September 2018 Monthly Entry
For my last east coast trip of the year, I will be in Baltimore, MD from October 5-8 for the International Mr. Leatherbear weekend. It's my first time to Maryland and I'll be joined by Daddy Eric and pup Mufasa from Texas. I know Daddy Eric had a previous Leatherbear title in 2004 but I don't remember if pup Mufasa did. It should be a nice way to spend Canadian Thanksgiving weekend though I originally planned to go to GLUE in Houston again. Maybe some other time.
The last half of August was sunny/overcast but the smoky skies got in the way. Fall seems to have come early as last week was on and off rain and I could see a few trees starting to lose it's leaves. There are even parts of Alberta and BC that got small amounts of snow or nights below freezing temperatures! It usually doesn't get this cold this early, most times it's late September. But snow in September? Bizarre.
My overall thought on this year's summer scrub was more positive than last year's. I didn't have anyone go against me and I got more involved in the work. To finish off from what I wrote last month, we got most of Stoney Creek complete in a short amount of time. But after returning from my holiday in Sacramento, we were in the final week of the scrub and things sort of fell apart. I return to Montecito and find someone has been upkeeping it the previous day (as I returned to work on the Tuesday), which saved me a little work. There was someone with me that day to help upkeep, which was fine. The tradesmen certainly fucked up the school after Ash and I spent all of July cleaning it. We anticipated this but I hoped to spend the rest of the week reversing the damage. But then I get a phone call after a few hours into my shift to go to Rosser for (supposedly) the rest of the week. Okay... so I went and did a little bit of clean up for the rest of the shift. I saw Veronica (whom I met for the first time while we were at Stoney Creek) and she left after I took over. I noticed David and any others who helped with the scrub, did a good job on the school the previous month. I spent all of Wednesday doing a quick clean and helping move furniture around. I come in Thursday and halfway through my shift, I'm sent back to Stoney Creek! The construction workers took down the walls to the one-third of the school on both floors - the part of the school inaccessible before due to their work. So the foreman sent a bunch of us to scramble and work on it. Strangley, I had to return to Stoney Creek on the final day of the scrub and helped for half the day. I was then sent to Armstrong, a school I've never been in (it's not far from where I used to in 2009) and help finalize some things there. I met a custodian who also happened to work at SFU - just a mere year or two before me! We knew some of the guys who worked there and the bullshit we had to put up with. Was a fun conversation and I hope we cross paths in the future to talk more about our bad experiences there. Before the end of my shift, they wanted me to return to Rosser to close up! Groan... I drive over and find one of the foreman was working there and managed to do things I couldn't. There wasn't any point in my coming over as the vice-principal will be shutting the school down so there was lack of communication going on. For all that, I ended up putting in an expense report for all the schools I had to drive to in all of August. But with that, summer scrub 2018 came to an end.
Coming back in after the Labour Day weekend, there was still some stuff that had to be done at Rosser. But I was ever so grateful that any remaining furniture at Montecito that needed to be moved, was no more. While I was irritated for being pulled out the week previous, it worked in my favour, actually. While Ash and I still had some cleaning to do, we were spared the harder jobs. Still, we questioned how much work the custodian did in our place while we were gone. It didn't seem like much. The first week back from school wasn't bad but the previous week wasn't easy. As I mentioned above, it was on and off rain so it meant dirt was going to be tracked in and heavy amounts would be all over the floors and rugs. Sure enough, it happened so extra sweeping and vacuuming for me. Thank goodness the computer lab hasn't been used yet! The change in some classrooms hasn't been easy to deal with, especially one room adding a rug and placing it near the entrance. Back at Rosser, the music room has become a classroom and they moved the instruments to the gym stage where music classes will be. Kind of sucks since that increases work for me but it's not a big deal right now. We'll see how things go for me in both schools when everything goes back to (messy) normal.
