Not the sharpest tool in the box

Why do we continue going to Home Depot? It’s like an exercise in repeatedly banging ones head against something very hard and sharp. The last 3 times we have gone to Home Depot we have been told to try Rona instead as they do not carry the basic parts that we needed; what exact purpose do you serve Home Depot??? The funniest part of the adventure was once we realized that Home Depot did not have the part we were after, the man had to use the facilities; their toilet was broken! Their tv commercials are always on about their contracting services and how they can fix and do everything, ‘cha, as if I would ever use them now considering the fact that they cannot fix a toilet. Home Depot, you suck!

Celebration of Light aftermath

Had a wee chuckle over this one; as seen on several home-made posters taped to trees and utility boxes in the West End a day after the fireworks:

"Some asshole kicked over my garden gnome on Comox Street and chipped a small piece of his ear off. If anyone has any information about this let me know, I will beat these fuckers to within an inch of their lives for such a wanton act of vandalism. Peace."

West End residents rock

I have to give a huge shout out to all of the volunteers who came down to Sunset Beach and English Bay and cleaned up all of the garbage left behind from the Celebration of Lights fireworks; you people are fabulous. Despite having several CUPE union members standing there hurling insults at you while you were cleaning, you trudged on. It’s our neighbourhood and I have heard several of my neighbours commenting on how the beach has never been so clean. Perhaps the CUPE members were choked that yet another bargaining tool was taken away from them but honestly, how many of these CUPE employees actually live in the City of Vancouver? Cause I do and my taxes pay your wage…isn't this extortion? Or are you going to tell me that the City of Vancouver does not pay you a high enough wage so that's why you are 'forced' to live in places like Surrey, New Westminster and Port Moody? There is no way in HELL the city should allow your contracts to end a few months prior to the 2010 Olympics; fuck that noise. Flame away.

Dog city

I just don’t get it; dogs in stores. I was in a fairly high end clothing store today and this woman strolls in with some sort of poofy, well manicured dog. The store employee was obviously unhappy that the dog was in the store as she followed it around with a Swiffer broom picking up the dog hair trail. The dog owner looks over to her and says “What? She’s fine…she is very well mannered”. What is wrong with people here? Your dog may be well behaved but you most certainly are not…what makes you think it’s ok to bring your dog into a store or a coffee shop? Are you really that selfish and dense?

Molysmophobia

Hey girls, I hear ya, public washrooms can be nasty places but what’s with the toilet paper barriers on seats everywhere? I would rather you put said barriers down on the seat rather than the ever popular ‘hover method’ (whereby you make a mess all over the place: gross, nasty, eeeew) but if you must make the barrier then please have the decency to throw it away after and not leave your little TP castle half in the bowl and half all over the floor. Were you raised in a barn? Did you grow up with a personal maid? I don’t care; it shouldn’t be someone else’s job to clean up after your paranoia and sloppiness, stop with the TP castles ladies!

Nameless in cyberspace

Anonymity on the Internet is an interesting topic. Some people like to use it for illicit purposes whereas others who have no balls in real life use it to look big and scary on the net. Seeing as a certain negative person who rarely has anything nice to say in real life loves to post here, I would like to encourage them to come on out and stop posting anonymously. I would have no problem if said person posted under their e-mail address or Gmail name like most of you but they don’t. So yeah, please continue to post but don’t be a chickenshit and try to start posting under your name/nickname like everyone else does. This blog was created for me to vent my feelings, frustrations and thoughts and if you don’t like it, then don’t read it; not a difficult concept.

Bitch, please

Why do short people with short little legs insist on hopping off the bus or stepping out of cabs and cutting me off to walk directly in front of me? There is lots of room on the sidewalk for you to walk elsewhere but nooo, you have to go right in front of me even though I have been walking on this path long before you got off said bus or taxi. You try so hard to walk as fast as you can, looking a bit ridiculous mind you. I let you try for maybe ¼ of a block then I get frustrated and easily walk around you because my legs are longer and I am just plain quicker than you are. As I pass you I can hear that you are out of breath, huffing and puffing away…why do you even try?

The Vancouver Country Club

Say what? A slow down of city services? How can they slow it down any more from the status quo? They are already paid a ridiculous amount of money to do menial work and then they bitch and complain that 6 weeks paid holiday is not enough, every stat holiday off is not good enough and the best benefits package around just won’t do. The fact that they would be considered grossly overpaid in any other industry but union work for the city and the fact that they do not see this blows me away… seriously, get over it. Try working in the real world where one is not paid for overtime, one is lucky to get anything more than 2 weeks holiday, where one works on Easter Monday AND Boxing Day, oooooh, yep, that is what the rest of us do. As much as I hate mayor Sam Sullivan I have to say bravo for not putting up with the unions bullshit this time, stick it to ‘em Sammy! It sucks that the city will possibly reek of garbage and filth for a few weeks but doesn’t it already reek like that here?

