebrated together. She got to partake in our tradition of jumping off of something, to "leap into the new year". Duncan was at a party, because he's a cool guy.
This year wasn't so hot for me in terms of how many times I managed to update this blog, but was fairly accomplished in other respects. I got my contract renewed at work, along with a little wage increase and an increase in hours, as well as getting some benefits. I adopted a cat, and I got a girlfriend!
Family cat in Guelph, Luna, also passed away near to the end of the year.
Last year I resolved to update this blog more times than 2018, which I failed to do. I even failed to beat 2017, which was the previous lowest-updated year.
I also resolved to get my G2 License, which I also failed to do. In fact, my G1 expired and I had to get it renewed this past year.
Some people are recapping the past ten years, since this marks the turn of the decade, but I'll spare you all, since you should know my history if your follow this blog.
Actually I won't. Let's do a point form recap of 2010-2020.
-I took the Katimavik Program and lived in Summerside, PEI, Thunder Bay, ON, and Chisasibi, QC. During this time, I worked at Community Connections, a day program for people with developmental disabilities and the Regional Food Distribution Association (RFDA)
-I did Canada World Youth and lived in La Pocatiere in Riviere de Loup, Quebec, and worked as a horticulturalist, and then in Karadie, Mali, as an agriculturalist in a subsistence village of 800 adults without English or electricity
-I did the Human Services Foundation Program at Conestoga College and got an Ontario College Certificate
-I did the Social Service Worker Program and got an Ontario College Diploma
-I worked as an Info Desk employee, booking study rooms and answering questions regarding college events
-I became a Student Life Intern, helping run the Respect Campaign, hosting volunteer events and overseeing their implementation
-I've worked as a Direct Support Person since 2015, providing one-on-one support to people with disabilities
-I did four years over a span of five working as a Summer Program Leader
-I did a year of Independent Facilitation with Facile, later known as Bridges to Belonging
-I became a Safe Management Instructor, which I've been doing for almost three years, teaching crisis intervention and prevention techniques
-I was a Child and Youth Worker with Hatts Off, doing night shift at one of their group homes for about half a year
-I did a year of University at U of W
-Then got a job offer at WALES and ditched everything to join that team
-This wound up getting me a girlfriend, Lee-Anne
-This past decade, I have lived in eleven places, and had thirty five roommates (not including family, Katimavik PLs, host families, or long-term guests)
Even if I failed last year, I'm going to keep steady on my resolutions. I resolve to have 40 or more updates for this blog in 2020, and I want to become more health-conscious. Having an out-of-town girlfriend who can't get her license will hopefully be the motivation I need to finally achieve that goal. Also, having expended the invincibility of my twenties, and having established myself in my career, hopefully I will be able to prioritize my own sense of wellness this coming year.
On the night of the event, Lee-Anne came to Guelph and me, her, and Mom celebrated together. She got to partake in our tradition of jumping off of something, to "leap into the new year". Duncan was at a party, because he's a cool guy.
This year wasn't so hot for me in terms of how many times I managed to update this blog, but was fairly accomplished in other respects. I got my contract renewed at work, along with a little wage increase and an increase in hours, as well as getting some benefits. I adopted a cat, and I got a girlfriend!
Family cat in Guelph, Luna, also passed away near to the end of the year.
Last year I resolved to update this blog more times than 2018, which I failed to do. I even failed to beat 2017, which was the previous lowest-updated year.
I also resolved to get my G2 License, which I also failed to do. In fact, my G1 expired and I had to get it renewed this past year.
Some people are recapping the past ten years, since this marks the turn of the decade, but I'll spare you all, since you should know my history if your follow this blog.
Actually I won't. Let's do a point form recap of 2010-2020.
