Friday, February 24, 2006

Up on the roof

One of my jobs(I have 3) is head Caretaker at a school. I am Head Caretaker and only caretaker,so if there are any disasters,the buck stops here. Caretaking is not a glamour job, as you can imagine, but it has its perks. Yesterday I was up on the roof changing filters on the rooftop units. The sky was blue,the sun was warm, it was quiet up there. I totally get why kids climb up on roofs of schools. It's a whole different world up there. I also like it when the fire alarm inspector comes to do a test of the alarms,because I get to help him. He gives me a walkie-talkie and I get to watch the panel and wait for lights to come on and say into the walkie-talkie things like"Northwest wing on" and push buttons that make a loud beeping noise and all the kids are envious......One time I got to shut the school down when there was a rather large plumbing problem. I was popular that day,I tell you! Do you remember your grade school janitor? One little girl asked me if I was new at the school. I said yes. So she asked me if I'd made any new friends yet. Sweet.

Friday, February 17, 2006

No Helmets

I heard a wonderful comedian on CBC from Newfoundland. The interviewer asked him how he decided to be a comedian and where he got his jokes from. After the usual comments about the house parties in his childhood listening to stories and the rich maritime song and story tradition, he said that he also used stories from real life. "Like"he said,"you'll be watchin'the news and you'll notice things like the kamakazi pilot footage where those pilots put their helmets on before they gets inta the plane."
I remember one news story from when I was a kid and the Jehovas Witnesses used to predict the end of the world would be on such-and-such a date. A reporter camped out near the doorstep of one of these prophets who said the world was going to end the next day. He got a great picture of the man putting his milk bottles out for the next day's milk delivery.
If the world was going to end the next day,what would you do? Would you bother flossing,for instance?

Wednesday, February 08, 2006

Sea Big Great

Yes we had a wonderful time at the concert. At the end when everyone usually yells "Great Big Sea! "over and over to get them to come back on stage, we had a little variation. Some fans from Regina had made 3 signs with Great written on one, Big written on another and Sea on the third. They stood up and waved their signs excitedly while we shouted. Only, being from Regina and all, they had the order mixed up. So, to be polite, we all yelled" Sea Big Great!".
I was disappointed that they didn't sing General Taylor,as I had memorized the lyrics so I could sing along, so the kids let me sing it in the truck on the way home. Now that's true love!