Right Up Your Alley: Kamloops

Movie, Interrupted

As discussed here in the past, my work takes me frequently on the road to various locations across Canada. I enjoy meeting with customers face-to-face, but dislike the time spent away from my young family.

A couple of years ago I would hit the theater at least once a week for a movie, but given how much time is currently spent on the road, when in town I prefer to just stay at home. These days, I catch far more movies in airplanes and hotel rooms than at actual theaters.

The frustrating part of catching movies on the road is how often one misses the second half or tail end when the plane starts to descend and the entertainment system shuts off. Maybe if I wasn't so greedy, if I didn't always push my luck and try for a second movie, I wouldn't be in that position. But the same quirk of personality that makes me perpetually late, the fact that I can't be content with what I've already accomplished, that I have to squeeze in just one more thing no matter what, does me in.

But tonight was different.

On Air Canada flight 115 from Toronto this evening (picture, at right), I finished not one, but two movies! Now when I say finished, that's exactly what is meant; I finally caught the second half of two movies; Traitor with Don Cheadle and Ghost Town with Ricky Gervais, Téa Leoni, and Greg Kinnear. While working until the charge on my laptop expired. And reading two newspapers. And switching seats to an exit row, with at least two more glorious inches of legroom. Sweet!

Finally, I am content. After an already long day of work, I squeezed a lot of things in, managed to accomplish some professional objectives, and resolve some unresolved leisure activities (like writing this post). Today was a good day. And I just had to share.

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S'no Removal Like Your Own Removal

Several stories have appeared in local media over the past few days regarding the condition of city transit stops. As reported by Kamloops This Week on Tuesday, one Kamloops Transit operator "... pulled his bus off the road for a short time to protest conditions." The story was accompanied by an image of a hooded transit sign at a bus stop made inaccessible by piles of snow pushed off the road by city snow blades.

While clearing the bust stops is a City responsibility, these stories make me wonder about the local residents who use transit. Surely it must be an inconvenience to have one's stop inactivated, even for a short period of time.

The street my family lives on is above the 850 meter mark, and so probably sees more snow than the average Kamloops street; we also have a city transit stop. The stop is kept clean however, by at least one concerned resident who removes the snow that accumulates there, whether it is deposited by Mother Nature or a passing snow blade. As a result, not even disabled transit users are precluded from affordable public transit, even during the worst winter storms.

I agree that the city should be on top of snow removal, and I frequently bitch about deficiencies in that removal (at least as much as the next guy). But when it comes to bus stops on residential streets, surely a little common sense should come into play; grab a shovel, and as Peter Gabriel says, DIY!

To share your thoughts about snow removal, transit, doing it yourself, or anything else with readers of Right Up Your Alley: Kamloops, just click on "Comments" (below)