Filed under: From Bachelor To The 'Burbs
Our family, like anyone’s, has house rules. While I’m of the firm belief that these rules must be enforced, I try to do them with as little venom as possible. It doesn’t really make much difference to Hailey and Liam, I guess, but while I’m sticking to my guns I’m not doing it to be mean. I’m sure the girl currently crying upstairs doesn’t really give a crap.
Hailey is crying because she won’t be joining us for dinner this evening. One of our foremost house rules states that if you complain about dinner, you won’t be having any. I started this rule a year or so ago when the kids were whining about not liking what Tania was serving. I believe Hailey has now paid the price of an empty stomach three times while Liam trails a close second with two. It’s helped us, and while I feel bad that Hack and Slash whine themselves out of a meal a few times a year, it’s cut out all complaining about dinner.
I thought I’d share our house rules here to see if any of you have similar or unique ones, or if you just think I’m bloody crazy for having these ones. Here they are:
NO POTTY TALK AT THE TABLE. I don’t know why, but kids everywhere think talk about poop is pretty funny. You talk about it at the table, though, and you’re gone from it. You’re expected to put your plate on the counter and leave, and there’s nothing else for the rest of the night. This one came up because Tania can’t stand this kind of talk at dinner, and it seemed we couldn’t get through a meal without the word ‘poo’ coming up. It’s worked well for us.
NO ELBOWS ON THE TABLE. You don’t get sent away for having elbows on the table, but you get told about them. I want the kids to have good table manners like I was taught, and elbows on the table is a big one for me… like chewing with your mouth open or talking with your mouth full. I cringe when they goto other people’s houses, wondering what they must think.
NO AGENDA? FORGET YOUR HOMEWORK? YOU GET EXTRA HOMEWORK. The kids get agendas signed by the teachers to send home every day. If you don’t bring it home, we don’t know what kind of day you’ve had, and you’re getting a page of homework from our at-home homework books. If you forgot your homework, you’re getting homework from that book as well. The former was to get Liam to bring his agenda home [his teacher was commenting in it and he didn't want us to see]; the latter was to get them to bring their homework home [the idea being that if you're getting it at home, there's no sense leaving it at school and saying 'Oops, I forgot it.']
KEEP YOUR ROOM CLEAN. As I tell the kids, I don’t care if you don’t clean your room, but you’re not doing other fun stuff until it’s clean. Basically, that means no going outside or playing with the neighbourhood kids until it’s cleaned up. They aren’t bad at keeping their rooms clean and clear, though they moan about having to do it.
Wow, I sound more like my dad every day.
- BC
Filed under: Work
So I have this new job, and I must tell you about it.
I am a Facilities Director at one of the largest companies in the world [I'm avoiding names for a reason], and the HQ is my domain. All maintenance, porter and cleaning personnel are mine, and I’m in charge organizing and rolling out the national contracts that contractors have with the regional offices from coast to coast. It’s not a huge deal by any means, but it’s a central one… and today is the first day I’ve really enjoyed it.
This is Barry. He’s a buddy from the little inner circle of cool kids who works there, and paid me a nice compliment today by telling me I’m doing well in my job. I hope that’s the general perception. I’m really trying to please the client representative by responding quickly and efficiently to her requests, and I think I’m starting to do that. In fact, I’m more worried right now about getting all the scope of work from the Sodexho front done than I am about managing the client stuff. And baby, there is a LOT of work. My hours are long, which is fine right now, but sometimes the sheer scope of it is almost overwhelming. I felt it all click a little bit today, though, so who knows, right?
To be honest, I’m afraid to like it. I’m always very pensive starting new things, and I really want to succeed here, and somehow I’m afraid that if I start to dig it a lot I’m going to jinx myself and be told to get the hell out of their very cool building. It’s been a rough start, too, because no one really knows the procedure facilities uses [the last FMA left before I started], and there’s the pressure of a lot of client management of the department, and there’s problems with staff from top to bottom with unnecessary overtime, personality conflicts and turnover. I’m trusting I’ll get by, but there’s a lot of work in this little office of mine… though I don’t suppose you get to have your name on the door of one if you’re not here to work. [Incidentally, I like my little office: while it's not huge, it's still big enough for pals to drop in and see you. That's my buddy Kevin there, who works at Rogers and golfs with me a lot].
Anyhow, it’s an experience. Good people [Ben, Mark, Gord, Dave, Jen... I'll tell you about them later], good client [Barby seems tough but fair at the same time], a near-invisible employer [Sodexho's not omnipresent]… and it’s sink or swim time. And I’ve got a family to think about, so I better start treading water.
- BC
Filed under: Holidays
Remembrance Day isn’t a stat holiday, but it outta be.
I had a great uncle Reg who fought in World War I. In the time since his passing [he died in his nineties in the Veteran's Wing of Sunnybrook Hospital] I’ve learned that he was part of the British Expeditionary Force and ended up in the 170th Battalion. I don’t know the Regiment, unfortunately, but I actually have a copy of his Attestation Paper – the document of his enlistment, which he signed when he was nineteen – and you can see HERE, if you’re interested.
