What's next? I'll tell you what's next, a rotten 24 hour stretch, that's what's next.
So since I last posted on the ol' blogosphere about a month has passed in real time. I have no idea how that converts to Internet time, but I'm sure it's a lot.
Anyhoo, last Tuesday I had a bad day. Actually it was more like Monday afternoon until Tuesday afternoon. A 24 hour stretch spanning two separate weekdays....whatever, you get the picture.
Well, Monday was rolling along pretty nicely at fist. I did a quick Brewhouse C.I.P and then filtered 65hl of beer in record time. I was out the door and on my way home hours before I expected to be. Not too bad. And seeing as I was out early I figured I'd be a nice guy so I called Liz and asked if she wanted a ride home. She did, so just as I passed my usual exit and came around the corner on Lakeshore drive I got nabbed by a speed trap for going 17km over the speed limit. A whopping $42.50 fine (plus a $15 victim tax....if you ask me I was the victim here). I wasn't so upset about the ticket as it was so small but as the officer hands it to me, he leans in the car and says, "unfortunately, this ticket will cost you three demerit points". I says, "3 points for 17 over?" To which he replies, "Just fight it, they'll probably just knock the points off anyways.". I drove away thinking what a gigantic waste of time that whole ordeal was. He basically pulled me over for a minuscule ticket that if I fight (which I did and now have to wait 8 months before I even get a court date) I will get reduced anyways. So in affect he just put a further burden on an already over taxed court system. All for a measly $42.50 (plus the $15 victim tax). Kinda silly if you ask me. But no one did, so I guess that's that.
So as I carry on down the road, I pick up Liz and head home. We decide that we don't want to make any food so we head to Dominion to pick up a pizza. On the way there I miss my first turn, so I decide to take King a little further and just get the next street. Unfortunately there was no "left turns" from 4-6pm. I look at the clock and it's 20 minutes to 6, "what are the chances?" I think to myself as I make the turn. Only to find 4 cop cars sitting there waiting for suckers like me. I guess the chances were pretty good. So yeah, I got another ticket, this time a whopping $85 (plus a $35 victim tax). Again, what a waste of time. 4 cops were sitting there. 4! Seriously, how much money does it cost the people to have 4 cops sitting at an intersection just on the outskirts of down town. Ahhhh....whatever, I'll stop there before ranting.
So now in just over 20 minutes I managed to accumulate two tickets totaling $127.50 in fines, plus $50 in victim taxes and three demerit points. All and all not a bad 20 minutes.
That was it for Monday. Tuesday is way better.
I wake up Tuesday morning refreshed and determined to not let the two traffic violations bother me the whole day. But no sooner had I stepped out of the car and tried to unlock my car then the bad luck strikes again. Somehow, my key gets locked in the car door. It sounds stupid, but it's true. My key turned too far and locked itself into the door. I tried pulling, twisting, pushing and kicking, but nothing was working. So after about five minutes I head back inside and get my spare key. I go to the back of the car, unlock the hatch back and crawl inside (now before anyone asks, the key less entry on my Golf has not worked in over a year). I rummage over the seats and manage to unlock the door from the inside. But such is the locking mechanism in the Golf that if the key is in the door with the door unlocked and you start the car the alarm still goes off. So I had to lock the door and start the car, but such was the problem with my latching mechanism on the door that when I locked the door I couldn't close the door. Weird...trust me.
So I get Liz to call VW and they were open at 730 am. Not to bad. I drive to the dealership with one hand on the wheel and one hand holding the locked, but not closed door, shut.
I get to the dealership and try to explain the situation. They don't believe me. They come outside and try to play with the lock. 5 minutes of pulling, twisting, pushing and kicking and they believed me.
They get the car in the garage and an hour and a half later come out and tell me that it's going to cost me $758 to fix.
Awesome!
Now my total is up to two tickets worth $127.50, plus $50 in victim taxes and two demerit points and a car fixing up fee of $758.
A great 18 hours so far.
So I call Jim at the Brewery and tell him the situation and explain that I'm going to be late. At which point he tells me that there is a problem with the beer that I filtered yesterday and that I have to get there straight away and filter another 65hl if they are going to have any beer to bottle that day.
