Construction Time Again

I doubt that anything will ever reach the levels of idiocy that The City of Thunder Bay set a few summers ago...2013 or 2014...when Fort William Rd., May St., Balmoral St. and Golf Links Rd. were all under construction, at one place or another, at the same time.  That's four adjacent, parallel North-South arteries simultaneously compromised. Who didn't enjoy having to use two or three of those streets in order to cross town?

It looks as if the pieces are falling into place to have a go at that, however, with N. Cumberland St all torn up and the northern-most block of Algoma St out of action, it's probably just a matter of time before a hole and some yellow signs materialize on Court St.  How can it not happen?

Hometown Hockey, News and Stuff, Hawks Win 3-0 and Sunday's Big Boy

Exhausted.  Today, SportsNet descended on my home city, Thunder Bay, and held one of their Hometown Hockey events.  While oozing in sentimentality, cliché and that icky motormouth Ron MacLean, it was actually pretty fun.  I checked out the event site in the afternoon - very nicely done and people looked like they were having a good time - and watched the game in the evening.  Had to watch it on SportsNet, though, so I got to see all the Thunder Bay hockey culture and local lore during the breaks, but I also had to put up with MacLean some more (the Garrison Keillor of hockey?) and HOLY SHIT Glenn Healy is an idiot.  Once again, watching a game on SN makes me realize that Foley and Edzo are not so bad.
Anyway...
- The Hawks hardly seemed troubled in this one.  Crawford possibly did not require a shower after the game, his only tough saves being on a couple of rebounds.  Easy money, baby.
- I'll put this down to "as Erik Karlsson goes, so go The Senators", and Karlsson didn't really get going tonight.  He wasn't terrible, by any means (apart from allowing Desjardins to strip him of the puck in the last moments, but he had clearly had enough by then) but for Ottawa to be anything other than terrible he needs to be brilliant.  Also, The Sens are pretty bad.
- On The Hawks' side, very few standouts, really.  I thought TVR had a strong game, actually and, a few minor yips aside, so did Gustafsson.  Didn't notice Seabrook much and didn't even realize Garbutt played tonight until I saw him leave the ice after the game.  I still like what I see from Danault and I don't mind that Desjardins - Danault - Teravainen trio.  I wouldn't mind it if Danault spent some time with Yanic Perreault, though, 'cos he's not been good at the dot.
- Rozsival cracked me up in the second when it looked as if he might join the rush with Kane.  Then he realized he didn't now what "rush" meant, bailed out and nearly collided with Kane.  It's gold, Jerry, gold.
So, THE NEWS:
- During the game Jeremy Morin was sent packing, yet again, this time to Toronto where he will find himself on their second line within a few weeks, in exchange for something called Richard Panik. I know nothing about this Panik but I can read a stat sheet as well as anyone, and Panik is a 20pt/yr, biggish body kinda guy.  Hey, we happen to have a bunch of 10pt/yr biggish body kinda guys, so this counts as an upgrade.

                                I don't know Ryan Garbutt but, yes, I am better than him.

- David Rundblad was loaned to Zurich Lions in the Swiss A-League.  Now, I had read that The Hawks could bury all of Rundblad's salary if and only if he played in Rockford.  There is, as I recall, some counter-intuitive salary cap manipulation that can be performed in which a GM spends more now to gain cap relief later.  Maybe?  I admit I'm pretty hazy on a lot of the salary cap regulations and have not yet bothered to investigate this but, when I do (I won't) I'll explain it all here (won't do that either).
Back to tonight:

He scored the game winner, blocked four shots and, basically, just did what he always did.  In this sleepwalker of a game, Duncan Keith was the best player.

                                    Four Norris Trophies on a square meter of ice...

Off-Topic Mini-Rant

I'm selling, or trying to sell, some stuff using Kijiji.

It's been a frustrating experience.

There are so many people out there that don't know how to communicate respectfully.  Or, more likely, they know how and simply cannot be arsed.

I did have two very pleasant exchanges, and I thank those folks not only for their business but for conducting themselves like human beings.

I clicked through my Deleted Messages box from the last week, though, and found a lot more of this kind of thing:

"interested"

Emailed him back, no reply.

Lots of these no-replies, actually, usually with more than one word in their message.  But not always.

"60"

I assumed they meant "$60".  This was in reply to an ad for a $300 item.  When I politely declined I received the reply

"fuckn keep it asshle"

Well, thanks for at least replying, I guess.

"your crazy I canget that for 100 at a panw shop"

Be my guest, assuming you can find the "panw shop".

"...I will take can you meet me at Tim's across fro Canadian Tire Arthur St.around 1:30?"

This message sent at 1:02 PM.  It's a 25 minute drive.  For a $10 item. I regretfully RSVP'd on this one as he didn't leave me nearly enough time to bake him some cookies as a Thank You gift.  

Five separate individuals made arrangements to visit for the purposes of buying items, which ranged from $15 guitar accessories to a used car, and never bothered to show up.  

I want to do this right but it's becoming increasingly difficult to not lash out at these people.  I really don't want to make anyone feel bad but, holy shit, the lack of courtesy is mind-blowing and more than a little depressing.  It's not just the disrespectful tone and, it's a lack of respect for another person's time, too.  So, is this indicative of anything?  I have some ideas.

- Many Kijiji browsers are simply jerks.

- Many people in Thunder Bay are simply jerks.

- Many people are simply jerks.

- The anonymity that online marketplaces afford allow people to be jerks and not be called on it.

Musicians are tough to deal with.  Not all musicians, of course, but I've never seen a social group more consistently guilty of having Cadillac Tastes and Hyundai Budgets.  And what is with these guys always wanting to trade?  It's always crap, too, that they want to trade.  They have no problem instructing you on the various deficiencies of the item you're selling yet have no problem offering you what I can only describe as junk.  If they actually listened to the lectures they give on why you're asking too much for an item they'd talk themselves out of wanting the damn thing.  Yes, I realize it's a tactic, but it's the clumsiest application of this tactic that you're likely to encounter...and most of these guys do it.  How stupid do you have to be to think that other people are more stupid than you?

I want to note, also, that when I was in BC we did a LOT of online marketplace transactions.  Mostly buying, as we were outfitting an apartment from scratch, but some sales, too.  Perhaps one in twenty of these exchanges were icky, and we always received a reply and those were almost always typed in sentences. With actual words.  Spelled correctly.  Sideways from that, though, I'll note that Kijiji is not very popular in Vancouver...Craiglist is King, there, which I found odd because Kijiji is so much...prettier and easier to use.  Anyway, remember that - all the best stuff in Vancouver is on Craigslist.

I used to think that Facebook Marketplace pages were pretty bad, and they are.  Most FB users, I think, are more careful about how they present themselves as FB does not provide the anonymity that Kijiji and Craigslist provide.  Most, of them, anyway; there are still some awful people on FB, so consumed with getting what they want that they become oblivious to how horrible they're being.  Or, to backtrack, maybe they just don't give a shit what people think about them, as long as they get what they want.  These Kijiji people, though... the jerks are outnumbering the nice people about 6:1 by my estimation, and it's depressing the hell out of me.

Rant over.  I probably have a number of one-and-two-word emails to respond to.

                                                     $1300?  No, I meant $13!