My shift looked like it was about to be pulled

due to weak internet. After a bit of tinkering around for a bit, we got it sorted out and it was stable from there. I got 6 completes in 4 hours as I lost that 1st hour. Even gender split. Looks like we're going to the end of May. At current rate we'll be within our target date. If we get there and depends on our sample size.

This Friday is the 45th anniversary of discovering Thelema @ 9023 105A on the 4th floor. Ave Edmonton. It was called Five Oaks back then. I have my origional OTO certificates, except for my 3rd° one, which I got in 1992. Anyway, that's all for now. 

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.

I got a couple days worth of work

this week but I don't know about today. It might be a short shift if there is a shift today at all but I'll wait for the boss to call me. Basically this will be enough to pay for my lodge dues at the end of the month. 

So if I got a shift for this afternoon, the boss will call me. If not, I'll have a five day weekend, and I can go to Commercial lodge on Saturday. Next weekend and after that on the 22nd we're having working breakfast at Max in the West end. Anyway, that's all for now.

Yesterday the city

of Calgary, in a city wide plebiscite voted "No" for an Olympic bid to host the 2026 winter Olympics. Thank god. The worst of it being if the vote did go through, the Alberta Government would have wasted ~ $700 million. We're $ billions in debt as it is. Just goes to show where the NDP's priorities are, never mind the Federal Governments. The vote was 56% No. Common sense prevailed at last. I can think of better things to do with $700m like paying down the debt? 

The Oilers last night won a game in dramatic fashion last night, after losing their last 4. Montreal/Oilers last night was 6-2 Oilers 😃 I just got updates from Shaun about the game all night. Oilers are just one win away from being right back into the playoff conversation. I don't know who the major goal scorers we're but I assume McDavid and Draisaitl we're in the mix. Oilers had 9 home games and 9 road games so far that's been the difference maker in a schedule that had not been very kind to the Oilers. Next up Saturday with our Provincial rivals, the Calgary Flames. The other thing here is, Oilers haven't played any of their Divisional counterparts yet.

It felt good being at work last night. It looks like I've got enough work to get through until the Christmas break and beyond. With the above seasonal weather my commute going in is going to be pleasant. My friend's roommate is going to be under going an operation today, so I'll have that on my mind. Anyway, that's all for now.

Its been a somewhat

busy couple of days, what with bank and pension stuff, holding down 2 part time jobs. Not to mention following and watching Oilers hockey games in between all of that. It's been, interesting.

On my market research job we're just wrapping up fascinating survey on Electric Vehicles (ev's). Wednesday night when the Oilers/Anaheim game was on after 8pm the flow rate on this survey just dropped. So my higher ups decided to call the shift at 8 instead of 9pm last night. I was in the office by 3pm yesterday so I could get the full 5 hours. on my cheque I got an unexpected surprise of stat pay from Good Friday. The City of Edmonton is about to launch a Electric Vehicle Strategy Campaign. We need a 50/50 gender split. No age quotas. Some of the main concerns are charging the battery of a ev. Ev battery's don't work very well in Edmonton's often -20* winter weather. Other concerns are about charging time. I can fully charge my iPod with about 10% into the red in about 40 minutes. Some common questions in the survey are what about charging stations? The City of Edmonton (coe) has about 30 charging units scattered all over the city. I'm sure there will be an app showing the charging stations in use. Other concerns are, parking stalls for charging. So do ev owners charging their ev's just sit there and wait for an hour have a nap or whatever? It's not very efficient use of one's time. Most likely charging stations will be at one's place of employment,eventually. The survey asks about ev rebates as ev's are about $12,000 more expensive then non ev's. If a ev and charging station rebate were offered, would that shape a potential buyers decision to buy a ev? What about traveling between destinations, like from Edmonton/Leduc, or Drayton Valley/Rocky Mountain house, or Edmonton/Swan Hills? How well will the ev battery charge hold up? The survey also addressed ethical concerns like coal to produce electricity that charges an ev or renewables to charge an ev. Its all fine and well to have ev's but there's a price to pay somewhere. Autonomous cars make more sense to me, especially in this climate. But asking people to give up their vehicle driving control, is kind of like asking a senior to give up driving because they are too old. For seniors its like taking away one's independence. About halfway into the shift. My phone number came up in the sample rate with the appropriate case #. We don't do this all the time and in the last 2 years I've been there, I've never been asked to do the survey from my point of view. I didn't know how to do this. one of my other colleagues was in the same position I was, so I'll ask her next week when we have another project. I still know the 4 digit case number. At the moment ev's are not mainstream enough for the consumer. Ev's right now are like where cell phones were in the 1980's. The last day of calling on this project is today. 

