Its been an interesting week

to say the least. I got my compression stockings Tuesday. Our change of address settled with our pensions. The Provincial Restriction exemption program is more or less on hold, I got another video uploaded, BoB breakfast (pending the Rep in place) tomorrow at 8am. I even got the NIV Bible app on my iPad pro. Some businesses want to keep it. Anne says I should stay regardless. I'm triple vaccinated, I'll keep my mask on except while eating. So, it's been quite a week.

What with Oilers coach Dave Tippit being fired the other day, I was a bit ambivalent watching tonight's NYI/Oilers contest at Rogers's place. Oilers GM called up Jay Woodcroft. I followed the first and 2nd most of the 2nd when I saw the score 2-0. We got ourselves a game to watch😀When it was. I was relieved to see the Oilers win 3-1. First, win since the All-Star break.

Not that I'm going to make it a habit but also this week, another first for Jimmy: I found the Kindle reader app and my first Kindle book: The Library Witch series. It's a Cozy Mystery series, books 4-6. I want to I went and downloaded dl the new Robert J. Sawyer book before it goes to Hardcopy, which I'll do over the weekend if it's available that is. Anyway, that's all for now. 

Right now its only 13 this afternoon over the noon hour

as its a damp rainy Tuesday. The weather should clear up about 8pm. I don't mind this because weather like this slows construction and keeps the screaming kids inside.

It was 3 years ago when full pension entered my consciousness. At that time work was sketchy, I had the wife nagging at me, there were days while working at Malatest I'd have no work and while she was home, I'd ride the rails on the lrt to pretend I was at work. Full pension would not only help me get out of my situation but even improve my cash flow. It'd be like Xentel was to me in 2011. I knew then that collecting pension would on one hand almost be like the Holy Grail but on the other bitter sweet because I'll be 65. All my obligations wold be covered and I'd have a bit for myself working part time. That's still is the idea but now 65 is looming. Its no longer 3 years away.

Its like 20 days away. I won't get my pension until the end of next month however. I think I got work in September either with my market research job or the South Side job or maybe both. At the moment I have no conformation. This month I'll be getting provincial health care card and as soon as I have a record of gis I'll be able to get the low in come seniors bus pass at $57/year. Turning 65 is bitter sweet for me because its another phase of my life. The image I get of seniors is pushing a walker, playing Bingo, and going to drop in centres and I don't want to live like that. Turning 65 officially makes me a senior citizen. My health isn't that good as it is and if I last beyond 72 like my father, I'll be happy. At the moment I'm just chillin and relaxing waiting for my Roland go Mixer to arrive at the shop. The website said usually within 10 business days, which is between now and Friday.

The idea here is Anne and I would be going to the Clareview
rec centre but its kind of gloomy out there. So other then the above, I'm reading, surfing the web, eating, sleeping, checking my email, stuff like that. Anyway, that's all for now.

Over the past several days

management has had a roofing company out here as they've been replacing the shingles on the roof of this building. Its not a hardship for us because when they start work in the morning we wear our earplugs before bed. Every time I think of roofers lately I keep hearing the song "Barry the roofer" in my head by the Toy Dolls. Yes its on Youtube.

I've been watching a lot of Canadian Football League, cfl out of market games and of course our own. Thursday's game hosting Montreal was a 23-12 Eskimo Win. For the first half it was a 1 point game. The Esks had trouble holding onto the ball. There were challenge flags all over the place. Crazy. Last nights Winnipeg/Argo's game was 34-17 for the Visitors. Toronto had 5 turnovers and the Bombers scored 24 points off those turnovers.Today I'm watching Calgary/Riders game at 5pm. Chris Jones is in a bit of trouble being fined by the league. It's complicated to get into here but you can look into that on your own.

I haven't been using my new Ntendo 3ds as much as I was hoping to do this last Spring. I've been so busy with work, what with trying to get as much hours as possible and struggling here at home over the Summer with lack of work. I've had about 47 hours since early June. I'd be on the street right now if it wasn't for my wife's hours but I'm scheduled to go back to work September 1st so I hope to have more time to play. I know that sounds cart before the horse but even though I've had time off, the money hasn't been there either. I'm considering hacking my 3ds to play legacy games along my commute. I'm just not a computer video gamer. I can't see myself spending hours in front of a computer playing Warcraft or what have you. Last time I did anything like that was about 2002 when I was into this game: The Exile trilogy.


 

I really enjoyed playing this game for several reasons. It was free, I liked its simple interface and game play. We still  have our Xbox 360 collecting dust but for some reason we haven't been able to get it to work since when Xbox made changes to its market place. I can't recall the game a few years back from Walmart but it crashed our system so we had to take the game back. It had nothing to do with Walmart. I think that was about 2009. I haven't done any gaming since. The new Ntendo 3ds is probably my last venture into video console gaming at my age. 

