Summer is over. It's raining and it's going to rain until June and I'm not happy about it because Summer only just started and I wanted to do lots of things but had to work.
DISCLAIMER: Don't read this post. It's angry.
This post will be updates with pics when I can get them uploaded. Firefox (yes - tried Opera and IE too) crash when try to upload.
It was really raining when I woke up on Saturday, but cleared up around 11 am. I had to go into work for a couple of hours, then went to see Hilary at the market. Amy and Sean stopped by with 18-day-old Isaac. I walked (roads were wet, so decided against riding since all my bikes are (were) fenderless) home, stopping in at Thrifty's to get groceries on the way. I tried putting the fenders I bought two months ago on my bike, bbut the back one clams around the seatstays. My seatstays must be unusually skinny, because I needed all the foam padding in the packet (leaving non for the front one). Also, my shifter cable runs along the seatstay rather than the chainstay, so the clanp closes around it, meaning I can't shift. I've got the choice between fenders or gears! The front one does fit, but seems to have been only made for straight forks, because it clamps to the fork blades below the bend, so doesn't cover any of the top of the wheel, so I'd have dry legs but get a face full of car juice.
I considered going riding, but was too tired, so decided to be lazy instead.
The insomnia continues. I'm not sure if I've blogged about this before, but I don't seem to be able to sleep properly. I have no trouble getting to sleep, but wake up every couple of hours, and can't get back to sleep for a hour. Then I'll sleep for another hour or two, and wake up again. This has been going on for about four months now. I'm sure it's work that's causing it. I sleep properly on Saturday and Sunday nights usually. It's been driving me crazy.
I'm still working long hours. I can't seem to get anything done at work. I spend all my time fixing other people's screw ups, doing things that other people should be doing, on the phone dealing with people that bought "pre-setup" routers, writing emails to the warranty depot, shipping stuff to the warranty depot, boxing up printers that will get damaged in shipping that I'm not allowed to put insurance on, getting shouted at by customers for everything that's not my fault, doing paperwork, more paperwork, fixing other people's paperwork, and the hours between 6pm and 10 pm are spent doing tech work (that the customer will end up either not paying for at all because on of the boys told the customer it would be covered under warranty, or pay half of what they should because one of the boys didn't have the balls to quote full price). I spend 10-12 hours at work every day, work through my breaks, take the crap for everybody else's screw-ups, don't get any time off, and get paid $11/hr.
Why? Because I'm an idiot? Yes.
On Thursday evening, an angry lady came in to pick up her laptop. It wasn't ready. It was dropped off at 6:30 the evening before to be setup. Apparently it was supposed to be setup when she first bought it, but Tony (who sold it to her) sent it home with her as it was, so she brought it back Wednesday evening to be setup, and sppke with Robin, who told her it "would be ready in a couple of hours". Firstly, if I were to sit in front of the computer and do nothing else, it would still take 6 hours to get done, not "a couple". Secondly, I'm supposed to finish work at six, 30 minutes before it was brought in. Thirdly, Robin put it on the in shelf, and put the ticket in the incoming folder, and didn't say a thing to me - the ticket just said "in-store setup".
So I didn't know it was supposed to be ready, so it wasn't, but she came in a tore a chunk out of me. After she had been shouting at me for ten minutes insisting that her money be returned and the laptop delivered to her house that evening (because she's had enough of driving "all the way" from Chemainus), Sharon (a manager) came over. Angry Lady changed her tone immediately and went through it all with Sharon, ending with "Tony was great. Robin was great, and you've been great too Sharon, and I feel bad about getting angry at you because one of your employees let you down", and she looked directly at me.
So, I ended up staying til 10:30 to get as much done as I could, then I rode to Chemainus to drop it off. Sharon was going to go, but her kids were with a sitter and she lives in Shawnigan Lake (the opposite direction). I needed to go for a ride anyway.
It was a nice night - not much wind, dry, and warm. It turns out Cheamainus is further away than I realized: 42.2 km to her house from work and back to mine. Didn't get home until after midnight.
I thing I get an average of four customers angry at me a day. On friday I had a lady that didn't want to pay for virus removal because she had an extended warranty, a man who's HP mininote died after six weeks and didn't have a warranty from us expected me to give him a new one, a couple that expected us to honor their Future Shop warranty, an old lady that wanted me to go round to her hose to install the ink cartridges in her printer for free, and a man angry because I couldn't special order a battery for his laptop from just the serial number, plus two people that couldn't get their routers to work. A bad day.
But it's not the angry customers that make me angry, it's all the other stuff (see the second paragraph). And I've just figured out why.
I've got a conscience.
There are other people that get frustrated at work and do more work than anyone else - namely Priyanka (who handed in her notice this week) and James (who would quit, but needs the benefits), and everyone else seems quite happy - they don't care if the stuff that needs to be done isn't done, they'll still leave at 5 pm on the dot, while James, Priyanka and me stay late to do all the stuff done that they should have done while they were texting their girlfriends. These people must have no, or very weak, consciences - they don't care if things aren't done proplerly, as long as they're not around when the angry customer phones or comes in. They don't get tasks done, or don't do them properly, so all their tasks get given to the ones that get things done properly, on time.
