Category: Luctor et Emergo

Last Sunday in September

One of the benefits of my job is that I attend educational conferences from time to time. I am in Ottawa, on what turned out, after a cloudy start, to be warm sunny afternoon. The city was crawling with police – really and literally. The police stage a memorial event on the last Sunday in September. Representatives of almost every Canadian police force march in their full dress uniforms. Some forces have pipe bands – seems the Scots ran the police forces in the old days and their traditions carry on. There were a few officers in kilts in line when I walked by Tim Horton’s this morning, which must have given the staff a start.
I spent the afternoon in a seminar. One of the other participants said that I had worked out what many other people hadn’t. I had moved to Victoria to do a job that I liked with many years before retirement to enjoy.

Nostradamus

The Wikipedia entry of the day is Nostradamus!
This has a rich personal resonance. When my kids were young my sister-in-law, once known as Sharon Wehner the dancer, now billing herself as Ariole K. Alei, said she believed that she had channelled messages from alien/spiritual presences. She wanted to approach Sting, the Dalai Lama and the Pope to inform them of the messages she had received, to bring about a great spiritual awakening of humankind. She felt that people near to her, by birth or marriage, had been reincarnated. Yours truly was believed to be the reincarnation of Nostradamus. My spouse and her parents seemed to think that Sharon didn’t have the gods lined up in the right order, but they felt the same way. My failure to be open to their collective beliefs, whatever they were, became a sore point in my dealings with my wife, and her parents and their circle of friends. My judgment that their New Age beliefs in things like reincarnation were, shall we say, eccentric, and that they seemed to gullible and vulnerable to being pulled into pyramid schemes was answered by their judgment that I was negative, destructive, hostile and sick. Repent Harlequin said the tick tock man and all that.
Sharon/Ariole has moved on and become a personal coach and healer, a poet, and spirit guide. Her husband is involved in the same ventures. They used to brand themselves as matchmakers too, but now they offer life and relationship services.
One of the links on Sharon/Ariole’s web site goes to the Liberty League (critical web site here) – a classic pyramid scheme, which has been sued for consumer fraud by the Attorney General of Arizona. If you repeat your mistakes, are you reborn?
I, Nostradamus, predict a hard fall for these fools.

Canada Post

I went in to get my mail redirected to my house in Victoria when I moved in at the beginning of April. I was told that I could not amend the Change of Address, and that I had to pay for a new redirection. I filled in the new form, changing my address from Home Street in Winnipeg to my new address in Victoria. The clerk then checked off my forms as an amendment, but what do I know about their procedures. I knew there was a problem last week when Colleen called and said she was still getting my mail. This week – a full four week later – I got the new forms back with a printout of what seems to be a Canada Post intranet FAQ about amendments. It seems that amendments are possible – and free – before the redirection starts. Once the redirection starts, the customer is supposed to cancel it and purchase a new mail redirection.
I went to the post office and showed the clerk what I had received in the mail. I pointed out that I had paid the fees and given them a day time phone number on the forms. I wondered, if what they wanted, was for me to come in and cancel the first redirection, why my forms had been sent back. I didn’t get an answer. To the credit of the employee at the counter and her supervisor, no one said that this was my fault.
Canada Post doesn’t seem to train its employees in what should be fairly common procedures.

Moving Day – Actual

The move was rescheduled, and the movers came on Friday March 3, 2006. The house was packed. I had set aside things to bring with me in the car – some cooking utensils, some plates and bowls to be able to start housekeeping in Victoria, a couple of suits, a supply of clean shirts, some casual clothes. I had set aside one bike, supplies for bike maintenance, helmet, shoes etc to be able to start cycling on arrival.

Continue reading “Moving Day – Actual”

Moving Day – Planned

Blog entries have been scarce since the New Year.
I have listed and sold my house, which involved a thorough cleaning and staying out of the way as the purchasers visited with their agents. I have moved Claire into her first apartment.
I have been packing and getting ready to move. The movers will pick up my stuff, if all goes according to the last plan, next Tuesday February 28. I have had a few valedictory dinners. I have refused to have any functions at work. Complicated story. No time, mixed feelings.
As I am leaving, I am hearing stories that the Province needs to hire many lawyers to fill vacancies in Criminal Prosecutions and to staff Legal Aid offices. Private law firms are complaining they can’t get the people they want. What’s wrong with legal profession in Manitoba? Greedy, cheap, smug, oblivious and headed for more trouble.
I will have to review these processes after I get to Victoria. I may not post any entries until early March, after I arrive.