-I took the Katimavik Program and lived in Summerside, PEI, Thunder Bay, ON, and Chisasibi, QC. During this time, I worked at Community Connections, a day program for people with developmental disabilities and the Regional Food Distribution Association (RFDA)
-I did Canada World Youth and lived in La Pocatiere in Riviere de Loup, Quebec, and worked as a horticulturalist, and then in Karadie, Mali, as an agriculturalist in a subsistence village of 800 adults without English or electricity
-I did the Human Services Foundation Program at Conestoga College and got an Ontario College Certificate
-I did the Social Service Worker Program and got an Ontario College Diploma
-I worked as an Info Desk employee, booking study rooms and answering questions regarding college events
-I became a Student Life Intern, helping run the Respect Campaign, hosting volunteer events and overseeing their implementation
-I've worked as a Direct Support Person since 2015, providing one-on-one support to people with disabilities
-I did four years over a span of five working as a Summer Program Leader
-I did a year of Independent Facilitation with Facile, later known as Bridges to Belonging
-I became a Safe Management Instructor, which I've been doing for almost three years, teaching crisis intervention and prevention techniques
-I was a Child and Youth Worker with Hatts Off, doing night shift at one of their group homes for about half a year
-I did a year of University at U of W
-Then got a job offer at WALES and ditched everything to join that team
-This wound up getting me a girlfriend, Lee-Anne
-This past decade, I have lived in eleven places, and had thirty five roommates (not including family, Katimavik PLs, host families, or long-term guests)
Even if I failed last year, I'm going to keep steady on my resolutions. I resolve to have 40 or more updates for this blog in 2020, and I want to become more health-conscious. Having an out-of-town girlfriend who can't get her license will hopefully be the motivation I need to finally achieve that goal. Also, having expended the invincibility of my twenties, and having established myself in my career, hopefully I will be able to prioritize my own sense of wellness this coming year.
Monday, December 30, 2019
Boxing Day 2019
This year, Boxing Day was more exciting than it usually is. After spending a low-profile Christmas in Guelph, I went to Lee-Anne's place in Brampton, where her immediate family was gathering. If we need a definition attached to the term "immediate family", that means her parents and her parents' children, their significant others, and their grandchildren.
I got to meet the last of the three brothers, two of the significant others, and two grandchildren.
Her mother set up a stocking for me. Counting everyone else, I arguably fit the 13th spot, which has me apprehensive, because apostle-wise, that is the spot of Judas. But because one of the grandchildren was born after I met Lee-Anne, that means we both make our Christmas-stocking debut this year. I feel uncomfortable competing with a child that is under one year old, but I guess that's just how it has to be.
You could argue that, because one of the stockings was set up for Leo, the family cat, that nobody gets to 13 if you exclude him. But I respect Leo's position in the stocking hierarchy.
The family was very generous in their gift giving, and surprisingly well researched. In my stocking, I got a hat and mittens (because I tend to underdress in cold weather), sunflower seeds (some edible, some for planting), one of those chocolate oranges, hot sauce, peanuts, a jar of homemade soup, among other things. As far as what was left under the tree, I was given a collection of hot sauces and a new laptop!!
They also sent me home with like, three servings of homemade lasagna, a macaroni casserole, some spicy cheese and some olives.
Something else they gave me was the flu.
Not hating. I'm glad that everyone showed up, but there were a couple of people in a recovery stage whne they attended the gathering, and after the festivities ended, it wasn't just me feeling adverse effects.
So yeah, this is my excuse as to why I'm not making my post count goal this year. In an update previous, I said that I wasn't sure of the ethics of it, bit that I would try to at least match my previous record low by jamming December full of updates. I'm taking this flu thing as a divine intervention, telling me to play fair.
So yeah, look forward to my resolutions for 2020, and I also got some stuff in store for because I thought it up when I still thought I could make it into 2019
I got to meet the last of the three brothers, two of the significant others, and two grandchildren.
Her mother set up a stocking for me. Counting everyone else, I arguably fit the 13th spot, which has me apprehensive, because apostle-wise, that is the spot of Judas. But because one of the grandchildren was born after I met Lee-Anne, that means we both make our Christmas-stocking debut this year. I feel uncomfortable competing with a child that is under one year old, but I guess that's just how it has to be.