With a bit of this and that this morning, I'll be waiting in our (finally) completed city bus shelter to head out on my Saturday morning commute. The bus bench is still blocking the bus patrons inside from the driver seeing anyone inside from the street. Thanks to ETS bus tracker I can track my ride within a minute. So this morning I'm at my other job on the South Side. Its a easy 4 hour shift ending at 2:15. I'm considering picking up my Horus Heresy book at Audrey's. I may as well. My LM account isn't due until the 15th and I still have another pay cheque to cover that and a small cheque to cover June's payment. I just need to watch my spending. I'm trying to save enough for 3 payments, that will take me through, July, August September. I might have birthday cash late August. I want my credit to be in good standing with this place. I'm considering another account for my first synthesizer. I'm really leaning towards the semi modular Moog mother 32, or an Eventide H9 effects pedal. I plan on using the Eventide with my Novation Circuit. I like the Eventide's harmonizer.

This weekend I have WWE's payback, on Sunday and Anaheim/Oilers game #3. I'm sure Sunday's game outcome will be a lot different then last nights game. The other thing about the job I'm going to this morning, is the last day of calling is on the 19th. Anyway, that's all for now.

I got a unexpected call from

the other job yesterday. They want me back for September after the labour day weekend and the office has relocated to the South Side, one bus ride away from Southgate. With this job its going to not only get me enough hours for a ei claim but its steadier work. I might not get the hours but the pay is better and its steadier. I'll be working right up to mid January. There's no breaks in between projects, type thing and its easy to get to. Hop on the lrt to Southgate and the #52, which lets me off across the street from the office. Cool.

I'm having so much fun watching this 3 ring circus America calls the Presidential election. Both of these candidates are fun to watch because you never know what they're going to say next. Our federal elections here in Canada are lame by comparison. On the Democrat front, their candidate has trouble with emails and the Clinton Foundation. The Republican candidate shoots off the cuff so much the media has a field day. The Republican candidate would be good for Alberta, however and that's a deal breaker for me.

Oops, almost forgot about the new Earth size planet that was discovered in Proxima Centauri b, Alpha Centauri triple star system yesterday. Proxima Centauri is a red dwarf star. The new planet is apparently a rocky type planet. The planet was detected by the subtle change in light of the parent star. The problem with getting a actual photo of the planet is the light of the star. Enter project Starshade being worked on at JPL. Once Starshade gets up and running then a clearer image of the object could be realized. The new planet is in the habitable area of the star where water might exist. Its actual composition of course cant be confirmed totally at this time but it is exciting stuff. 

Before I got the call yesterday, I thought the start date for the upcoming campaign at work was September 1st but because the office is moving, it wont be ready until after the Labour Day long weekend. This means that I'll be able to attend Lodge next Thursday and still have a long weekend off. So I'm happy about that. I'm still working on my oas but that's going out after the labour day weekend. Because we could have a postal strike, I can just drop my oas form off at Service Canada on my way to work. I don't know what to do about my market research job though. I might put that on hold until I get pension, we'll have to wait and see. Anyway, that's all for now.

Its been an interesting couple of days

around here. Monday I played telephone tag for 2 days with my other job. They had sent out a invite letter around early July to have me back for September coming up but somehow the letter was returned to sender. They apparently sent me another letter to the address where I received my pay stubs: Here. Don't they have my resume on file from last year? There was a expiry response date on the original letter dated for July 31st, and based on the over the phone conversation I'm invited back for September 1st. I still need to have the letter filled out, and returned but I can always return the letter by hand, when....it..gets..... here. Mail, the way its been lately is so..........slow.  

