Good news: We had an announcement this week at Dinner. One of the churches in town is starting up a lunch. Each week on Friday from 11:30 to 1. The point people are a young couple, J and K, who are part of the Dinner team. They started talking to their pastor a while back about the idea and it's going to be up and running this week. Nice.
I got to make the announcement, which is always fun. I stand in the middle of the room and yell, "Heeeeeeeeyyyyyyy" until everybody stops talking and looks at me. I can hold a note for a long time.
I actually wasn't supposed to be there this week. I'd even sent a note to the others on the team to say I wouldn't be, because I was booked into a meeting with the 'hiring committee' of the corporation. We've got a government grant to hire a part time, acronymically problematic Community Outreach Worker to work until the end of the year. Now we've got our act togetherish, we can do the hiring.
So I figured I'd miss Dinner this week, which sucked. I'd much rather go to Dinner than a meeting.
Which is why I wasn't entirely crushed to get a 4:30 phone call from the Amazing J, saying that CL had left a message on her machine that 'the church' was still locked, there was no one on the property who had a key, and she couldn't get in touch with the crew boss.
I wrote an email to the people I was supposed to be meeting with, to let them know I might be late, and drove to the Motel.
Fortunately, the weather was good, hot and sunny, so we started rounding up disused plastic patio tables and wiping off the gunk with the newspapers that have been piling up in their pink plastic bags on the porch of a part of the main house that nobody ever uses. Months' worth. I guess if you're getting paid to deliver them, you deliver them.
A couple of guys went off to collect chairs, J had brought a couple of stacks of styro plates from our stash in her garage and was about to drive to the store down the block to get cups, cutlery and napkins when somebody hollered, "They're here!"
Sure enough, the guys with the keys pulled up in front of the house, pool noodles and boogie boards in tow. 5:20. Sheesh.
They said sorry, they'd been caught in traffic, and unlocked the door.
The patio furniture went back where it belonged and we started setting up.
Half a dozen of us worked at putting out the freshly laundered table cloths, laying out the bins of knives and forks and spoons. CL was teaching P from the health centre how to make the coffee. BC had brought a jar of pickles and scooped some out into bowls. Another guy was playing solitaire on one of the tables.
The Toggery Crew were at work, hanging up this week's clothing donations so people could browse. Since all of the other "donations" had been tossed by the new owner, BG and the Amazing J have been bringing a few bags of things every week, putting them on hangers hooked over the now empty curtain rods. BG is a wonderful woman with a big smile, a full open laugh and a penchant for dirty jokes. My favourite Catholic. She and J unpack the things, put the women's on this side of the room and the men's on the other side. After Dinner, they pack it all away again. Anything that comes back for a third time gets bundled off to a local charity shop. Much more organized than the piles of stuff.
It was all so cool. I knew I couldn't stay long, what with the meeting and all. It was like playing hooky.
Before I left, I saw the crew boss and the other guys standing in line for Dinner. They do that every week.
Which is fine, except there's conflict brewing. Between the old guard and the new crew.
The old guard at the Motel, while freely acknowledging (shaking heads, saying, Ohmygawwwwd) that the previous management was a problem, are not happy with the new one either. I keep hearing that now they've got all the junk hauled away, no more work is being done. The roof that was patched just weeks ago is leaking again and there seems to be no interest in getting it done properly. A ceiling tile fell on a woman's bed and nobody's fixing it. There are problems with the mail because the office is unmanned.
This week was the second time we've been locked out until almost too late to set up for Dinner. The office space we understood was to be ours has been put on hiatus and we don't know what we'll be able to use. And to complete the picture, when P went to make the coffee yesterday, we found out that the water had been turned off again. Fortunately, W and her man had a couple of cases of l'eau in their van (the new (old) one sans ramp) and they donated one to the cause.
But I'll tell you what I did. Or at least, what I'm told I did. Because I wasn't actually there when I did it.
Apparently, once the crew boss was seated at his table eating Dinner with his girlfriend and buddies, I marched right over there. Apparently, I got up in his face and said, "Look here!" I said.
I said, "Look here! Dinner is at 6 o'clock every Wednesday! We need those doors unlocked by early afternoon!" I said. I spoke with a lot of exclamation marks, or so I'm told. I may have even waggled my finger.
It would seem that I then went on to threaten his life and limb if he should ever - and I mean EVER! - fail in this duty ever again and that he'd be banned - BANNED! - from coming to Dinner. And your little dog, too!
CL told me I did this. I don't know who told her. She didn't say when she called to confirm my version of events.
