In the spirit of the holidays, I will remain positive.
First of all, I would like to extend my best wishes to those of you who cannot operate a motor vehicle in a safe and courteous manner, most especially around the holiday season. The few of you that think that disabled parking spots are an idle and pick-up zone or five minute parking spot are especially responsible for warming my heart this year.
I extend my thanks to those of you who in this time of joy and giving, good will and love, have chosen to abandon all common decency, civility and courtesy in favour of being rude, callous, disrespectful and impatient. In doing so, I was forced to utilize the early morning hours to carry out my Christmas shopping and errands; I finished everything I needed to do and earlier than hoped for.
I want to thank the downtown merchants (you know who you are) who out of being thoughtful or respectful of the by-law (is there one?) have shoveled the walks in front of their shops so that those of us with mobility issues or those people confined to wheelchairs can negotiate the walkways that after a snowfall can be treacherous. For those of you who neglect to do this and you know you are, thank you as well; by not making your businesses accessible, I was forced to save some money.
One more thing: to all of those clerks and vendors who put the new corporate, PC, paradigm aside, and wished me a Merry Christmas? Thank you, Merry Christmas to you, and don't feel so bad about how you were spoken to by nasty customers! Pretty soon, on-line shopping will make your jobs redundant, you'll be able to stay home on Boxing Day and enjoy two whole days out of 365 with your families, and you won't be subjected to the treatment these customers wouldn't tolerate at their own places of employment.
Mike Maslen
Prince George
