Another mystery is solved

A few nights ago, during a particularly beautiful sunset, I decided to go for a walk.

While walking along a street not to far from where I live I happened to take a look at a set of mail boxes. Because of the ongoing mail strike I hadn't taken a look at one of these in quite a few weeks, even though when I get mail it is delivered to such a unit.

Almost immediately I noticed that this unit had been modified. The mail slot above the mail boxes had been sealed off (though, strangely, the material doing the sealing still mentions details of mail pick-up).

Until seeing that at least some number of mail slots have been closed I had been wondering how Canada Post expected to deal with all of the mail that must surely be piling up as a result of the strike and it seems that one approach is not to accept it until after the strike. Now that I have seen this one approach to rejecting new mail, I am curious to see if other forms of mail slots have also been sealed, or if they are still capable of accepting mail.

I also do wonder how bad that first day back will be. Will people have saved up all kinds of items to mail? Or with they be like me, and have nothing to send after weeks without access to a mail slot?

All in all, I am just glad to know how at least part of the problem is being dealt with.

A Few Quick Notes 538

-We seem to be experiencing another overcast and cool, but dry, day in Wolfville. Though I am not a fan of particularly high temperatures, I really wouldn't mind it being a bit warmer than the low teens on most June afternoons.

-Maybe it was because I frequently vacationed in Michigan as a child, but Jack Kevorkian is definitely an individual I associate with my childhood (though not in as morbid a way as you might imagine). Anyway, I was somewhat surprised to hear that he recently died. I wonder if someone will try to fill his shoes?

-As some of you may know, as of this morning many Canada Post employees are striking. Much to my surprise, this development did not mean delays for packages that I was expecting from Newfoundland.

-I have been having a hard time motivating myself to get back to work in this post-comps period. Hopefully I can find a way to turn a corner in the very near future.

-For the few weeks leading up to my comps I was consuming far too much coffee. I suspect that I was frequently consuming upwards of 3 litres of coffee a day. My consumption was so high not because I wanted the caffeine, but mainly because I just like drinking warm beverages and I do my best to avoid tea during the day. Anyway, I am pretty sure that this rate of coffee consumption wasn't doing anything good for my mood, sleep quality, or rate of productivity. Fortunately, in the past few days I have seen a precipitous drop in my rate of coffee consumption. I just hope that I can keep it up and that I don't slip back in to this 3 litres a day trend (of course, I did just buy a few kilos of coffee beans).

A Few Quick Notes 536

-Today turned out to be a pretty nice day. I guess it was fitting for Earth Day.

-Today,for the first time in quite a while, I took an afternoon nap - it was great.

-I made some chili for dinner tonight.

-As Easter is fast approaching I will soon need to start work on my Easter bread baking project. As things stand right now I will likely be taking care of most of this baking tomorrow afternoon or evening.

-Today was an advance polling day in the current Canadian election. Based on polling station reports from Neil and Rebecca and comments I have seen on Twitter I get the sense that these events were well attended. Actually, I am curious if we will ever see exactly how many people voted this way and if the numbers were higher than in past years when the advance polling day happened on a not-holiday.

-Actually, the more I think about it the more I think that voting day should be a holiday/non-work day. Such a change might also provide Canada Post of being a little more useful in terms of collecting special ballots on the final day of the election.

A Few Quick Notes 289

-Today was incredibly beautiful. While Environment Canada was reporting a temperature of 5 degrees, I am pretty sure that it was actually warmer than that in town. Of course, the sun was also out, which really helped things.

-As some of you may have noticed, I have removed the web-call button from the side-bar. This wasn't getting much (read 'any') use. And since moving from GrandCentral to Google Voice it had begun to take up much more space. I guess if you really need to contact either of us and you don't have our contact information the best approach might be to use the comment section associated with each post (not that this is a problem that comes up all that frequently).

-Today while reading the Globe and Mail I came across a few stories of note.

Firstly, it seems that G.W. Bush has now given his first post-presidential for-hire speech. The strange part of the story is not that he has decided to do paid speeches, but that the speech was given in Calgary instead of somewhere in the United States.

Secondly, apparently both Stephen Harper and Danny Williams will be attending this evening's memorial service for those lost in the recent off-shore helicopter crash. Hopefully everyone will have enough tact to behave appropriately for a memorial service. (A related note is that my sister will be performing as part of the mass choir assembled for the event). Also, CBC should be streaming the service here for those of you who are interested.

Thirdly, I read that AIG will have $165 million, equal to the sum the company recently paid in bonuses, deducted from its $180 billion of bail-out money. I found two things particularly strange about this story. Firstly, how could a company that needs bailout money justify bonuses, the company clearly isn't doing all that well. I guess those handing out the bail-out money felt the same way. Secondly, and more importantly, if the bail-out money is based on need, how can $165 million just be cut from the package. This would suggest that the sum allocated to the company isn't really based on much at all and that a few hundred million here or there might not make all that much difference. For some reason I find this very troubling. Also, according to the story, the US government "now holds about an "80-per-cent stake" in the company. I really wonder how all of this is going to play out in the long run.

-Last night Neil and I made our way to Your Father's Moustache for their St. Patrick's day event. We made the trip because one of my classmates was one of the fiddlers performing. Overall I think we had a pretty good time.

The only bummer all evening was the twenty minutes that we had to blow trying to send a package at the postal outlet across the street. The employee was very unhelpful and slow. We both suspect that it likely cost us more than was necessary for us to send the package, though as we were provided with very little information it is hard for us to be certain about this.

-Earlier today I mentioned doing some spring cleaning. I forgot to mention that I also did a few loads of laundry.

-In a few minutes dinner should be ready. We will be having pot roast. I can't wait.

A Few Quick Notes 119

-The weather continues to be incredible in Montreal. We are experiencing what must be unseasonably high temperatures with clear skies and little wind. For the most part, if I could request a particular type of weather it would be like this.

-Yesterday marked the beginning of another two-day stretch of work. Fortunately, because of an Oktoberfest themed night, I was able to wear shorts to work (though it also meant that I got to wear knee-high wool socks). Actually, for the following two Thursdays I will also be able to wear shorts to work.

-No serious mouse action in recent days, though all of the traps seem to have been sprung (presumably because of furniture re-arrangement). Hopefully we haven’t missed any of the vermin because of this weakening of defenses.

-Last weekend I attended an antiquarian book fair in Montreal. Amazingly, there wasn’t really anything that I was all that interested in buying. I guess I feel that my 2003 edition of Sherlock Holmes will satisfy my needs just as much or more than the $3500 first edition.

-In the past few days I have finally started to ride my bike again, and it has been great. I am not sure why I continually forget how much I enjoy riding my bike.

-Yesterday I sent a package to a friend in St. John’s. Unfortunately, the shipping cost was about twice as much as what I had originally paid for the item that was being shipped. Now that I know how much it costs to ship parcels I will have to be more careful about such things in the future.