I wasn't much of a fan of "Sesame street," when it premiered on November 10, 1969. I liked the frog, big bird, Fozzy the bear and the two old guys in the balcony would make me laugh. I was somewhat aware when the show came out but by 1969 I was a 17 years old teen, wearing a body cast living in Coquitlam BC here on Regan Ave most television escaped my attention at the time. I was just 3 months out of a 8 month back operation recovering from scoliosis. I had just discovered Avalon Hill wargaming. Back then, they produced board wargaming like "Blitzkrieg" "Jutland" "1914" and years later my favorite game Advanced Squad leader (ASL) That's what I was into in late 1969. Fast forward to the other day when I heard some of the original Sesame street people were let go from their jobs took me down memory lane. I don't know who Bob, Luis and Gordon are. I'm sure younger members of my family know of them. However learning of the termination of these people, and how said termination caused an uproar over Twitter prompted me to weigh in here. The "if it aint broke don't fix it department," has mentioned to me that this could come back to bite the owners of the show. Its as if the creative owner control system <huh? read my mind and said something like "but they could come back at a future date." Um its called "damage control." Kind of like when Trump said he was "joking" or being sarcastic when asking Russia/Putin to search for those missing emails. What can we learn here? Always make sure when you open your mouth, and something silly pops out always have your damage control team standing by with tools to repair the problem. Some tools are, "double talk," "passing the buck" and the ever poplar "I was just kidding." Or refer to the "Damage control for dummies" book if you have no damage control department, and or edit ones blog post for latter ;)

However, I digress. We are still waiting for the part for our oven. So much so that Anne got fed up and had to go to Walmart to buy a counter top oven:


                              
This sucker cost us $130 out of our nickel and dime budget.

I called the boss at the other job, and he didn't know if there is anything coming up for work. No timeline for anything. I need to go into the office next Friday to pick up my cheque, and hopefully pop into the other place up the street before 4pm with the second letter they claimed they sent me. Anyway, That's about all for now.

Initially I thought I was just having the 2 days

this week, then Tuesday night Super asked me if I wanted to come in last night, sure. Then last night, if I could come in tonight, ok. There could be a shift Friday but I doubt there will be one Saturday. If there's nothing next week, then I'm going for plan B.

We applied for our low income rec centre pass, that would have been early April. We have yet to hear back from the city for Approval. We're expecting something in the mail at any time. When it arrives we need to go get our photo id at the rec centre etc. I'm looking forward to using the hot tub, work out equipment. I've got a feeling we're going to hear from the city this month.  

In my email I got a notice of a Audrey's book arrival: Space marine Battles "Damos." There's a few more in this series I missed: "World Engine", "Sanctus Reach" ,"Blades of Damocles" (April 2016) "The Plagues of Orath" July 2016 and "Crusaders of Dorn" in September. That's 5 of these between now and September. As if I don't have enough on my shelf.

I'm looking forward to the first CFL exhibition game. The Eskimos (Esks) are in Calgary on Saturday at 7pm. I'm hoping Pittsburgh can wrap up this Stanley Cup series tonight so I won't need to go channel surfing Saturday night. Anyway, that's all for now.

Weather wise its much cooler

now then it was this time last night. I was breaking a sweat this time last night. Next week the forecast is calling for 25-27's that type of thing. Usually about this time of year we get a big storm like the storm that had my place of employment power shut down and sent us home half an hour early. We haven't had anything like that yet. I'm just grateful we don't have the weather complications they have in California.

Its 2am on a August Wednesday and I'm off work this week week eating left over pizza, yeesh:

 


I decided to call into the office about 1pm yesterday and I get a click/click type of a response on the other end. On and off type thing. What the? I think the boss was in a conference call and didn't want to be disturbed, which is why I didn't bother to call back later that afternoon. They'll call me if they have something. Or Friday I'll get called into the office picking up my cheque, "As of today how long have you been with us James?" Type thing. It all stems down to no deductions as being my first clue.