Monday I have a job interview. Its customer service. Kind of a high end type of a opportunity. Its right downtown. Close to the old place. I've got that for 1pm. Its only for a 3 month appointment and its days. If I get the job, I'll do the full time job and the other job (nights) 3 days a week including a Saturday. We still haven't received our part for our oven and I have yet to receive my cpp form for rental subsidy. Its a one page document for crying out loud. I'll be heading over to Service Canada to find out its status. Its probably still in the slush pile somewhere and the guy handling them is on holidays (its August after all) I was being ahem, sarcastic. Its not a mail kind of a thing because I received a birthday card from my sister in law the other day from Winnipeg. I can't wait to get back to work and start paying some bills. Anyway, that's all for now.

When I'm not working it Sunday is

my favorite day of the week. Especially if I have nowhere to go, like out with the wife or lodge practice. Not that there's nothing wrong with any of the two. It's my day to relax. The last time I worked was June 9th and I'm going a bit stir crazy sitting around the apartment. I've had enough relaxing.

This morning I came across Twitter analytics. This was a look into a aspect of Twitter I didn't know existed. In the last 28 days,I’ve made 3 Tweets. Not including the recent ones and my photo change. Out of those 3 Tweets (according to Twitter analytics) I’ve had 944 Tweet impressions, 28 profile visits, out of 776 followers. No likes in the last 28 days. I’m averaging 34 impressions/day. I went and put a blog link in a recent tweet earlier. I need to establish a permanent embedded blog link like a email signature in all my Tweets. I know about monetizing Twitter but I don't know how to go about it, in a discreet manner. I think I'd like to do a cpc (cost per click) kind of a campaign but my Tweets are generic, and not specific to any brand or niche market. At the same time I don't want to get heavy into anything like buying ad words. The Amazon book cover ad top right of my blog is mostly for information purposes. Since I signed up with a Amazon "store" about 2007, I don't think those ads have generated me a penny, and I'm ok with that. I see Twitter as tool to eventually embed one of my music production YouTube video's. I'm sure I can have multiple Twitter accounts for different topics. 

By accident I learned The old Jasper Place theatre was demolished Friday, wow. I think the only movie I saw in there was "Return of the Jedi" in 1983. Tickets were something like $5 back then. Also, I discovered while using Google maps, Boston Pizza moved out of the strip mall just behind the theatre and the lot Burger Baron was on is gated off sitting empty. Like the empty lot that was across the street from our place most likely will turn out to be another Shoppers drug mart. They're popping up all over the place like Bart Simpson and the Starbucks shopping mall scene. I'm hoping the city of Edmonton buys that land, if they haven't already, and uses it for a future phase 2 Valley line stop. That wont happen for at least another 5-8 years out though.   

Other then that not much else is happening around here today. I might have some work this week for a few days but I won't know anything until Monday. As its a short week this week as it is what with Canada day July 1st. We're carefully watching our spending in our household as we're holding back on any outings book buying stuff like that. This summer is going to be hard on Anne and I. The last time I had a $100 to myself was last October and that went to pay lodge dues. I'm hoping we can keep the basics together, and I get work in September. Anyway, that's all for now.

Apparently Super Bowl 50

was one of the most boring in NFL history. I didn't watch much of it but I enjoyed the half time show, my pizza was good.

I like Justin Trudeau, don't get me wrong, however he has made some (imo) bonehead moves since becoming PM. I don't like the idea of pulling our aircraft out of the combat roll in the middle east. I'm not a big fan of having 25,000 Syrian refugees coming to Canada. I don't mind some but that's way to many. I don't like his position on the Trans pacific partnership. And I definitely don't like the $1B being spent to bail out Bombardier because some of that money most certainly go towards subsidizing jobs in the US. Thanks Bill for the share:

 
I don't have a problem with going into debt for a few years. Having the infrastructure spending is good but we here in Edmonton wont see any of it for at least another 2 years yet. While I appreciate JT's International presence, I'd like to see more job creation here in Alberta and more money invested in opening pipelines. 

So for the most part this week its leave out of here at 3pm for my 4-9:30pm shift And home to watch whats left of wrestling. After this week I'm taking off at 9pm just on Monday nights. Anne says she's ok with that. I've got no where to go after work this week anyway so its just 3pm commute 4-9:30pm commute home by 10:30pm do my stuff until 4am sleep until noon. Basically rinse and repeat from there until Friday. Now that could change if my other job sends me a letter asking me to come back for March. In that case, I'll work Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday (we get  off at 8:30pm) at the other  place. Other then a couple Oiler games I'll be following not much is going on this week. Anyway, that's all for now. 

