April 2023 Monthly Entry
The spring rain has been here since last month, on and off. Some days are sunny and overcast, but it isn't long when rain comes back in. The days are warm and the nights aren't freezing cold at least. The cherry blossoms have been blooming since earlier in the month.
Since the last local BLUF gathering in March was a success, I've decided to set up another one before the weather gets too warm. It is scheduled May 13 and it is exactly the same thing as before: dinner at the Fountainhead Pub at 7pm, then head on over to the Pumpjack Pub for the VML social at 9pm with cigars outside at 10pm if it isn't raining. We'll see how it goes this time.
The spring break scrub at Montecito was mostly good on my end. The first week was prepping my classrooms upstairs: wiping all desks and taking out all stains, changing all heater filters and vacuuming inside them (in fact, one of the tradesmen remarked how clean one of the heaters were as he had to service one in a smaller room), quick wiping down of all chairs, washing all inside windows (just within reach height), thorough disinfecting of the washrooms, spot clean walls, thorough sweeping of all floors, vacuuming all rugs, move some furniture and desks out of the way, etc. The second week of the break was to finish all that up and then dedicate time to autoscrubbing all the classroom floors. Compared to the fuck up of last year that really upset me, I was on course to finish everything on my own. Tuesday the 21st, I began scrubbing some of the classrooms floors. My foreman, once again, is so antsy that my rooms weren't completely done and that I haven't prioritized scrubbing the hallways and getting the washrooms done early, decides that I needed help. So Wednesday the next day, two ladies who worked with me last summer scrub came to my school and helped me out. They thought they would need to be with me all day to help me catch up, but once they found out that all my classrooms were done and only needed the floors scrubbed and furniture put back, they only needed to stay half the day. While I went and worked on cleaning my washrooms, they scrubbed the last four classrooms and then helped me scrub the hallway to finish. In fact, they called my foreman during lunch and let him know that I hardly needed help as I had done the majority of the work beforehand! He then assigned them to another school (I think Burnaby Mountain, as I heard there was a lack of direction in the scrub and very little was getting done) for the rest of the day. For the rest of spring break, I had little left to do. So why was my foreman pushing us to get things done by the end of Thursday? The answer: for all of us to go to a potluck lunch at Cariboo on Friday, similar to last year. One could argue it was a nice gesture, but this was not required. What if I got my work done early and didn't attend? I suppose I should be grateful, but it was a small slap toward me. It proves he cannot get over what happened last year and that I can get the job done on time. The last thing to mention about the break was that my co-worker Jay did the rooms in my run downstairs. I honestly felt he could have put more effort in them as I noticed some missed stuff. Ah well.
As I mentioned in my entry on Smokeout about my car, its been having problems lately. According to a mechanic my father took it to last week, there are multiple problems with it. The highlight was the power steering and oil pump need to be fixed or replaced. It will cost over $3000 for those plus one or two other things. It would cost more to fix my car than the current value of it. I have to face the music and retire the car I've owned for over five years. It's a shame as I was hoping to drive it for another three years before retiring it for something better. Since I cannot sell a car that no longer works, I'll be donating it to the Kidney Foundation of Canada and get a tax receipt instead. For now, I'm driving my father's van as I'm on his insurance. We are looking at SUV's in $10,000-20,000 range with mileage under 150,000km. It's going to suck being under a car payment plan or bank loan and cut into my nest egg for the down payment, but I have no choice. I hope by next month's entry, that I'll have my third-owned car.
Getting toward the end of the film series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 is a little slow, but does have decent suspense. Things pick up more in Deathly Hallows Part 2, which gives a satisfying finale to the series. Hagrid in both films doesn't get much screen time. In Part 1, he gets decent use at the beginning, but then you don't see him again until much later in Part 2. With that said, these final films lack bearish characters. The only major exception was Aberforth Dumbledore, the younger brother of Albus, played by Irish actor Ciaran Hinds. While I knew Harry would survive by the end, I figured (and wished) he would become the Headmaster of Hogwarts years later. I didn't think he would get married and have children. But a happy ending is a happy ending.
I overall thought the eight Harry Potter films were pretty decent. I can see why kids and adults did like them over a decade ago. Since I've not read the books, I've heard they are better than the films and some content could not be put on film while others were altered from the source material. With the recently announced Harry Potter TV show by HBO Max going to come out someday, will it be a more faithful adaption of the books since more screen time can be given? Will the new actors do almost as well as the original film actors? How about the portrayal of the bearish characters? Guess we'll see. It'll be hard for anyone to beat the late-Robbie Coltrane as Hagrid.
I'm in the post-game of Dragon Quest Heroes and not sure when I will be done. The game is getting very difficult so I'll see what I can accomplish before calling it quits and review it. I barely started Shantae, but will devote time to it after DQ Heroes. I've had no time to watch any of my TV shows, so no progress there. I am planning on watching The Super Mario Bros. Movie in theatres and will give it my review next month.
Last Movie: Spider-Man: No Way Home (Theatrical), Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 (CraveTV)
Last Book: The C.S. Lewis Signature Classics - The Screwtape Letters
Last Game: BioShock Infinite (Xbox One)
Current Book: The C.S. Lewis Signature Classics - Miracles
Current Games: Dragon Quest Heroes: The World Tree's Woe and the Blight Below (PS4) & Shantae (3DS Virtual Console - GBC)