Yesterday a call came in from Anne's nephew and he said he is coming to the city from Saskatchewan. The family wants to take the kids to West Edmonton Mall. Anne's out buying roast dinner, treats and snacks, cleaning up around here. Yeesh.

 

I tried configuring my Samsung wifi camera to take video and disable the on board mic. That didn't work too well and the camera can only take .30 seconds of video. I recall St.Joe from Sounds and Gear reviewing the Zoom Q4 video camera. I'm reviewing this on YouTube. St. Joe did a great re view and Long has this going for $375. I'm sure I can take more then .30 seconds of video. Anyway, that's all for now.

Allthough I appreciate having the time off and all

I'm not bringing in any income. I'll be glad when I start the new job Tuesday so I can get back to work and contribute around here. 

On the news last night Investigators of the tragic Flight 4U9525 disaster examined the cockpit voice recorder yesterday.

It seems that one of the pilots stepped out of the cockpit and when he returned the door was locked.

The audio heard the locked out pilot trying to smash the door open.This leads me to believe that the pilot inside deliberately locked the door to the cockpit. Or the pilot inside was having a medical emergency. I feel badly for the families of the victims of this disaster, tragic. 

Hinze ketchup has or is about to take over Kraft foods. The makers of K-Dinner (kd). I always liked to have ketchup on my kd. Lots of people do, so when I head about this, it just came out of nowhere.

I'm looking forward to getting back to work. At first after I left Malatest, I strengthened my resolve never to do market research again. Nothing against Malatest, they are a great company and I enjoyed my stay there. Now I might be back doing market research, again. If I keep the job one thing is for certain: I'll be transposing what I learned there to the new place. Anyway, that's all for now.

About 5pm yesterday afternoon

I get a call from the super at work asking me to come in Thursday at 3pm. Apparently (although I can not confirm or deny) we're doing training for the new project, but I imagine its so. I said I'd be there.

This has been in the works for awhile now. Mars One is launching a private initiative to send 24 people to Mars. The catch is that it's a one way mission. Mars One has received 200,000 applicants and has released its short list to 100 and there are several Canadians on that short list. The final group will consist of 24 individuals who will be split into six groups of four. One mission is scheduled to launch every two years starting in 2025. That's in 10 years. With a projected $6 billion price tag for each of the six planned launches, Mars One will need all of the funding it can muster. The non-profit group plans to raise additional money through sponsorship and the finalists consist of 50 men and 50 women. They come from all over the world and range from 19 to 60 years old and most would speak English. Lots of people think this is a gimmick. For what its worth, I didn't make the short list.

Most of the schools I went to in the 1960's are still standing. Except 1, Austin Heights. I have a few memories of this school. Some good, some quasi traumatic. For the longest time, I always thought this school was on the corner of Austin and Schoolhouse Road. Thanks to the Facebook group I'm in I learned today the school was on Austin and Nelson. Apparently it was torn down and made way for a strip mall. The school's last year was either 1983 or '84. We're not sure yet. The strip mall is still there. Anyway, that's all for now.

My shift was cancelled

yesterday and this morning pest control is supposed to come in and do a spot check. Hopefully evrything will work out ok and we pass this thing.

Over the next few days I'm going to get a direct bank deposit form and make a few set up phone calls to get a telemarketing job for a few days for next week if I don't get any hours. I'll be setting up a interview and if I get that far and get a job its only until I'm called back for the big project. That's going to be either next week or first week in Feb. Usually these telemarketing jobs you get some training and they put on the pressure and your out in a few days. I'll only take the job if its paid training and if I wont have a schedule in my email for next week. If I get a schedule even if its just for 3-4 shifts, I'll be a no show for the new job and on board for my regular job.

