The dr is in the house… dr_bar's blog.
Posted: Sat Aug 13, 2005 2:43 pm
Welcome to my blog. Is that a simple enough start to putting words to paper, I mean to the ether…
Well here goes…
No!
Did you hear that???
No, I’m not a doctor, so don’t be asking me to for information on your latest malady. No,
I’m not a mechanic either, so any advice I give… look out. So why, do you ask, is my screen
name dr_bar? Well there is a small story to go with the moniker that I have used on and off over the
last 10 years or so, and I guess I’ll have to cough it up eventually, so now is as good a time as any…
Way back in 1986 I had the opportunity to change employers. At the time I was working in the lumber
industry at a local non-union cedar reman mill. Grading lumber isn’t really a hard job but it can be stressful
when the pace picks up. I had decided to look for something that paid a bit more than the paltry wages I
was getting at the mill. I heard from a friend that Canada Post was hiring. I figured that if I could get on
there, it would do until something better came along, (I’m still waiting for something better. )
To make a long story short, I applied, did the public service tests and got hired as a part-time casual MSC,
that means I drive trucks. To make my wages a bit better, I decided to transfer to the letter carrier section.
In doing so, I was able to advance to a fulltime permanent employee, so life goes on.
I was working in the Kitsalano area of Vancouver, and because of the huge mail volume, I was putting
in a fair bit of overtime helping other people complete their duties. Well at Canada Post (CPC) we got paid
our overtime on a monthly basis on the 15th of the month following the acrued overtime. One day I got
my overtime cheque and it was short about 15 hours of OT, I was, needless to say, more than a
little bit peed off. I complained to my supervisor and put in a payroll inquirery hoping that it would
be an easy fix.
Well as it turned out, I was sent out of my office that day to work in Richmond, (for those of you
not from this area, Richmond is another city that borders on Vancouver to the south, and is situated on a
nice and fertile river delta.) When I was in the office reporting to the supervisor to find out what I was
doing that day, a fellow lettercarrier came into the office questioning his OT cheque. It appeared that he
was being paid for 15 hours of OT he never worked. As a matter of fact, this guy never worked OT
as he didn’t like doing it. I jokingly said it must be the 15 hours that I didn’t get… Well, it really was my
15 hours. You see his name was Don, mine is Doug, and we share the same last name, Barton. Well our
payroll people apparently screwed up and saw the OT for D Barton and gave it to the wrong, D Barton. So
to alleviate this issue, I decided that from then on, I would get my payroll name changed to include my
middle initial, R.
Well, when I got my first paycheque with both of my initials on it, it read as follows;
DR Barton
with no space between the two initials. Strange but true. Well, with an extensive background in Health
and Safety and Industrial First Aid, my co-workers quickly started calling me “Doc”, (thank God the name
never stuck.) When the time came to pick an email address when I first got online, dr_bar was a natural.
And I’ve used it ever since, along with several others
So there it is, okay, I know that this one wasn’t about motorcycles in any way, but I thought that I’d start
with my identity, and we all need one of those…
So next, I’ll talk about how and when I got hooked on biking…
Well here goes…
No!
Did you hear that???
No, I’m not a doctor, so don’t be asking me to for information on your latest malady. No,
I’m not a mechanic either, so any advice I give… look out. So why, do you ask, is my screen
name dr_bar? Well there is a small story to go with the moniker that I have used on and off over the
last 10 years or so, and I guess I’ll have to cough it up eventually, so now is as good a time as any…
Way back in 1986 I had the opportunity to change employers. At the time I was working in the lumber
industry at a local non-union cedar reman mill. Grading lumber isn’t really a hard job but it can be stressful
when the pace picks up. I had decided to look for something that paid a bit more than the paltry wages I
was getting at the mill. I heard from a friend that Canada Post was hiring. I figured that if I could get on
there, it would do until something better came along, (I’m still waiting for something better. )
To make a long story short, I applied, did the public service tests and got hired as a part-time casual MSC,
that means I drive trucks. To make my wages a bit better, I decided to transfer to the letter carrier section.
In doing so, I was able to advance to a fulltime permanent employee, so life goes on.
I was working in the Kitsalano area of Vancouver, and because of the huge mail volume, I was putting
in a fair bit of overtime helping other people complete their duties. Well at Canada Post (CPC) we got paid
our overtime on a monthly basis on the 15th of the month following the acrued overtime. One day I got
my overtime cheque and it was short about 15 hours of OT, I was, needless to say, more than a
little bit peed off. I complained to my supervisor and put in a payroll inquirery hoping that it would
be an easy fix.
Well as it turned out, I was sent out of my office that day to work in Richmond, (for those of you
not from this area, Richmond is another city that borders on Vancouver to the south, and is situated on a
nice and fertile river delta.) When I was in the office reporting to the supervisor to find out what I was
doing that day, a fellow lettercarrier came into the office questioning his OT cheque. It appeared that he
was being paid for 15 hours of OT he never worked. As a matter of fact, this guy never worked OT
as he didn’t like doing it. I jokingly said it must be the 15 hours that I didn’t get… Well, it really was my
15 hours. You see his name was Don, mine is Doug, and we share the same last name, Barton. Well our
payroll people apparently screwed up and saw the OT for D Barton and gave it to the wrong, D Barton. So
to alleviate this issue, I decided that from then on, I would get my payroll name changed to include my
middle initial, R.
Well, when I got my first paycheque with both of my initials on it, it read as follows;
DR Barton
with no space between the two initials. Strange but true. Well, with an extensive background in Health
and Safety and Industrial First Aid, my co-workers quickly started calling me “Doc”, (thank God the name
never stuck.) When the time came to pick an email address when I first got online, dr_bar was a natural.
And I’ve used it ever since, along with several others
So there it is, okay, I know that this one wasn’t about motorcycles in any way, but I thought that I’d start
with my identity, and we all need one of those…
So next, I’ll talk about how and when I got hooked on biking…