We might have one more shift

tomorrow, hard to say. The last few days were the hardest. I'll do another project, not problem. Got to do something while under lock down. Hopefully we will have another project in the next few days. not sure yet.

We normally order from Horseshu pizza up the road from us but their in house home delivery is hit and miss. Instead (or 3rd time now?) we've ordered through Royal Pizza from Manning shopping centre not far away. We always order the extra sauce and our own personal small size pizza's. It did not dissapoint. The only thing is like Pizza 73, they don't have any dipping sauce.

Ever since ETS did their massive Bus network redesign, I haven't been on an ETS bus since when I went to get ny Covid shot mid April. We used to have 4 buses run by here. Now its just the #104 to Coilseum station. Kind of sucks but at least the #104 takes me to lodge whenever that opens up again. Hopefully in September. Anyway, that's all for now.

The only problem with blogging

once a week, is there are events that unfold in the world, that go missed in this blog. I'd like to cover as much as possible. While I'm not a socialist, my eyes cut to the death of Fidel Castro. His death and legacy brought the attention to the world stage. Castro was a friend of Canada (not of me) but this country. There are many in my generation remember the Cuban missile crisis. Later many Cubans left Cuba and fled across to Florida in what's known as The Mariel Boatlift. It wasn't until recently US President Obama brought the two countries closer together.

Closer to home, a few yards away from us on our side of 137th ave, there was a Police presence and first responders flashing lights just as Anne was coming through the door. This is just across the street from "Chianti's." Its a dangerous heavily marked 4 way. We latter learned during evening news this was another traffic fatality but there were few details. So, this morning I'm checking local news and the fatality indeed occurred at the 4 way on 40th and 137th involving another ETS bus. The fatality involved a 13 year old girl as she was crossing alone as she must have done dozens of times before facing South crossing to the other side of 137th. The bus apparently was crossing as it must have done hundreds of times as well at about 7:45pm last night. The girl might have been shopping at Walmart. Apparently the bus was found at Coliseum station later that evening. So the bus was apparently trying to cross 137th facing South on 40th turning onto 137th Eastbound and the driver doesn't see the pedestrian in a marked crossing? The driver's field of view covers a wide area and ETS is blaming the bus's blind spot? Is this just a case of careless driving on behalf of a ETS bus driver or something else? The bus driver might have been about to go on a shift change most likely at Abbotsfield and didn't know he/she hit somebody until ETS informed the driver. However, another ETS bus driver that was involved in another collision last month involved a collision with a 83 year old woman and the bus driver was charged in that situation? Something doesn't add up here. This doesn't look good for ETS that's for sure. Most of these bus drivers are okay and are good at their jobs except when they become distracted by bus patrons standing behind their shoulder chatting away at them. I'm not sure but I think that's what happened in this case last night. Many of these bus patrons stand right behind the fare box, blocking the driver's point of view as the driver is trying to make a lane change. I've done it myself and often chat with the driver as well. If anyone is to be charged, charge the person distracting the driver. The "blind spot" has nothing to do with this case, its distracted driving. This is a real eye opener for me today.  

My day yesterday was a lot better on the job, however I missed my bus after work as it pulled up by Tony Roma's. Even if I wan for it, I'd not have made it. And I missed my train at Southgate. A trip that should have taken me an hour, took me almost 2 hours to get home. I had a great night playing with the Korg Gadget app. I need to get the sampler as a in app purchase called Bilbao. For $7 its a good deal. There's not much bass options without Bilbao. Also, I'm trying how to see if the sequencer can have the play head scroll across the tracks and down the scenes. Gadget's sequencer options are limited.

Anyway, I sent a email out to lodge saying I won't be at the practice tonight. I'm not required to do anything at installation anyway. This afternoon in about half an hour is the Arizona/Oilers rubber match game. Also, I'll be following the Grey Cup game as well. I think that's a 4pm start as I'm enjoying my weekend. Anyway, that's about all for now.

This is about the only time of

year where The City of Edmonton opens up ETS and lets everyone after 6pm-3am ride buses and the LRT for free.

                                                                         

   

 Any other time its $3.20 or a monthly bus pass like the one pictured above for $89. When I was in my early 20's living in New West in the lower main land as far as I know there were no monthly bus passes. Mainly this was because in the 1960's Coquitlam was served by the pacific Coast stage lines. You couldn't even get a bus after 7pm. This was before Loughheed Mall. I was surprised when a co worker said I could get a monthly ETS pass for $15. "For the whole  month? Crazy." Next year I turn 65 and I'll be able to buy a month bus pass for $14 and one for the year for $125!  