I don't actually remember doing it. But I'm not a reliable witness because, like I said, I wasn't there at the time.
But now he knows I am not to be trifled with.
Apparently.
r
I got to make the announcement, which is always fun. I stand in the middle of the room and yell, "Heeeeeeeeyyyyyyy" until everybody stops talking and looks at me. I can hold a note for a long time.
I actually wasn't supposed to be there this week. I'd even sent a note to the others on the team to say I wouldn't be, because I was booked into a meeting with the 'hiring committee' of the corporation. We've got a government grant to hire a part time, acronymically problematic Community Outreach Worker to work until the end of the year. Now we've got our act togetherish, we can do the hiring.
So I figured I'd miss Dinner this week, which sucked. I'd much rather go to Dinner than a meeting.
Which is why I wasn't entirely crushed to get a 4:30 phone call from the Amazing J, saying that CL had left a message on her machine that 'the church' was still locked, there was no one on the property who had a key, and she couldn't get in touch with the crew boss.
I wrote an email to the people I was supposed to be meeting with, to let them know I might be late, and drove to the Motel.
Fortunately, the weather was good, hot and sunny, so we started rounding up disused plastic patio tables and wiping off the gunk with the newspapers that have been piling up in their pink plastic bags on the porch of a part of the main house that nobody ever uses. Months' worth. I guess if you're getting paid to deliver them, you deliver them.
A couple of guys went off to collect chairs, J had brought a couple of stacks of styro plates from our stash in her garage and was about to drive to the store down the block to get cups, cutlery and napkins when somebody hollered, "They're here!"
Sure enough, the guys with the keys pulled up in front of the house, pool noodles and boogie boards in tow. 5:20. Sheesh.
They said sorry, they'd been caught in traffic, and unlocked the door.
The patio furniture went back where it belonged and we started setting up.
Half a dozen of us worked at putting out the freshly laundered table cloths, laying out the bins of knives and forks and spoons. CL was teaching P from the health centre how to make the coffee. BC had brought a jar of pickles and scooped some out into bowls. Another guy was playing solitaire on one of the tables.
The Toggery Crew were at work, hanging up this week's clothing donations so people could browse. Since all of the other "donations" had been tossed by the new owner, BG and the Amazing J have been bringing a few bags of things every week, putting them on hangers hooked over the now empty curtain rods. BG is a wonderful woman with a big smile, a full open laugh and a penchant for dirty jokes. My favourite Catholic. She and J unpack the things, put the women's on this side of the room and the men's on the other side. After Dinner, they pack it all away again. Anything that comes back for a third time gets bundled off to a local charity shop. Much more organized than the piles of stuff.
It was all so cool. I knew I couldn't stay long, what with the meeting and all. It was like playing hooky.
Before I left, I saw the crew boss and the other guys standing in line for Dinner. They do that every week.
Which is fine, except there's conflict brewing. Between the old guard and the new crew.
The old guard at the Motel, while freely acknowledging (shaking heads, saying, Ohmygawwwwd) that the previous management was a problem, are not happy with the new one either. I keep hearing that now they've got all the junk hauled away, no more work is being done. The roof that was patched just weeks ago is leaking again and there seems to be no interest in getting it done properly. A ceiling tile fell on a woman's bed and nobody's fixing it. There are problems with the mail because the office is unmanned.
This week was the second time we've been locked out until almost too late to set up for Dinner. The office space we understood was to be ours has been put on hiatus and we don't know what we'll be able to use. And to complete the picture, when P went to make the coffee yesterday, we found out that the water had been turned off again. Fortunately, W and her man had a couple of cases of l'eau in their van (the new (old) one sans ramp) and they donated one to the cause.
But I'll tell you what I did. Or at least, what I'm told I did. Because I wasn't actually there when I did it.
Apparently, once the crew boss was seated at his table eating Dinner with his girlfriend and buddies, I marched right over there. Apparently, I got up in his face and said, "Look here!" I said.
I said, "Look here! Dinner is at 6 o'clock every Wednesday! We need those doors unlocked by early afternoon!" I said. I spoke with a lot of exclamation marks, or so I'm told. I may have even waggled my finger.
It would seem that I then went on to threaten his life and limb if he should ever - and I mean EVER! - fail in this duty ever again and that he'd be banned - BANNED! - from coming to Dinner. And your little dog, too!
CL told me I did this. I don't know who told her. She didn't say when she called to confirm my version of events.
I don't actually remember doing it. But I'm not a reliable witness because, like I said, I wasn't there at the time.
But now he knows I am not to be trifled with.
Apparently.
r
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