You could argue that, because one of the stockings was set up for Leo, the family cat, that nobody gets to 13 if you exclude him. But I respect Leo's position in the stocking hierarchy.
The family was very generous in their gift giving, and surprisingly well researched. In my stocking, I got a hat and mittens (because I tend to underdress in cold weather), sunflower seeds (some edible, some for planting), one of those chocolate oranges, hot sauce, peanuts, a jar of homemade soup, among other things. As far as what was left under the tree, I was given a collection of hot sauces and a new laptop!!
They also sent me home with like, three servings of homemade lasagna, a macaroni casserole, some spicy cheese and some olives.
Something else they gave me was the flu.
Not hating. I'm glad that everyone showed up, but there were a couple of people in a recovery stage whne they attended the gathering, and after the festivities ended, it wasn't just me feeling adverse effects.
So yeah, this is my excuse as to why I'm not making my post count goal this year. In an update previous, I said that I wasn't sure of the ethics of it, bit that I would try to at least match my previous record low by jamming December full of updates. I'm taking this flu thing as a divine intervention, telling me to play fair.
So yeah, look forward to my resolutions for 2020, and I also got some stuff in store for because I thought it up when I still thought I could make it into 2019
Wednesday, December 25, 2019
Christmas 2019
It's Christmas Day and I'm in Guelph. In recent years, Christmas hasn't been a very eventful occasion, but we still observed some rudimentary traditions. We would put up a Christmas tree and put gifts under it. We would hang stockings and have a turkey Christmas dinner.
This year, not so much. I didn't bother to put up my Christmas tree in Kitchener, and they didn't put one up in Guelph either, despite the fact that we both have artificial trees that we reuse annually. There are no stockings, no gifts, and we had nachos instead of turkey.
It was a green Christmas this year. We've had a lot of snow, but we got hit by a warm front just for the holidays and most of it melted. Last year I got the Christmas week off, but this time around, I worked Monday and Tuesday and will work Friday. We don't shut down entirely because Christmas still has a base in religion and we aren't a religious organization, but we still get Christmas Day and Boxing Day off. A lot of our members take the week off anyway, and the two statutory holidays make our regular scheduling difficult. As long as we're open, we need to have at least two staff members in the building, and since I took last year off, it was kind of my turn. We had more staff show up than I thought would, though.
I'm sure the loss of Luna plays a part in the more subdued nature of this years' festivities. I'll have some opportunity for a more traditional holiday gathering, though, as I am headed to Lee-Anne's family's place for Boxing Day, in which a number of people in her family network are gathering.
That's all I really have to say about Christmas this year, so I guess I'll just write on some more things I forgot to include in previous posts.
I should say that, this year is looking to be my worst in terms of updating. Previously, the year with the lowest number of updates was 2017 with 39. As of this post, I'll be at 36.
So... I've been wondering about whether or not it's ethical to jam a bunch of updates into the end of the year just to keep up with my goals. I mean, making three more posts in the next week isn't exactly unattainable.
So I think I'm going to try for it. Keep an eye on this blog during the next week for the end-of-year rush.
With that being said, here is a collection of things I meant to speak on but forgot about.
I saw a squirrel fighting a hawk during the summer this year. The squirrel kept running up to the hawk and hassling it, causing it to flap and reposition itself. Eventually, the hawk was at the end of its branch and the squirrel launched itself full-force into the bird. Its' front paws connected with the hawk and knocked them both fully off the tree. The squirrel then free-fell through the air, and caught itself with one paw on one of the lower branches, which bent, then sprang up, launching it safely onto another branch. The hawk flew away.
Probably the hawk was eyeing the squirrel's nest, and the squirrel was being protective of its' young. But still, the initial sight of the prey animal harassing a predator was captivating. Then the strength behind the blow the squirrel gave the hawk was shocking, the fact that the squirrel would launch itself out of the tree and free-fall to get rid of the hawk was touching, and its' acrobatic maneuver to save itself at the last moment was just such a great show of athleticism. The whole scene was captivating from start to finish, and I just happened to see it while I was having coffee in my backyard.
