Experiencing the carnage firsthand

On my first day at Manitoba Public Insurance (MPI), I was taken to the main car lot on Plessis Avenue in Winnipeg.

We were on our way to my first event of the season, but my supervisor wanted to drive me through the lot first. She said it was an experience I wouldn’t forget, and something every new MPI employee should see.

And she was definitely right…

The MPI car lot at Plessis is a never-ending jungle of mangled vehicles. When a vehicle is in a collision – and is written off – it ends up at the lot eventually. It is basically the final resting place where cars, vans, trucks and everything in between go to die after they have been deemed “un-drivable.”

As my supervisor drove through row after row of vehicle carnage, I looked in all directions and took in the scene around me. Windows were smashed, airbags were heaped in piles where they had deflated, and bumpers, trunks, doors and roofs were bent in a plethora of unnatural angles. I could tell where a person’s head hit a windshield in one vehicle, and I knew someone had been thrown out a window in another.

But what disturbed me more than anything were the vehicles that had “blood” written on them in red marker.

Everything in the lot is auctioned off, which means MPI must be up-front and honest about the condition of what someone will be purchasing. Some collisions – as we all know – are fatal. Sometimes they are messy. When that happens, the employees at the lot write blood on the vehicle so potential buyers know exactly what they are getting into.

As part of my job, I travel around Manitoba and teach junior high and high school students about the importance of wearing a seat belt. I wish I could drive each and every one of them through the lot so they are able to witness the devastation firsthand.

I bet it would scare a few more kids into wearing his or her seat belt. I bet it would also make a few people think twice about drinking and driving or behaving like a jerk on the road.

Hopefully I will never see a vehicle of someone I know in that lot. It’s not a place where you want your car to end up…

A new office sparks new creativity

It’s funny how something as simple as an office can make me feel creative again.

The first time I walked into the Thin Air office on the sixth floor of the ArtSpace Building, I knew I had found a new home.

The sunny and open office is painted blue, and large, old-fashioned windows let in the sounds of the Exchange District below.

There is a table, a minimal kitchen area and a coffee maker surrounding the entrance.

A bookshelf that almost reaches the ceiling is used as an office divider, and I was delighted to note that I have read quite a few of the novels on the shelf.

I can’t quite figure out why, but every time I am inside the office I feel inspired to start writing another novel. The process of writing a book is a long, occasionally tedious but always enjoyable task that I have longed to repeat since I put down my pen last September.

The Thin Air office feels like the place I will use to start writing again. I’ve already started working on the plot, and hopefully I’ll have something started by the end of summer.

I love finding new and inspiring places to write. It makes life so much more interesting…