Swimming

I've been a busy little beaver all day.

We had a whole-office meeting with the deputy minister in charge of our department and her next in command so we could swamp them with pleas for more money, staff and office space, all of which we're severely lacking.

The problem is that the people in my office have been given a mandate to accomplish twice as much as they did last year with the same number of staff, 4 on maternity leave, 1 on paternity leave, 2 out sick and 2 on vacation. They want to hire more managers, but to do that they need to hire more other staff and they don't have the money or enough desks for all of them.

The deputy and her assistant were polite and attentive. They spoke in politicianese, that language where you say lots but never actually commit to anything. Fact is that neither victims of sexual abuse nor indians are priorities of the Harper government. Such are the ways of the world.

When given a vague and noncommittal answer about having more funding and staff, one of the people answered that we were working on our staffing problems by breeding our own employees. Everyone laughed.

Afterward, I got really busy. We're all just treading water there.

My parents got a new fridge today and that meant that I was robbed of my seat on the way to their house, having to sit instead between the two front seats with my legs across my mother. The doors were on the wrong way so I switched them because I like wrenches. That's pretty much it.