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. 

With the markets

reacting the way they were yesterday sent the price of oil to $38 a barrel. As I understand it with my limited knowledge on the topic this all has to do with the slowing down of the economy in China and the low demand for oil world wide. Even our dollar slipped to a 10 year low to .75 US. The lowest the price of oil bottomed out at was 2009 when it was $35, then oil bounced back up from there. I just hope we don't have another meltdown like 2008. 

The economy took centre stage on the election race today. Some people are saying better a devil we know then one we don't. The NDP were saying that if elected they'd increase the gis. That's not the issue. The issue with that is more Canadians need to be able to access the gis then increasing the amount they receive. In other words the qualifying threshold needs to change.

Hard to believe that lodge resume next Thursday. I've got just a few more months to go with this ipm chair. I think what I would like to do is take over the registrar's chair instead of the JW. Too much work to do in that chair. Anyway, that's all for now.

When I was out there reading my book

Wednesday afternoon underneath that nice red tree as seen below

 

(my usual spot) I read my Warhammer 40K book "Tales of Heresy." I'm just over the halfway part. I had an enjoyable time just reading occasionally glancing up to watch the girls go by in the +29* hot afternoon Sun. Actually it was mostly overcast and even the breeze was warm air. Inside it was a lot better.

As I was about to cross the marked crosswalk this time where the incident happened yesterday with the cop car the car had to jump the meridian to get into the lane cutting me off to get in front of the cars waiting at a red light. The cop car was about where the car is in the other lane is facing East. There's no way that the cop car could have seen whether or not the light was any color. His only indication that there was any light at all was that traffic in the East bound lane had come to a stop. So the cops reckless driving almost got me killed Tuesday night. I was where the blue dot was. By the time the cop was where the end of the arrow was the traffic was still at a stand still.

  So there was no way that the car could have stopped in time as it was committed to go. No what if there was a bunch of  us in that cross walk. It's been  known to happen. Also, last night I had pressed the light and I was barely across the street over the meridian when the light changed. 

Today is the day Greece has to provide a debt proposal in order for them to stay in the Euro. We're feeling that country's economic woe's even over here. In Athens It's sobering stuff as shops are all boarded up. People can't buy day-to-day necessities. We're seeing what happens when a country goes bankrupt. Yet they said "no" to austerity on Sunday. They have a chance to save themselves today from their creditors. We'll see what happens.

Finally after having a bi-week, the Eskimo's play their first CFL home opener game tonight at Commonwealth The home opener should have been week 1 but because of FIFA the Esks had to play up there in Fort McMurray. I miss having the games on the weekends when CBC was hosting them.

We have another hot one today as we're sitting at +29* at noon! Yikes, now that's hot. Its going to get even warmer by the time I leave out of here. Good news for me today is not only do I get off work a bit early but I have nice cold Heineken beer in the fridge waiting for me and a cold shower. Its expected to get up to 32 today Anyway that's all for now.