Turn The Page....

Long workdays can be a good thing to have, but when they happen on a Friday it can definitely wear a person's patience thin to say the least. The new job has been going well the last couple months, and 10 to 11 hour days were becoming a somewhat routine occurence. The circling wolves mentioned in my last post had started to move away (though not entirely) and things were getting back to normal routine. Specifically, cash the cheque and play catch-up by paying off a little more of what I owed due to my previous employer going bankrupt and not paying me (or any of his other employees for that matter).
Adding to the tedium of a long last working day of the week, the route back to the shop from the worksite seemed to take forever as all the major roads were basically grid-locked and looking more like parking lots than expressways. As I got back to the shop, I got a mobile-phone call from one of my old co-workers telling me to check my postal box on my way home. How quickly my mood changed with that phone call!

Sitting there in my box was the cheque I had been waiting for since March, but it was a lot bigger than what I had been expecting. I was only concerned with my final week's wage plus vacation pay, but there was also the termination pay that the bankruptcy trustees had awarded to me. Needless to say, I was a very happy guy last week!

And so the last ties with the job I held for just short of 5 years have now been severed. The last page has been turned and the book closed. Now to continue writing the next volume of my working life, so to speak....
Things are still looking good at my new job, but only time will tell how the new pages are written.

One thing is for sure, they are being written at a faster pace than my blog is.... ;-)

Has It Really Been (Damn Near) 52 Weeks Already????

I guess that it's been almost a year since I started this blog, so I guess it's about time that I write another post for it. But when the word "Sporadic" is in the title....

It is said that each new year brings changes, and this year has been no different. The biggest change has been a tough one to adjust to, namely the loss of my job in late February via lay-off and the subsequent bankruptcy of said employer just eight days later (interestingly enough, on February 29th). Since the closure was two days before the next scheduled payday, nobody ended up gettting paid.
Needless to say, that was one hell of an adjustment to make........

However, after three weeks of looking for new employment, I got a call out of the blue one night and was offered a job. Although no guarantees were given about how many hours I would get (i.e. part-time hours), I ended up taking it because I had various financial wolves starting to approach the door. Thankfully, none of them had started to howl just yet.... ;-)

Things are looking good there, as the hours have consistently increased even though my new boss has agreed (in return for not being full-time with him) to the prospect of me walking at any point if I got a full-time offer elsewhere. All in all though, it seems like a good fit, and with the next paycheque on track to being a full 80+ hours I'm willing to stick it out for a while.

Another change has been on the social front. I've met a few new people over the last 12 months and have gotten to know them better as time went on. There is one who I have gotten to know a little better though. She has been telling me of how her life in her country has been, and where she hopes it will lead in the future. She's a very intelligent lady, a little reserved until you get to know her, but she has a good heart and loves to chat. If she ever sees this, she'll know who I'm talking about.... ;-)


Other than that, just the usual changes of the seasons over the last 52 weeks. My 39th is coming up in a couple of days, yet another mile-stone (or being a Canadian, should that be kilometre-stone?) in life. Despite not having one of those infamous crystal balls around, I do know one thing. The coming year will no doubt be an eventful one. After all, it would be kind of boring otherwise, wouldn't it?


So, until the next time I post, all the best to whoever is reading this!