Idiots on the Roads

Majority of people in Canada are good drivers and follow the driving rules and that's based on years of driving but there's one problem that most of them have: They can driver within the posted speed limit! Alberta RCMP issued more than 70,000 tickets to speeders last year alone! That is crazy! 

With that in mind, I was going home this afternoon, on a 110 Km/h Primary Highway and I was doing only 100 km/h when al of a sudden the front car's break light was on! I hit the break and because I always a safe distance, nothing happened and I kept going after reducing my speed. A mile or two up, while in congestion, I saw a car at its side away from the road while a police van was parked close to it! How could you lose the control, go out of the road and end up at your side unless you're driving fast and paying not attention to what you're doing! 

Same scene was witnessed on the same highway a couple of weeks ago with this difference that the fool was at its side on lane 3!! That makes me so angry as these idiots wastes other people's time buy driving carelessly. Imagine you have worked for 9 freaking hours and all you want to do is to get home and relax and a fool gets him/herself in accident and the road is shut! Wouldn't you want to punch that person in the head?! 

I was leaving Galveston in Nov. of 2021, heading to Austin on a Toyota Camry that I had rented and an idiot, driving a big truck and trailer in its back drove by very fast in the next lane and missed me by about a meter and got in front of me and then immediately hit an SUV in front of me! The good thing, for me, not for the poor SUV driver(!), is (or perhaps I should say was!) that I had left the lane by taking a steep right fork shortly before the accident. So when the SUV got hit, it actually rolled down the short hill between the road it was in and the road that I just had gotten in but stopped rolling all the way down to the road and in front of me. So I was safe. This again was the result of driving fast.

(Photo, top: This vehicle as you can see was on its side next to the guard rail of the median of the highway, I took it while driving by slowly and wile my window was up because it was cold!)

The party will soon be over

High cost of living in every aspect of life has been everyone's talk for the past year or so. Perhaps I should not say everyone. Most of the people would sound correct. I have been spending excessively on unnecessary things for too long, shortly after I got this position in last May but the party will be over soon! The project is scheduled to be handed to the client in Aug. and the majority of people will be on their own, including me. Imagine spending just $1.75 on a cup of coffee (which actually is more than that!) every freaking morning, which is the thing that many people do and even more than that and you work only 5 days a week, You would pay $35 a month for the damn beverage which equals to many people's 1 week of transportation. Mine is a little higher than that now that they have increased the Carbon Tax. 

Lewis Smith as Stuckey in a scene of Southern Comfort, a movie from 1984, another all time favorite of mine. The site is not as bad as this but you could get socked up to your ankle if you don't have proper footwear 

There's nothing more to post but misery! The entire month of Mar. was spent on the damn work, mostly outdoor in the temperature range of -20 ℃ to -5 ℃ (-4 ℉ to 23 ℉) where the ground condition resembles the Louisiana swamp in Southern Comfort! I once told one of the client representatives, a fat body, that there are only two challenges on this work-site:

1) Weather

2) People

You don't have to be much experienced or educated! Just cover yourself and avoid idiots and asshole and you'd be fine. That'd be my method to the end of the project. Adding to that is saving on everything possible. The thing is this time that is now available to us, will never be back. I read just recently that Stephen King said in an interview that " Time is like water which is dripping between our fingers! We never are able to hold it!

(Photo, top: Stephen King and his famous novel, The Shining, which a movie of the same name was made by Stanley Kubrick in 1980, one of my all time favorites)

Flashback (37): Captain Morgan

There hasn't been anything but going to that nasty toilet and doing the disgusting job in the past few weeks. I was told that the end of Aug. would be the end of the project. I knew that from a different source but I'm glad that I received confirmation. It's good that I cancelled the European trip! Would have lost, probably, as much as $2000! Not to mention that my $1200 (and the change, as it is repeatedly said in Clear and Present Danger!) cost of the trip has not been refunded! I just have it as a credit! With that in mind, I thought I should write about one of the fellas that I worked with for a while back in British Columbia day from 2008 to 2010, I think it was. 

This was a poor old man who had been retired already and was spending his late 60's on that job to be able to earn ends meet! He had worked hard labour jobs his entire life, including working in Houston, British Columbia which is a small town more than 1000 Km north of the Lover Mainland. He used to bring us the old, almost torn apart, small photographs of himself in those days and telling us stories! Everyone was laughing at the pour guy and making fun of him behind his back, mimicking him, including repeating his story about the time that he went from Lover Mainland to Salmon Arms on one tank of gas with his Toyota Tercel! 

I have to do everything possible to make sure I don't end up like him or anyone in that age range whom I see everyday on the job working outdoor with shabby and dirty cloths, cigarette between their lips, faces not shaped and even washed at times(!) and hairs never combed and groomed!  

He once got mad at me as I interrupted his call while we were at work. Everyone calls their family during the working hours but I was a different fella back then. Beside I was really sick of him being slow and lazy but what could you expect from an old man! He got mad an that was the first time that I heard the term " Piss on you "! He said that he was talking with his daughter who had Leukemia. I feel ready bad now that I know what he was going through.

I saw him a few years later once we were in British Columbia with The Lady. He had held a guy with a sort of special and unique car and was talking to him about that! That's what usually old people do! That was him! That was Captain Morgan! That was the nickname the supervisor had given him. The very same supervisor who later was fired! That is another story which might be told later but many people in Canada are like Captain Morgan. They have to work even past the age of retirement to be able to manage their lives and many are sick. His wife was suffering from Emphysema which was the result of years being exposed to second hand smoke. This also is a bad disease which basically means the patient's lung tissue has been damaged over the years. I hope he's doing okay these days.   