Looks like things at work might be winding

down for a bit. I might be off as early as Monday or as late as the 27th, hard to say at this point. At least I have a back up so that's good. I actually wouldn't mind taking a week off. I can get some business done.

This is what Edmonton will look like within 5years from now.The building to the left is the 50 story Delta hotel. 

 


The other building is the Edmonton office tower and the one closer to the right of the illustration is the Stantec tower coming in at 62 floors. Close to the Edmonton Arena district is Fox tower 1 (already built) Fox 2 under construction, and Ultima tow er also under construction. And of course the downtown arena already under development..

The big news lately is space news. After nearly a 3-billion mile journey that spanned nearly 10 years, the New Horizons spacecraft "phoned home" to indicate it had reached its flyby destination of Pluto, a mere 7,700 miles away. Detailed images will be sent back in the hours to come including Pluto's 5 moons. What's even as interesting is that the probe can send data back to earth at that distance.

The new project isn't quite firmed up yet but I'm hoping I can start without much time off. I've got gear I want to get. I've got cash for myself to for my time off, so I can't complain and this weekend we've got wwe battleground. Anyway, that's about all for now.

Having 3 days off goes by in a hurry

but I'll be glad to get back in the thick of things today. If Anne and I can keep the status quo going for the next 2 years and I get full pension, I'll work 3 days week. A lot can happen in 2 years.

This week I need to get to the lab and I'll probably do that Wednesday to get some blood work done. I'll also need to see if I can arrange a ride to Kelly's meeting at his place Sunday afternoon. Other then that not a lot is going on in my life. I'm not sure what my week is going to look like work wise. I'm in today from 4:30-8:30pm. Hopefully I'll get those  hours or 4-9:30 for the rest of the week.


We've been having a lot of smoke from fires in the region. This is nothing new this time of year but it does make news. It's been so smokey in Vancouver from news footage it like Beijing smog. The forecast over the next few days are calling for +28's and temps in the +30's over the next 5 days or so. There are a lot of forest fires causing bad air quality in Saskatchewan and up North of us. So its going to be a hot couple of days. Monday we got to a +2 and I felt it cold in here. We face a shaded parkway area and the morning Sun is gone by 10am this time of year. The temperature in the graphic above is perfect for sleeping over night. Wednesday night is when it gets uncomfortable. Most likely by the weekend were going to get  a sever Summer thunderstorm. Anyway, that's all for now.

I'm excited about the

Markerplace at the downtown library and the sound booth they have. Most importantly the production equipment they have. I can't tweak my hours for Saturday but I hope we have a short shift so I can head over and cheque it out. 

Last night was David Letterman's last Late Night with David Letterman broadcast. I'm not big on TV much less talk show TV, but I liked watching the occasional Letterman when he had "Stupid pet tricks." Letterman had a lot of great guests over the years: David Byrne, Alice Cooper etc. If I needed a laugh, Letterman was always there. The only other talk show I like other then Letterman, if I was to endorse any of them would be Craig Ferguson. After the news Anne hogs the TV for all of her shows and I have other things to do anyway after midnight then watch TV. I'll miss Dave. 

I still haven't gotten around to booking for that x-ray, but I hope to do that this morning. Other then that, its a full day today. Despite Victoria day I'm still going to have 65 hours, on my pay next week, which isn't bad. Anyway, that's all for today.

Sunday morning I could barely

talk my voice was that raw from this cold. So I've been taking a mixture of salted warm water and gargling with it. I hope to do this 4-5 times by this time tomorrow.

The LHC or Large Hadron Collider after a 2 year upgrade is set to go back online again almost doubling its power. This time the goal is to find the existence of dark matter. The LHC cost's about $10 billion. Before the LHC shutdown researchers discovered the Higgs boson that made headlines. They (cern) don't expect to find any major discoveries anytime soon but finding dark matter is right up there with finding the Higgs.

Other then work this week, I've got a Doctors appointment Friday but I'm going to rebook that for the end of the month. I'll be doing that Tuesday. Anyway that's about all for now.

Finally, April is over with as

it was mentioned on local news that our local weather hasn't been this cold since the early 1980's. The first time in local weather history that we did not on this day reach above 0..ever!

Tonight on Coast the topic is a bit lame: "Harnessing Your Dreams." Not really something I'm interested in so it looks like George is out to promote another book.So for the next several days they have some soft topics.