The good thing about having the night off last night, is I got to watch the Oiler/Washington game and the Oiler's picking up the W in a shootout. That was nice to see. Especially as the NHL is about to have their all star break. They get a week off.

Pest control is coming at 9am to do the spot check. If I got no shift tomorrow I'm out of here to use the computer, fax machine phone etc to look for a telemarket job. I have a few places in mind. If I can set up an interview for Friday at least I'll have something to fall back on for next week. 

At least the weather is cooperating as we're going to be getting +4 and +5 all week. That's going to be nice to see. If this is global warming then bring it on. Anyway, that's all for now.

Heading into work Sunday

at 11am was nice and relaxing. The weather was very nice and mild holding about 0*. Very nice weather lately.

I got to Subway on the main floor of the building had a coffee and a cookie but after trying to buzz in there was no reply. So I waited for awhile inside Subway and 1 of my co workers arrived. Dave is a tech support young geek and a huge Oiler fan. We befriended each other shortly when he began working with us around September. He does tech support for a major computer company. So he began to show me this service from our mutual isp on "the go." I can have live tv streamed to my iPod touch from any hot spot. Its pretty cool. By this time next year, the city will have wifi in all lrt stations. I'd like to see wifi on all trains. It's a 10 minute commute but it would be handy to listen to Oiler games on my way home.

I thought I was going to get a full 7.5 hours, off at 8pm but I was off at 6pm. That was fine by me. I thought I did ok on the job as well. When I got home Anne had dismantled our Christmas tree and together we tackled the first half of the closet space where I had a bunch of junk stored in boxes dating back from before we got married. We had it all separated from what stays and what goes. Anne had a nice face time chat with her sister, and she had to go to Walmart for a few things and a cart to haul what we purged out to the dumpster for later.

This weekend the city opened up the new Clareview rec centre but there doesn't appear to be a Saturday evening adult swim. That's what we liked about the Eastglen when Anne had her car back in 2003. We didn't go often but it was nice to get out when we did.

When Anne returned she had a Papa John's pizza for us and that for our dinner. I answered some email and c2c (I'm envaneo) messages. We watched the evening news and that's been my Sunday. It was a decent day. 

The University of British Columbia (UBC) launched SPIDER. Its a telescope launched by a balloon some 36K for 20 days in Antarctica. SPIDER was the work of 5 different Universities. You can read more of SPIDER here.

I'm in tomorrow from 5-9, same with Tuesday. Wednesday is going to be our worst day because we're up early as pest control is going to do a spot check of our place. Hopefully we can get a bed bug clean bill of health. I've got work Thursday and I'm off Friday and Saturday. That's what it's looking like for the week. Anyway, that's about all for now.

I can attach a memory to every

location I've lived in during my first 10 years. We lived in South Surrey and I recall standing at the top of the stairs one night afraid of snakes. We stayed in a motel room in between houses in Surrey but the memory is to embarrassing to share. We lived in a small house in New Westminster about the area of Royal and 10th. I remember a swing on a tire. Then we moved to Howie Ave in Coquitlam that's when Dad bought me my first bike. I recall riding it to show my friend. After Howie Ave. we moved to Regan Ave between Como Lake Road and Smith, Hailey and Townley. We lived in the home that is still standing since we left it in 1971.

At least its warming up out there siting at -13. We're supposed to go up to +3 Wednesday and enjoying a warming trend after that. With any luck we might be able to be above -10 for the balance of January. For now its Sunny  with a bit of cloud here and there.

Still down memory lane here but fast forward 2015, Vancouver is hard at work installing the Evergreen line. Its a 1.4 Billion dollar Northern LRT expansion from Lougheed Mall to Port Moody and Port Coquitlam, when it gets completed in January 2016. Photos are here.

I'm leaving out of here at 3pm. I'll cash in that free 6/49 ticket at Clareview station on my way in. I'm in 4-9 so I get 5 hours including half an hour break but only paid for 4.5 hours. All week its 5-9 and Saturday (I hope) 10-6pm. Apparently. Anyway, that's all for now.