This year, I led a group to J&J's Hobby Store and got a set of Super Big Boggle. I don't mean to brag, but I might be the best Boggle player you'll ever meet. If you don't know what Boggle is, it's a game where letters are randomly laid before you in a square, and you need to find as many words as you can before a timer runs out. The longer the word, the more points you get. It's my favourite board game. A regular set features a 4x4 grid, while this one has an 8x8 one, making it four times as large. Such a simple way to make an already great game that much better. I can make far more words, and much more complex ones with this set.
It's not that important, but I did eventually attach that water filter to my kitchen sink that I got for my birthday. I don't have any particular reason to suspect my tap water, but hey, we were drinking that lead-contaminated water at our place in Guelph for the better part of a decade before we were notified, so I think it's probably better to be proactive about this. Plus, I'm a little skeptical about Kitchener water in general ever since we ran through two water coolers at work in quick succession due to the pipes corroding.
A place called Franky's closed. I meant to mention it in my City Developments post. Franky's was a dive bar, and considered to be the central hub for all of Kitchener's lowlifes. While some people were glad to be rid of the establishment, others thought that it had been useful for pooling together the city's riffraff in a nice, avoidable location, and were concerned that its' patrons would start frequenting other downtown spots. Some people didn't feel strongly about the news, assuming that the Franky's crowd would just migrate to Capers, another dive bar with a similar reputation. Another perspective that has been kicking around is that the closure of Franky's signifies the continued gentrification of downtown Kitchener, and that, even if you didn't care about the bar, it wouldn't be long before other independently owned businesses would be choked out.
One of Extend-a-Family's better-known employees, Nicki, recently retired. Among other things, she oversaw our Summer Program, WALES, and was deeply influential in Bridges to Belonging, previously known as Facile, in which I was an Independent Facilitator for about a year. I have been deeply involved in each of these, and so, her journey and mine have overlapped quite a bit in this past half-decade.
For her retirement, the organization threw a party. It had a High Tea Theme, which is characterized with high-backed chairs, tea, hors d'oeuvres, and fancy clothes worn in sort of an English style. We didn't have the chairs, and fancy clothes were optional, but we did have the tea and appetizers. There were a number of speeches, and probably the highlight was our Executive Director, Al, singing a modified rendition of Justin Bieber's Love Yourself. This is Bieber's really passive aggressive breakup song dedicated to his ex, so the fact that our Executive Director was doing a retirement version for Nicki was really funny.
Speaking of Nicki, one other way that she has impacted Extend-a-Family in recent years is by establishing a relationship with an online training course run through Cornell University, called CCLD. This stands for Citizen Centred Leadership Development, and has been influential in how we at WALES operate. For example, we used to refer to the people we serve as participants, which was considered progressive, as it replaced the clinical model's term, which was client, but now, with the CCLD perspective, we call them members, because they're not simply participating in the development of their own lives. Also, WALES was originally hosted inside a school and followed an education model. I wasn't around during this time, but eventually they moved out and became a day program, but now we're branching away from the day program model and we are considered a community group.
Anyway, point is, it's a 14-week course and my employer funded me to attend it, which I've been doing every Tuesday for the past 14 weeks. So I've successfully completed this training, but never mentioned it on here while it was happening.
This year, not so much. I didn't bother to put up my Christmas tree in Kitchener, and they didn't put one up in Guelph either, despite the fact that we both have artificial trees that we reuse annually. There are no stockings, no gifts, and we had nachos instead of turkey.
It was a green Christmas this year. We've had a lot of snow, but we got hit by a warm front just for the holidays and most of it melted. Last year I got the Christmas week off, but this time around, I worked Monday and Tuesday and will work Friday. We don't shut down entirely because Christmas still has a base in religion and we aren't a religious organization, but we still get Christmas Day and Boxing Day off. A lot of our members take the week off anyway, and the two statutory holidays make our regular scheduling difficult. As long as we're open, we need to have at least two staff members in the building, and since I took last year off, it was kind of my turn. We had more staff show up than I thought would, though.