I've heard both Priyanka and James saying that they're giving up - that they don't care anymore, and they're not going to worry about it. It never even lasts five minutes. I've said the same to myself, but I can't help it. I have responsibilities. I know that I'm the stupid one, but I can't help it. I've been cursed with a strong conscience, and I don't know what to do about it. Get a job when my co-workers take their responsibilities seriously? Does such a job exist?
I'm of the opinion that the grass is always browner on the other side (though I don't dislike brown grass - I prefer it over people leaving sprinklers on 24-7). I'm not a pessimist, just a realist. All jobs are crap.
Anyway, I didn't go riding on Sunday, becasuse it rained ALL day.
I went out for a lap around the lake after work on Tuesday. I left my place at 7, and it was getting dark when I got back. It must get dark before 8 now.
Last night I left work at 7 and went to Coffee on the Moon to knit with Hilary, Dana and Amy (and Isaac). I rode back to Hilary's with her and then we took the dogs for a run. We had no lights, and I was riding along roads I'd never even seen in the daylight. It's always fun when you hit a pothole at night. It reminds me of driving over cattle grids in Wales.
I had been working on the summer scavanger hunt for the camera club, but hadn't got time to finish it before the deadline. I'd take all the photos, but didn't get around to processing or uploading them. I missed the first meeting on Tuesday as well.
Last time I went mountain biking I forgot to post a picture of my burn:
I was stood on the wrong side of my bike, and my leg touched my front rotor. It only took a fraction of a second to burn me just below my right knee.
I knitted a teal coloured diamond cable ("Koolhaas") hat last winter.
It turned out perfectly, until I wore it a few times and then it strewtched and lots its elasticity and shape. I started knitting it's replacement when I bought some brown wool when Erica took us to a wool shop in Victoria. I'd left it at work to work on in my lunch breaks, but haven't been taking many/any breaksx, so it's still not done! I brought it home last weekend, and have now started on the crown decreases.
I've also started Mum's birthday or Christmas present. I phoned her on Sunday, and apparently she wants some bed socks - damn.
The first cross race of the season was on Sunday.
On Saturday I was planning on going mountain biking - I haven't been in about a month - but really wasn't motivated (still angry about missing the Whistler/North Shore trip?), so I dug to the bottom of the tire pile for the cross tires that Dale had given me, and a dented palm and broken nail later I was at the bike shop for a bigger cassette - but they didn't have one. The bike felt completely different with the big tires on. It felt like a mountain bike. I rode around town a bit, and had a scary moment when making a sharp right. The tires have side-to-side ridges down the center, but lengthwise knobs on the edges. When I rolled onto the knobs, I felt the bike squirm as the knobs moved, which is a bit scary when you're not expecting it. I rode with Hilary home from the market, then we went on a ride along the trail that goes to Lake Cowichan. We got as far as Tansor, then came back. After I left Hilary's I did the same trail but a bit faster. The faster you ride, the less you feel the bumps, and you realize that a cross bike will take a lot of stick.
The plan for Sunday changed and Hilary and I were going to drive up in her car, then she decided not to go. Katie and Roland had very kindly offered me a ride, so I rode up with them.
I got to the race to find that I couldn't shift through my gears - which Kurt fixed (temporarily?) with some lube on the shifter cables - thanks Kurt!
I entered the "Open Women's" rather than the beginner class. There was 11 of us on the start line, and we were on the track with the Masters. The course was a good one for the start of the season: very flat - which I was glad about as I'd been in the bike shop to get a 12-27 cassette, but they didn't have a 9-speed, and I'd thought I had a 11-25, but it's a 11-23, and I've got a road double in the front. My lowest is 39-23, where most others seemed to have 36-27. The race organizers had taken out the run-up by the tennis courts, and replaced it with a sandpit followed by a log, which was the first dismount of the course (the other two being a set of stairs, and the barriers). The only place I would have liked a lower gear is the ramp up at the beginning of the BMX track, but I made it up each time.
I noticed at the start that my rear tire was very squishy - but it was too late to fix. I felt the rim hit the ground on every bump on the entire course. I've no idea how I didn't actually pinch flat. My back wheel was stepping out on the tight corners (were there any corners that weren't tight?), and it felt like the tire was rolling off on the off-camber bit before the bleachers.
And if there was an award for the slowest barriers, I'd be the champion.
I spent the rest of the taking photos and videos of the other races. I'm really getting the hang of the video thing - and cyclocross races are great practise, because you can set up a shot and film one ride flying through the frame, play it back, and make changes, then film the next rider. I got some really good clips: I set the camera up on the ground on the outside of the corner where the gravel turns to grass on the intermediate first lap, where all the riders were bunched up, and got a clip of them all taking the corner, including Louis taking out half the cones and nearly the camera. I wrapped my GorillaPod around the railing on the bleachers and filmed the off-camber swoopy bit. I set the camera up in the flower bed by the little bridge, and got riders riding through the frame over the humped-back bridge, including reflection in the pond. I got the big banked corner on the BMX track. I got riders re-mounting after the barriers one after the other. I got the stairs. I got lots of good wheel shots. And loads of good photos too.
Got home. Nothing's coming off the first card.