Our weather is much more

pleasant  then the +28- +29's we've been struggling with last week. At least its good for sleeping. We're getting temperatures of +18, +20. Next week, +21's and +23's that sort of thing. I like Summer weather to be +18-+24 anywhere in there works for me. 

I called Anne on my 6:45pm break at work last night to check our mail. She said it's good news bad news. Uh-oh. Good news is Anne's sister Donna sent me a card and a nice surprise. Since Donna is out of the country I sent her a instant message thanking her. We'll face time her on Sunday. The bad news is I got turned down because of my 2013 income. It said combined income was cause of rejection but the income was not supposed to be combined. It was just for mine only. I knew something was up when I filled out the form a few months ago. My pcn worker said for me to call her within days of receiving any news. The letter said I have a 30 day appeal window but my pcn worker wont be back until September 2nd, which is on a Tuesday. I called my Doctor and set up a follow up appointment for next Monday. The appeal date window is from the time dated on the letter and 30 days from that date. Which should be September 23rd. If we're looking at just business days. The Alberta Government has all my financial information from the form.

Hearing the news about the benefits package letdown was a shock to the system and I could never recover after that job performance wise. Usually I can get 6-10 "sales" in a 5.5 hour shift but all I could muster was 3 by the end of the night. I feel like I'm fodder there anyway. There's two other telemarketers that work with me. One is their computer/software guy and he shows up maybe 3 days/week. Then there's a lady about my age and 3 others on salary that kind of do the same thing but they actually close the customer in the store and 'convert' them to members. I just send out brochures by email. By this time next week if I haven't got a member (something beyond my control) then I'm pretty much gone. The phone room has about 20 stations but only 2 are occupied by telemarketers like myself. So all these brochures I'm sending out to "qualified people" (no old people) if they don't come into the store, that's not on me. That's on the salary people. I must have sent out since I began about 200 packages since I began and only a small portion of those came into the store. They get a visitors pass with the brochure. Or package. Where I work, they've been around since 1971 and here in Edmonton for the last 15 years. We have no competition. If nobody is doing any renovations or projects then we cant turn them into members. I get no members and I'm out of a job. I knew that going in but the job is easy to do. I just hope I can keep it moving forward into September. 

Last night Anne made us some really nice baby back ribs for supper. A bit of a birthday dinner since my 62nd birthday is tomorrow. I had a good sleep over night and now I got to get ready to get out of here.

Anyway I'm about to have my bath a bite to eat and head out of here for my 12:30pm commute to Northgate and catch the #137 to 178th and 107th Ave. it's a long trip. Anyway, that's about all for now.

Other then my primary

job, I got no work this weekend, other then the 4 hours at my primary job Saturday. Something is coming up though ffor my part time job, soon.

It's a gloomy overcast day out there but at least at -14 its a bit more comfortable then the +27's we're going to be getting next week.

Game 1 on my proline yesterday was Calgary/Edmonton and I had it for a tie game. The outcome was 26-22. I was 1 point away. There's 3 games left on the weekend however. The big story was the 50/50 draw sitting at about $350,000. I think fans caught the loto max $50 mill jackpot fever after a local couple claimed the jackpot yesterday. The rush was on for 50/50 game tickets. It kind of took over what was happening on the field. Anyway, that's all for now.

I tweeked this blog here

a few days ago. The big changes were mostly cosmetic. The header was changed and so were the pages. Where it read My favorite Topics, is now Topics. Gallery is now Flikr photo stream and I took out "On politics." I'm not big on politics anyway and where it read Conventions, etc is now just SFF Cons. I also put a bit of a disclaimer in my header about grammar and spelling. Hopefully its just cleaned up a little. 

The new project is very interesting and it gives me hours from 2-9 and we're braking an extra 15min early, which is nice. 

At Audrey's the other day I checked on my western novels book order. I ordered the first 5 in William Johnstone's Eagle series.
 

Apparently the whole series is available so I got the 1st out of 5 and the others are on their way. Good stuff.