I'm sure the loss of Luna plays a part in the more subdued nature of this years' festivities. I'll have some opportunity for a more traditional holiday gathering, though, as I am headed to Lee-Anne's family's place for Boxing Day, in which a number of people in her family network are gathering.
That's all I really have to say about Christmas this year, so I guess I'll just write on some more things I forgot to include in previous posts.
I should say that, this year is looking to be my worst in terms of updating. Previously, the year with the lowest number of updates was 2017 with 39. As of this post, I'll be at 36.
So... I've been wondering about whether or not it's ethical to jam a bunch of updates into the end of the year just to keep up with my goals. I mean, making three more posts in the next week isn't exactly unattainable.
So I think I'm going to try for it. Keep an eye on this blog during the next week for the end-of-year rush.
With that being said, here is a collection of things I meant to speak on but forgot about.
I saw a squirrel fighting a hawk during the summer this year. The squirrel kept running up to the hawk and hassling it, causing it to flap and reposition itself. Eventually, the hawk was at the end of its branch and the squirrel launched itself full-force into the bird. Its' front paws connected with the hawk and knocked them both fully off the tree. The squirrel then free-fell through the air, and caught itself with one paw on one of the lower branches, which bent, then sprang up, launching it safely onto another branch. The hawk flew away.
Probably the hawk was eyeing the squirrel's nest, and the squirrel was being protective of its' young. But still, the initial sight of the prey animal harassing a predator was captivating. Then the strength behind the blow the squirrel gave the hawk was shocking, the fact that the squirrel would launch itself out of the tree and free-fall to get rid of the hawk was touching, and its' acrobatic maneuver to save itself at the last moment was just such a great show of athleticism. The whole scene was captivating from start to finish, and I just happened to see it while I was having coffee in my backyard.
This year, I led a group to J&J's Hobby Store and got a set of Super Big Boggle. I don't mean to brag, but I might be the best Boggle player you'll ever meet. If you don't know what Boggle is, it's a game where letters are randomly laid before you in a square, and you need to find as many words as you can before a timer runs out. The longer the word, the more points you get. It's my favourite board game. A regular set features a 4x4 grid, while this one has an 8x8 one, making it four times as large. Such a simple way to make an already great game that much better. I can make far more words, and much more complex ones with this set.
It's not that important, but I did eventually attach that water filter to my kitchen sink that I got for my birthday. I don't have any particular reason to suspect my tap water, but hey, we were drinking that lead-contaminated water at our place in Guelph for the better part of a decade before we were notified, so I think it's probably better to be proactive about this. Plus, I'm a little skeptical about Kitchener water in general ever since we ran through two water coolers at work in quick succession due to the pipes corroding.
A place called Franky's closed. I meant to mention it in my City Developments post. Franky's was a dive bar, and considered to be the central hub for all of Kitchener's lowlifes. While some people were glad to be rid of the establishment, others thought that it had been useful for pooling together the city's riffraff in a nice, avoidable location, and were concerned that its' patrons would start frequenting other downtown spots. Some people didn't feel strongly about the news, assuming that the Franky's crowd would just migrate to Capers, another dive bar with a similar reputation. Another perspective that has been kicking around is that the closure of Franky's signifies the continued gentrification of downtown Kitchener, and that, even if you didn't care about the bar, it wouldn't be long before other independently owned businesses would be choked out.
One of Extend-a-Family's better-known employees, Nicki, recently retired. Among other things, she oversaw our Summer Program, WALES, and was deeply influential in Bridges to Belonging, previously known as Facile, in which I was an Independent Facilitator for about a year. I have been deeply involved in each of these, and so, her journey and mine have overlapped quite a bit in this past half-decade.
