One of my interests and I wouldn't say its a

hobby is genealogy. I more or less have things sorted out on my mothers side but things are a bit murky on dad's side. So the yesterday what with nothing much better to do, I did a bit of digging. My grandfather had the same name as me: James Shannon. His initial was B for Blaine. There's a bit of a write up on "Find a grave." Something will come up if you Google the name. Including myself I can trace back 4 generations. The earliest is a James Shannon residing in Fort Greene area of Brooklyn 1815-1885. The building he lived in and the address is still there over 175 years later. Impressive. I did a bit more digging but I hit a break wall. Tax records were recorded in pencil in the early 1800's so not much survived. Most likely there would be no hospital records because most (I'm assuming) babies were born at home. It'd be cool to find out what James Shannon did for a living, what were his interests, who his parents were that kind of thing.

On this day 30 years ago was Black Friday. Our F4 tornado that killed 21 people here in Edmonton. I was 35 years old at the time, working with the Army and Navy warehouse in what is now called Cobogo lofts. I recall that day as we had our coffee break at 3pm and I'd often go to this little basement cafe in the Revlon building. It was a slow day. We had credit at "Joe's," and I was just coming back with my take out order through the big green doors. Bob was my co-worker and he had his desk by the back receiving bay door where we'd get all of our truck shipments. Coming through the doors Bob had said something about a Tornado. I was more interested in eating my first meal of the day. After lunch I asked Bob what was it again, something about a tornado? After he filled me in I got the idea to go upstairs to the roof to see if I could see anything. More on this after wrestling.
       After work at 4:30pm on that day I still had no idea to what extent this tornado had on the city. When I headed up to the corner where Fox towers one sits on 102nd Ave to the bus stop, it was perfectly calm outside. When I got off my bus a 9710 156th street, the wind and rain picked up. My suite was on the top floor there in the centre of this google street view picture. The building next door at the time was a house with a picket fence and some beautiful trees. I had some business with the caretaker at the time so I went to her 2nd floor suite facing the back.The one pictured here on the 2nd floor by the stairwell. I knocked on the door and she brought me over to the big window to look at the clouds over the trees. Some of those clouds had green tints in them. After I did my business I went upstairs to catch the news. About 10 minutes later I got a knock on my door from the caretaker saying my mom and dad were on the phone calling from Coquitlam where I grew up. They said it took some doing to get a contact # but they were able to call me to make sure I was ok. They were more up to date then I was but the rest of the news filled me in. It was an event I'll never forget. Anyway, that's all for now.

Fresh off a CFL bi week for our Eskimo's

last night at Commonwealth stadium Edmonton, Game #2 with the return of Chris Jones and the Riders. Our fans do it as well but its been the "In" thing to do is to bring some food for the food bank to any cfl game. Our fans do this in Calgary, and I'm sure Calgary fans do this here. I watched pre game footage of Rider fans drop off non perishable food items for our local food bank. Thanks guys. CFL fans are a class act. That wasn't the main take away I got from last nights game. Up until the last play of the first half our Esks were behind but went into the half with a 4 point lead. At one point it was 19-33 Esks. Esks fumbled the ball Riders recovered gathering momentum. Riders scored 26-33. Uh-oh. They took the lead 36-33. We tied the game with a field goal with 3 seconds on the clock. It was 36-36 in overtime (ot) That's rare but its not unusual. In ot we scored first with a field goal, 36-39 Eskimos. Then they had the ball. If they scored a field goal they could tie the game, and play would continue. If they scored a 6 point major they'd win. They got a first down, another completion, then 3rd down and inches. The ball needs to break the plane of the paint on the turf for play to continue for a fresh set of downs. Eskimo defense earned their money last night preventing the ball to break the plane. The chains were moved to make the decision. The ball was under six inches from the paint. The Riders gave it their best shot but we won (barely) 36-39 in an exciting finish. There were 34,196 in attendance. Next week we're in Winnipeg to face the Blue Bombers at Investors Group field. Can't wait. Last night there were 2 tied football games in the CFL. There were 2 tied football games last night ours before ot, and Calgary at Ottawa 26-26. 

