April 2018 Monthly Entry
This spring has been starting off quite overcast and rainy at times. But it seems places like Calgary and Toronto are still getting snow storms! WTF? The temperature has certainly risen on the occasional sunny day here and some cherry blossom trees are around.
I saw my doctor just before Easter to let him know about the accident I had in February and he took a few notes for my file. I asked him about going to the sleep clinic at UBC due to my sleep apnea which has been going on for over 5 years. He couldn't recommend UBC as they are so backed up, it would take a year to have an appointment. He recommended instead someone in Burnaby and the secretary would get in contact with me once they set up an appointment. I will be given a device to monitor my sleep patterns at home (instead of spending a night at a clinic) and then the results would be given to the doctor, who will program a CPAP machine for me. I then requested my usual HIV/Syphilis test and then proceeded to ask about Truvada (PrEP) as some gay men were getting into it. He explained it to me and said I can likely be qualified to be in the program. The good news is that since I don't engage in much sex, I don't have to take it every day. I can take it "on-demand" instead. If the possibility of sex -particularly barebacking - may or is going to happen, then I take the medication before it happens for protection from HIV infection. If play happens, then I take the medication for the next two days. If no play, then no need to take it. I went to St. Paul's afterwards to do my blood and urine tests. Some days later, I got a phone call that I was accepted into the PrEP program as my tests came out negative and that the meds are free. I picked up my first 30 pills last Friday.
The spring scrub last month wasn't too hard. Working with my co-worker, Ash, wasn't bad and we accomplished quite a bit. We wiped all the desks, all surfaces around the classrooms, swept and scrubbed the floors (only the rooms with tile were waxed afterwards), and whatever else we could do in 7 days. The rugs weren't shampooed as it is not the time of year to do it due to the smell that can emanate from it. So, I gave them a good vacuum after the floors were scrubbed. On Tuesday, March 20 around half the custodians were at Burnaby Central for 4 hours of talks from the higher ups. It was pretty similar to what we had two years ago. The talks were mostly boring though we got to see our new faculties manager, Ken, who was puggy and his tight shirt showed the lining of his man-boobs - WOOF! Too bad he's straight as he's the ex-husband of the sub-foreman at Burnaby Mountain. I wasn't much of an early riser and since the talks were mostly boring, I fell asleep and snored during one of the talks, practically embarrassing myself as one the women I sat next to -that was hired with me in 2015- woke me up! I think a few giggled but during a break, a couple understood my nodding off. Also during the break, I got to talk to Drew, the shop steward about my car accident and the circumstances that led to it. Before it was over, there was a session to help those who needed to know how to log onto the system and check their email. I helped a few people in this. One guy has never checked it before and his Inbox was full. I think the last email he got was in late 2015 so for over a couple of years, everything else bounced back. We deleted and emptied all those emails so he could get fresh new ones. Ash and I went back to Montecito for the last half of that shift. By next Wednesday and Thursday I worked at Brentwood Park, Capitol Hill, and Sperling. For the 4-day long Easter weekend, I didn't do anything and just stayed home.
Last Friday was both a physically and emotionally taxing night on me. I had to wake up earlier than usual to drive and park my car at Brentwood Mall, transit downtown, pick up my HIV-prevention meds, transit back, and go to work after having lunch at the mall. Doing Rosser was easy but once I got to Montecito and was about to begin, two of my foreman came not long after. I suspected something wasn't right and had a feeling they were going to see me privately soon. I knew this because the previous day, Ash told me that the principal got complaints from the teacher(s) again about my not vacuuming the rugs often as I should. This was strange as I vacuumed the rugs the night before that! Anyways, I'm over a third done the kindergarten portable and I was alone inside when both foreman came in and talked to me. Yep, they had a conversation with the principal who fielded the teacher's complaints to them. I wasn't fearful and I kept my cool. I had to explain to them that I spend a lot of my time sweeping the floors due to how filthy they are every night. They suggested that I do less dusting and instead of doing everything room-by-room - to do jobs first in each room (like take out all garbage first) and then come back and sweep them. They said if I still have problems, they will teach me techniques. If that still doesn't work, I'll have to file a grievance with the union but I don't remember what that entails. The end result is that I cannot shirk responsibility on what the school wants despite the bullshit. We'll see how it goes but the rest of my shift left me angry and demoralized.
