Sunday, January 29, 2006

Blog!

I just discovered that Rick Mercer has a blog! He doesn't post often, but what he does post is entertaining. Thanks Rick!

Sunday, January 22, 2006

Is he...?

"Excuse me, are you the manager?"

Ugh. I hate it when people ask me this question. It usually means it's going to be followed with a problem. I do a quick personnel count in my head and realize that I am the only manager that's in the building at this particular moment. Oh goody.

"Yes. Can I help you?"

"Yeah. I think you have a slight problem."

Slight? He said slight. That means big. He doesn't seem upset, so this problem obviously doesn't involve him. I wonder what's up.

"What's the problem?"

"Well, there's a car parked right outside your building." He pauses.

"And...?" There's many cars parked right outside our building, considering there is a parking lot right outside our building.

"Well, there's a guy in the car." He pauses again.

"Alright." So far so good. A car with a guy inside. No red flags yet.

"Well, he's kina slumped over in his car. Oh and the car's running."

"Kinda slumped over?"

"Well not kinda."

"Can you show me?"

"Sure."

I grab one of our cordless phones and start to follow the guy outside. I look behind me to see one of my co-workers looking at me with a questioning look on her face. I shake my head to tell her it's fine and tell her I'll be two minutes. Realizing it's not a whole building emergency, she nods her head and resumes her work.

I go outside and see the running car. The guy is clearly slumped over in the driver's seat. I walk up to his side of the car and knock on the side window. No response. I knock again. Still no response. I lean in a bit closer. I can't tell if he's breathing.

"Is he...dead?" Asks the guy that showed me.

"I don't know. I can't tell if he's breathing. I hope he's not dead."

"Oh."

"Thanks for letting me know. I'll call the police and have them take care of this." I shake his hand.

"Hey. No problem!" He saunters away.

Now it's just me and a possible dead guy. Oh what a day. I call 911, and give them all the information. The weird thing is each time I've had to call 911 or call the police (which I've had to do many times), they always ask for my date of birth. I never ask why because I'm usually in the middle of an emergency when I'm talking to them, but I always wonder afterwards why they need my birthdate. Does anyone know?

Anyway, I've called 911 and the police are on their way. At this point, I run back into our office to let one of my colleagues know what's going on. I decide to go back outside and wait for the police to come just in case this guy wakes up and gets rowdy.


I'm leaning up against our office building watching people park & walk near the car and not even notice that there's a man slumped over in the driver's seat. I'm amazed at the number of people who just don't see what's around them. I wonder if I'd have been one of those people...I'd like to think not, but I can't truly say either way.

As I'm thinking about all this, in my peripheral vision I see a vehicle driving by me in the parking lot. It's getting slower and slower, so I look over. It's not the police vehicle I'm waiting for, it's my parents!

My dad rolls down his window, "What are you doing out here?!"

"Dad?" I'm thoroughly confused.

My mom leans over, "What are you doing out there?"

"I'm waiting for the police." I explain to them what happened.

My dad's chest puffs up, "Do you need me to stay here?"

"No dad. I'll be fine. See you later."

They drive off to go do their shopping. I'm still in shock. What are the chances?


The police came and took care of the man slumped over. He wasn't dead, he was just so drunk that he passed out right before he was about to start driving again. Scary.

I go back into my office. Can I ever have a normal day at work?

Tuesday, January 17, 2006

Politics

I wouldn't normally talk about politics on my blog (or many other places, for that matter) because when people tell me who they're going to vote for and I ask them why, they can't come up with a solid reason...or when people tell me they just don't vote and I ask them why, they have no solid reason. Also, people don't take the time to read through any party's platform to actually determine which party would suit our needs best - drives me crazy!

So, here I am talking about politics. I was browsing through the Greenpeace Canada website when I came across 2006 Federal Election Questions to the Parties. This needed to be mentioned. Greenpeace sent 11 questions to all parties regarding environmental issues. If you click on the link above, and scroll to the bottom you can see what answers each party provided to Greenpeace.

All but one of the parties replied to these questions.

Which party didn't reply?

The Conservative Party.

Which party am I definitely not voting for?

Yup. You guessed it.