I've been exchanging a lot of emails with my sister lately as we're talking about my mother's side of the family, which until just recently I knew very little about. I recall an incident in 1968 while I was confined to bed recovering from my back operation at home. It was in the summer of 1968, I was 15 years old. I should have been hanging out at the Grooveyard in New Westminster Friday & Saturday's as the end of that era in music history was closing out. Instead there I was flat on my back in a body cast confined to a bed with 2 metal rods in my spine. So, now back to the incident: We had some house guests over that summer. I didn't know who they were. All I saw were these 2 blond haired twin boys about my age. They stuck their heads in the threshold of my bedroom doorway and said Hi. That was it. For years I've always thought they were from dad's side of the family. In these emails from my sister I learned, the twins were from my mom's side. My uncles children/cousins. I never saw them again after that.

Not much on my plate today. Anne gave me a malathion pill this morning. I read from "Rage of Eagles" before bed and in bed I listened to a bit of Coast "open lines." I enjoy that part of the show listening to peoples weird stories. One caller had a "message from beyond the grave," another one where George and a caller shared horror movie likes and dislikes. I passed out from there. I woke up to feed the cats about 10am and and back to bed until about 11:30 this morning. Once Anne leaves, I'm going to work on another FL studio song, only this one will have more substance. I'm hoping to get it ready for the end of  the month. No rush. Other then that, its reading, YouTube receive Anne's call about 8pm. Should be a good night. Anyway, that's all for now.

If this was way back

in 2014, some of those resume's I sent out last month would have bore fruit by now. At that time the economy was above water. Now 2 years later, its 1 resume for about 200. The competition for jobs is very high. I have a job, just no work. I wanted to work where my wife works but they have this test as part of the initial training. I needed 80% passing grade before they would hire me, and I got roughly 45%. That job would have been good for me about now. Its steady and I'd always have hours.

I'm currently doing some family genealogy, and that's been keeping me busy this weekend. Its odd that a distant cousin from the 1880s was a Mayor of New Westminster and my uncle was a Mayor of New West as well. Civic engagement runs in the family. My mom was the youngest of 3 children. My uncle Ed was a ship master on a BC ferry, they had 2 boys (twins) and they went on to become pilots for Air Canada. My mom received her pilots license at a very young age, and my father flew bomber aircraft over the Atlantic ocean for use in the European theatre of operations. Aviation was an important factor in my family. When I was 15 before I learned I had scoliosis I wanted to join the navy. We know how that story developed. My aunt married a high ranking figure in the CBC's LA bureau. And then there's me. I've done a lot in my 63 years and even had my picture on the front page of the Edmonton Sun in 1998. I had my 15 minutes of fame. Now the only thing I'm waiting for is my pension. How pathetic. 

Its common knowledge that the Oilers signed Milan Lucic Friday. Oiler nation was going nuts. Lucic said the main contributing factor for signing a $6M/year salary with the Oilers, wasn't the money. It's a chance to play with Connor McDavid. He sees the Oilers going on to great things with McDavid and he wants to be a part of it. Last season CMD played 45 games and got 16 goals. How far will the Oilers get with a healthy CMD? Hard to say.   

Anyway, not much more then that is going on...its a Sunday. I'm beginning to feel a bit anxious about getting back to work. I've had enough time off already. When I'm on pension, I'll work 3-4 days a week just to prevent myself from going nuts like this. Anyway, that's all for now. 

At the moment its dry and overcast out there

as we're sitting at +12 degrees C. Conditions are still dry. Although there is no rain in the short term forecast. It's tinder dry out there now we desperately need a couple of days of solid rain, especially for the folks in Fort McMurray. I was reading earlier that insurance could cost as much as $9B. Other communities in the area are also being threatened.

