Count Me In

The provincial election was called on Friday... although at 6pm, rather than noon. For the next two weeks I'm now working evenings and weekends as an enumerator, so blog posting and reading will be a bit sketchy.

Friday night we had our training... somewhat disorganized training, but then they also had six hours less to prepare than they expected. I managed to get the camera working so that we could take photos for the ids. (No, that wasn't in my job description, but the lady attempting to figure the camera out wasn't having much luck.)

Saturday morning I went in to get my ID... I didn't show up right at opening, I figured I'd give them a bit to settle in and get things organized. However, I woke up early for some reason, so ended up leaving home a bit after 9am. Although they were scheduled to open at 8am, things were a mess. Literally. There was a thick layer of dust and grit on all flat surfaces... not that there were many of those. I'm guessing some of it came from tearing down two of the internal walls the night before so they'd have a bit of open space in the former tanning salon. In addition to the dirt, there was basically no furnature. The lady attempting to figure out the hardware and software was sitting on a folding camping chair. The lady attempting to print photos for the ids wasn't having any luck with the provided equipment and manuals. They asked if I wanted to go for coffee and come back. Um, no: I don't drink coffee, and with tech support not answering their pleas for help (tech support was probably equally swamped by all the offices simultaneously setting up), they weren't getting anywhere fast. "I'm in CS, let me back there."

By around 10am I had the technical stuff (relatively) figured out and the lady (relatively) trained. One of the ladies had cleaned the flat surfaces, and the camping chair was replaced by a taller plastic chair that was much better. Papers were tidied up, supplies were accessible, and it actually resembled a functioning office. I got my id, filled out another form that wasn't provided Friday night, grabbed some more information pamphlets to hand out to households, and was out the door. Yay! (On my way out they asked if they could call me if they had trouble getting the network going.)

So, after escaping the office yesterday, I managed to enumerate over thirty households, plus leave information at another twenty where no one was home. Hmmm... that sounds wrong... I only did one and a partial sides of the four streets I've been assigned, which should mean I've visited about a seventh of my 215 households... but 50/200 is 1/4. Hmmm. Perhaps the houses were more tightly packed on the street I was on yesterday.

So far the worst part about enumerating seems to be the numb and tingly thumb I have from writing so much. I'm hoping to finish ahead of schedule so that I don't have this additional work hanging over my head. Pocket money is good, but it's cutting into my social life. Plus I still haven't done my taxes...

I'm not going to bother going out too early on weekend mornings... I like to sleep in, and not only that, but even at 2pm I was still getting people in their jammies. I'm sure they appreciate later start times too. ;) We aren't allowed to work after dark, so that means I won't be disturbing the morning people too late in the evening either.