Those wonderful plants that represent the Christmas season so elegantly.
I spent much of the week delivering poinsettias to a number of businesses. Several were more than a one hour round trip from The Garden Centre. That's more than 60 minutes of me listening to the radio and driving. That's some easy money, for a change. Jackal be luvin' them poinsettias.

Management have also been a bit easier on me, since my tree slinging/ back hurting escapade. The owner likes me because I hussle more than the young guys, but he doesn't want to overwork me in fear I might leave, or if I get seriously hurt and claim workman's comp (not that i'd do that). So easier tasks have come my way recently. This gives me mixed feelings. I like the easy work, but after my many years slaving in "the steel industry" I leave at the end of my day feeling a bit guilty, that I didn't work hard for my money. Of course, once I get home and have a few beers all guilt leaves in a hurry.

I've been mighty busy at The Garden Centre the last few weeks. And it's freakin' killing me!

November 1st we were tearing down the outside Halloween displays. This mostly consisted of hauling wet straw bales to the dumpster and disposing of the leftover unsold pumpkins.

Over the first week of November we started preparing for the Christmas season by setting up large wooden structures that resembled crosses, for displaying the Christmas trees we'll be selling. Then we had to sort through the orange spaghetti of outdoor lighting cables and nailing them up.

Then came a tree delivery to unload. 400 trees! None of which had anything at all to do with Christmas. Pear, Magnolia and Birch to name a few. Each with a large heavy dirt ball surrounding the roots.
Two days later another delivery. About 100 evergreens with similar heavy dirt balls.

This week we got the first of the Christmas tree deliveries. About 200, no dirt balls so they weren't very heavy. Just awkward and prickly. And the sap, my god, superglue isn't this sticky!

Yesterday our tree vendor brought us an additional 200 Christmas trees which they had loaded up in our company box truck. It seems the city and the neighbouring one order about 100 trees each, for their city centre displays every year.

Guess who got to walk along side a moving box truck, pickup and put each tree next to it's appropriate set of mounting stakes as his supervisor dragged them out of the back door? Of course, it was also the day I had to work the evening at The Deli.

Today, I spent most of the day raking leaves. I had hurt my back so bad that walking was very painful and difficult. I think I was using the rake more to stop me from falling over than anything else.

A Merry Christmas? At this rate of physical abuse on my body, I might be dead by then.

I spent the best part of the last few months looking at what I need to get to build a great new PC at MWave. My build was in the $1200-$1700 range depending on processor, mobo, video card etc. So I decided to take a look at a few electronic stores, just to compare.

I won't touch a Dell or Gateway (my first PC was a Gateway) anymore, they are overpriced and their proprietary designs makes future upgrades a nightmare.

So I happened to browse through the Circuit City website looking for a computer with a top end AMD processor, similar to what I was planning on building. There it was...a HP Pavilion, AMD x2 dual core 5000+, 320GB hard drive and 2 Gigs of PC2-4200 DDR2 ram. On sale for $929! So I stuck it on the plastic and took the "pickup at store" option.
If I can be arsed to go through that monotonous ordeal known as "sending in the rebates" I get $100 dollars back! $829 + tax, not a bad deal in my book.

The Graphics card is an onboard piece of crap (NVidia GF 6150LE), but for $140 I can get an eVGA GEFORCE 7600GT KO.

By the way, I have shopped with MWave a number of times in the past and they really do have excellent prices, in fact my Athlon 2700xp PC I put together, was from parts bought from there. Almost three years later and it's still running great.

You've seen those colourful rectangles of cardboard hanging from behind convenience store counters, promising the purchaser chances at many thousands or even millions of American dollars.

Only $1 for those very small, simple design cardboard scratchers, up to the Ferrari of instant lottery, those multi-coloured, shiny metallic, fancy designed, licence plate sized $20 tickets!

They are supposed to be "fun" and for the buyer of the occaisional instant ticket they are just that. But in my short time at The Deli, I have discovered the instant lottery addicts, the"scratch-off"scratchers.

It's"cardboard crack"a customer told me one evening. I laughed it off at the time, but it turns out he is right. Like drug addicts looking for their next "fix", the scratchers show up. Money in hand, they scan the large assortment of tickets we offer, for that one that will put them on Easy Street. If that's the street where the bums live, then they are well on their way.

I have noticed there are several types of scratchers:

The Counter Scratcher:

Non-Addict

Spends a few bucks, makes a mess on my counter and leaves.

I had a lady win $50 on her first $5 scratch-off. She spent half of her winnings on more tickets and took the other half in cash. Five minutes later, the cash half of the winnings was in the register too. She left $5 in the hole.

Addict

Usually buys the $5 and $10 tickets, often combinations of both. They will start scratching off the tickets the moment they are handed to them. Makes a mess on my counter, shoves money in my direction for more tickets, as I finish ringing their original sale. If they have a winner (usually enough to pay for another of the same game) it is also thrown in my direction in addition to more cash.

