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- Written by: Rod Boyle
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Last night, the Christmas Train comes through town. A couple of reservations for after the train, 7:30, it's an event for sure.
A couple of reservations meaning 2, one for 3 people and the other for 8.
Only it's never that easy, they're late, and there are the other "reservations" made 10 minutes before they arrive, a 7, 5, 9, 4, 2, 2, ...
There's a machine gun outside the restaurant firing people into it, we're full and the phone doesn't stop ringing, all this over maybe 10 minutes, "Kootenay Style", I call for backup - and more backup - but it's 15 minutes away...
Nonsense, absolute nonsense, there's no keeping up, no coming close, but here we are.
The night goes, I'm home just before 11:00. We close at 9:00.
***
Today a double, there's no Christmas train but it will be more of the same. Kids are out of school, kids love sushi. It's gonna be a bloody nightmare but I just - somehow - have to keep my sanity and make it through.
***
This morning, Kramer sauntering through to grab some coffee and toilet paper. She's in a fine humour - turns out she's won some $76, 000 on a jackpot last night. Now - I don't mean to be skeptical - but - well, you get it.
She assures me that the bulk of her winnings will go to pay off her debts. I'm not her only creditor, and I'm wondering where I'll be on the list, but let her have her victory and we'll see how things go. In any event I'm not certain she's won anything, no doubt she'll pop round tonight to borrow a few hundred dollars because that's what she'll need to "free up" her winnings...
In any event, my worries are on the day; if I make it to tonight we'll see how her story's holding up.
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It snowed last week, or the week before, and for a brief time the town was like a Hallmark Movie.
Then it stopped and all disappeared.
Since when it has rained and rained and the clouds have hung lowering in the sky. Tuesday, a blue sky, not a cloud to be seen, but I'm working a double and so my vantage is only from the pavement in front of the restaurant when I'm smoking a cigarette. It would have been a mighty fine day to have off. I didn't.
Wednesday, it snowed/Slushed the entire day, by boots filled with slush, shoes, everything wet, grey and dismal weather. The snow, it just turns to slush on the ground, there is no snow.
And Thursday, the same, a little bit hungover - then a lot, too much of a good thing, went to the Royal to see a customer play, the place is packed, the music, good, but there's a drummer in my head and it's doing me no favours.
Then today, a text early in the morning, waitress sick, so I'm on a double, and still a little under the weather, lunch is busy, a 5, another 5, a six ,a four top, deuce, deuce, deuce and take-out orders out my a**...bloody hell. Way too much running for a called in shift...
But in the evening, quiet, and I'm out by 7:15, and glad I worked the lunch because otherwise my ring-out would have been zilch. And - the added benefit, the sick waitress is now obliged to work Saturday, meaning I have a proper week-end off, what to do? What to do? What's on at the theatre, about town, man about town on a Saturday off, l'm gonna start with a shower...
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SO, yesterday off. A few things done before I fell down the rabbit hole...
#1. Got rid of that goddamned old computer and flat-screened monitor. $20 it was a steal, but - try selling an old computer. I'm just glad that it didn't end up in the e-cycle. (and, on a similar note, tonight sold my computer projector for $20 as well, another e-cycle rescue). Now a bit of room on my kitchen island to plan my next steps; I discovered in an idle box delivered to me by the boy a demonstration model of Banana Pump which I should endeavour to sell before Christmas...
#2. Paydays. Mine is behind. Last was a couple of weeks ago, the "hours" cheque, used to pay rent, but it's been 3 weeks since the "tip cheque" and I'm getting hungry. How hungry was discovered last night when Kramer came over and I took her for dinner and she got way-too drunk (2 cocktails? Really?) - but the price put my credit card over the limit. And so I had the embarrassing task of part-cash part-cc payment. I shouldn't be this behind, should be ahead even, but community housing, the local banker, loans agent, etc, it's taking it's toll. Payday, apparently tomorrow, fingers crossed.
#3. Kramer. Coming over to watch a lame-assed movie of her own recommendation, kicking her boots under my bed, leaving her coat on my chair, lipstick on my towel. She's marking territory she's never even tried to claim. And not like I'm looking for action or to get lucky but - bloody hell, if ever I did there would be a lot of explaining to do.
#4. Neighbour Upstairs. Sketchy, as always, but now (met on a cigarette break) telling me she didn't turn in her ex(boyfriend) Fred for Welfare Fraud. Which tells me she did. And the entire building disagrees. All the while telling me he should get a job, work, be productive, buy her nice things...She hasn't worked for 20 plus years. He's in trouble and discovering the hard way how toxic certain females can be.
#5. Burger Month. Thank fucking god it's over and the restaurant is once again at a reasonable pace. It's insane, this, I need to write a November fairy tale for the town that involves Santa-Easter Burger coming and leaving hamburgers on the table, this is nonsense. We didn't win, the same winners as last year, the one - for presentation, an orchid on a charcoal brioche bun, well done. Not a great burger but a spectacular presentation, fine. The other, one of the other sushi places, I never tried. And finally the winner for flavour, the "Foi Gras", too close to last years entry and yet it won again, and this is bullshit, somebody, somewhere, is paying 'Big Burger" for the promotion...theirs was a good burger but - bloody hell - ours was better and a hell of a lot more original.