Over the past few days I've been doing some family genealogy on my mother's side. On my father's side other then a few holes, that side of the family more or less checks out. Our family had five kids with me being the oldest. Mike isn't online that often. He has a Facebook page but he doesn't use it much. My sister has one as well not much more active then Mike's but not by much. I'm on mine at least once a week. Jeff is on his 2-4 times/week but not interested in genealogy, much less family history. My mother's side has a lot of holes. For years I believed that we were related to the well known JJ Johnston family of New Westminster. JJ Johnston held 3 terms as a Mayor in New Westminster (where I was born) and was always known as Mr. May Day because his father William Johnston founded the May Day festival. On find a grave it shows he had 2 children Gordon and Mona. Why no mention of my mom? This bugged me for years. William Johnston and his wife died well before this. Mom was born in 1922 and died at the age of 78. I have a "visitors pass" with Ancestry set up by a cousin in Dallas on dad's side of the family. I tried looking for a obituary of mom but there doesn't seem to be one available. My sister would know if mom had one but my sister is hard to get a hold of even on Facebook. If the obituary is based upon the same information as I have, then the obit is wrong. I doubt an obit can be used as evidence in a court of Law, but its good too set the record straight. Thanks to Ancestry I was able to determine that there were 249 families with the name Johnston living in New Westminster during the 1921 municipal census. I checked on find a grave, and I've been to the grave site page often. During the 1960's a couple times a month dad would load up mom and the kids in the station wagon and we would drive from 944 Regan Ave in Coquitlam to where mom was living at the time. For awhile she had a apartment in uptown New Westminster. I recall that in 1964 on one Sunday in that summer, mom sent me to escort the kids to see a Sunday matinee of Mary Poppins. I knew that sending us to the movies was a ploy for something but we didn't care. After that our Sunday outings to Grandma would take us to White rock. I vividly recall it was shortly around the time of my back operation on one such trip. Somehow Grandma was in the car with us on a sunny afternoon and I don't think it was a Sunday. Grandma was blind at this time. It was sad. Grandma wanted to know what it was like outside on our way to her place in White Rock. I'm sure this broke moms heart to describe the beautiful sunny day. Dad eventually dropped us kids off at the new Guildford town Mall. I was 14 at the time. All this time I never knew Grandma's first name. That part was kept well away from us kids. We just never asked. For the most part it was "go with the flow" for us. Here's where it gets interesting. So I'm looking on the find a Grave site the other day and there's no grave marker for Grandma? I knew as of a few years ago that Grandma's nick name was Lottie. Then I discovered recently that she died in 1951 just when mom and dad were married. If that's the case then, who was that lady we drove to visit in the 1960's? Dad's mother Florence died in 1946. I recall mom telling me she went to technical school. I think I only half listened at the time and I did some more research and there was a notorious school in New Westminster called Trapp tech. It was located Simcoe park. Notorious because it was once a old prison converted into a school. If Lottie (Charlotte) died in 1951 and find a grave lists only 2 children as descendants then our Johnston name had no relation to that family. The family name Johnston was related to Raymond Burr but not our family. Most likely by 1930 for instance the same 249 families living in new Westminster at the time of the 1923 census were still there in New Westminster by 1930 in, which case mom would be 8 years old. I'm thinking how far back does school district 40 keep school records? All I need do is check to see how many kids with the same name as mom were in their data base between 1928-1939 and weed out from there to get a match. I'll be doing lots of this over the summer. One thing is certain we are not related to JJ Johnston.      

I had a great sleep overnight getting up to use the bathroom a few times. Tonight, I'm out of here at 5pm to get to lodge for 6pm to help set up the festive board etc. I'm not drinking anything other then a few cans of Coke. I sneak out a few deserts after the meeting because as a steward we leave a bit early before lodge closes. Friday and Saturday I'm at my market research job. I tried that other job and the line was busy. I might have a work extension at my 8:30pm job until the 20th of this month. This will at least cover us for rent for June. I'm trying to put together enough hours for a finale ei claim. I can't collect unemployment and oas at the same time. If I have steady work from after May 20th and work from my other job until June 15th, then I should have enough ei hours for a claim. Its for 15 weeks and 4-6 weeks are consumed in processing the claim but that's paid out in one lump sum. If I get a ei claim mid August before I get my first cheque for 2 weeks. That will leave me with 7 weeks left then I'll pause the claim when and if I'm called back in September to the 8:30pm job. Oas application process would have already kicked in by that time. Then I just work out the winter/spring of 2017. By this time next year I'll be looking forward to just working out both jobs and activate what's left on the ei. Then activate what's left on my ei before pension. I'll be on partial pension by the end of next August. That all covers my bottom line and anything I work covers for me, in theory. Anyway, that's all for now.

