Work, Work, Work and a little Oskee Wee Wee

What a week!

I worked my but off all week and got in a little enjoyment on Friday night. But lets start at the beginning (which I hear is a good place to start!).

Last Saturday (not yesterday):

I helped retrieve about 30-40 air conditioners. I swear the manager of Coldex and I spent more time travelling between the customers homes then we did in the homes. Why? Because each of us knew exactly what to do and went in and ripped out the units and loaded them up and moved on. I was sore after that day from lifting, fetching and carrying.

Sunday (not today):

This day saw me running around like usual in my church as per usual. However, the paramedics and firefighters had to make an appearance as one of the participants in the nursery was having trouble. Word is nothing much is wrong after a CAT scan and blood tests. Apparently little guys going through toddlers see increases in temperatures which results in a high white blood count. But, to say the least, everyone involved in the Sunday school was a little concerned. Thank goodness there is a couple of nurses who are members of the church who responded. Many thanks to York Region Paramedics and Central York Fire Fighters.

Monday to Thursday:

I worked for Coldex sorting and sifting through their refrigerators to figure out what to throw out and what to keep. Also, I helped move out the refrigerators to a storage unit as Coldex is moving out of their current office by the end of the month.

Wednesday I got up to be out the door and on my way out of town with the manager from Coldex. We were off to Ottawa for the day to deliver fridges to the University of Ottawa and Carleton University. While we were there we met up with Bill Arends who recently had surgery and was out of commission for a little while. We had lunch at East Side Marios at the St. Laurent Mall. The food was good but the waiter was horrible. We had to wait for our main course for over an hour. Sure he brought out the salad and bread on time, however, the main course was a signficant wait after finishing the salad. He said he put the orders in seperatly. Um...so why then was Bill able to finish three coffees before seeing his food? No tip for you mister!

Thursday night I helped set up tables for the 21st annual Aurora United Church Fall Event. The event ended up raising over fifteen thousand dollars which goes towards the capital fund of the church (to keep the roof on, the place carpeted, etc.) in order that the church might house various community groups. This has been a quite successful fundraiser for some time.

Friday:
This was not a bad day. I finally caught up with Alan who used to work for Coldex as a contracted driver during the September rush to move the company's fridges out! He had called earlier to say that he had a landscaping project to lay brick. So Friday I met up with him and was part of a crew that took out a retaining wall that had gone wrong in north Aurora. The retaining wall, since the builder built the house fifteen years ago, had shifted about three inches. The wall had shifted for two reasons. The first was that some of the lower blocks were never glued and sealed properly when it was first installed. The second was two drain pipes from the gutters that come from the edge of the roof on the house and garage meet underground in a "T-Formation" then move on further. Well after the "T" meeting the drainage pipe starts going up hill a bit. So the water has frozen a bit and created small holes in the drainage pipe. This said drainage pipe is right behind the retaining wall. Brilliance! That leaking water then freezes and thaws causing the not properly sealed retaining wall to shift over time. Great landscaping brilliance courtesy of the builders that make the cookie cutter housing subdivisions! A couple of thousands later and this homeowner will have this problem fixed! I knew I wasn't a big fan of retaining walls for a reason.

I rushed home to have a shower and then hop in the car to head to Hamilton. The Ticats were in town to take on the Ottawa Renegades. I, being the nephew of the owner of the Ticats, got to sit in the owners box for the game. The owner also supplemented the attendance in the box with a couple of long time season ticket holders. Together we had a lot of fun and I left full of food. My brother, sister, myself and my brother's girlfriend couldn't find the box at first. In fact we happenned to walk in on the TSN set at Ivor Wynne Stadium. Also, we walked through the press box. Later in the game I checked out who was in the press box on the posted list and saw scouts for the San Diego Chargers and Buffalo Bills. Also in the press box was non-other than Ottawa Sun sports Columnist Chris Stevenson.

I even got to ask my uncle a simple question, "Do you have trouble getting into the stadium sometimes?" Bob agreed he did have trouble on the odd occasion. But usually he makes a little fuss and people around the security guard (who won't let him in) start laughing. Usually the security guard apologizes in embarassment and lets him pass. But my uncle usually congratulates the security guard for doing a good job at not letting people in without a ticket.

Another note about Ivor Wynne for the ladies. My uncle noted one of the big problems he heard about was that the womens' bathrooms were not receiving positive reviews. So he introduced flowers into the bathrooms in nice vases. My uncle noted he got the idea from a receptionist. The female season ticket holders in the box with us that night noted they felt appreciated because of this move by my uncle. The guys kinda felt left out. :)

A very busy week it was!