A collection of digital wonders and some other stuff
The invites from the contest have been sent. Sorry it took me so long. I’ve been busy travelling to Medicine Hat for Father’s Day and tonight I finally did the taxes. Looks like I’m even getting a refund.
Despite the money and the quality limericks (thanks guys), my head aches. I’m going to bed.
Last time on Jeff Milner’s Roommate Situation:
“…it turns out that when a NSF cheque bounces, they mail it to you — which means I have to wait until I get it in the mail before he will pay me back.”
Now the exciting conclusion!
When I received the bounced cheque in the mail I called him up and later that night he returned me my cash.
The End.
(I love happy endings.)
The picture below was not from today, but it was taken on the same river I was kayaking down today.
The water was cold, ice cold. The kind of cold that hurts your hands when you put them even near the ice cold iciness that is the Belly River. It makes sense that the water is chilly because it’s coming directly from the melting snow up in the Rocky Mountains about a half hour drive from where we put in.
The water level wasn’t as high as it could have been, but there were still plenty of good features. On about the third really big hole I got stuck for a moment while the water thrashed me about like a rag doll. The water is tricky like that, it pulled me in gently then whipped me around quickly wrapping my head on the large rocks below. This is the first time I’ve ever had my helmet save me from serious head injury but, oh my, I certainly felt happy to have it. I came away with a small headache. The helmet came away with its shiny yellow finish marred in several places with large white scratches.
The incident wasn’t actually that much of an incident and we had a great time the rest of the afternoon. We just cruised down that cold, cold river, playing in the waves, and having a blast. My cousin made some short movie clips of us on his digital camera. I’ll post them when I get them.
I’ve been short on roommates lately. I have two empty rooms to rent and I haven’t had any roommates in the last couple months — which makes paying the mortgage pretty hard. So a couple of weeks ago I put an ad in the paper. The very first day the ad ran I had two people call me. The first person, I’ll call him Joe, said he would like to take the room but just needed a couple of days to get the money together. The second person, I’ll call him Victor, told me he loved the place and wanted to take it. Victor couldn’t move in until July 1st, but told me that he would write me a cheque for June anyway to hold the place for him. Things were looking up.
A day or two later I got a call from Joe. He said he couldn’t get out of his current lease as quickly as he had thought and so he wanted to let me know he wouldn’t be taking the room. Joe seemed like a cool guy so I was disappointed but life goes on.
Later I stopped off at the bank to cash Victor’s cheque. They gave me cash and everything seemed cool; so things were still looking up. That day, just after returning from the bank, I found a message from Victor on my answering machine. It said, “About that cheque I gave you — someone gave me a bad cheque and so it might not clear, so if you haven’t cashed it yet I’ll bring you some cash and get it back from you.”
Well I had cashed it already and the bank didn’t seem to have a problem with it, I explained to Victor. He figured he must have had enough cash in the bank even with the bad cheque he’d gotten and advised me not to worry about it. Things were a little odd, but still looking good. I was still getting calls for my other room — they seemed like sketchy characters and I didn’t take them but at least people were looking.
Suddenly the phone rang, Anna-Maria picked it up. Victor couldn’t take the room anymore, he said he was on his way over to get back his $350 and he would explain more fully when he arrived.
I told Anna-Maria that I don’t really have to give him his money back, after all he paid me to hold the room and that’s exactly what I was doing. But I also said that I wouldn’t be a jerk and give him it back since it had only been a couple of days.
His explanation boiled down to the fact that the contract he had signed for his previous place said he had to live there for 6 months before he could break the contract and move out. Also he had to give 30 days notice before leaving. He thought he could give his 30-day notice before the end of the six months but his landlord said no. Even though I thought it sounded like his landlord was just screwing him over he just said he didn’t want the hassle and was sorry for the inconvenience he caused me. He would take back his money but leave me $50 for my trouble. So at least I would have some cash for another ad if needed.
Days past. I was pursuing my bank account status over the Internet and was shocked to discover that I had been debited $350 for a cheque that never cleared! Oh hell — I think I have been scammed.
I called up Victor and explained the situation. Luckily he seems pretty apologetic and sounds like he wants to make everything right. He says we’ll go down to the bank together, get the cheque back, and then he’ll pay me back and any charges the bank may have given me. He specifically mentioned that he needs his cheque back before he will pay me for it. I called the bank this morning to find out if they do, in fact, still have the cheque and if I can get it back. It turns out that when a NSF cheque bounces, they mail it to you — which means I have to wait until I get it in the mail before he will pay me back.
