One Cat Apartment ©

I went to the same store a few times to buy some Christmas gifts and found it closed. Not because it is out of business, but because they don’t have enough staff.

Since the pandemic (although, truthfully, the pandemic is still on) I have noticed that shops and restaurants have not returned to normal hours, and can be closed at various times of the day for differing amounts of time. This is the new normal.

It is not because staff are out on break. It is because there is no staff.

I have listened to such establishments whine about people not wanting to work.

Truth is, many businesses treat their staff like slaves or worse.

They do not pay a living wage.

They demand long hours.

They have the audacity to police their employees on their time off, and micromanage and monitor employees while they are working, so an employee is under constant surveillance, almost 24/7.

They take their tips.

They have crazy rules and regulations, but don’t provide safe environments.

They treat their employees like children.

The jobs offered are dead end jobs. There is little or no opportunity to advance. Raises are miniscule, if ever.

You want people to work for you?

Pay them a decent wage. Treat them like adults. Leave them alone on their days and time off. You are not Big Brother. Have them work less than 8 hours a day, 5 days a week. Money given to them is theirs. Trust your employees. Provide a safe place to work. And here is the best tip of all:

Compliment your employees efforts, no matter how small. Every employee. Don’t play favourites. Even if it is one small thing they do, praise them for it. Stop looking at the faults and beating them up. And see what happens. They will reward you.

Treat your employees like human beings.

You are not entitled to anything. These people are not your property. They are not slaves. If your business goes belly up because you think people should crawl over glass for you, well, you deserve to go broke.

My absolute favourite place in the world is the library.

I don’t hang out there, I just pick up books I have on hold, but I know plenty of people who do and for a good reason.

The library is a sanctuary for many. Young people go there to escape bad home environments. Street people hole up there to stay warm, dry, safe and unbothered. The lonely find company, and those who want to be left alone, isolation.

The library offers free courses, free books, free education, free programs. You can borrow books, magazines, tapes, CD’s, DVD’s, musical instruments, museum passes, even pedometers! They lend out special players for the visually impaired to listen to books on tape or CD. You can use computers and printers, peruse the internet. There is even a laser cutter and a 3D printer available. You can hold meetings, present a seminar., be part of a knitting group or book club. Bring your children for group play or learning activities.

You can keep up to date on any subject. You can read all the latest books and magazines. See all the new movies. Listen to all the new music. All for free. The library is open eight to ten hours, six to seven days a week.

The librarians are always accommodating and friendly. But if you want to be left alone, there are plenty of little cubby holes to curl up in and read a great book.

What’s even more amazing, is they not only put my books on their shelves, but they also displayed one of my books and helped to promote it.

When I enter the library, I can feel the calm and peace in that room. Being surrounded by walls of books is comforting.

In the library, the world is yours, for free.

You just need to go check it out.

During the pandemic, I came to realize just how small one’s world can become, especially when you don’t have a car. And money.

My range of travel has whittled down to perhaps a 5 km radius since my Mother died back in 2010.

My mother and I used to rent a car nearly every weekend in the summer and fall, and on occasion in the winter, and we made day trips all over the place. We explored back roads and were always looking for new places and adventures. I was a crazy obsessed photographer in those days, my finger never far from the shutter release. I took thousands of pictures. And this was before digital cameras. I singly handedly kept Kodak film in business.

To say I miss those days is an understatement.

The last time I rented a car was in 2019, but that was to do work, not a vacation.

Perhaps, now that I am working again, I can save up enough to rent a car for a couple of days and take a little road trip on my summer vacation.

I am so tired of introversion being labelled a disease.

This is of course, by extroverts, who do not even try to understand us introverts.

People who are forced to be alone and are suffering because of it, are the ones who are made ill. These people are not introverts, they are people rejected by society for one reason or another and are in a lot of pain because of it.

If an extrovert is put in solitary confinement, of course he/she is going to be upset.

Likewise, us introverts are unhappy if we are forced into social situations. It completely drains us.

Us introverts want to be alone. It is a choice, not a disease. Gee whiz.

I ask you to not label us so harshly and demand we require treatment. We just want to be left alone. We get to choose when we want to socialize, if at all. If we want to be hermits, then let us be. If you want to be the life of the party, the belle of the ball, go for it. Just don’t drag me along.

People are not taught the why of things.

Our education consists of endless hours of the how. How to do things, but not why. We place a high value on skill at the expense of understanding.

To explore the why of things gives people critical thinking skills.

Without the why, we lack the big picture. Without the ability to figure things out we are stalled when things don’t work. We don’t know how to fix things. We don’t have a clue what to do, even with the simplest problems.

Why promotes curiosity, exploration, development, creativity. Things that are desperately missing in today’s world.

Since the pandemic (I should say while in we are in the pandemic, as it seems to never end) there has been a big shift in working attitudes.