For her retirement, the organization threw a party. It had a High Tea Theme, which is characterized with high-backed chairs, tea, hors d'oeuvres, and fancy clothes worn in sort of an English style. We didn't have the chairs, and fancy clothes were optional, but we did have the tea and appetizers. There were a number of speeches, and probably the highlight was our Executive Director, Al, singing a modified rendition of Justin Bieber's Love Yourself. This is Bieber's really passive aggressive breakup song dedicated to his ex, so the fact that our Executive Director was doing a retirement version for Nicki was really funny.
Speaking of Nicki, one other way that she has impacted Extend-a-Family in recent years is by establishing a relationship with an online training course run through Cornell University, called CCLD. This stands for Citizen Centred Leadership Development, and has been influential in how we at WALES operate. For example, we used to refer to the people we serve as participants, which was considered progressive, as it replaced the clinical model's term, which was client, but now, with the CCLD perspective, we call them members, because they're not simply participating in the development of their own lives. Also, WALES was originally hosted inside a school and followed an education model. I wasn't around during this time, but eventually they moved out and became a day program, but now we're branching away from the day program model and we are considered a community group.
Anyway, point is, it's a 14-week course and my employer funded me to attend it, which I've been doing every Tuesday for the past 14 weeks. So I've successfully completed this training, but never mentioned it on here while it was happening.
Tuesday, December 17, 2019
Blue Christmas
I said I might not update again this year since Luna passed away, but I guess since I've been struck with a few other pieces of bad news, I'll just move forward with kind of a Blue Christmas vibe. If you are feeling the holiday cheer this year and don't need someone to dampen it, feel free not to read further.
I have a Great Uncle who is currently recovering from unexpected medical complications. Despite his diagnosis usually being fatal, he managed to overcome the most dire stage, and things are looking optimistic for him at this point. He is not someone I know quite well, but we have met at family reunions, and I remember having conversations with him. It's really interesting how, despite not knowing someone well, if they are family the news will still hit you hard.
We also learned that someone deeply connected with the family passed not too long ago. Again, I did not know this person well, but we would always visit her at family reunions, and she would often house members of our family. She lived to a good age, but it is still sad to hear.
On a less personal but more geographically relevant note, there was another homicide by gun violence in my neighbourhood a few weeks ago. Within eyeshot of where I live. It happened in the early hours, and may have been connected to another incidence, in which a vehicle with Quebec license plates was found burning in a nearby parking lot a few hours later. Police later confirmed the identity of the victim and said they had reason to believe that the attack was targeted.
That was the 19th shooting incident in Waterloo Region this year, and the fourth homicide.
However, I guess we wanted to celebrate the new decade with round numbers, because just the other day, we had our fifth homicide and our shooting incident number 20 to usher in 2020. Wasn't in my neighbourhood this time. It was in the early hours and said to be targeted again. Hopefully people chill out until at least the new year, if only for the number pattern.
I have a Great Uncle who is currently recovering from unexpected medical complications. Despite his diagnosis usually being fatal, he managed to overcome the most dire stage, and things are looking optimistic for him at this point. He is not someone I know quite well, but we have met at family reunions, and I remember having conversations with him. It's really interesting how, despite not knowing someone well, if they are family the news will still hit you hard.
We also learned that someone deeply connected with the family passed not too long ago. Again, I did not know this person well, but we would always visit her at family reunions, and she would often house members of our family. She lived to a good age, but it is still sad to hear.
On a less personal but more geographically relevant note, there was another homicide by gun violence in my neighbourhood a few weeks ago. Within eyeshot of where I live. It happened in the early hours, and may have been connected to another incidence, in which a vehicle with Quebec license plates was found burning in a nearby parking lot a few hours later. Police later confirmed the identity of the victim and said they had reason to believe that the attack was targeted.
That was the 19th shooting incident in Waterloo Region this year, and the fourth homicide.
However, I guess we wanted to celebrate the new decade with round numbers, because just the other day, we had our fifth homicide and our shooting incident number 20 to usher in 2020. Wasn't in my neighbourhood this time. It was in the early hours and said to be targeted again. Hopefully people chill out until at least the new year, if only for the number pattern.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)