Author: Jeff Milner

I had another 3 to 10.5 shift today. Yes 10.5 not 10:30, at least not according to the work schedule. On an unrelated note to “how much working for someone else blows”, I will share the following story as it has unfolded so far. Interesting conclusion pending actual events.

It was one of my first days on the job. Anna-Maria and I were both working and one of the other workers – I’ll call him Chris – asks what is my relation to Anna. He was wondering if we were dating. Thinking that it would be inappropriate to be dating a co-worker I said we were “friends”. Well, from that point on I created a monster. Not for me personally, but poor poor Anna. This boy asks her out almost every shift. The other night it was for coffee and well, coffee again tonight. But anyway Anna has been begging me to please set the story straight so that he will stop hitting on her. Frankly I must admit <evil whisper> I do find it hilarious </evil whisper>. Maybe I’ll talk to him about it tomorrow. Maybe.

Oh and P.S. about how to properly explain you are not interested in a phone survey. All you have to do is wait for the person giving the survey to stop talking and say, “I’m sorry I’m not interested.” If you are not sorry, then “Not interested” also works nicely. Rudely slamming the phone down, giving the phone to your sister as a prank and having her hangup in disgust or saying “can you hold on” and then after leaving the person on hold for 2 to 3 minutes and then hanging up are all improper methods. Thanks.

After being such a snob in my last post about being late for work, I’m not sure I really want to tell you what I realized when I got to work. First of all I will say that they didn’t seem to care too much that I was late, especially when I explained that I wasn’t even scheduled to work but I was just coming in for the extra hours. She stuck to her guns that in fact I was scheduled for today and that I should be in at 3:00 all this week. Nothing else was said about it. Well I checked the schedule again just to make sure even though I knew I couldn’t possibly be wrong and it looks like I was scheduled to come in at 3:00 on Monday just like they said. Well where did I go wrong? It turns out that for some strange reason the first day on the working week schedule is Monday. Yes – for some odd reason the first day of the week where I work is not Sunday like in the rest of the world, no everyday when I walk in the doors of the phone survey world, Monday becomes the first day of the week and as silly as this seems, it’s really easy to confuse Sunday for Monday when Monday is my day to come in to work at 3:00. Oops.

So it seems that the party is a go for this Friday and Saturday. I still need to call back Corry to confirm the details with him, but it looks like Mom and Dad will be bring the BBQ along with most of the food for our dinner on Saturday. Apparently the Medicine Hat Institute is going white water rafting on Saturday and we might join them with our kayaks. I don’t know what the arrangement for kayaks will be but I have my two and I suspect that the Milner’s have at least one extra and maybe two depending on whether or not Dennis goes with.

Jackie is still here on a kind of self exploration – or maybe it’s a kind of Jeff exploitation… either way I’m glad to have her here visiting and it looks like she’ll stay at least until Saturday for the big family shindig. She has been applying for jobs here and there and thinking – emphasis on thinking of going to get a new licence plate for her car, she hasn’t done to much in the way of actually getting over there but she did at least phone them once.

I borrowed my neighbours lawn mower yesterday. You should have seen the jungle that I had growing out there. Anyway today I bought some Weed ‘N Feed fertilizer / weed poison and then sprayed the lawn with it. The guy at Canadian Tire said that it would take a lot longer for the spray kind than the kind you spread with a fertilizer spreader, but it only took me 10 to 15 minutes (20 tops) to spray down everything. The ants are still at large – and when I say large I mostly mean large anthills, but anyway hopefully now the weeds will die and the grass become as green as it is on the other side of the lake or more literally speaking on the other side of the fence.

Although at least I do get to talk to people and get the occasional funny story. Like this one for example: I was doing a survey the other day, and giving the opening spiel, “We are doing a survey about your dining experiences”. “What did you say?” asked the elderly lady on the other end, “my dying experiences?” “No, your dining experiences”. “Ohhhhh,” she laughed, “Well I’m 98 years old. I wouldn’t be any help with that – I have a hard time thinking clearly these days.” I wonder what’s on her mind.

Jackie has been hanging out with me yesterday and today and she talked to Geoff Vaz on MSN. Apparently he and Devin Wallace went to Thailand together to put together an International shipping company where they get things that cost less money from Thailand shipped over to Canada where they can sell them for Canadian prices. Devin paid for his trip by starting a little window washing company and Jackie and I are pretty convinced that washing windows is actually a really good idea. I even already have a ladder, but it’s too big to move around without a truck or a trailer. I wonder if my small stepladder would work. Anyway I really think this window-washing thing is a good idea. According to Geoff Vaz, Devon was making approximately $40 an hour!

Questions (and answers) about the party this weekend:

Q. Are you doing anything fun like kayaking or anything?
A. We don’t have any plans yet but kayaking sounds fun.

Q. What is your work schedule for Friday and Saturday?
A. I am scheduled for work both days but I will try and get Saturday off.

Q. Who is bringing the BBQ?
A. I asked Gary if he was bringing a BBQ and he said, “How could I bring a barbeque? Mom and Dad will have to.” Then I said, “You guys said you had a small one you could bring,” to which Gary replied, “I don’t remember that because we don’t have a small one.”

Q. What can we do instead of a BBQ?
A. We could just go to a park and have a campfire.

Q. If we had a campfire what would we eat?
A. Mom could make hobo dinners and we could have smores.

Q. How early can everyone make it to the party?
A. Well I have to work until 9:30 or so, Jackie may still be in Lethbridge and Gary and Tracie will get here at around 10:00pm at the earliest and maybe a little later. I still don’t know what time Mom and Dad will arrive but I assume with Dad playing the violin that night that it won’t be until late also.

Q. Do you know when the Milner family reunion starts?
A. That’s unrelated to party business but it starts on Friday 28 June 2003 at approximately 5:00pm. You are just supposed to arrive at Kimball Park anytime after 5:00, set up camp, and then the activities start the next morning with breakfast.

Q. Do you like your new job?
A. THAT’S NOT PARTY BUSINESS! Okay, I’ll humour you. I do like my new job. It is okay but it certainly doesn’t pay $40 an hour. In fact that’s my only complaint really – $8 / hour just isn’t enough.

I am having a little shindig at my house this weekend. Gary, Tracie, Mom, Dad and Jackie are all coming. I imagine I should invite Corry and the other Milners and go kayaking with them as well while they are here. It should be a fun weekend. Now it’s off to mow and then off to work at five.

Jackie and Glen stayed over at my house last night and I made them breakfast this morning. Jackie helped a little too. We had pancakes, bacon, and eggs and it was sure good. I think I need more practice pouring the pancake mix in, but after my first try I had some better luck. Nobody likes to eat a pancake THAT big. Although I think someone did, because there was only one left.

Glen headed back home and now Jackie and I are looking for some excitement. Unfortunately for her I think I’m going to use my neighbours lawn mower to mow my lawn and I can’t think of much for her to do in the meantime.