If they win $50, they'll spent it. If they lose $50, they may buy more or leave.

The parking lot scratcher:

Non-addict

Considerate enough not to make a mess on my counter and go outside. Will come back in to collect on a $2 winner and a smile on his/her face.

Addict

Considerate enough not to make a mess on my counter and go outside. Will come back in to collect on a $10-$20 winner. Will stand by register while I ring up other customers. Hoping to cut line with the phrase "I gotta $20 winner, gimme two more of the tens." They'll keep this up until they've blown $50-$100.

The car scratcher:

Non-addict

Much like the parking lot variety but in their vehicle, except if they have a child with them, they'll let the kid do the scratching.

Addict

Same as the parking lot variety, except after scratching losers off in their car, they attempt to leave by pulling out of the parking spot, only to return moments later with that "lucky feeling".

The collector:

Applies mostly to non-addicts. They buy and go home. They show up weeks later with a fistful of small winners. I spend ten minutes verifying them all for a $10-$20 payout, while a steady line of customers grows behind them.

The big winner scratcher:

A rare breed indeed. If you are in the right place at the right time and happen to buy the right ticket...

I have a very good friend who won several million dollars on a $20 instant lottery ticket some years back. He was just a casual player who, while in a convenience store decided to take a chance with a $20 bill. To put it in perspective. There was only two of these big winning tickets in the entire state.

I've mentioned in the past about my friend, who runs a deli and was willing to give me some hours each week. Initially, I understood it was to be a minimum wage job. Turns out this was incorrect. I would actually be making only fifty cents less per hour, than the starting pay at The Garden Centre. Not bad at all! So my second job schedule is one or two evenings a week (after getting off from The Garden Centre), plus I open the store Saturday mornings and work eight hours. So my only day off work now is Sunday.

Much like Kevin Smith's classic budget movie "Clerks", The Deli is located next to a video store. But it gets better...there's a bar on the other side!

I do get a few drunks stopping in for cigarettes and lottery"scratch-offs", but as The Deli closes at 10pm and me only working there for about a month or so. There hasn't been any good drunk related incidents to report as of yet.

So far, I quite enjoy The Deli job. For the most part, it's easy money, but like all jobs...it does have it's moments. Some of them i'm sure, will be blogworthy.

When I say "name" I'm really referring to the house numbers. In this case, the lack of. The title "house with no numbers" just didn't sound very witty.

I had a tree delivery (actually several small trees and a few plants) one afternoon, several weeks after I had started working at The Garden Centre. A routine delivery, or so I thought.

I read the invoice "13676 Hawk Drive." The street name of the delivery was familiar to me, as I once had a good friend live there. So there was no need to check my map for directions. The house number was a typical 5 digits long. No problem there. The last number was even, which I knew this meant the house was on the north or west side of the street.(This odd/even setup is consistant in the majority of suburban towns/cities I deliver.) Hawk Drive was an East to West street, so I'll be checking house numbers on the north side only. Numbers decrease heading eastward and northbound so I'll be seeing them decrease in this case.

The numbers are going down by six each house, as I reach 13700 I slow down, trying to read the house numbers... 13694... 88... 82... should be the next one... where's...the... *@!#$&# house numbers? I continue on to the following house, the number proclaims "13670!" Bugger!!! Oh well, I guess I'll bang on the door of the unnumbered residence.

After a couple of minutes of doorbells and doorknocking, it was obvious nobody was home. Double bugger!!

But what's this... a UPS package left on the doorstep? The name and address on the package match my delivery invoice. Woohoo! Time to back up the truck and unload.

As I start pulling off plantlife of various size, a middle aged man comes over to me.

"That for 13676?" he asks.

"Yeah, your Mr Foster?" I inquire.

"I am" he replies."But you are at the wrong house, I'm three doors further down."

"Huh? This house is between 13682 and 13670, how can 13676 be three houses down?" I ask, waiting for an explanation to this numerical, sequencial faux pas.

"It's been like this for years, somehow the city messed up house numbers when they built the street" he explained.

"Anybody tell this guy to put up a house number to avoid further confusion?"I ask.

"I guess he can't be bothered" he replies."He gets my mail sometimes, if the mailman is new.Then I just go and pick it up."

I reload the truck and drive down to Mr Foster's house three doors further down. Between houses 13664 and 13652, lo and behold I see hanging from the ornamental lamp post, the numbers "13676!!" I unload the trees and plants. Upon leaving, I suggest in future, should he order from us again, he be sure to clarify his houses whereabouts.

"By the way, Mr foster." I call back, as I'm about to get into the truck. "There's a UPS package for you on your neighbours doorstep."

About a month later, Mr Foster ordered 5 yards of Black dyed mulch. It's a shame he didn't clarify his houses whereabouts... as one of the other drivers dumped the load at the "house with no name."

A short post regarding my second job at The Deli.

To all trailer trash: the "give a penny, take a penny dish" is NOT your personal ATM machine!! Thank you.