Hit and Miss #318: Port season
Was feeling down today—a rainy weekend, a Thanksgiving in Ottawa instead of with family (but for very good reasons!), distressing imagery and news from Israel and Palestine. Still am, in many ways, but an afternoon cooking comfort food helped (root vegetables, ribs, and pasta sauce, in case you were wondering). Also, declaring that port season is here.
Some snippets from the week (no promises as to their noteworthiness):
- I finally had a chance to head back to the woodshop and putter about. I had some ash I’d previously started bringing to size, before deciding I’d use it for a different project (a seeeeecret!). Even had a chance to start sawing and chiseling away at one piece before it was time to bike home—a darker, colder ride than I’ve had for quite a while. It was nice to be back, nice to have the space to do something different with my brain and hands, and nice to be in motion on the way there and back. I signed up for another course, this one a bit more involved, so at least there’s some structure / incentive to get me there despite all the busy-ness with life right now.
- Yesterday, riding transit, I had a thought: why does transit run less frequently on evenings and weekends? Sure, yes, there are fewer people commuting then, less need to go to / from work—but those non-working hours are all the more precious for their scarcity, relative to the work hours. Why do our transit schedules prioritize office / normal work-week employers—by making sure their employees get there (reasonably, ish, maybe) on time—and not people trying to make the most of their free time? It’s hardly a new thought, nor one that takes much to answer.
- This article on sketchiness in some CBSA procurement has gone around this week, and whew it’s a doozy. More attention to government procurement in general, please! Two things I’d toss in the ring: procurement is hard for both vendors and public servants to navigate, and that creates really difficult—problematic, even!—incentives around who gets government business; many of the problems in procurement come from a desire—an understandable one, even!—to be able to pay for the certainty—real or illusory, take your guess—that someone else will fix your problem, and as long as processes and people optimize for certainty, we’ll fall into traps like these.
- Strong agree with this pitch for learning basic sewing skills to better shop and clothe yourself.
All the best for the week ahead.
Lucas
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