(Photo: Captain Morgan is a 35% alcoholic beverage or to be exact spiced rum. I don't know how popular it is here in Canada and I don't think I have ever tried it but I know it's named after a Welsh privateer) 

Flashback (36): Boarding a Bus with a Can!

Hypocrisy is being practiced all around the world more than anything else including democracy! There's no doubt about it. Not to mention that the thing they call it democracy in West, in countries such as Canada and the US will not fit into many other countries such as, I don't know, Afghanistan! 

Canadians always say to avoid stereotyping and I have written about it before but they are master of the job! This little story occurred probably more than 15 years ago but for some reason came to mind and I thought to say it here because there's not much going on! 

I just had left the work and was walking toward a bus station. There was a convenient store on my way. I stopped by and purchased a can of vegetable juice, opened it and started drinking while continuing my walk to the bus stop. The bus arrived shortly after I reached the stop. I was going to get in and the driver went: Not with that in your hand! I answered by saying: What's wrong with this?! He looked closer and then said: Oh! Okay! Get in! Obviously he had thought that it was a can of Beer! These people here they have all sorts of speculations and assumptions! Why? Simply because they're not open-minded! They're field of vision is very limited! These are the people who, after more than 150 years, still call the Native people of North America, Indians! How stupid is that? It's obvious that the people who have not gone passed Las Vegas or at the most, one of the resorts in Mexico, do not have the capability to understand that not everyone shall be dependent on alcohol and drugs which many of the Canadians are! If I'm walking with a can in my hand in the late evening hours when the sun is almost down, People would assume that I'm holding a can of Beer because that's what Canadians mostly do! I have even seen people on a bus with a paper bag wrapped around their booze, sitting and drinking! 

(Picture: V8 has been the subject of this discussion whether it is a healthy beverage or not. It's not covered here. All I can say that I have not drunk this or any juice for that matter for a very long time, unless I made that juice myself at home but that's me!)

Useless Money

This job that I have been doing since last May has gotten a bit easier now that they put someone to help me although he's more of a screw up than help! It's not too much work and the money is okay but had I been gotten the job that I was originally offered, I would've made an extra  $5 every hour that I have been working there! 

That said, most of this money is useless and I can't spend! I have to save it. Most of my earning has been sitting in the account and I only pay for food and gasoline. The home money is automatically taken out. I can't buy anything unless it's absolutely essential, such as food and gasoline, as I said. And of course occasional maintenance for the car because without that I'm paralyzed! I bought a ticket for Europe before the new year and booked a number of hotels. Cancelled them all just recently! Air Canada keeps your money as a voucher and you can use it later but the money for the hotels are gone! Why did I do that? Because in this toilet that I have trapped myself in(!), having job security is only possible if your work for McDonald's and such, are a good ass-kisser or are Caucasian!

This project will be ended in Aug. and I'm certain that most of the people will be kicked out. Labourer's which consist most of the workforce will easily a job somewhere but I know I'll be struggling. So I started job searching and studying again! I need to overcome this beast before it's too late! 

There's this young Korean fella whom I associate with at time through work. He was once telling me: You're experienced. You'd be fine. You would get a position soon! I was about to burst into laughter and say: Tell it to the asshole employers who for no reason, turned me down! 

(Photo: Money confiscated by law enforcement in Canada as being suspicious for laundering is used for illustration purposes only. My money is in bank!)

Thrift Peak in Feb.

Stout surprised me by saying that he wanted to finish the hike of Thrift Peak with me, this past week! We had an attempt last year which led to getting lost in the woods and he panicking! Later he thanked me for getting him out and back home to his family, alive, although we got home 5 hours later that the scheduled time! I agreed to his suggestion and we headed south on Highway #22 in an unusually mild morning of Feb. 

This time I had my shiny GPSMAP 64® with me and despite the stupidity and negativity that Stout was emitting(!) I was hopeful to make the summit. We parked at the same exact spot that we had parked the last time, which led to the unsuccessful hike and getting lost(!) and followed the trail. The only difference this time was the fact that we had a clearer understanding of our area by using the GPS. Stout was trying to use an App he had installed on his phone and a silly little compass he had purchased but he didn't have a grasp of the App and the stupid compass was not working and eventually fell apart! Following the GPS we finally got on the actual trail and headed up on a steep trail but after a little while the strong wind hit us and when I say strong, I really mean strong! Neither of us are small guys. Stout must be at least 200 Lbs and I think I'm something around 175 Lbs but we were barely able to hold ourselves! A few meters up someone had made a shelter. Stout hunched over and started begging me(!) to go back down! He was worried to face the dark and get lost again! I thought he was right and it was not worth the risk and agreed to go back. It was almost 12:00 and we had about 3.6 Km to hike to reach the summit which would have taken anything from 1.5 to 2 hours depending the status of the trail, the exposure we would have to face and wind. 

Hill of Bob Creek Wildland where Thrift Peak is located. I like the blue sky in this photo

Our walk back to the parking spot didn't have anything special. We took a few pictures and we were just make sure that we are taking the same route that we had taken in the morning. 

We reached the car at about 15:46 and considering the hike had been started at 08:06, approximately, we finished our hike after 07:06 hours. We made a decision to go back and make it to the summit one later, soon! 

(Photo, top: Stout is dragging himself up in the strong wind, getting help from the hiking poles. We ended our hike somewhere close this spot)