Saturday, June 30, 2007

Oops, I Did It Again!

The story "Strange Bed Fellows" was about me falling. Well I have had a few instances of me going “arse over kettle” as they say on the rock. I’m not sure what would be the cause of this; if I’m just clumsy or just not paying attention to where I am going.

While employed with Jasper Park Lodge as Public Area Houseman, I used a pick-up truck to do most of our guest calls at night. After 11 pm we were allowed to park our pick-up in the front of the main doors of the Lodge in the Bus Zone. Between the Bus Zone and the main doors was an “island” of sorts of mainly bushes. There were also a couple of pathways between the bushes. Where these were located was not where I thought they were on this particular night.

At approximately midnight I received a call and hurried to my vehicle as we only allow 15 minutes per call. Coming out the front doors of the Lodge from a brightly lit lobby to virtual total darkness, I walked across the “island” into what I thought was the pathway. It was not. I fell like a tree into a pile of thorn bushes.

It was very painful to try and get up as everywhere I touched there were thorns. I finally got up and I had thorns imbedded in just about every inch of skin except for my face, which I protected as I fell using my hands. I passed my call to someone else and went back to my staff accommodation and changed uniforms. That helped a little but I spent about two weeks picking thorns from my body.

Probably the biggest scare I ever received involved this next incident. It was very dark and I was walking to go to one of the many housekeeping closets on the JPL property. I am not even sure what I was actually looking for but I will certainly remember this.

I was walking in an area that was very dark. There were some cabins and I was crossing the grassy area in front of them. All of a sudden I heard people shouting. At first I was not sure if they were shouting to me so I kept walking. The more I walked the more these people shouted until their shouts became screams. I finally turned my head to see what their problem was but continued to walk. Next thing I remember was falling and while in mid air realized I had tripped over a lying bull elk!

Landing on the other side I rolled for a bit as at that point I thought I was going to be killed by an angry elk. I stopped rolling and landed on my butt in a sitting position. There I sat face to face with an elk which I had just fallen over. The elk did not appear angry, more amused than anything. Surprisingly as this was the “mating” season. He was probably thinking “another stupid human”. My heart was beating out of my chest as I sat there as I did not know how I should get up. When I saw that the elk showed no interest in me, I slowly moved to my feet and slowly backed away. I could not run as my legs were wobbly and didn’t want to work. I made it back to the main Lodge where I discovered I had to go home immediately.

That evening luckily for me there was no movement from the elk. Unfortunately I can’t say the same about me. I had to go home to change my clothes, for I had “pooped” myself!


Monday, June 25, 2007

Vandals Beware!

This article was published in June 2007 (Issue # 70 Volume 10) of “The New Wave” which is a publication of The Hub in St. John’s, Newfoundland. I’m glad I am not the only adult who thinks kids these days are “getting away with murder”.

Make'em pay so it hurts. That's what I say. Congratulations to the City of Mount Pearl in your efforts to rid us of vandalism. And, yes it's the teenagers and younger of us that I'm pointing my finger at, you are the guilty party. Every time I see a once beautiful information or history billboard defrayed with gutter words and nasty phrases, I want to puke. Whenever I see a broken beer bottle in a playground I want to scream. But most of all every time I see it, I know you did it. I don't know why, I wish I did, maybe then and only then will it end.

Seems as if Mount Pearl has had enough; they are hoping to do something about it. When I spoke with Councilor Ed Grant he compared his proposal to the City of Calgary. In Calgary, he told me, parents are fined up to $5,000 if their child is found responsible for any destruction of property. Then he reminded me that the city of Calgary is one of the cleanest cites in Canada. So now, the City of Mount Pearl intends to take steps to be given the authority to charge the parents for the crime of their child.

Councilor Ed Grants explains, "The Council's discussion stems from a recommendation the City is putting forward at the annual NLFM convention advocating improvements to the Young Offenders Act. The ultimate responsibility is Federal but we hope the convention will adopt our recommendations. One part does speak to parent/guardian responsibilities. We advocate that the offender be made more responsible for his/her actions and that the cost burden not be borne solely by the victim. I commented that if the offender is caught and convicted he/she be made responsible or if due to age/ financial circumstance, etc. this is not realistic that the parents/ guardians bear some liability. This may have the effect of reducing incidents by seeing more adult control. I realize there may be nuances to various situations but the principle is sound. I expect most parents already accept responsibility when confronted and this would simply better enforce the liability issue. Often the victims are in no better financial shape than the offender/ offender's family and are often seniors and women. Finally, I feel this principle along with significant fines might go a long way to reducing crimes like graffiti, senseless vandalism and similar activities that affect the quality of people's lives. While some of these issues might not appear to be major in the big scheme of things they are very important and disturbing to the various victims".

Yep, hit them where it hurts, in the pocket book. That's what I say. A dollar figure hasn't been decided yet, but Mr. Grant gave me a figure that I think is to low. They are just too nice; no wonder everybody wants to live in Mount Pearl. Go higher I say, add another zero! That otta hurt!

