A Day, A Week, Hemant, A Year

I have now been back in Saskatchewan for about two months. I can finally say that I have pretty much settled in. I have recently moved into my new townhouse in Saskatoon, and have finally started to feel like I’m being productive at work. Granted, I still have a few things to take care of, but I’m pretty much there. All-in-all, the move has been good. I do find myself missing Guelph and the old job, but that will pass with time.

Now despite being settled back in, there are a few things that I have found slightly irksome with my new ‘home’.

1) Shaw Cable - I knew that cable TV was going to be an issue once I got back to Saskatoon. The townhome I have moved into has no condo association, therefore no decisions have been made as to whether or not satellite dishes are allowed. Because of this, I would have to go with Shaw Cable as my service provider. This may not sound like such a big deal, but after you just spent big bucks on a new high definition TV, you want to get the most out of it. In Guelph I was with Rogers Cable and they offered about 25 HD channels. In Saskatoon Shaw offers 9 channels. I was willing to bite the bullet since the HD channels offered here did include the four major U.S. networks. Everything’s cool, right? Wrong. The four U.S. networks Shaw offers are from the west coast, meaning that prime time shows don’t start until 10:00 pm nightly. I can’t speak for anyone else, but I have to work and can’t stay up until all hours of the night watching TV. Why would they do something so idiotic? My theory is that Shaw did this on purpose so that their customers would have to buy an HD Personal Video Recorder (PVR) for $750.

2) Road Cleaning - Everyone knows that winter driving can be treacherous. Wet snow, freezing rain, packed snow, black ice - any one of these can make driving near impossible. If it wasn’t for city crews cleaning off the roads and keeping them safe, I don’t know how we would make it through winter. Well, I guess I’m gonna find out this winter what it will be like without them cleaning. Snow has now covered Saskatoon for over a week, and I have yet to see a road cleaned. 8th Street, a major road in the city is still covered with packed, icy snow, making it a mission to go two blocks down the street. Not even gravel has been distributed to make the roads a little bit more manageable. Has it always been like this here? I certainly don’t remember it this way, but I guess I got used to proper road crews in Guelph where roads were cleared within a few hours after a snowfall.

3) Grocery Stores - Out of the three grocery stores I have now been to in Saskatoon over the last week, I can safely say that they pretty much suck. Prices are high, and selection is weak. The most noticeable is the fruit and vegetable section. You’ll have no problem getting your typical, ‘mainstream’ stuff like potatoes and lettuce, but good luck finding anything like a hot pepper. I know Superstore will prove to be the answer, but who the heck wants to pack your own groceries, let alone buy the shopping bags?

4) This one isn’t really a problem with Saskatoon, but it just happened to occur in Saskatoon. Picture this - I’m driving down 22nd Street in Saskatoon one crisp Monday morning. Traffic is moving slowly since it is rush hour. The truck in front of me makes a hard stop, therefore I do too. I look in my rear-view mirror and see a ‘boat’ heading straight for me. I try to pull ahead a little more, but it’s too late - the ‘boat’ barrels into my car. After letting out a very loud expletive, I calmly wait for traffic to move by me so I can move over two lanes and pull off to a side road to exchange insurance information with the other party. Once on the side road, I notice the ‘boat’ doesn’t seem to be stopping. I lay on the horn. The ‘boat’ stops. We look each other in the eye, then she takes off. WTF? Are you kidding me? Who does something like that? I can understand someone taking off if they hit a parked car, but jeezus, you just rear-ended me on one of the busiest streets in Saskatoon. I was taken with such surprise that I didn’t even think to look at the plates. All I did see was that it was actually not a boat, but a late 70s gold Chrysler.

I guess it will just take me a little time to adjust to these things. I know they are minor, but when you get used to certain things, it is tough to let them go. I know I can deal with it since I was born and raised in this province. But the main reason I know I can deal with it all is because this is my home.