Awesome!
So I head out on the highway, screaming North towards Barrie. I get to the Brewery and everyone is in hysterics. They need to bottle, but in order to bottle they need beer. So I get to work right away. I start putting everything together for the filtration as fast as I can. I start cleaning the Bright Beer Tank and DE filter at the same time. I got two things going and I'm working way to fast. And as I'm filling the bell in the DE filter with 90+ Celsius water, with the only hose available to me, I lean over to close a valve and the hose jumps up and sprays me with the scolding water. I drop the hose and try to rip off my shirt. But to no avail...the damage was already done.
I run into the lab and tell Nikki to grab me some ice. I immediately throw the ice on my side and Jim comes up, looks at it and says you better get to the Emergency Room or the walk in clinic. So I get one of the girls working on the line downstairs to drive me to the clinic. The clinic say me right away and promptly told me that I had 2nd degree burns but there was absolutely nothing they could do for me.
Awesome!
So I return to the Brewery. At this point the pain starts to kick in. Up until then I thought I may be able to finish my day and get the beer filtered. Not any more.
When I get to the brewery I tell them that I'm going home. They give me some advil and some T3's. I take the Advils cause I had to drive and the T3's may have been too much. The pain starts to subside and I figure the drive won't be too bad. Not so much. I get about 20 minutes down the 400 south and I start to scream. I seriously had never felt pain like that before. I reach into my pocket and start swallowing T3's. Nothing doing, it still hurts like a bastard and I still have 40 minutes of driving left. I'm punching my steering wheel, clenching my teeth and screaming at the radio for the entire drive. I finally get to the 401 turn off and instead of taking Black Creek Drive, like I usually do, I decide to take the 401 West to the 427. I figured that it was still early enough in the day that the traffic wouldn't have started yet. Wrong. As soon as I make the turn I see the sign. "Exit to 427 southbound Blocked".
Fuck, shit, cock, bastard, asshole and a whole bunch of other words came flying out of my mouth. I'm pretty sure I even invented so new words, which had profanity levels far beyond anything found in a Tarintino movie.
I quickly take the first exit and I'm forced to take Weston Road all the way south now.
Red light after Red light. Stop and go, stop and go. 20 minutes later I finally get home. I take two more T3's and force myself to pass out, hoping the rest of the day will just fade away.
When I finally woke up and Liz came home, she looked at my side and it was now fully starting to blister. She called Telehealth and they said I should probably go to the clinic the next day and get the blisters lanced and dressed properly. At this point I was still planning on working the next day. We needed beer and someone had to brew it. But after a night of about 20 minutes of sleep and 7 hours of trying not to turn onto my side, I decided it best to take the next day off.
Anyhoo, it was a bad day. And usually after bad days you think to yourself that it can't get any worse, it can only get better. The scales of injustice were tilted against you and now they needed to be balanced again. Somehow some good will come to you and all will be right in the world again. This is of course nonsense. The universe doesn't owe you shit. The universe doesn't care about you. And why should it? Sometimes bad things just happen. You deal with it and you move on. It sucks but it's true.
I had a bad day but I'm happy now. The week started off on a downer but at the end of the week I got to attend a wonderful wedding. Steve and Raynu (my brother in law and his fiance) had two wonderful ceremonies in one day. The first a traditional Sikh ceremony held at a Gurdwara (A Sikh temple), which was like nothing I had experienced before and I'm glad I was able to attend. And the second was a more traditional wedding held at The Palais Royale directly on the shores of Lake Ontario. Both ceremonies were beautiful and it was so nice to see the two cultures (Indian and Portuguese) come together for one great day. Lots of dancing, lots of eating and lots of Deer Penis. Also there was lots of genuine affection. The families and friends of both parties seemed so genuinely happy for both Steve and Raynu, it was just so very refreshing to see. It's just awesome to see that much happiness in one place.
So bad things do happen and the universe doesn't care. Big deal. It's not always about you. The universe is a pretty damn big place with a lot of people in it. And if you just look around maybe you'll find that other people happiness can also make you happy.
So what's next?