I don't normally make New Years reservations but I've made 8 I think I can keep:

My 2016 New Year’s resolution this year is to:
1.) Make sure I always have income between now and this time next year.
2.) Get our medical benefits lined up.
3.) Get my teeth done
4.) Get family membership to Clareview rec centre
5.) Join Royal Arch
6.) Read 5 Horus Heresy books.
7.) LM account
8.) Produce more music to YouTube

My wife got home 2 hours ago and we had a nice little cheese plater to ring in the new year. We watched the Doctor Who Christmas special. I like the actor playing the new Doctor. He's really good. Anyway that's all for now.

The new job seems to be

running along ok. Its basic telemarketing but I'm not selling anything. It's easy enough to do and the hours are decent enough.

Sometime this month I'm supposed to know, one way or another, if I'm going to get on this extended medical benefits plan. It's from the Alberta Government and is similar to a company health care plan. It's different then Alberta Health care. It's set up for emergency situations and was strongly recommended in writing by my Doctor. My local PCN feels that there's no reason why I shouldn't be accepted. It even covers my wife as well. My PCN says I should get a card in the mail very soon. Maybe next week sometime. it's mostly to cover my diabetic needs but the plan covers beyond what Alberta Health care would cover. The plan covers my diabetic supplies, vision/optical, and most important right now, dental and dentures. If I get the card this week next time I see my Doctor (Monday) I'm going to ask about my dental and what we can do to get my teeth done. Pending of course when (and if) I get the card in the mail. I might some time off in the hospital until my gums heal but I'd do this about mid September. I'm sure my job will accommodate me. Getting my teeth done has been on my mind for sometime now.

Yesterday I went to Audrey's and picked up my Warhammer 40k book. "There is only war." It's a Warhammer anthology of 42 short stories published last year. I hope it sells well enough to bring out a 2nd volume sometime this year or next. 

Also on my commute I read a bit at Campus waiting for the #4 bus and then I had a bit of a wait at wem. ETS had this grey low floor bus. It's an electrical bus. Not a hybrid and apparently its wifi enabled and looks really cool. I'm going to try and see if the fellow I'm meeting with after coffee can drop me off at wem so I can get a photo and try out the new bus. This bus apparently is the only one of it's kind in all the 900+ buses in ETS's fleet of bus.   

Prior to when my colleague was living at Westmount my drive home colleague and I would take the Yellowhead and run down 50th. I mentioned to her if she would be able to pull into the Wendy's drive through on my way home as it was on the way. Then I realized as we were heading towards the Canadian tire store off 129th to Fort Road, we were not anywhere near Wendy's. I almost said to cancel because my meeting ride this afternoon can always go to "Harvey's" on 170th there. She said it was no problem. So as we went over the Manning overpass it was just off in the right side lane by Pet Smart (Sparky) and a few minutes South on 50th. I got a Double Baconator and biggie fries for my lunch and watched Smackdown. That way Anne didn't have too cook anything.

I'm out here at 8:30am. One of my colleagues from my lodge said he'd be able to pick me up this morning and said he'd be out here at 8:30am. I emailed him and called so he doesn't swing by here thinking he's going to pick me up. I called him before Anne got in and left a message for him not to pick me up as I wouldn't be attending. I feel bad I can't make it but I need the hours as well. I am however going to meet with the fellow running the meeting after. If there's no snags. He's got the address to where I work and he said he could meet with me after 1:30pm for coffee today and to give me the details as to what happened. Also, if that electric bus is there I can get off at 95th ave/156th street and snap a photo of Sandy lane. I've been wanting to do that since last Octobers fire. Anyway, that's about all for now.

Since the main box stores

like Walmart and Superstore are open 24/7 for the holidays, my wife has been out there (like now) shopping saying she'll be in by 1am, yeah right. If she's not back by 1am, I'm going to bed.

Looking at memory express website they have a lot of mATX motherboards and a lot of them are Intel based. I  might have to rethink this now. Intel is more pricier but I have more options but at the moment I'm just window shopping.

It seems that at most LRT stations, escalators are down for maintenance. At the end of my commute the escalator on the upper concourse to street level has been shut down for maintenance way to much lately. It seems to me like it's a City make work project. I rarely see any of these "mechanics" at work. My IPM/JW for instance is a ETS (Edmonton Transit System) mechanic but I don't think he works in escalators/elevators. 

I'm up in about 6 hours to got to work. It's a full day ahead. I took a replacement LRT bus from Corona after my 2nd job and it parked on the East side of Stadium station. This was about 3pm. I'll have to go that route in the morning as I want a Tim's breakfast since they didn't have lasagna. They pulled it from their menu again, its a seasonal product it seems. After boarding the train back to Clareview I decided since I'm only going to Corona in the morning I'll go to Stadium instead of taking the #5 and get the bus there before work. It's a full 7.5 hour day. At least I'll be able to catch some of the Oiler/Phoenix game when I get home (maybe). Anyway, that's all for now.