Needless to say this is all a very big headache.
On the other hand I have two new roommates — one of whom moved in on Saturday and another one is moving in on the 25th. We’ll see how this bounced cheque situation works out, but for now things are looking good again.
Anna-Maria went to Fort Macleod on Saturday for an open call audition for a Heath Ledger movie. They are looking for locals to be extras in this Western Film they are making (Broke Back Mountain). She went with some French friends of her’s from the French Association.
In her own words, “We got there at 10:15 and there were hundreds of people lined up. Everybody wanted to be in the movie and I can understand why too. What we did, is we waited in line for about 2 hours and 15 minutes, and then we finally got into the gym where they gave us a form to fill out and then they told us to stand in another line so that we could get measured and have our photos taken. So all in all it was mostly waiting and I don’t know when they will let us know or even if they will, but it was a good experience. Everybody was so excited to have a movie shot in their own town that every weirdo, beauty queen, grandma, and two-year old kid showed up. It was very fun / cool / sweet. It was kind of crazy actually so many people showed up with their babies / kids. Kids were just running all over the place. Some of them were crying and many looked extremely bored. They justed waited in line for three hours to get their photo taken. I would never do that to my kids.”
It was another incredible day at Production Management. Weird things happen in that class, its like entering the Twilight Zone. Anyway despite the tension and insanity, I think I at least learned a couple of important lessons.
I did my best and realize my mistake. Well after everything is said and done I can at least say I learned something in Production Management today.
Update: It looks like my prof, Mathew Kabatoff, took the concerns I shared to heart. He updated his web page outline, and in doing so rectified my concerns. That seems so weird given his hostile reaction in class.
Bored with the everyday — and seeing that it was really nice out in Lethbridge today, I decided it would be a good idea to trim the apple tree in my back yard. Let me just summarize: Trimming is not fun, my tree looks much better, the ground is covered in branches and I still have more work to do. Also I love apples, so hopefully my tree will grow some big ones next fall. My next-door neighbor, Steve, came out and helped me. Mostly he let me use his saw and clippers but he also held the ladder which was just leaned precariously up to the tree. He actually was a lot of help. His wife Eira offered me dinner — cabbage rolls, mashed potatoes, and corn. It was the highlight of the day, it makes me happy just thinking about it. I’ll finish pruning my tree tomorrow, or else never.
It’s almost Christmas. I’ve been having a great time down in Utah with Anna and her family. Apparently due to the fact that Holmans are so excited to open presents, we are going to do that tonight instead of waiting for Christmas morning. It will probably make for more photogenic subjects so I won’t complain. On the one hand I wish I was at home with the family, but on the other hand I’m EXTREMELY happy I won’t have to go through that stupid Christmas program at my Aunt and Uncle’s. Every year they make us all sit around reading the Nativity Story and singing Christmas songs. I’m seriously glad to get away from it.
So here is the quick recap of what I’ve been up to in the last week or two. I left Lethbridge on Monday morning at around 6:00am. I was happy about how the American border seemed to be in quite a good mood. He even smiled when I said I was going to Disneyland and wished me a nice trip. I arrived in Sandy, Utah at about 5:00 pm so I made good time. Traveling with the dog was no trouble at all and we were both happy when we finally saw Anna! I stayed with the Holman’s for a week and then Anna and I took off for sunny California. Sunday was our first day in Disneyland — but it turned out to be more rainy than sunny. Monday and Tuesday were both nice weather wise, but I have been getting sick with a mild cold. That of course hasn’t stopped me from going to Disneyland. Today we are going to take in the parks as usual but at 2:45 this afternoon we are going to watch The Lord of the Rings — The Return of the King. I must say we are both pretty excited. Tomorrow will be our last day in the magic kingdom… at least for awhile.
I just finished writing up my last paper of the semester. Now the only thing in my way to the greatest Christmas vacation ever is the 12 to 14 hour drive to Utah. It’s 3:30AM and I am considering just leaving right now. Anna sure would be surprised if I got there a few hours in advance, and it would be nice to not just have to go straight to bed when I get there. That’s it, I’m packing right now and I’m on my way. Utah and California — here I come!