Even though Mothers Day is not a

official stat holiday, it ought to be. One thing is certain everybody loves their mother (if they had one that is). Thanks to my brother Jeff's Facebook page, I was able to lift this photo of my mom. I love you mom:

Anne made us a nice brunch and we watched a bit ot wrestling and hockey.

This last week was the 70th anniversary of VE day. The Russians of course have to have a military parade. A show of force. Yeesh.

This evening I'm following the Flames/Anaheim NHL game. Once the last Canadian team has left the playoffs, is when I tune out. This week for once I don't have any Doctors appointments, no elections. Nothing. It's a full work week except Saturday as I want to go to Commercial lodge and hopefully go out to visit a sick lodge brother. Sunday I want to take Anne out to make up for not taking her out today and Monday is my first paid stat holiday in my new job. Anyway that's all for now.

A small mystery for me has been

solved: Directly across the street from us there has been a empty field since I've been here for the last 15 years. Now suddenly its being excavated for development. There's been heavy machinery digging up the place. On my way into work I headed towards Superstore on the shoulder of the street beside the gated off area. I noticed some idle construction workers and I asked them what was being developed. They said a Shoppers Drug mart is going in. Mystery solved. 

It was 25 years ago that the Hubble Space telescope was Launched. Hard to believe that was in 1990. I still have the original article in my diary at that time. I was still in my 30's!

Since Future shop closed its doors across the country and the one by our place a mobile sign has has been recently posted saying Best Buy opening soon. Now Anne tells me some near pristine property will be eaten away for more town homes. I don't mind the development but not at the expense of what little green space we already have.

Finally we had a nice warm day. It was +18 heading into work with a mild breeze. I had a chance to read my book enjoying some sunshine. Looks like Spring/Summer is almost here. Anyway, that's all for now.

Usually the month of April is very nice with

warm temps. This April its been anything but. We've been getting a lot of wind (like this morning) and cold temps. Right now its +1 overcast and the forecast for today is a 40% chance of snow. I this time of year in 1980 at Richards apartment we had rain but that was normal. 

The new job seems to be going along ok. I'm not sure if I'm going to get full hours today. I'll take them if I can get them.

The Provincial election race is heating up. Thursday was the leadership debate. The PC's could be in for a bit of trouble but not as long as I can help it. The NDP is the front runner. I don't see them forming a majority Government but maybe a minority one.

Also the other day was the 10th anniversary of YouTube. On the news they were saying that YouTube uploads about 300 hours of content every minute. Wow! Anyway, that's all for now.

Saturday morning

Edmonton was the coldest place on the planet with a wind chill at -41! Waiting at the Money Mart at 9:30am yesterday on 108th street and Jasper, I could feel the wind chill go right through me. I got that 9:35am bus and was at work about 9:50am.

Everyone there felt the cold even in the building and there was no hot water for coffee. I did ok my first day on the job. I had to dodge traffic at 109th there and 124th to get the oncoming bus that was waiting for me. Thanks. I wanted to get home in time so Anne could get the bus pass. I got home shortly before 3pm. I tried having a nap but that didn't work for me. I answered email and relaxed most of t he night until the Flames/Oiler's at the Rex.

This week a very important anniversary is about to happen: December 8th 1980 was the day John Lennon was murdered. That was 33 years ago. More closer to home: December 12th 2012. The day I lost my job. It was on a Wednesday last year coming up this week. I don’t know if what my colleague at the other job is saying is truthful that it was only Edmonton that was closed. That’s consistent with other Edmonton call centre operations that were closed due to staffing shortages.

One of our older lodge brethren the other night at lodge,left his cap and apron, so he's going to meet me at Tim's at Corona station 9:30am in the morning. I'll be there at 9am getting out of here at 8:20am. The wind chill is expected to be -32 or something like that. I'm also going downtown because I'm working at the other job 10-6pm. I should be home by 7pm.

It's supposed to "warm up" a bit over the week  and our extreme winter is supposed to be retreating. We're going to be at -12's that sort of thing. Apparently long range is even looking at some +2's in that area. So on the CTV National news based what I said our temperature is, CTV totally ignores us and mentions Calgary at -38 (including the wind chill) National news doesn't like Edmonton because of our proximity to the Oil sands, we always get a "cold shoulder." I'm sorry but -41 is a lot colder then Calgary's -38! Anyway, that's all for now.

On this day

 (Friday Nov. 22nd 1963) was the assassination of JFK. This is the 49th anniversary of the shooting in Dealey plaza and of course on the eve of the anniversary Coast has it’s usual JFK show on. I’ll be listening to this in a bit.

This morning it was colder the usual out there. My leg felt better. I got into the office and decided to see if I could log into Ched because of the JFK show on Coast but because of my iPad Adobe Flash can not be used but then one of the guys told me about “Tune in Radio.” I downloaded this free app and it works really good. I’m going to get the paid version, eventually.

Yesterday the NHLPA made another offer to the NHL but it was a little to late. They agreed to meet before the end of the week. The significant part of all this was that the NHLPA made some forward movement, more then they had done before. It seems that the owners are losing about $18-$20M/day! The players are losing between $8-$10M/day. Both sides are losing a lot of money also the league is losing sponsorships. They already lost Kraft foods and might also end up losing other sponsors like Coors etc.  

My day yesterday was ok but not great. I was glad to get out of there at 9pm, while the getting was good. I need to have a good day. Anyway, that’s all for now.

Despite not having a good day on the job

I had a good day.

Hard to believe this is the 31st anniversary of my diary!

kind of but not really watching the Vancouver/Nashville game. Anyway, that's about all for now.

It's our 10th wedding

anniversary today and in those 10 years its been challenging to say the least. We got married by a JP and for our wedding night we went to Kelsey's. I almost didn't think we'd get married. not because she didn't want to but because of all the hoops we had to go through. Our appointment to see the JP was 3pm at a posh home in Riverbend. It was overcast snowing and not a great day. Anne drove us out to pick up our witness, Bridget. We were running right on time but we didn't know the turn off to Riverbend on 156th street. They didn't have Google maps at the time. Anne's indecision cost us to have an accident. The car wasn’t totalled at all but we couldn’t mover forward. We could move it out of he traffic flow and off to the side. We knocked on a few doors and someone let us use the phone and let us leave the car parked in front of their yard. We got a taxi and got to the address. The cab driver was having problems processing Anne's bank card for payment. I was broke. The wedding was anti climatic but the JP was nice enough to drive us to the house and called us a tow truck to a garage Bridget had recommended. Bridget stayed with us until the car was repaired well up to 7pm. The garage head mechanic put our work order on priority and we managed to get to drop Bridget off and have Anne meet Bridget's husband Jim, Our wedding night consisted of a dinner at Kelsey's just over here on 137th Ave. That location is long gone.

But during those 10 years, like most marriages we faced challenging times. We fought, yelled, raised our voices in heated shouting matches and even threatened to leave each other but I never once hit my wife. During those 10 years I had acquired diabetes, had 2 cataract operations. Anne lost her parents and I lost Pledges and learned years later after the fact my brother died. There were times when I didn't think we would last the year and every year we stayed together was a blessing to say the least. I can just imagine what the next 10 years will bring. God help us all. Anyway, that's all for now