#6. And yesterday friend takes me for lunch and tells me I can stop making her car payments. This is - well, a relief, I'm not rich and don't even own a car myself. She's found work training our AI Overlords and offers to send me a link so I can do the same. I'm not particularly interested, the futures grim and will be so without my help. I send the link to Kramer, who despite wanting work and money so desperately is not interested in this, doesn't have the requisite communication skills. I'd happily be the "Saboteur" but apparently this is not a job they're offering ...
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The restaurant still insanely busy, but Burger month is wrapping up so there's hope for a little more peace of mind.
Wednesday, head out of town, head down, scouring the beach for arrowheads. All this lousy weather and rain should have brought something to the surface.
The bus, I planned poorly and was trapped in Balfour for 4 hours. A dismal day, but with the head down and focus it passes quick. I find a few good flakes, and a couple micro-blades, but no arrowheads. And that ends the season until after the spring floods.
Thursday, I make Salsa, it baffles be that of all the salsa's I can buy in the store, the "Fresh" and "Spicy" and none of them are either. So I make a huge batch, 2 litres, and then get hungry and eat it all. In other ways productive, list my computer for sale, clean out the closet of old clothes, sort them into "Boring Work Clothes" and more interesting fashion choices. This is an unending task, the purging of wardrobe, fortunately socks/underwear sort themselves out, and as they thin themselves I can make better choices in organizing my wardrobe.
Laundry, done, make bed, really, I'm a prodigy of efficiency.
And that's it. Friday, work, insane, easily 3 turns on the restaurant, let alone the deliveries and to-go. I'm glad to see them finally succeeding, but...
Saturday, a more reasonable pace.
Then there's the homeless, a couple of whom were paid and showed up in the restaurant. The first, maybe not homeless, regular at the soup kitchen, perpetually high, we'll call her S****. I've seen her around, clearly lit and out for lunch, she came into the "ole cock & suck" and ate, drank once before, couldn't pay, left an expired drivers license as security and never came back. Which is how I know her name. Confirm with her she can pay, she's actually "Plausibly" dressed, not "stained" in any of the ways you expect the street people to be.
Of course this day, the day she has money, she's a little demanding but...well, I'm not her server.
Saturday another one, older, my age? Older? Bent double with the fentanyl stoop, has cash, can't decide what to order, his shopping cart, filled to overflowing, is parked just outside our door. We feed him, courtesy of the restaurant, miso, rice, but he just mixes it all up, doesn't eat it, he's an adult toddler. But talking to him, hunched over the table, no conversation possible so decrepit is his state, can't decide what he wants to eat, I notice he has beautiful blue eyes. Somewhere he's in there. And I notice as well he's dyed his hair, moustache and eyebrows, and I wonder at the state of mind that sees one perpetually absent, homeless on a night with a bitter wind and chill, and worried about how one looks...
And today, again off, hit the flea market and saw my belongings for sale, my cuff-links, ties, scarves, bow ties, jackets, the way Michael's put it together make for a pretty interesting stall, and as I pretend to browse notice that they're getting some traction...
And there is the day so far. Now, time for a nap, then out to hunt for some food or bite to eat. Finished watching "Bugonia" last night, currently watching the source material - 'Save the Green Planet' - will review them together when I'm done.
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The weather the past week, piss poor, raining, cold, and I've no motivation. Even cooking is better left undone, go find a restaurant, and groceries expire in the fridge and I'm not made of money, not with the dependants I have...
Last night, upstairs neighbour, her boyfriend strangely absent these last few days, up late moving furniture, noises, banging. She'd been texting to go for a cigarette, but I'd had my own long day at work and just wanted to decompress. Then, sometime as I was trying to fall asleep, a giant crash, voices, the sound of the rail outside being banged (a peculiar reverberation), and then it's quiet.
Still, restless, the day was long and not enough got done, I sleep poorly.
Today, running into her in the lobby, querying her about the noise, at first she denies it, then confesses it was the ambulance/paramedics trying to get her out of the house...
Which explains the voices, and some of the other noises, and she's telling me she's sick, needs an operation, that she came home to an apartment covered in blood, she's doing laundry and needs an operation scheduled in Trail and she can't talk about it...
***
I have my suspicions, but I know nothing and don't want to ask, I've staggered about drunk more than a few times, kicked up a racket, broken things, but she is I suspect a long ways ahead of me...
***
I checked the obituaries, once in a blue moon, another old customer from the old restaurant, married to J**, grown cranky and cantankerous in her old age. And the Pastor that founded this housing, the thrift shop, the Christian ministry above it, his wife also died. Coincidentally both widowers have the same name. Death out here, it's a season. J**, former customer from the restaurant, comes into the Sushi place for lunch with his son. And I give him my condolences, and he's sad, but he seems as well to be - well, not so sad, the relief the dying give the living - when finally dead - is no small thing. A coincidence, I've never seen him in the restaurant before - but - there is a pattern...synchronicity, a symmetry hidden in the ordered workings of life...
***
Today, cold, miserable, rain, wind, wet, I make it out for a coffee, come home, make a big pot of clam chowder, eat it all. Then take some pictures, out again to list the former closet contents (old computer, projector, monitor, suitcases) on Facebook marketplace, sell it or give it away but be done with it finally.
The computer, there's work there, need to move all the files off of it and wipe, then to Library to list, then again home to wash dishes, read, listen to podcasts (nothing good), read all the news that was never fit to print, ever, and now - after a final walk to make my minimal exercise - to watch a movie, read a few dour books on German Philosophy (Shopenhauer) and then perhaps an early bed...