Health And Stuff….Fri 8:00ayem.
Just getting ready to get a start on next week’s column, checked the clock, oooops….and I gotta call ‘time out’ to skip over to Paris Life Labs and do my ‘ongoing quarterly bloodwork thing’ for diabetes, liver, kidneys, malaria, scurvy, diptheria, leprosy, St Vita`s Dance, he-be-jeebies and cetera, so…..I shall return, OK?
Well, I Didn’t Return….Yesterday….
….and it’s Sat 5:45AM as I reclaim my chair in front of the new ‘Acer’ PC here at “F/N”HQ. Firstly, I set a new record at Life Labs!….in and out in TEN minutes!…. 3 vials of blood and a pee sample! Life’s part of a beautiful medical building/complex that I’m guessing not a whole lot of people know about .Yet. AND….TA-DA!….it’s Free Parking! whilst most/all other such facilities are gonna stick you for $4/$5 bucks or more. Except for that Clinic down on St Paul Ave….it’s only $3.00….when it’s working!! You may recall it WASN’T working (wouldn’t take my money….kept shooting it out on the ground….or lift its arm) for yours truly after my two-legged Ultra-Sound last December, hence Rotzy rather ungraciously ‘removed’ its arm. Thus giving 3 or 4 paying customers behind me an early Xmas Present! Ho!Ho!Ho! Don’t muck around with the oldsters.
Signs Of The Tymes
They’re here, they’re there, they’re everywhere! Out front of office buildings; great big factories; small independent garages; shops like Midas*tm; little retail shoppes and boutiques; big Box stores; grocery stores, groceterias, groceramas, and supermarkets; COSTCO’s; Amazon; Bars/Grills and restaurants; ALL fast-food places….McD’s to Tacos ‘R Us to Wings & Things; Drug Stores, especially the Rexall Rotzy deals with; /Apothecaries; Cannabis stores; LCBO and The Beer Store;….(I didn’t mention health care givers as that’s another story)….on giant billboards and of course TV and Radio….all of them saying/reading/pleading ”NOW HIRING/APPLY WITHIN”!!….SKILLED OR UNSKILLED (we’ll fully train you) Excellent wages AND benefits. ”SO, are the signs working”? you ask. ‘NOT’, it says here, otherwise they would have taken them down long ago. The signs. Well folks, aside from going after the ‘skilled and unskilled’ some of the struggling ‘smaller’ industries and/or businesses, following ”Now Hiring/Apply Within”, right after ‘Unskilled’ have added other ‘incentives for people to apply’….such as Unemployed?, altho that is pretty much ‘a given’, is it not? There’s more….Unmotivated? Unintelligent/Unwise, therefor Untrainable? (Previously) Unhireable? Unbondable? Untrustable? Hey, that just about does it, don’t it? So….SO…..I said (to myself) ”Well Toad, the problem here is plain as the nose on your face, and your ‘honker’ is pretty “F/N” plain…..Canada doesn’t want to work! Nothing new, but surely it was aided (for lack of a better word) by COVID. Now, 3rd and 4th generation families…..what did they call it during The Depression?…. ‘on the dole’….getting Welfare are still/always commonplace and that won’t change. Ever. It’s been around for a couple thousand years but Rotzy’s betting that our recipients in 2022 are faring far better than those in the Roman Empire days B.C. So….SO….the thing ‘depressing’ yours truly in 2022 A.D. was/is governments decisions ‘to loan/pay/GIVE people (non-repayable) loans (for not working) during COVID. And….WORSE still for SO many “F/N” reasons it’s ridiculous….is to pay people to work AT HOME. Then thinking/believing that their level of productivity/quality of work won’t suffer…..working the same number of days and hours a week. Doing GREAT with little/zero supervision. And they don’t think about cracking the Chardonnay before 500PM. C’mon man! Of course in reality you’re steering clear of those places that are pushing for a FOUR DAY work week….altho THAT scenario would/will happen at actual workplaces…..because you and your ‘homers’ are doing THREE days as it is. Barely. At home. Here’s an ‘issue’ that working at home was/is directly responsible for….it was thoroughly traced and is indeed ‘fact’. A City of Toronto employee….working at home….has just released 1000 new taxi drivers onto the streets of Tronna. OK? That’s good because, of course, T.O. cab companies are also “Now Hiring”. But THIS group’s ‘training’ was to watch a 15 minute video!….that’s it, that’s all. Hello? There was no THREE WEEK TRAINING COURSE. Hello again? That is worrisome. And it definitely reflects the ‘quality of a stay-at-homer’s work’. Or the lack of it. Were that ‘incident’ within the public sector, somebody’s ass would have been fired!! Bye the bye, if you happen to be ‘cabbing’ in and around Toronto these days…..well, enjoy! And good luck!! If the driver can’t find Union Station, I’d pay him/her, ‘excuse myself’, and take The Red Rocket.
Rotzy Arrived Home At Harris Place….
Last Thurs aft to a scene of ‘much confusion’ (*see below) in the front lobby. Several fellow residents/neighbours and virtually most/all staff members had gathered….although the latter weren’t ‘virtual’, they were for real. Alas, the power had gone OFF and Robin (not her real name) was dispatching them in pairs to various buildings/locations to make sure all was well, and I must say it was done in a very ‘organized’ fashion. Kinda like Fire Drills we used to have at Major Ballachey P.S. here in Brant’s Ford. The chatter/whining/bitching amongst the group started….”how long THIS tyme? the last one was an hour or more”! “Henry (not his real name) and me thought it would never end, but FINALLY the lights came on just before supper”. Imagine. And on and on it went….to the point Rotzy had to suppress a ‘far cough’ and instead came up with ”you folks don’t know a blackout from Adam”! Why, I could tell you stories ”From Nakina” that would curl your hair/blow your mind, as well as your fusebox….outages are virtually….no, they’re really…. a ‘part of life’ up there. Blackouts, brownouts, back-up generators and cetera. Spoiled meats and ice cream, melted walleye fillets and ice cubes, ‘cept in winter! (then they can go in garbage bags out on your deck/porch….but watch for the enemy….fox, lynx and wolves! I still recall one RAINY fall week being without power for almost THREE days, generators running non-stop all over town. We even had regularly scheduled Hydro One ‘Planned Outages’….all too regularly….all seasons, always on Sundays, from 9:00AM to 3:00 or 4:00PM. That was nice (NOT) in Jan for those who had oil/propane furnaces but Miz. Jo and Rotzy heated virtually/really/exclusively with our woodstove….we even cooked Sunday dinner on it at tymes. Well, at this point Henry (not his real name) said something to the effect that most of what I’d said ”is buls–t”. So….so I (VERY politely) replied….”Hey, Hank….(nobody calls him ‘Hank’. Ever.) I’m just saying how good we have it here and how well prepared the provider is when it comes to losing power….then yours truly ‘had a little slip’ as I shot him a ‘far cough’….a little more ’emphatic’ than intended. Ah well…you can take the olde guy out of Nakina….but you ca……………………..ah s–t, you know how it goes, right?!
*Thought Of The Day…Little Boy Blue Come Blow Your Horn, And if You Get Good Enough, Doc Severinson Just Hung Up HIS Trumpet Last Weekend! (Grim Fairy Tale)