Two Friday nights ago as I arrived home from work, I get out of my car and grabbed my phone. I try to put it into my back pocket but missed it and dropped it onto the concrete path. What shocked me was that it shattered the screen! I've dropped my phone on the ground numerous times but it never shattered on me. I don't even think it hit the ground that hard but apparently, it must have hit it in a vulnerable place. The screen still worked but the crack and a few punctures were too noticeable. I searched for a place online that could repair it and found one on Fraser Hwy. So the following afternoon, I drove there and got a quote. If I paid them in cash, it would cost $210 (no tax) to replace the entire screen in just over half an hour - ouch! I figured I had no choice so I agreed and left my phone with them so I could go the nearest VanCity ATM and take out some money. I did so while also picking up my father's birthday card as we were celebrating it after I get home (though his birthday is on the 12th). I returned 45 minutes later and my phone had a brand new screen on. I paid the flat $210 and that was it. I noticed my phone's bottom speaker was affected though. It seems a little fuzzier sounding than before but that could be the consequence of replacing the original screen with the new one or maybe my dropping the phone to begin with affected it. Oh well, I'm just glad it's all over with.
My father celebrated his 69th birthday recently. Happy Bday, Dad! Love as always!
Some sad news... my older sister and brother-in-law's pomeranian dog, Buddy, had to be put down two weeks ago. There was something wrong with his breathing and after taking him to the vet, it was either fork over a lot of money to help him recover or put him down. Since they couldn't afford it, they made the painful decision to let Buddy die peacefully. Out of the three dogs they have, Buddy was the favourite. Even my folks fell in love with him and enjoyed his visits in which my mom would give him creme puffs and small pieces of meat as treats. He was part of the family about 2013. Thanks for all the happiness you brought us, Buddy!
The trial period on my CPAP machine ended last Tuesday so I had to return it to SleepTech, minus the mask. They've now given me the same model except it's brand new! Because of this, they are going to charge Pacific Blue Cross for the amount we were quoted. They are paying around $2500 and I'm paying $500. For my first time doing this, thank God I have my current job and get these benefits! On the same day, I also renewed my car insurance. My friend and ex-Knight Gordon who works in insurance helped me big time. As he found out and what I guessed rightly: it would have cost me $3941 for my annual insurance! But he talked to ICBC and managed to restore my discounts: he got it down to $2344! The night before we met, he managed to get it down even further to the final quote of $1935! I couldn't believe it, he managed to save me $2006! I was super grateful! I gave him my credit card information over the phone and he charged my card that night and then the next day, he drove to Rosser before my shift to finalize everything. I signed some renewal forms and got the decal for my license plate to put on, besides the papers and receipt of payment. Because of how much I saved, I put $1000 (over a week before the transaction) from my Jumpstart account on my credit card to free up some debt and then $2100 to pay this charge. My credit card is almost all paid off and when I'm charged for the CPAP machine, I'll take $500 from my Jumpstart to pay that off and that will end any lingering major charges for the rest of the year. My final trips for 2018 are paid for but those will have some expenses I'll have to work on. I should be mostly okay financially for awhile and I'll keep contributing to my Jumpstart every paycheque. After losing $2500 from my accident earlier this year, it's good that things went full circle despite the loss.
I watched Marvel's Black Panther on Netflix tonight. It wasn't bad, but I don't find the movie as groundbreaking as critics made it out to be. I felt that it did "black-empowerment" wrong at times but to be fair, the movie had a clash of ideologies. The main character, T'Challa, is symbolic of Martin Luther King Jr. while the main antagonist, N'Jadaka, takes from Malcolm X. Of course, we know which of those won the battle for the future of black Americans and made their lives more equal to their white counterparts (hint: it wasn't Malcolm X!). I felt there were one or two parts that seemed racist against whites and the movie is very much pro-feminist at times, regulating women to being strong fighters and scientists while men are mostly soldiers. There was some good scenery and Wakanda was impressive, but some of the CGI effects weren't very good. While the movie was entertaining and the acting mostly spot-on, I didn't find it too memorable and overall, it was way too hyped for the wrong reasons. I did enjoy Andy Serkis as villain Ulysses Klaue - WOOF! I don't think I'll be re-watching this one much compared to other Marvel movies.
I've made good progress in Super Mario Galaxy but I still have over 70 stars to collect. Maybe I'll finish it next month. Story-wise I'm not much through Final Fantasy Tactics but I've made good strides level griding. I have no idea when I'm going to be finished with it though.
Last Movie: Deadpool 2 (Theatrical), Black Panther (Netflix)
Last Book: The Complete C.S. Lewis Signature Classics - Mere Christianity
Last Game: New Super Mario Bros. 2 (3DS)
Current Book: The Complete C.S. Lewis Signature Classics - The Screwtape Letters
Current Games: Super Mario Galaxy (Wii) & Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions (PSP)