Its a bird! Its a plane! Nope its a bird

Ok lately my job has gone to the birds. It seems the last two days in a row have in some way involved birds. On Monday I rescued a baby bird that had some how managed to find its way inside our lobby at the Convention Centre. I tried first coaxing it down with food, that didn't work. So I called for a ladder. Got right up beside the little fella and tried to offer it a bit of scone. Got it right under his nose and then he flew to a higher tree. Since he was out of reach I decided to shake him up a bit. He then flew across the lobby and landed on the up escalator. So I gave chase. I ran up the escalator but he had already reached the top and started flying again. But he just flew ahead to the next escalator but he tried to land on the hand rail which he didn’t like that it was moving so he fell between the two escalators and slid down the middle. He hit the stop button pole at the bottom and flew to the feet of some woman who was standing 5ft away. Now how this lady was totally oblivious to what was going on is beyond me but I tried to tell her not to move and it’s just a bird no reason to panic. Well you guessed it, she panicked. So the bird takes off again. I've almost had it there too. But now he’s on the down escalator heading back towards our lobby. But I manage to corner it on a stair and it settles in my hand until I release it in a tree outside. You can see pictures of that on Susy's photo page at http://susy.fotopages.com/ Ok now yesterday again with the birds. We get a call from Canada Place (CPC) staff asking for our assistance on one of the outside decks. We (myself and 3 security guards) go out there and find CPC trying to corral a mother goose and her 5 little ones. Ok I know I've seen this scene before on the FOX network "when animals attack". Lucky for us she didn't attack us and somewhat cooperated until wildlife control showed up. Let me tell you geese are not happy campers when they get caught. They're not exactly in control of their bowels either. But in the end we gathered up the 5 small ones who by this time are fleeing for their lives and they were all taken to be relocated in a park. The things I do at work.

Keep BC clean eh?

So the other day when Susy and I were out on one of our tourist Challenges we were walking through downtown. Now they have these free newspapers here that they hand out at every skytrain station. So of course people take them because how can you say no to something thats free. Anyways if they don't want it they throw it away, well they normally throw it on the ground if theres no garbage can around. So when we walked by the Waterfront Skytrain station the ground was littered with pages from one of these papers and they were blowing around. At this point I didn't do anything but walk by them like everyone else. Two hours later we walk by the same place again and the same papers are all over the ground. Now I can't take it anymore and as we go I stop and pick up all the paper and throw them away. Now heres the ironic part of it, the last paper was the centre page and it was open on the ground. It was a picture of a beautiful green forest landscape stretched out as far as you could see, and the head line was "BEAUTIFUL BRITISH COLUMBIA". Its amazing that probably thousands of people walked by that page and never thought they could do their part to keep it beautiful just by picking up that one piece of paper. Two hours before I was one of those people, not anymore.

10 things I love

Ok I'm going to do this for the fun of it. But I'm thinking its like blog spam or something.

10 things I love:

1) Ok the first with out fail is Susan. How can you not love that girl. Her smile warms me from the inside. And her heart is always ready to give and share to anyone. Shes a beautiful person and if you don't know her you should try to now because your missing out on the most amazing person I've ever met. This girl will never turn her back to you no matter who you are. I may be her knight in shining armor but shes my angel.

2) My grandmother. I went through some hard times years back and my Gramma was always there for me. Every morning I would get up and spend at least one hour sitting talking to her. She never judged and never spoke harshly. She was always loving and kind. Her kindness will always be in my heart. Shes still alive but I don't live at home anymore, but I know that if I ever needed her she would be there. Love you Gramma.

3) My family. Ok we all have crazy weird families and mines no exception. I have 3 siblings and two loving parents. I also have a brother in law and now a new addition of a niece. Us 4 kids fought a lot when we were growing up but now that were older we've stopped. We're 4 very unique individuals with different personalities but get us together and watch out. All too often we'll leave a place with our mother very embarassed.

4) My friends. I was thinking about this the other day when I was thinking about what I love. I realized that I have a lot of life long friends. Very close friends that have been there for years and will always be there. None have really been friends since childhood but I figure they all came right at the right time. Some days I wonder though if I met them all at the same assylum or at different ones.