Messed up

When this story broke out, I know most Vancouverites were thinking “Oh man, yet another Sikh man has killed his wife” but none of us wanted to say anything out loud and be deemed a racist. So the news services towed the husbands line for a few days about alleged masked intruders who broke into their townhouse (in broad daylight mind you), stole nothing and killed her but barely touched him; yeah pretty unlikely story. Anyhow, then on the day of her memorial service, the husband is arrested at the airport trying to flee the country. Not looking so innocent now huh? This is an epidemic, why does this keep happening to these innocent women? It makes me sick.

As seen in the 'Couv

Guest ranter, Drain has these following observances to add to the ‘WTF, did I just see that category’:

An asian guy pulls a U turn on the causeway about 100M from the bridge- I guess he did not want to go over the bridge. It was like a 3 PT turn and by the time he was finished, traffic was stopped both ways. Sometimes I wish I was a cop...he deserves to have his car impounded.

Then, at 8AM on Saturday morning – I was cycling over the Burrard bridge and at the top, a homeless guy with a shopping cart was standing in the middle of the sidewalk taking a leak...very nice...I thought I had seen it all. Nice job Sam Sullivan is doing to clean up the city; I guess his "Broken Windows" program is not working.

Later on Saturday a gal driving a scooter had a cellphone stuck to her cheek with the helmet holding it in place and carrying on a conversation! WTF?

What to do

I have a modern day conundrum here; my good friend C. passed away at the end of May. Every time I log into MSN messenger, I see his chat name and his last tagline “C: sitting in the sun & loving life”. I can’t help but be a bit creeped out. I also feel this intense sense of guilt when I even contemplate deleting him from my chat list because it makes me a sad whenever I see his name there and know that he’ll never be logging in again *sigh*

The drugs don't work

I was waiting for the man to pick me up last night by Waterfront Station when a guy approached me telling me that he was starving and had not eaten all day. I gave him the bag of crackers that I had just opened and started eating and off he trotted, thanking me and not harassing anyone else and looking genuinely grateful. 2 minutes later, the scary witch-looking lady that is always trying to sell stolen flowers comes up to me and says “My name is Jackie and I have been off heroin for 10 months and am in the methadone program. Can I have some money?”, as she is shaking uncontrollably and looking all drugged out. I said ‘no, sorry I have nothing on me’ and she proceeds to hork on my shoe and scream “You look like you never ever help the homeless you bitch!”. Normally I would ignore it but I was in a bad mood and told her to fuck off and go harass someone else. It pissed me off seeing as I had just given someone the only food I had and not 4 days earlier donated over 600$ worth of nice business suits to a women’s shelter that helps women get back into the work force and ready for job interviews. Plenty of us help those actually in need but me giving drug addicts money on the street to help get their next fix is not going to help anyone.

A convenient truth

I was reading the news the other day and saw that Al Gore's son was pulled over going 160 km/h on a freeway the other day. He was caught with marijuana on him as well as loads of prescription drugs. All that aside my favourite part of the story was that he was going 160 km/h in a Toyota Prius! I had no idea that a hybrid car could haul ass like that, wicked.

Peace out

I was walking home yesterday and happened upon a hoard of young Asian girls posing for vacation pictures; they all flashed the peace sign instead of posing or smiling like a normal person. Then as I continued to walk past other touristy spots along my journey, I saw more Asians posing for pictures and flashing the peace sign. Perhaps it’s a victory sign instead of a peace sign but either way, WTF?? Have all those years of Hello Kitty warped their minds? Any insight into this would be mucho appreciated.

Mooove over!

No seriously, YOU move the fu*& over! I am walking on the sidewalk and you and your entourage are walking on the sidewalk. Said sidewalk has room for about 4 people wide max and you are walking with 7 people arm in arm. Do you a) break apart briefly to let people pass or do you b) giggle and ignore oncoming people? Well I choose option c) as an “excuse me, may I please pass?” no longer seems to work. I almost felt bad for barreling through your entourage sending 3 of you spinning and one of you calling me ‘mean’ but I did ask for ‘permission’ to get past and well, who doesn’t like a good ole’ game of Red Rover now and then? Seriously, learn some frickin’ manners ESL students of Robson Street.

Statistics Secret?

Stopped in at the outlet shops on the way back to the Great White North and decided that I needed some cheap and comfy ginch. Bought some stuff at Victoria’s Secret in Bellingham and the ditz behind the counter asks me if I would like to sign up for a free Victoria’s Secret Credit card. I politely answer, “No thanks, I’m Canadian and we do not even have your stores where I live”. She looks at me, bats her eyelashes and says “Well actually, 80% of our credit card holders are Canadian…”. Yeah, as if, at least give me a believable number. That’s like telling me that 80% of Tim Horton’s Roll-up-the-Rim winners are from Mexico, nope, not buying it.