Okay, let’s first address the first elephant in the room, it’s been 3 Years, 5 Months, and 17 Days ago that I last wrote here. Life has been busy, confusing, disappointing, depressing, and yet sometimes very fulfilling and enjoyable.
Second elephant in the virtual room is, I know that’s not the saying “So much to say… Thanks for the fish.” I know that the Douglas Adams quote is “So Long and Thanks For All The Fish”. I’ve read the Hitchhiker’s Guide and it’s sequels many, many years ago. I’ve watched the movies, it seems like many, many years ago.
Since my last entry, I had been working as a concierge at a high end condominium company. I enjoyed the job, there were many facets to job but my favourite was the residents. They were rich, and some were eccentric (typically my favourite ones). Of course you can’t have 100 plus people in one bunch and have them all be great people. I made a few mistakes during my tenure there and unfortunately, the individuals that weren’t my biggest fans happened to hear about my mistakes, or personally witness one or two of them and I was given my walking papers.
However during my time there, I would get Christmas tips and it was sufficient to offset the paltry wage that I was paid. It was even enough to make sure that my wife Runningfawn and I were able to take a nice vacation to Cayo Coco, Cuba and we had a blast. We did what we wanted, when we wanted. I smoked a lot of cigars and drank a lot of cocktails. I would say a typical day for us there was, breakfast, go to the swim up bar that had our favourite bartender, drink and smoke and visit with each other, the bartender, and many other guests of the resort. We would then have lunch and go back to our room for a siesta, go back to the swim up bar and have some more drinks and cigars, then go for dinner and then visit with some of the locals. A few days we would take the bus to a local merchant bazaar and buy some souvenirs and cigars. The only down side to the trip was that we had to fly from Calgary to Montreal, waste several hours and then catch our flight down to Cuba. Coming back was the worst because it was the middle of the night and there’s nothing to do in the airport during the night. We have friends and family in Montreal, we could have arranged to see them but the city was in the middle of a huge snow storm and we didn’t want them out travelling in the foot deep snow.
It was only a few months after that trip that I received my walking papers. One mistake too many and off I go. I can accept that I made mistakes and should lose my job, but they went the extra mile and barred me from the property. I had several friends that I used to visit in the building, I did a lot of little extra jobs for these people and since I wasn’t allowed on the property I couldn’t even continue to help them out. I had hoped that the people who were upset about my departure would have enough clout to remove the banishment, but it wasn’t to be helped.
Reeling from the sudden departure of my job, I started to spiral into a depression and eventually I went back to a work from home tech support job. It was terrible, but I had done the exact job prior so I knew what I was doing. A few months into the job my mother fell and broke her hip and obviously ended up in the hospital. Due to COPD she went into respiratory arrest during the surgery to replace her hip and she was stuck practically immobile in her hospital bed. Her COPD wasn’t doing well and she continued to deteriorate. There was a point where there was discussion about Physician Assisted Suicide being an option. I had to wrap my mind and morals around that. I always said that it’s a person’s body they should be able to do what they want, but when it came down to my mother I suddenly wasn’t so sure about that stance. I had a hard time with the thought that my mother would give up, I still do have a hard time with the concept. Eventually my mother gave up the ghost, literally, and passed without assistance.
I took my mother’s passing very hard, and to be honest, I still do. Your parents, especially in a single parent family, seem like they’re going to be there forever. Instinctually you know they won’t be there forever, but the concept of them leaving is inconceivable. I couldn’t return to my dead-end job bearing the depression and sadness in my soul. I tried several times but I would run into a phone call about someone losing their parent/spouse/child and I would lose it. I couldn’t deal with all the loss and anger in the world so I eventually left the company.
Runningfawn had a hard time with losing her job a year before, she’s still having a hard time with the sense of betrayal that she feels coming from how her company of 11 plus years treated her. With both of us unable to get out of bed to work, we eventually lost our apartment and had to move in with family. One of the few beacons of light in our life was a friend who offered us some financial assistance, enough to pay our bills and keep trying to move forward.
My mother never had much, but at some point she managed to buy a house on a large piece of property in the city and when she passed the proceeds of the property would be shared between my brother and I. Due to the issues with us losing our apartment and the executor of her estate not having our current mailing address the probate on the will took & is taking a long time. It works out that there is no inheritance tax in Canada, however there is a capital gains tax that comes into effect after a year from the date of the passing of my mother. Due to the massive delay in being able to process the estate because of my not being able to be served my paperwork we now have to work through the capital gains mess.
Now we look at other circumstances and find that our federal government had an election and a piece of legislation that would reduce the capital gains tax was put on the back bench. The election came and went, and once the new government was sworn in, Parliament shut down for summer. They’ve been back in Chamber for the past month and the legislation has been passed, but we’re still waiting for everything in the estate to be resolved.
Back at the beginning of the year, a friend approached Runningfawn and I about starting a business. An online auction is something that we thought would be a great business. Auction’s Avenue was born. There’s four partners and we each focus on different aspects of the business. We do collectibles, specializing in sports collectibles, and now do overstock auctions. But that’s all something for my next post, maybe.
Will you read the rest before 3 years, 5 months, and 17 days? Let’s hope so.