Time passes quickly, time passes slowly. Geography is something I have a natural aptitude for, relative positioning makes sense to me. Time, on the other hand, eludes me. I have no real sense of time; only a vague awareness of it.

People and places remain intact in my memory, events have carved their signature in the trunk of my being. Where these people, places and events are positioned in time depends on the context of consideration. The word parallax sums up my relationship with time.

Today time is passing in a leisurely fashion. Small tasks occupy me. Fresh bread has been baked and sits cooling on the counter. Dishes are washed, dried and put away. The swiss chard has been thinned. A small roast of beef is simmering in the cast iron dutch oven on the stovetop. Correspondence has been attended to, necessary telephone calls have been made.

Serenading this orchestra of domestic activity are the birds and the breeze whispering through the maple leaves just outside my window.

This morning, while thinning the swiss chard, a very loud humming sound suddenly began near my left ear. In case it was a stinging wasp, I remained still as stone, so as not to startle it into a fear reaction. To my surprise, a hummingbird came into view and hovered briefly in front of my face, before zipping away through the deck railing.

I've been offered two and half days work, at a relatively low wage. Notwithstanding the low wage, I would have to train for several days on my own time, and travel about 50 km a day to attend that training, at my own expense. The real bonus is that there will be not more than 7.5 days a year on offer for this position. I suspect that this is one of those jobs where one experiences a net loss, after expenses are accounted for. I've been with the company since last September and this is the first offer of "advancement" that they've offered me. Fooled me once...

This is probably one of those jobs our conservative government is boasting about creating; offered by a corporate body that boasts of being voted a "top employer". They did not ask for my vote. I'm showing up for the first day of training, just in case I've misjudged the situation, a rare but possible occurrence.

With "job" offers like this one, it is becoming necessary not to look for work! Little people like me just can not afford to subsidize corporate entities who are cutting, cutting, cutting to improve profits for their shareholders. Next thing you know they'll be asking me to take out a loan so that I can pay them directly for the hours I work! LOL

Seriously though, these offers of loss are so depressing that I'll have to stop putting my name in for work. The situation has become unbelievably ridiculous.

Attila has been painting the soffit and fascia of the house. It needed doing when we moved here more than six years ago. We have the luxury at last of attending to a cosmetic project, rather than a do-it-or-lose-it project. This is quite an accomplishment, as Attila has worked six day work weeks for years and managed to do most of the work on the house in the few hours of free time left to him after a long day at work. What a guy.

Earlier this week I visited Harriet and Caitrìona at Harriet's cottage. We had a lovely time, working on removing debris from the beach, clearing brush at Caitrìona's nearby property, taking a leisurely walk, watching movies together and even sitting in the sun for a bit.