Back Story

Alright, here is a little bit of the back story as to why I decided to put up this blog. I work for the advisory services division of an accounting firm in Calgary. I am an associate (the low end of the totem pole.) As such, I am confined to a section of cubicles with other lower end employees. There is a section of the office, where a collection of 9 cubicles are gathered that is commonly referred to as "The Bullpen." In this bullpen area, any conversation, phone call or communication had by one member of the bullpen can be overheard by every other member of the bullpen.

Recently, a trend has developed where other members of the office (the higher-up-the-totem-pole people) have come to the bullpen to get updates on the lives of the bullpen workers. (I won't lie, most of the conversations revolve around D, who prefers to remain anonymous, although anyone reading this blog probably has a good idea of who he is.) So I was getting tired of people coming around 10 times a day to talk to us bullpenners (and mostly D) to get the latest updates. I was also tired of having to hear D tell the same stories 100 times to a hundred different people. I figured it would be more productive for us, and for everyone else in the firm, if we just posted the updates to the internet and let them discover the details themselves. Of course there is probably some flawed logic in my thinking that I haven't realized yet, and this blog could possibly create more foot traffic to the bullpen... but we will cross that bridge when it gets here.

So the main story, that everyone seems to be wanting updates on is D's purchase of a vehicle in the states. I will give a brief synopsis of the story so far, and hopefully be able to resolve the story within the next week. So D purchased a vehicle in the states over the internet and over the phone. He flew down a few weeks ago with his wife to test drive the car and fill out the paperwork. Since he is bringing and American made car into Canada, there are quite a few procedures involving US and Canada customs that need to be in order before he can bring the vehicle across. So anyway, the bank draft in American funds, drawn from a Canadian bank turned out to be not as good as cash (as the bank, and car salesman insisted it was) so D would have had to have waited 5 days for the draft to clear. As he couldn't wait those 5 days in the States, he flew back home empty handed.

So now everyone is wondering what D will do to get his vehicle in Canada. He has contemplated having it shipped, flying down himself again and driving home, paying college kids to fly down and drive it back, or just abandoning the vehicle and trying to get his money back. So the latest interruptions in the cubicle life have been from people bothering D to see what his plans are. As of last night, D was thinking of flying down himself to get the vehicle. If he doesn't show up this morning, then that will mean he is on his way, and he will have a ton of stories come Monday.

I'll keep you posted as to his whereabouts.