It's with a sense of relief after reading my Lodge newsletter that our Lodge secretary (at my request) placed a announcement for a special meeting the first weekend in June. I'm grateful for that. If I have my health and when I'm say 73, I can look back at this post with a sense of nostalgia.

My job woes continue to give me grief. I almost got pulled off a project and I'm not out of the woods yet. I asked the boss if this means I'm fired and he said no. It's not that I'm not without options and I have some savings for a rainy day and I can always go on unemployment insurance for like 8 months and continue my education (It might save me from a job search) as I'd like to take a accounting course or something like that. Although, I'd like to be working for as long as I can I'd like to continue working, that's what I'd like to do but I have another 4 years and 4 months until I qualify for full pension, wu-who! Like that's something to look forward to.

On local news this evening they had a story on Space tourism and they said that for a $200,000 deposit, you can book a spot in about 3 years. Would I go into space? What with 2 metal rods in my spine? Not a chance. I'd get rejected before the ink was signed. Anyway, that's all for now.

Saturday was my day to relax and take

it easy. The highlight of my day was the Oiler's winning in OT. I also used Paypal and bought a VST plugin from Waves factory but I don't know where it's located in my Kontakt player. I have all day today to find it.

It's confirmed,Google Glass will be here this year but at a price of $1,500! Google made over $10 Billion in 2012, you'd think they could lower the price to something like $600. Apple is most likely working on their own version. I can't use this product because I have about 70% vision loss in my right eye. When Google cranks up the production of Glass I hope they have an upgrade to change lenses from right to left. That'd work and drop the price to about $500. This product has the potential to destroy the cell phone and tablet before it's third competitor enters the market. This is the next big thing.

A couple of days ago I came across this link to a Star Wars Lego X-Wing fighter. The kit has something like 1,558 bricks. It's got amazing detail. I kind of like the Lego Star Wars genre. I might even get a gaming console just to play this genre. Oh the cost to this kit is $200! Too rich for me.

Tonight on Coast, the topic is on Scientology. To bad we can't upload it to another form of media like iTunes. Speaking of which this afternoon I'm heading across the street to Future shop to pick Anne up an iTunes card and me that USB hub. Speaking about iTunes, I just went and bought my first song from the iTunes store: Weird tales from the Ramones: "Time bomb" by the Ramones. It was priced at .99.Most songs as of this writing are $1.29.  

I think maybe Wednesday night depending how I feel I might head over to the Army & Navy in Londonderry Mall, as even though we're about to head into Spring in a few short weeks, I don't have toques for what's left of this winter. Besides I can get out have a bite to eat and a beer, the bus that picks me up outside the mall drops me right off by our place.

Good news bad news: Bad news I didn't win the $16M in last nights 6/49. Good news, nobody else did either. It means that Wednesday's draw goes to $21M. 

Not much going on this week. I've got Monday night Raw and the Oiler game the same night. I like Raw because their long commercials are a great chance for me to catch the Oiler action but there's a lot of behind the scenes stuff as well WWE fans can catch on one's tablet or smart phone. Other then TV Monday, Shopping Wednesday, and On Thursday the Oiler's are in Dallas. All games on Sports net. Good stuff. Anyway, that's about all for now.

Lots going on this week.

Monday night Raw, Tuesday Oiler game, Wednesday Lodge, Thursday valentines day, Friday the beginning of a long weekend.

I’ve been having a bit of a problem with my right heal. It seems to dry up with crackling skin. We think it’s diabetes so I’m putting some Vaseline on it and covering it up with a sock. Hopefully that will help out.

My favorite board game Advance Squad leader seems to have a active presence on YouTube. Multi Man Publications most recent ASL offering has been one of their Historical modules called “Festung Budapest.” There is an un-boxing of this game and it’s a huge game. The only thing I don’t like about it is that MMP went and changed the SS counters from their traditional white on black to like every other counter in the German OOB. I don’t know why they did this and some of the comments about the SS counters not being their traditional colors put some players off. Even 3rd party ASL treatments keep their SS counters in their traditional color. The other thing about the game it’s like a $130 price tag. I’m thinking about buying this because it might have a limited print one.

Finally the Oiler’s won on the road. They are still in 9th place but I think this is where they will be all season. Roughly between 10 and 9th. Dubnyk was in net and he stole the show. Hall was called for goal tender interface and with his speed propelled him up onto the net and over. Made me laugh. 

I’ve got a full day ahead today as I’m up at 7am and out the door at 8am. I should be home about 5:45pm. Next week I’ll be able to pencil in my own hours. 34 hours is full time. I’m used to 37.5 at my last job but that was including Saturdays. I’m glad I don’t have to do them anymore. Anyway, that’s about all for now.