Paul Alton MBA

September began with us in Edmonton with Paul working at a turnaround of a petrochemical plant forty-five minutes from our daughter and son-in-law’s home. This turnaround began in August. It was nominally scheduled to run into October. It did timewise, but the scope of the planned jobs shrunk with each passing week. Much like people discard items from their shopping carts as they approach the checkout, things and people were dropped in odd places. As one of the higher paid people on the crew my last day was on September 21^st. My financial needs were more than met in the time before I was laid off. Anticipated icing didn’t happen. That was a trade off with suddenly having my life back and not getting up before five, six days a week to get home after six in the evenings.

It did not drop me into despair, but into the aimless world of the retired without schedules or deadlines. There must be a solution for that other than employment or death. Haven’t found it yet. Keep meaning to look. I recently bought a book on procrastination. I mean to get around to reading it.

We had two vehicles with us. Usually, I drove the car to work. When Juanita went back to Meadow Lake for a few days I drove the truck. That left the dually for her city errands. She didn’t do many.

The plant parking lot at quitting time was busy. Cars bunched up at the stop sign getting onto the highway. All you could see is the back of the car immediately ahead of you. One evening I drove over something with both wheels. About six kilometers later alarms started on the dash of two tires dropping in pressure. Rather than turning where I normally would I carried on to Gibbons amid increasingly urgent alarms. I parked in a strip mall and got out to look. Both tires on the driver’s side still looked okay but air was coming out. Before long both were all the way flat.

I phoned roadside assistance. They said it would be a couple of hours before help arrived. That seemed too long so I phoned service shops that were open. All were to busy to help that evening. Eventually I called the roadside assistance back. The person said she hadn’t had a call for two flats on the same vehicle for a couple of years but had had four calls that evening. We agreed they would tow the car to the selling dealer and where to leave the key for the tow truck driver. Becky came and picked me up.

I drove the truck to work the next day. On the way into the parking lot I pulled to one side and got out. There was a GMC mudflap still lying there. It had several sheet metal screws sticking up out of it. I picked it up off the road and dropped it off at the guard house.

We both went back on the day after I was laid off. After we were home, Juanita started dwelling on how her absence would affect Rebekah’s situation. She was home alone with the kids while Nick was still working up north and the kids were involved in activities that would be hard to handle as a temporary single parent. Juanita went back to Edmonton for another week until Nick’s job finished. I was home alone getting a taste of life as a bachelor doing both the daddy and mommy do’s. It’s doable but less than desirable.

Meanwhile the snow geese flew high over the property on their way south. They come from the far north and start their migration a few weeks sooner than the Canada geese along about when the leaves start turning colour.

I installed a photovoltaic powered security camera that shares the app with the doorbell camera.

Both before and after Juanita’s return I kept up the 10k a day steps routine. It is more pleasant when she is here. We do one of the 3,500 step loops around our property before I take off and do the boring, but quick walk to the highway and back to get close to the total.

One of our hobbies has become checking the Flash Food app a couple of times a day for deeply discounted bargains at the local No Frills supermarket. We’re willing to risk 90 percent discounted sushi for which we would never pay full price.

As a nod to the changing seasons we emptied one of the covered raised garden beds, added a bit of new top soil and sowed lettuce seeds. They sprouted quickly. We’ll see if they survive the winter. Stay tuned.