Uncle Reg was shot in the shoulder at Vimy Ridge, the site of perhaps Canada’s most notorious battle of WWI. He was captured by the Germans and taken to Dusseldorf, where he spent the remainder of the war in in POW camp. Although he never told me anything horrid that happened there, I’m told it wasn’t pleasant. I have his father’s diary as well, which says they were told he was dead three days before they were told he was a prisoner. I can’t imagine what a horrible feeling that must have been, thinking he was dead; they were lucky, in the end, where so many of their neighbours were not.
Each year I try head down to City Hall and watch the ceremonies at 11 o’clock, and spend the time trying to wrap my head around what the veterans who fought in the wars we’ve fought sacrificed. The point of this post is to say that I hope you all take a moment in your own way to remember those who died so that we could live free. Whether you’re Democrat, Republican, Liberal, Conservative, Canadian, American, Japanese or German, it doesn’t matter: from failing hands they’ve thrown the torch, and it’s ours to hold high.
***
A couple of years ago, Tracy [whom I miss dearly] made me a Remembrance Day CD from her great music collection. Although I ultimately picked these songs, credit for the introduction I got to many of them is solely Tracy’s. If you ever want to make one of your own, here’s what’s on mine:
1] In Flander’s Fields – John McDermott
2] The Maple Leaf Forever
3] Recruiting Sargeant – Great Big Sea
4] The Making of Tipperary - Seamus Kennedy
5] Ain’t Gonna Jump No More – Oscard Brand Military Folk
6] The Green Fields of France – Sons of Maxwell
7] Johnny Come Lately – Steve Earle with The Pogues
8] Battle Hym of the Republic - Joan Baez
9] And The Band Played Waltzing Matilida – The Pogues
10] Gallipoli – The Balladeers
11] Sargeant Where’s Mine – Billy Connolly
12] Remembrance Day - Bryan Adams
13] Sink The Bismarck – Johnny Horton
14] Flowers of the Forest
15] North Atlantic Squadron – Stompin’ Tom Connors
16] Long Way To Tipperary
17] Brothers In Arms – Dire Straits
- BC
- Thanks Tracy
- Thanks, Uncle Reg
A Pittance of Time
On November 11, 1999 Terry Kelly was in a Shoppers Drug Mart store in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. At 10:55 AM an announcement came over the store’s PA asking customers who would still be on the premises at 11:00 AM to give two minutes of silence in respect to the veterans who have sacrificed so much for us.
Terry was impressed with the store’s leadership role in adopting the Legion’s “two minutes of silence” initiative. He felt that the store’s contribution of educating the public to the importance of remembering was commendable.
When eleven o’clock arrived on that day, an announcement was again made asking for the “two minutes of silence” to commence. All customers, with the exception of a man who was accompanied by his young child, showed their respect.
Terry’s anger towards the father for trying to engage the store’s clerk in conversation and for setting a bad example for his child was channeled into a beautiful piece of work called, “A Pittance of Time”.
To all the veterans of all of the wars, and to all the soldiers and all the peacekeepers who wear the uniform today, thank you. And Uncle Reg? We miss you, sir.
- BC
Filed under: Work
I’m not so sure about this new job.
For starters, I’m a little concerned that I haven’t been given the tools to do my new job effectively. I am unfamiliar with the programs I’m expected to use, for one; my boss was away the first four days of my job, and upon his return I’ve discovered he doesn’t know them either [he was filling the position while it was vacant, and is not an FM]. That’s not insurmountable – I can learn them from others, and figure them out myself – but it’s troubling, and it’s not my only concern.
On another front, my boss told me to ask the client about some things on my desk he didn’t have the answer for. But when I asked the client for an hour of her time to go over them, she had no interest in assisting me. If I find that [your boss] could have assisted you with this, she wrote to me in response to my request, I will be very unhappy. If I’d been at this company for awhile, I’m sure I would either be pissed off or able to shrug it off. As it stands, that response just sort of baffles me and makes me gulp.
I’m also facing the problem of feeling micro-managed by the client. There is a ton of email that I don’t need coming my way from the client, and it’s turning me into an administrator instead of a manager. This isn’t what I signed on for, and I’m not happy with it. I come from an environment where I was given a task in what I like to call fire-and-forget management, where someone would say take care of this and I would do it in an efficient and fiscally responsible way. At the new company, the vendor manager seems involved every step of the way, and it really slows me down. Ten hour days to keep on top of things aren’t appealing to me.
On the upside, though, I like the other vendors in the building. They’ve all been both helpful and friendly, and I think I’m fitting in well. I like having a core group of work pals to comiserate with, although I was a little surprised to learn they have a pool for how long I’ll stay [as I am manager number four in the last few years].
I hope I haven’t made a tactical error in taking this job. I guess we’ll see.
- BC
