This headline caught my attention recently. The thesis of the article is centered around a lawsuit that recently concluded in British Columbia. There has been some suggestion that the outcome of the case is alarming for a number of potential reasons. With the increase in remote work and the ability for employers to employ tracking software, its possible we may see more of these types of cases. I would assume that the general expectation of any employer is you put in your 8 hour day (or whatever). In this particular case the employee was required to pay $1,500 to the employer to compensate for hours that the employer had proven was not spent on work. Legal pundits who weighed in suggested that termination is usually the only recourse and getting compensated for “stolen time” is very unusal. What is very different about this situation is you have a case where the employer is saying - hey…not good enough and you actually didn’t do the work and you owe us money.

I duly noted that at the early stages of the pandemic, it did seem that the tennis courts were unusually full during the daytime with what looked like people who you would expect to be sitting in their downtown law/financial offices. Not to pick on lawyers though…..

And now as we see many people still working from home its probally fair to say that the normal working day may have shifted with people starting earlier and leaving earlier. The old 9-5 may not be relevant anymore. Anyways, a very interesting legal case.

Recent studies seem to indicate that it won’t be shifting back to the “old” ways soon and that we now have a complete structural change that is likely going to stay for awhile. There is some research that indicates that having to work in an office is a sticky point with many younger, new employees and although companies may want to get their employees back, they have not been able to pull that trigger. A number of recent graduating students from University have had to finish 1-2 years of school remotely, and with the high cost of travel, time of transportation the desire to go downtown just doesn’t seem that enticing anymore. Their world of Zoom or Teams is not that unusual to them. However what they don’t get to take advantage of is the “learning” from others when you work in a team situation. I know that I always believed that the watercooler chats you would have with others were always very valuable.

Is it silly season? I don’t know about you but I have been recently bomparded with various spam messages. I am smart enough to know that they are scams however there is simply too much of this stuff and I can understand how people may react in a way that they shouldn’t.

I am sure I am not the only person this is happening to. The robo phone calls are also increasing and they seem to be coming daily. There is a YouTube channel that I sometimes watch called Scammer Payback. The majority of the videos (if not all) are with one guy who takes on these scam artists who prey upon people and take thousands of dollars from them. What this guy does is break into their computers and will sometimes wipe out their systems. Sometimes entertaining but at the same time very alarming because you can see how easy vulnerable people can get scared and give away things and information they should not. It is very easy to understand how some people get scared when they see this stuff. When you get a call that says it’s Canada Revenue calling or the RCMP (police), you tend to perk up and wonder about it?

It was National Pizza Day recently. I didn’t partake that day but of course it wouldn’t be a normal week without a small taste. One day recently, I found myself wandering near Eataly at Bay/Bloor and I decided to treat myself to a glass of red nector and a small pizza. As always, a wonderful way to spend a few hours.

I found myself back there a few weeks later while wandering around with Miss Sarah (aka the kid). She was home from University for a few days and we took the subway over and decided to stay for lunch. They have a pretty good prix fix menu and for $25 you can choose two items from the menu. The pizza was a full size along with an appetizer - very good.

The CFO of the house recently asked me to do a review of the 2022 VISA bill and I assumed it would be a simple exercise. Since we use our VISA card for most of our spending, I figured I would download each month and do some sort of simple cut and paste. Well, five days later I finally surfaced and realized - oh..oh. Houston we have a problem. It was very visual - right in front of me. Boy, did I spend a lot of money on “stupid” stuff. The other major culprit was the kid who clearly takes after her father. The good part of the exercise (if that’s possible) is that it’s easy to identify what needs to be cut. So the troops were gathered and belt tightening is the order of the day. I really don’t think it will be that difficult (the obvious answer of course). For this exercise, I created an excel spreadsheet with month tabs and buckets and I can see how much was spent and where the “easy” cuts will come from. Anyways, it needs to be done. Kraft dinner - here I come.

I have recently started to play tennis again after a long break due to some very annoying injuries. The positive is I’m playing but I don’t think that the rehab for the two injuries was completely successful. The shoulder is still very sore and that is where I spent a lot of money on PRP. My sense is that it didn’t work. I can still use it but I have to be careful and I have had to modify my serving motion to allow me to hit a serve. The elbow - which was the other serious injury seems to be okay though. I am sticking to playing only two days a week and I’m very stiff/sore after playing. I think I will need to look at some other options which could include surgery if needed. Clearly, old age is hitting me. Sigh. I have started the new process with a new Sports Medicine Clinic and I had the initital consultation. I have to have another MRI to move this along and that could take awhile. Based on my previous diagnosis the MD mentioned the possibility of surgery. So…hopefully we can figure this thing out sooner than later. My MRI is not scheduled till sometime in June….so, have to be patient.

In other news…..

Our friends south of us seem to be imploding. The polarization between left and right continues to get worse. The goofballs above are symbolic of what is going on. On the left is the infamous George Santos, who managed to get himself elected to the US Congress. There was not much in terms of fact checking of this person and afterwards it has been discovered that he made many claims that are not true.

Graduated from Baruch College and has a MBA from NYU
Worked at Goldman Sachs and Citigroup
Victimhood to some terrible tragedies - 9/11, mass shootings, the Holocaust
Jewish descent

On the right is the congresswomen from Georgia - Marjorie Greene pictured yelling at the President during the State of the Union Speech. The lack of decorum is mind-boggling to me. I certainly realize that someone’s views may be shaped by what side of the equation they fall on but we should always have a certain amount of respect for the people who hold these high postions. Not sure that yelling and screaming solves anything.

I am back to work again. I guess that means I have unretired - oh well. Long story short, I was asked to help out a bit during the Christmas holidays and I managed to survive. Since then, I have been working basically a day to a day and a half a week. When I work the full day, it feels like a long day typically averaging around 9.5 hours and that is primarily standing on one’s feet the entire time. I usually need a full day following to recover. Anyways, it’s fine and it does provide me with a bit of mad money for spending.

What do they say about the third time? Three times are a……..

So, we finally got t use our tickets to Hamilton. This was after it was cancelled one month after the beginning of the pandemic. It took a long time to come back to Toronto and the wait was worth it. It was my third time seeing the show. The first time was in Chicago and the second time was the here in Toronto during the short time it was on. This cast and show was simply fantastic. The singing was super strong and the long wait to see this show was most definitely worth it.

I recently came across a website that provides “copies” of popular meals at various restaurants and I attempted to make Carbone’s famous Spicy Rigatoni. The first time I did it was pretty good, the second time was too spicy and the most recent came out very, very good. It takes a bit of time and you have to get some different ingredients including some hot spices, heavy cream and vodka. The key is don’t add too much vodka or the hot spices. So, this time I decided to not add so much and it was fantastic. I have not a had the chance to get to Carbone’s so for the time being this will have to do.

Anyways, sorry for the obvious rambling in this blog. I have struggled to finish it and will call it a day here. See you soon.