B365V3.33 - I'd rather not be blind

Well, it has come to that time of year again, when I venture forth and blog from my spot in Schenley Park.  It certainly hasn't lost it's creepiness factor at night, my first foray over here earlier this week, to canch up on some hockey posts (hey, I have the regular season done now, playoffs and Stanley Cup win are still forthcoming), it is extremely dark here, I have already been harassed by the tanuki (you probably think they are raccoons, but my night blindedeness and a desire to be more dramatic and make you look up things says they are tanuki).  Anyway, two appeared my first night here sitting under the pavilion, now I have had another one here tonight come up to the garbage can not more than 10 feet away.  I didn't even see him approach (night blindedness again), I heard him rusting around in the trash can and lowered my laptop screen, so  could see better and he took off runnng.  There are also some drug dealers on the turnaround road behind me, one car was there when I first got here, then another one appeared and he is sitting there not moving with his lights on. 

I am sitting here, locked and loaded as it were, with my Snapple iced tea, the store's Verizon jetpack, which allows me internet access, something I did not have in my possession last year when I blogged from here and probably will not have much longer this year, it is only mine because Brian and/or Verizon hasn't claimed it back, or shut off its access yet.  I also have a couple of .50 bags of Doritos, when in the midst of tanuki it is always wise to bring offerings, lest they get all practical jokery on me.

Too add to our spooky ambience, there are flashes of lightning every now and again, it stormed a little while ago, so it is cool outside.  To giver you a better understanding of my surroundings, the drug road starts at about my 12 o clock, past a patch of trees and a playground, which isn't being  used right now (it is 10:35 pm) and runs to a turnaround almost directly behind me at my 6 o clock.  There is a car parked at my 6 and the one with lights on is at my 8.  The other half of the clock is framed by the sidewalk, which people bike on and parallel to that is Blvd of the Allies and beyond that more park, including a big weeded overgrown area before giving way to more trees and foot trails.  I just heard something crashing through that area a little while ago, but I not in the mood to investigate.  I know how those horror movies turn out, young person goes off into the woods to investigate some oddity or noise, next thing you know their body parts are scattered everywhere and the end up on the news.  Thanks but no thanks, I will keep my body parts right here if it is all the same. 
To tell the truth, I don't know why I am writing tonight, I am not achy or in pain, my crew did an admirable job today at work, (which shocked the hell out of me) and things just seeed to go as right as they could today at work.  I went in early, got my numbers done before Brian showed up, then went about helping out on the registers and helping Sammy with the coolers.  Today that was no easy task, given the Stanley Cup Parade was today and it runs right in front of our store.  The early estimate was there was 400,000 people downtown to see the parade.

Just spotted another tanuki, and if I can spot you being as blind as I currently am, you aren't hiding very well.  Also the drug car and my 8 opened and closed a car door, so I should be playing "Psycho Killer" or something on Spotify right now.  Have to settle for Smash It Up by The Damned. 

Anyway, I was thinking disaster for the parade most of the last two weeks, none of the people I had on had worked a Stanley Cup parade before, I worked the last one in 2009, back in my premanagement days, so I knew he type of ass kicking we were in for, but knowing and doing aren't the same thing.  I found some pictures online to show everyone the type of crowd we would be dealing with, and most left with their mouth agape at the prospect.  But everyone brought their A game and things went about as smooth as they possible could go.  I even took the time to thank everyone for their effort.  It is probably as proud of my crew as I could be, especially after how much they had been aggravating me recently.  Let's not kid anyone they have still had me in the store 24 days in a row now, but maybe it was seeing the Stanley Cup roll by that lifted my spirits, I am not sure.  Or maybe it was the beer I had last night, whatever the case I felt much better today.  I do know the business needed a day like today, almost as much as I did. 

My mind has been wandering off to next year's vacation a lot recently, as I want to go back to Vancouver enough that I can taste it.  I have already started pricing next years trip, or as close as I can get with Expedia which only allows booking about 11 months in advance and I am thinking of going for my birthday next year (June 18th kids, better have your presents bought by now, you are on the clock after all).  Expedia only allows me to go to May of 2017 and the hotel I stayed at for a week, with airfare in 2017 comes out to $5000 right now. 

Okay, creepy car just pulled up to my 9 o'clock then turned around and headed back to my 6, my body parts may end up in the woods yet.  Anyway back to my vacation planning, at that cost I may be switching hotels next time around. good thing i did lots of walking last time and made myself familiar with most of downtown.  I now know where I need to get off the subway fro the airport and can meander my way anywhere downtown from there. 

Something fell out of the garbage can behind me, not sure if it was due to a tanuki or not as that was the opposite direction in which I was facing.  Similarly it is lights out for drug car # 2, so I better call it a night before the world starts creeping up on me.  Look at that, turns out there was a third car, way off at my 2, that I never spotted (night blindness again), starting to think this place isn't safe.