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Gummiente · Mon Jun 15, 2009 1:50 am

A nice, warm, sunny ride home this morning (I'm on the midnight shift this week). Got waved at by a few kids waiting for their school bus, got a good view of a buxom country Mom all bent over as she placed her garbage bags by the roadside for pickup and received a few smiles from passing traffic. And, on one of the nicest sunlit stretches of back country road, Douk wound past the 44,000km mark. Gave him a pat on the side of the tank and I smiled all the way home.

Gummiente · Fri Jun 19, 2009 6:23 am

Well, I'm no longer the Ice Cream Man. Got laid off yesterday morning, at the end of a midnight shift, no less. "Downturn in the economy, have to trim the fat", and all that. At least I'll be able to claim EI and they've given me an extra two weeks pay in lieu of notice.

Weather forecast looks good for the coming week, so in addition to getting some much needed tasks done around the house I will also get in some much needed riding time. I'll take a couple weeks off to recoup and regroup and then hit the ever-decreasing job market once again in search of my next paycheque.

Hmmph... laid off at the start of the warm riding season. What terrible luck!

ceemes · #253 Unread post by **ceemes** » Fri Jun 19, 2009 8:29 am

Gummiente wrote:Well, I'm no longer the Ice Cream Man. Got laid off yesterday morning, at the end of a midnight shift, no less. "Downturn in the economy, have to trim the fat", and all that. At least I'll be able to claim EI and they've given me an extra two weeks pay in lieu of notice.

Weather forecast looks good for the coming week, so in addition to getting some much needed tasks done around the house I will also get in some much needed riding time. I'll take a couple weeks off to recoup and regroup and then hit the ever-decreasing job market once again in search of my next paycheque.

Hmmph... laid off at the start of the warm riding season. What terrible luck!

Geez Gummie, that really sucks. Only two weeks pay in lieu of notice and no severance package? Sounds like you got fiddled mate.

Being made redundant at our age is rough, even in a good economy. Employers seem to favour young and inexperienced kids over us older and wiser old farts. Guess it's because they can pay them less, which is a false economy at best. Anyways, all the best and keep us informed. An pray that Iggy and Stevie the Boy Blunder follow through with the IE reforms they have been talking about in Ottawa.

jstark47 · Fri Jun 19, 2009 9:13 am

Gummiente wrote:Well, I'm no longer the Ice Cream Man. Got laid off yesterday morning, at the end of a midnight shift, no less. "Downturn in the economy, have to trim the fat", and all that. At least I'll be able to claim EI and they've given me an extra two weeks pay in lieu of notice.

Geeze, that sucks, sorry to hear that. Hope you at least had the freezer stocked by chance with "employee fringe benefits"?

Around here, the newsies said one industry that's flourishing is the small breweries. Apparently people are still willing to spend money on sudz, particularly boutique sudz. Wonder if breweries employ millwrights?

Fri Jun 19, 2009 6:06 pm

Well...that's it......I'm buying Breyer's from now on.

I know a guy who is a millwright at Coca Cola. You're a talented guy....I bet you conveniently find something about September.

Fri Jun 19, 2009 6:08 pm

Good luck findin a new one. Hope it goes well.

And enjoy your "break" while ya got it!

#257 Unread post by **Wrider** » Sat Jun 20, 2009 4:58 pm

Sorry to hear that bud, but hey, look at it as free time to ride and play with the pups. Plus you can take another long roadtrip if you want!

Gummiente · Tue Aug 18, 2009 8:50 am

My new most bestest fave pic, taken at the Iron CURD 09 Rally near Irondale, Ontario...

#259 Unread post by **Wrider** » Tue Aug 18, 2009 5:02 pm

Now that seems like your personality all rolled up into one! Great pic!

Gummiente · Fri Aug 21, 2009 3:04 pm

A tornado touched down at 4pm yesterday four blocks south of our home. It sounded exactly like a long freight train going by... very unnerving. Several buildings were demolished, lots of trees uprooted and one 11 yr old boy was killed by flying debris in the campground not 2km away. The power was out until 10:30pm last night but it will be a couple days before it is restored to the areas that were directly hit.

The town is still under a State Of Emergency today and there are hundreds of work crews out there busy clearing the trees, restoring electricity and repairing damaged buildings from Durham to Markdale. There were several TV news trucks driving around and we saw a couple of live reports being filmed in town, but I think they've all cleared out now. Earlier, the wife and I took a ride in my sidecar rig and headed off down the back roads, following the tornado's path as best we could while detouring around several closed roads. Angie was busy in the sidecar taking pictures the whole time, so here's the link to the slideshow of the Durham Tornado's Aftermath.