5) My life. All of it. The ups the downs. So far I've had an amazing journey. There was many bumps but many good times too. I love every second of it, the good and the bad. Theres not a minute of it I regret or that I'd want to change. Yeah i've been hurt, yeah I've been destroyed even, but it only made me a better person. I'm proud of who I am and my journey is what got me here.

6) My truck. I know seems weird right. But my truck represents a time in my life and its a symbol of the out come. Its one of those physical things that represents something deep and emotional. And besides it leads me to my next love....

7) Camping! I love to camp. I love the outdoors and being in it. I love to just sit in a chair and listen to the things around me. I enjoy the warmth of the people with you. Camping has always been a joy for me. Thankfully Susy likes to camp too. I'm not sure if she knows whats shes in for yet though.

8) Toast and homemade jam. Weird one I know. I don't ever have it either. That smell reminds me of my Grandfather. He always had it every morning before his walks. The grand-sons in the family had to earn his approval and love. Not in a harsh way though. We just didn't fall into it as easily as his grand-daughters did. Him and I only started getting to that point about a year before he died. He will be loved and always remembered. We weren't close but his death opened a greater door for me that probably would not have happened if he hadn't passed away. See #2

9) BC. Its a beautiful province. Its so friggin big too. I've been trying to explore it as much as possible but theres just so much. People always ask me why I don't travel to others places. My answer is always 'I've got too much to see here'. This is a beautiful place we live in. Enjoy it.

10) Smiles. Ahh I love smiles. The first thing I notice on people. Smiles tell so much about them. If you want to see the most amazing smile go look at Susy when she reads this. That girl has a smile that could warm anyone. First thing I saw on her. That's a smile. Don't ever hold one back people. Smile and the whole world will smile with you.

Show me the money!

So I got paid on Friday by my second job at Tradex. I didn't clue in on Friday until later that there was a problem. The problem was I was only paid $16.43. Now in the past due to the high amount of taxes I have to have taken off I've recieved a $3.19 paycheck. Thats when I figured out if I didnt have many hours to just carry them over to another week. So when I checked and saw I only recieved 16 bucks little alarms went off in my head. So I sent an email. today I got a response. Some guy named Micheal Watson got my money and I got his. He's a part timer in the kitchen so he didnt work much. So he must be out there somewhere enjoying my hundreds and I'm here trying to figure out what I can buy nowadays for $16. Turns out not a heck of a lot. Anyways the City is fixing the problem and I should see the rest sometime today. And here I thought I was working for free now.

Driving to work

So for starters I guess I should mention everyday I go to work I drive at least 10 minutes through the downtown east side so that may explain some of the things I see. But thats just it, I see some weird things. I've seen naked people, no not at all ones you want to look at but they're like car accidents and you just can't look away. I've had a woman smile at me and then drop her pants and squat urinating right in front of me. That one was disturbing. My most memorable was the day two velociraptors crossed my path. Thats right, the dinosaurs. Ok I know they weren't really dinosaurs but man those costumes were incredible. It was like Jurassic Park had come to Vancouver. I've been driving along peaceful when 5 police cars come out of no where and the SWAT team jumps out fully armed. Yesterday I was driving in and as usual there was some addict in the middle of the road high on something and jaywalking. Now this isn't unusual in that area of town. It happens more then once in your 5 km drive in that stretch. What was weird was when he realized there was cars coming and they really weren't slowing for him he started to run across the road. He was carrying a cup of something that he proceeded to spill on himself, I don't think it was hot but it may have been. He just stopped where he was dead in his tracks in the middle of the road and proceeded to yell at his cup. Like it did something wrong. I swear he was being so mean to the poor thing. I was scared for its safety. But I proceeded on. Can't wait to do it all again tomorrow.

Aye-caramba

Ok let me tell you I have been very busy as of late. Work has been crazy. I've been go go go from the second I get there and don't sit down until I'm driving home 10 hours later. But you know what? I love it! I missed this part of my job so much. The pressure of it, having to make decisions in a matter of seconds that could cost so dearly. Not having the time to even stop for lunch. The last 2 years at work have been like watching paint dry. But after tomorrow when I leave work I feel like I'm going to have that excitement for my job re-kindled. I know who really likes their job? Not many these days. But I love what I do, and I do it well if I do say so myself. I actually cant wait to go to work tomorrow. But what I cant wait for at all is to get off work tomorrow and go see Susy. Yeah I miss her. lol