Good Karma Day

Rare of me to post two things consecutive days, but its been a good day today.

Went up to 'Whyte n  Nine' (82 ave. and 109 St.) for a groceries n beer run about 11 a.m.  Got some good deals on stir -fry cut beef, some peppers, sprouts and real Chinese noodles to have with.  Was greeted by a nice lady (she would laugh at that) I used to work with at StatsCan, Lorette, while I was ringing up my purchases on the talking computer tills. Normally I hate them, but I decided to pull a fast one today, and rang out my green and red peppers both as green peppers.  Ssh, dont tell anyone. Anyway, hadnt seen Lorette since I quit the warm embrace of the Gov in '08. She is super cool, Metis grew up in Alberta, but her native half is Red River Cree (see prev. post) and she makes her main money working with elderly (some with Alzheimer's) folks, taking them shopping, helping them function in the world, finding them housecleaners for cheap, good karma stuff. She was with one of her clients today, a 105-yr-old lady who wanted to buy some grapes at Safeway, and insisted on choosing them herself.
Anyway, Lorette still works at StatsCan, for fill-in money, to help keep her ma alive in a home, and clued me on the new location of their office, which is right by an LRT station downtown, and they are hiring.
My gal Barb is working for stupidly low money in retail right now (Carlton Cards n gifts: fucking incompetent  'make the poor pay' employer, tell em to raise their fucking wages if you shop there) and I noticed Stats is hiring online, so if she does get on there, she already has a work-buddy in Lorette.
Then across to the Liquor Depot, saw a cool beer there, Bad Hare is the brand, they have a Chocolate Stout, which I didnt buy today but will in future. The sad thing about the beer run was the teller. A very pretty , but too thin girl who was obviously twitching for her meth hit.
Hope she gets her shit together someday. Liquor Depot is open earlier than BrownGuys, which  closer to 112 St.  and my usual vendor.
Feels like a good day overall, and I think the stars are pointing to my gal (with an anthro-sociology degree and super communication skills) getting a better job with the Gov, actually doing sociological research.
Fuckin 'A'. Axel.




    

hometown pluses and minuses

My gal is also from Winterpeg, close to the same places I ran wild as a youngun. This makes for meaningful convo about the old hoods, lots of which have suffered so much urban /drug/gang decay over the past 30 years they really arent there anymore.
North End Winnipeg used to be really cool in an ethnic way.  I lived in the heart of it when I had a loud jam band, nobody complained about the noise.  Magnus and Prince baby. Native folks, Metis, Slavs who had been there for 80 yrs, but also new immigrant folks just gettin their feet under them, our landlord was Chilean.  In many ways, it was Springsteen-ian, but more so. 
The Polish Legion, Russian Jews making great pickles and smoked meat, guys in wifebeater shirts workin on cars, drinkin (smokin weed) in the back yards. Loud bands, a hundred different ethnics hanging out, interacting. I used to go 'down Selkirk Avenoo' Saturday morning, you hear more Ukrainian , Polish, Yiddish  and Cree than English. Could buy a teapot, some horse-tack, a crock of pickles and some shoelaces in the same store.
Minuses? I forget. Oh yeah, its all gone now. Thats the big minus.  The crack and meth trade have fucked it all up.  The old babas with the backyard gardens, the old marketplace is all gone.
You can find lots of grey skinned, empty soul mofos to sell you shit and guns, but  you wouldnt want to live there.

Glad to have known it when it was there.