Picket-Size Me – Some Numbers

Wednesday, Aug. 31st.  Taking a bit of a break this morning after 7 hours on the picket line yesterday, some of it in drizzle, some of it in steady rain, all of it made a little more miserable by the damp and the humidity.  I hate being hot and damp and chilled all at the same time!

Significant Numbers: – Distance around the CBC Block bordered by Hamilton, Georgia, Robson and Cambie Streets:  Approximately .4 kilometres.

– Time it takes to walk around the block:  About 5.5 minutes, depending on traffic.  This day there was always a slowdown around the ATCO trailer, as picket duty cheques were being handed out.

– Total steps on the pedometer: 18971, which means I hopefully burned off about 900 calories.

The good: The steps translate to 10.434 kilometres on the pedometer. I didn’t partake of any sugary junk food on the line. Did eat a lot of fruit, which was donated by the folks at the party I was at on Monday night.  The organizers over-ordered the stuff that was coming from a caterer, so there were three fruit platters that we transferred to this one large container, leftover birthday cake and leftover mini-chocolate cakes.

The Bad:  When I arrived at the line today, most of the birthday cake and chocolate cakes had been demolished by hungry picketers…who passed up on the more healthy fruit offerings. And while I didn’t eat any sweet treats, I did eat several handfuls of this excellent popcorn someone had brought in, which was delicious…mostly because of the gobs of butter infusing the crispy puffed kernels of corn.  Oh well, I figured it was better than sugar.  Oh, and apologies to Margarget Gallagher, it was she who made the lentil salad I attributed to Lisa Christiansen on the previous post.  Margaret had given some to Lisa, which led to the confusion.  Margaret had more salad on hand, which I did get to taste, and Lisa had made an equally-tasty salad featuring tomatoes and ripe avocadoes…thanks for the samples!

The Ugly:  Shame on you, LG, for this little gem of a snack.  A Fruit Loops snack bar, supposedly Fruit Loops held together with milk…hah, I think the whole bar is probably about 90 percent sugar.  Despite the bright colours, I was able to resist asking for a bite of this ‘thing’.   

Looking ahead:  Late Thursday morning Capers has kindly donated the services of its staff nutritionist to come down to the line with some samples of good snacks to be consumed during picket duty and some hints on proper nutrition on the line.  Looking forward to that.  Also would like to hear your comments about food on the line and what you’re doing to stay healthy during the lockout.

Finally, thanks to Arnold Amber, CMG-CBC Branch President, for providing such a great response to CBC President Robert Rabinovitch’s rant in the Globe yesterday.