When we were kids, if any one of us, no matter who's kid we were , if any of us ever broke a neighbor's window, we'd be paying for the rest of our sorry young lives. The chores would double and the allowance would disappear. We'd live a life of torture for at least a month. No television, no dessert, no nothing!! But, we learned for it. We didn't repeat our sinful ways for too long. We grew up and became responsible adults. What about the kids today. They screw up and nobody notices until, sometimes, it's too late. You kids out there, you are our future. Didn't anybody tell you that? If not or if were napping at the time, I'm telling you again. You are our future, so stop screwing up. If you feel the need to try and prove how tough you are, or if by slashing tires or writing graffiti all over the place, or maybe sneaking off into the woods with beer on your back, is your way of being cool, it's not working. What would work much better would be for you to capture all that energy and transplant it to where it will pay dividends. Allow me to explain; if you are a graffiti culprit, take art lessons. Maybe you are the next best artist that ever put a brush to canvas, but you'll never know if you don't try. If it's beer in the back pack type you are, you should take your empties home with you. Oh yea, that's evidence!! If your parents see empty beer bottles, they'll get suspicious. Very astute of you. At the very least then, bring them to a recycling depot. Didn't you know you get money for empties? Da!! Breaking them and leaving dangerous broken glass in our beautiful forests can hurt an innocent little furry creature, or worse, scar a young child. For my money, I don't believe you even think when you do the things you do, you're not bad people, and you are victims of the times. I feel sorry for you. I see you guys out in the worst Newfoundland weather, freezing your butts off and sharing a cigarette. You'd rather be there than sitting in the comfort of your own home………………..Something is wrong with that picture. And I now point my finger at us the parents. We are as guilty as we are stupid. We are so busy working, gambling, drinking, or whatever other excuse crops up, that we are losing our children. Let's give ourselves a shake here. It's time to make things right. In the end we are all guilty to some degree.

a) Absent or weak parents, b) disinterested teachers who allow the child to fall through the cracks, c) television for promoting violence, d) the justice system for going easy on young offenders, and last but far from least you, the child, for taking the most traveled road; you know who you are, you follow the gang rather than being an individual who thinks for him/herself; you don't give it your best, because of that, you are failing in school; or perhaps you're suffering from a lousy home life so you take your anger out on in-animate objects or kids who are weaker than you.

Come-on kids, lets break the prototype. Ask yourselves, "Where would I like to be in ten years from now?" Then go for it.


Saturday, June 9, 2007

Looney Tunes!

Some of you guys from the Banff Caribou Lodge may remember this incident. In the hotel and hospitality business you get to meet some very strange individuals; especially when you are the Night Auditor. This one particular night at approximately 12:45 am, a British male guest who I will call “Wally”, came to the Front Desk and whispered: “Is there somewhere in private I could speak to you?” He seemed to be slightly upset but before I could answer he said in a much louder voice: “I AM 20 years old!”

In my mind I was thinking; “Man, what’s going on now!” I told him we could go into the Office and I showed him the way and followed him in. I did not close the door to the Office because I was unsure what this guy was going to do, so for my own safety I stayed next to the door and left it open. When we were both in the Office, he told me he believed he was being drugged. I asked him how he was being drugged and he told me that someone was spiking his drinks. I asked where he was drinking and he told me it was at the Keg Lounge.

I asked him if he would like to speak to the Manager on duty in the Keg. He told me no. I then asked him if he knew who was spiking his drink. At this point he told me he believed it was his father. He then told me he wanted the police called. He was also beginning to get quite upset. I brought him out of the Office and asked him to have a seat in the Lobby while I called the police; which I did. I told the Officer on the telephone what “Wally” told me. The Officer told me they would be there as soon as possible, as they were very busy with a major incident downtown. I told them that would be fine and that “Wally” would wait for them in the Lobby.

Meanwhile “Wally” began to get more and more upset with every passing minute. I tried to calm him down as best I could by talking with him, as this, it seemed, is something he really wanted, someone to talk to. He told me he smokes and he left to get his cigarettes in his room. He came back and said he could not find them. He asked if he could get some in the store and charge it to his room. I told him it would be no problem and I got some cigarettes for him. By this time he is crying like a baby at the Front Desk. I continued to speak with him but sometimes it was hard to understand him through his crying and his British accent. He went outside by the door to have a cigarette and I could hear him crying from the Front Desk. The Keg Manager came to the Front Desk at this time with dry-cleaning. I briefly explained the situation to him while “Wally” was outside by the door. “Wally” came back to the Front Desk. The Keg Manager asked him if he would like a glass of water and he said yes. He got “Wally” a glass of water but by this time he was getting worse and then told me that he was convinced his father was going to kill him.

He also told me at this time that his brother and sister were being drugged also. He continued saying his parents are divorced and that his father (and his girlfriend) brought all the children on vacation so he could kill all of them. He was extremely paranoid and was talking about suicide instead of having to go through this hell. “Wally” then started having hallucinations. He was convinced that his father and girlfriend were trying to escape from the hotel and he saw them leave through the stairs to the parkade. With this he sprinted out through the front doors to try and stop them. Of course nobody was out there.

As soon as he came back, I tried to calm him again and to get him to sit down. He did not. I also called the police back and told them they had to send someone immediately as “Wally” was now hallucinating and extremely upset and convinced that he and his siblings were going to die. I was actually in fear that he was going to do something to injure himself or others around him. The police immediately sent 3 Officers and they arrived within 1 minute of my second phone call.

Upon entering the hotel, one Officer took “Wally” outside to his patrol car to talk. Within a couple of minutes the Officer came in the Lobby to tell us that he was going to take him to the hospital immediately to be checked. “Wally” also told the Officer that he never smoked or taken any type of drug since being in Banff. The other 2 Officers went into the Rooms to check on the father, girlfriend, brother and sister. After approximately 10 minutes an Officer came out to tell me that everyone was fine. The Father told the police that the son was acting very strange since his arrival in Banff. The Officers took the Girlfriend and Father to the hospital to visit their son.

Approximately 2 hours later the Father and Girlfriend came back without their son. It was discovered later that the son was a drug user in Britain and then got some “bad” drugs in Banff. This was the effect they had on him.