Some news on my post-accident: just shy of Easter my father was in contact with Gary the mechanic, and the final bill for everything was $2500. It's still quite a loss on my part but it's $1000 less than what was projected. My father was able to talk him down on the charge and I thanked him for that. It lifted my spirits a bit. He paid for it on my behalf and then I wrote a cheque of $2500 to pay him back in full. The following Easter Monday or the day after, the cheque cleared and -POOF!- $2500 disappeared from my account and ended up in my father's. It's all over now. I will spend the rest of the year putting aside money every paycheque to pay myself back from this.
I was planning on going to Chicago next month for International Mr. Leather 40th Anniversary weekend with my leather family from Wisconsin. The plan was to meet up with them there and stay at a hotel (not the host hotel) near one of the leather bars. But due to the cost of the accident (despite not as much as I originally thought) and now after doing my income taxes last weekend (which I knew would happen), I had to cancel this plan. My previous employer didn't take much of my income off for federal taxes so it contributed to my owing again this year. I compared to my income last year and it was less due to taking more vacation time and getting slightly less shifts for my school board jobs. I paid something like $1270 last year when my taxes were done and I figured I would owe just over $1000 this year. But like the accident, I was off in my projection. I actually owe the CRA about $860. Still quite a bit, and I paid it all in full tonight as my assessment came in online. But at the end of the day, both this and the accident have cost me what would have been a wonderful weekend. I can technically afford it due to other money saved up but I refuse to dip my hand into it. So, I won't really be doing any major travelling from now until summer. I have two booked flights to California already paid for plus one to Baltimore in October but come sometime in June, I have to look into booking the rest of my flights for the rest of the year. It's going to be a major struggle to keep up. This Friday is the last day to put in vacation requests too and I have a couple more requests I want to put in.
It's been two years since April 8th that Daddy David passed away. I didn't go to his burial site this time but I plan to very soon where I will mourn, read scripture, and pray. I still think of David every day, and Kevin too.
A couple weeks ago I watched X-Men Apocalypse on Netflix. I had mixed feelings about this X-Men movie as it looked relatively generic and it didn't seem highly praised compared to Days of Future Past. While I was glad that we finally get the villain Apocalypse in a movie, I found him underwhelming compared to his portrayal in the early 90's animated series and the sheer power of him in the comics. Still, I must appreciate the prosthetics and make up effects on actor Oscar Issac. It's quite good and I can't imagine how hot and tired it must have made him while filming. This movie takes place in 1983, which makes for some fun pop culture tropes at the time. We get more young mutants joining: Jean Grey, Cyclops, Nightcrawler, Psylocke, Storm, etc. The movie is nothing more than "save the world from the big, evil mutant" fare. While certainly one of the weaker of the X-Men movies, it isn't bad and I found some parts entertaining. The post end credits could suggest that Mr. Sinister will probably be the next villain coming soon, though I think the next movie will deal with Jean Grey becoming Phoenix - specifically Dark Phoenix.
I'm still working on Dragon Quest VIII though I can't say when I'll be done. I'm quite far in the game but I think I may be done it next month. Recently, my non-official PS2 controller's right analog stick has become faulty so I'm waiting for a used one to be sent to me from EBay. And speaking of EBay, I purchased Dragon Ball Origins 2 from a guy in Newfoundland but it has been slow arriving. Once I get it, I'll play it a bit so I can work on my review of the game and get it over with. My new Nintendo 2DS (above) has New Super Mario Bros. 2 preloaded in the system and I'm playing it now.
Last Movie: Star Wars: The Last Jedi (IMAX 3D), X-Men: Apocalypse (Netflix)
Last Book: The Complete C.S. Lewis Signature Classics - Mere Christianity
Last Game: Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - Mirror of Fate HD (Xbox 360)
Current Book: The Complete C.S. Lewis Signature Classics - The Screwtape Letters
Current Games: Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King (PS2) & Dragon Ball Origins 2 (DS) & New Super Mario Bros. 2 (3DS)