squwetchy dabbling in a simple #monochromatic #watercolour this morning inspired by the cold temperatures outside!

8r4d #shopping at a new #jigsaw store is a dangerous thing at this time of year

8r4d #running this morning was probably the most #winter run of the season for me so far. I’ve been ditching lately because of a nasty cold and all that recent snow. But 9k in the frosty air reminded me why I love this season.

pixelazy #winter #silhouette

squwetchy I cannot quite put my finger on it, but something about that job I just quit was blocking me artistically. Hell, I didn’t even notice it happening until the other day, while out walking the dog, the kid mentioned that I hadn’t been painting much lately, and I realized—no, actually I have painted nothing at all, not one thing, since I started working part time. It’s as if the two things occupied the same processing register in my brain and could not exist simultaneously.

Having quit the job and finished work yesterday, and having noticed the pattern, I decided to spend an hour in the basement with my paints this afternoon. The result is a bit derivative of my work from last winter, but since it is the first thing I have painted in four months I will give myself a break on that.

8r4d It’s a helluva long story. I probably cannot do it justice here but here goes anyhow—about four months ago, mid-sabbatical, I put my name in and applied to work part time at a new local grocery store that was opening up in the neighbourhood.

They hired me basically on the spot and I started about a week later literally helping build out the store from scratch. I was the first non-manager in the building on day one, hard hat and hi-viz vest at the ready in a still-under-construction site. I spent a solid month over the summer building shelving, unpacking arriving palettes of food, and organizing a new concept retail experience. Manual labour as it gets most days.

It was all pretty awesome tho. It was. It really was, and gave me not just perspective and fresh air and movement and great company but too the flexibility to write three or four days a week. All this for a paycheque while simultaneously getting out of the house, working some real hands-dirty work, and hanging out with countless interesting people who together were just trying to build an interesting thing out in these suburbs of ours.

Ah. But the awesome didn’t last. Couldn’t, I suppose. Things went south, of course. Our opening was rushed and rough. Folks grew flustered. There were some corporate dramatics. People started falling and just a couple weeks after opening we were unceremoniously given a new store manager who—tho we offered him a fair chance to show us what he could bring to the party—seemed to be operating with a very different goal and philosophy than, to be blunt, what I had originally signed up for.

See. For me personally, the allure was the vibe. The heart of the place. The spirit of good food and lively culture and raw passion all wanted to be blurred together into a cool place to shop, eat, play, and learn. I bought into the idea that we were creating an experience, one of those places people drive across the city to hang out on a Saturday. Full of Instagram-able displays. Packed with knowledgeable staff. And a place that would become an enviable place for me to spend a few days per week. Oh you work there, people would ask. That must be fun. For a while I even believed this was the first step in a new and lively career in retail food where I could slowly climb and become a part of a community and use my experience in comms and business and tech to add to something cool, tho by starting at the bottom and really learning the biz.

The change in philosophy manifested slowly at first, just small things each new week it seemed, popping up as minor changes to the operations, nudges towards decisions that had been avoided originally because it would go counter to that aforementioned vibe. Then it got aggressively strange. No style. No grace. No vibe at all. Just get the stock to the floor and worry about organizing it at some vague later time. The plan was raw urgency over substance, and as we used to say: counting paper clips—y’know like getting riled up over the trivial stuff. It felt wrong and narrow and nitpicking.

Of course I did my job as best I could—but I also started making an exit plan on the side. I did my job but my enjoyment seemed to sap to new lows with each shift. My coworkers were amazing and optimistic and delightful to spend my day with, but the soul of the store had left when corporate fired the original manager.

People still shopped there—well, fewer people but still customers, but suddenly there were more complaints, customer confusion, and you could tell we were letting people down when they walked through the door. This was supposed to be something special. Instead it was becoming a mini-Walmart poorly disguised as something better than it actually was, trying to have that vibe but slipping further away each day that passed.

Things snowballed. Fast, too. Like in days and then hours and then every time I spoke to someone there were people and processes collapsing, and so I gave my notice earlier this week. And then just hours after I clocked out for the last time news flew across my phone chat that a bunch of others had done the same, like—clocked out for the last time but not of their own will. Less than two weeks before Christmas they had laid off a significant portion of the staff. Had I not quit on my own, who knows?

Yeah. Ugh. These were people I had worked with for four months and started to think of as friends. Good people legit working hard honest days. Thanks no thanks. Bah humbug.

It’s a helluva long story and I can’t properly explain it all here, of course not, but I think it’s worth knowing that it happened and also knowing that it is over—over for me at least, and I am done with early shifts and grocery drama and on to other things as, reflecting on what I learned and how this little adventure has shaped my perception of people and leadership and work, all as I sit here on a Friday evening contemplating this crazy little grocery adventure I went on for four long crazy months. #grocerygames

8r4d Oh what a week, so we capped off the switch to the next next next chapter with a fancy dinner downtown. Somehow I even scored a free #beer and dessert just about murdered us with calories, but hey, you only go crazy occasionally, right? #grocerygames

8r4d A chilly morning #running off the 201st edition of our local #parkrun also turned into a milestone for AD. The #rivervalley looks chillier than it actually was tho, as e had a bit of a weekend reprieve from the brutal #winter cold.

bradsalomons It’s been a weird week of snow and stuff and such and I haven’t done much #writing or had many #coffee sessions, but with Friday here and the month settling into some end of year finality, I made it out to get some words on the page. Of course, I’m sitting here posting this, so you can speculate on exactly just how well that is working out, but—

adventuredog #winter #sunset #walk

8r4d One of the few perks of living on a bus route is that we are first in the queue to having our streets cleaned after the #snow falls.

8r4d Scenes from some ordinary day in November. Part 3.

8r4d Scenes from some ordinary day in November. Part 2.

8r4d Scenes from some ordinary day in November. Part 1.

adventuredog This again, huh? #snow

8r4d Uh oh #winter #running had officially begun. We hit the suburban trails for a ten-ish klick run on the first really chilly morning of the season

8r4d The creep factor was raised to about a nine point fine for this evenings #running adventure. Dark, chilly and #autumn but without the comforting glow of an early snow to make it seem less haunted.

8r4d The objects in the mirror are further than they appear.

Until next time…

bradsalomons The Canmore #coffee scene has a #paranormal vibe that I’ve incorporated quite judiciously into my fiction #writing — that is to say the fictional City of Birchmont and setting for my recent word-craft is based heavily on this little town, no doubt, and influenced by our frequent visits. Yet somehow I hadn’t noticed the #cryptozoology vibe in the town until I started writing paranormal fiction—but now I see it everywhere.

I got a couple scenes written while we visited this weekend, so inspiration meets perspiration, huh? The first book in my Stories from Birchmont series will be completed soon, maybe even by the end of November if I stop goofing around and write the last few chapters!

adventuredog All aboard the puppy express. It takes a lot of guts to ride a train this old even if it hasn’t moved in years!

8r4dsfeets Man, hole!

8r4dsfeets the big giant head, oh my