About this time of year

I reflect back on the year that was:

I got to admit, 2012 had its ups and downs. I got a nice bit of vacation pay (from December 2011) and began my JW post in January but lost most of that vacation pay when Sparky my cat had to be put down in February. I began my 3rd novel to read. March Davy Jones of The Monkees died at the age off 66 (very sad) and it was Anne's birthday. April I got the New iPad from my income tax return. I had a week off. The Alberta election had come and gone. In May not much was happening but in June I went and got my Government ID which we needed to try and get housing subsidy (which we never got and were turned down for) and still reading my 3rd novel. In July I bought from LM a cheep electric guitar and amp at LM, which was nice and we signed up for Scotia banks Scene for free movies. In August I organized the Lodge BBQ which was stressful on me and later that month Dan and I did our volunteer thing at Fort Edmonton Park for the Lodge the weekend of my 60th birthday. In September I had another week off and faced with no NHL hockey. Still struggling to read my 3rd novel. October I began a lay-a-way plan to rebuild my credit and got Komplete 8 thanks to a colleague, which said bill I'm paying off. Also out of nowhere in my email in a conversation with a Susan Shannon I learned some very interesting things about my fathers side of the family I never knew before, which added a bit of closure to my life. I still need to validate this information. In November I won the (4th Gen) iPod touch at work and stashed it away for my wife's Christmas present. Warren and I went to see a Oil Kings hockey game at Rexall. A first for me. Anne and I went to see the latest James Bond movie in November and in mid December I lose my job and we lost our Budgie bird Sugar, which really upset me but I managed to finish reading my 3rd novel. So, this year really had it all. Add that and there's still a few days left to go for the end of the year and I think I'm in for another let down before it's all over. Yet Anne's right, I should count my blessings. At least I'm onto my 4th book!

This year I'm into another chair at the Lodge called the Senior Warden, or SW. This chair isn't that hard but I'm preparing for my WM year. After that it's the IPM and the IPM (look it up) So, including this chair (SW) I have 2 more to go before I cycle through the chairs again. I don't think I want to go through the JW chair again though.  

There were some excellent things going on this year that I missed. I missed Robert J Sawyer's book signing in April our SF Edmonton Expo in October and Pure Speculation that same month. I hope it's all over, I've had enough for one year. 

One thing is certain (I hope later then sooner) 2013 will see a new job for me. That one is self evident, unless I get run over by a car or a bus. Anyway, that's all for now.

Complaing about things too often only

makes you look like a whiner. I've got these Apple headphones that I bought with the mic and 6 months later the sound quality is dropping. I tried my wife's new headphones that came with her new iPod touch and I get a 60% increase in sound. I'm going to see how those same headphones sound in April. I get the feeling they wont sound as they do now.

It's a sad day in Hollywood when I learned last night that Gerry Anderson passed away. As a kid growing up in the 60's I often would watch the Thunderbirds. It was great stuff. My favorite Gerry Anderson production was Space 1999. It was way ahead of its time.Gerry Anderson passed away 26 December 26th 2012 (aged 83) Oxfordshire, England. R.I.P. Gerry. 

Not much going on this morning. I thought about putting a New Years message up on my Sound Cloud account and put it to music but not with Cubase. I'm finding out that I can't use my audio interface the Cubase dongle and my midi controller at the same time. I can use FL Studio and my midi controller at the same time along with my audio interface and still get better controller over my CPU monitoring.
  
I'm trying to get the Tunein radio app on my iTouch but my 3rd Gen is really slow and I haven't got Anne's Apple ID set up yet to get it from the app store. 

I was doing some genealogy research on my fathers side of the family. My father, Richard Warren Shannon's parents divorced and my grandmother Florence Shannon married a Xel Monsees and they moved to Vernon BC. Xel died at the age of 91 but Florence died at the age of 44 in 1948. I don't  know the cause of death. Yet Xel's parents died in 1930-31 and are buried together. Xel's father died while Xel was about 30. Xel was an only child. Florence and Xel got married in 1930 a year before my Grandfather's death. Xel married Florence a year before Xel's father died (1931 and Xel's mother died 1932. Xel would lose Florence in 1948. There's no evidence they had a child but there is a Cora Monsees in Vernon. I don't know if that's any relation to me.

Xel must have been a member of the "Knights of Pythias" because the cemetery his parents, Xel and Florence were buried in a "Knights of Pythias" cemetery which in itself is interesting.  

I got enough stuff going on right now, as later today I'm trying a few things before I get on the phone and ask Apple for tech support. Plus I want to call my sister and connect with her and see if she can help me validate anything with my mother and her parents. There seems to be some discrepancy going on there as well. Anyway, that's about all for now.



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