I returned to office work in optometry after a two-year hiatus. We had a student optometric assistant working for us during the summer. She told me that only ten people are enrolled in that class at school.

At first, I was surprised. Working in health care used to be considered prestigious, and certainly a reliable career, you will never be unemployed.

However, these jobs are nowhere jobs.

I think the prestige is still there, but there is nowhere to go once you are in that job. There is no job advancement save, perhaps, a yearly salary increase (even that is increasingly rare) and maybe an opportunity to be office manager.

You start off at minimum wage. You work long, often thankless hours. You take a lot of abuse. Health care careers expose you to a lot of diseases, a lot of unpleasantries and witnessing suffering that you can’t always alleviate.

And you will probably never earn more than $20 to $30 an hour and work a lot of unpaid overtime.

This is not very attractive to a young person looking for a career.

A beautiful autumn day, and I’m out happily snapping pictures and getting sunshine and fresh air. It is great to get out on a weekday, when everyone else is at work. Working part time has some perks.

Well, for a short while.

On my walk, I spot some wholesome looking young men and women huddled in a group ahead.

I know who they are. The white shirts, ties, perfect haircuts and the peasant style dresses give them away.

They stupidly approach me.

They want to save me.

I told them to go away and leave me alone, and to save themselves from the cult they are in.

They told me to have a nice day.

I will now that you leave me alone.

Don’t get me wrong. I believe in God. I believe in living right. And harassing people to accept Jesus is not living right. It turns people off. It is far better to live by example and let people figure things out for themselves.

The bag of clementines wouldn’t scan.

I tried several times.

So, I was just about to key in the bar code numbers when a store clerk shouts at me from down the aisle, “YOU HAVE TO SCAN IT!”

In a flash she was at my side, huffing mad. I told her it wouldn’t scan. She grabs the bag from me and angrily keys in the numbers, which I could have done myself, and was about to do, thank you very much. She then grabs the rest of the items in my basket, and despite my polite protest that I could do this myself, proceeds to scan my groceries. I reluctantly hand her my produce and I am obviously not fast enough, “Come on, come on.” She’s snapping her fingers at me.

Now, this is a Thursday afternoon. there are perhaps two of us at the self check out. There’s no big line or anything.

After she asks me if I want bags, no thank you, she starts the infamous Mastercard spew.

I said “I don’t want it.”

She growls at me. “But…”

“I said I don’t want it. NO.”

“But you don’t understand..” She persists.

“NO!”

“But you could save…”

“STOP IT!” I yell. “Every time I come into this store a clerk accosts me to buy a Mastercard I don’t want.”

I was having a nice day up to that point.

In all fairness, I know what this is all about.

I worked at a chain bookstore, many years ago, and we had to sell so many of their points cards a week. We had a quota to meet. We got nothing out of it, except raked over the coals every Friday because we didn’t reach our quotas. So, I figure it is the same with Walmart staff. They must sell so many per week.

It is deplorable on all fronts. I hate to be harassed to get cards of any type. And I was equally angry that the clerk insisted on assisting me with my purchases. If I want and need help, I will ask.

Pressuring people to get credit cards is highly unethical to say the least.

You have all probably heard of some version of ‘Do what you love and the money will follow.’

But what if the money doesn’t follow? What if absolutely NOTHING happens? Doors do not open. What if all efforts colossally fail?

On the positive side, you will have no regrets about having tried and that is better than not having done anything at all. You will have fulfilled your dream and been immeasurably happy doing it.

The downside is this. Hope will be lost, and there will be nothing left for you to do or dream about. And worse, people will point this out to you with a self-satisfied sneer, I told you so, or some other derisive version thereof.

That is why sometimes the fantasy about pursuing your dreams can be a whole lot better than the reality.

I will never judge someone for not pursuing their dreams ever again, because dreaming about it keeps you going a long time. Doing it and failing is like walking down a dead end street. You get to the end and find you have to turn back and do things you hate in order to survive.

Sometimes, I wish I had of left my dreams in the safe confines of my imagination.

Being bereft of hope, no matter how briefly, is probably the worst low of life.

Cats provide valuable life lessons.

They are ZEN.

Recently my cat had a procedure done, a tracheal wash – yeah, it is just as gruesome as it sounds.

When we got back home and I freed him from the carrier, the first thing that cat did was trot around the entire apartment, checking every last thing, as if reassuring himself it was not a dream, that he was actually home.

The next thing he did was come to me and tuck his head against my chest. I wrapped my arms around him, and he snuggled in against me for a long while.

That cat was so grateful to be home and safe.

So, if you ever struggle to be thankful for your life, take a look around you, check out all your surroundings, all that you own and cherish and the things you take for granted. Just like my cat did. The things we find the most familiar are the things we should be the most grateful for.