I've been playing with my new gaming device I got Sunday afternoon: My new Nintendo 3ds. Since it came with a game, I have yet to buy a new game. They're about $40 each at Future shop. I want to get the latest Zelda and the Lego games. I can also get them used as well.

I'm off to attend a Masonic funeral tomorrow. I've got some speaking parts in front of strangers in a setting I'm not at all comfortable with. At least the speaking parts can be read, so that's a good thing. There's also a turkey supper latter. I might not attend this part. Anyway, that's all for today.

My Doctors appointment went ok

although my weight is down by 4 pounds. I got an exact measurement on my height at 5.8." I'm waiting to get booked for some lab work and hopefully after that get a referral for the diabetic centre and maybe I can access the Doctor's network. I forget what it's called DPN something but there may be some funds in there to help me with my insulin.

After that we went over to Subway and I had a half of a chicken sub and a cookie, then we went down to Tim's for coffee and I bought Anne a large coffee and me a regular size and I won a free coffee from their roll up the rim contest. After that I went into the office.

I had a decent shift. I got my hours tweaked as I'm off Saturday but in Sunday from 12-8. It's a long shift, I realized that I'd be working from Sunday-Saturday without a break! So I got the super to make a note for me to have Monday night off. Then I work Tuesday-Saturday. If I don't hear from my 2nd job, by then I'll be looking for a new 2nd job and I have a few options in mind. The boss even asked me if my wife might want to consider some pick up hours which on the surface might be a good idea. If she can get a few shifts, then that might help us out.

When I left the building shortly before 9pm there was a light snow falling. It wasn't that cold as I had a wait for my train and got a front seat by myself. I had a headache on the way home most likely due to lack of food all day.

Kind of sad to see Alis Hemsky being traded to the "Ottawa Senators yesterday." The Oiler's haven't been trade buyers in the last couple of years. The Oiler's yesterday, however found themselves short a backup goaltender for team practice before the game with Ottawa. As she was in town, MacT asked if Olympic gold medalist of the Canadian women's hockey team goaltender Shannon Szabados to put on Oiler's gear and play goaltender for the practice game. I think this has to be a first! Oiler players were saying she didn't do half bad. Anyway that's all for now.

I was at Tim's about 4:20 pm yesterday

so I had a bit of time to get a Tim's decaf and read up on some JFK assassination research.

The more I study the case the more I'm leaning to a conspiracy. I still think Oswald fired some of the shots but they all missed! Shot #1 hit the curb near bystander James Tague. Shot #2 hit the manhole cover left of the limo. Then there's the smoking gun shot, FMJ round fired by accident in the followup car. Then there's the fatal shot fired from the Dal-Tex building. Many witnesses said they heard 4 shots. Oswald fired 2 shots because there was a round still in left in his MC chamber. These rounds were non military issue. Only ce399 was a FMJ military round. That was the so called "magic bullet." Only a FMJ round could come out the way it did.

My shift at work yesterday was ok. I think I got 6 completions. I got home shortly before Monday night Raw. What a show and that's where I am now and after the show ended.

Anne scheduled the "junk to the landfill" guy to come by and pick up the appliances for 7:30-8pm tonight. I hope when I come home, the dishwasher will be gone. I'll rest easy after the "inspectors" give us the green light Thursday. 

I'm thinking Saturday after work, just to unwind is to take $20 with me to Century casino by Belvedere station, have a beer and play the penny slots for a couple of hours. I never could before because my wife would always like to call me but that was when she had a half hour break. She gets 10 minutes ans says she doesn't have enough time to call me. Its just a chance to unwind a bit. I'd only go a couple times/month. if I can cash out ahead, all the better. I've never been in a casino before. 

I got a busy week next week what with our lodge EC meeting Sunday then I have a Doctors appointment Wednesday and my Lodge meeting Thursday and I'm going to try and follow the NHL free agency trade March 5th. Anyway, that's all for now.

I'm in for my usual

5-9 this afternoon. I like the shift because it goes by fast and I can stay up late and sleep in late. Except for Saturday 10-6pm that is. It's a short week because of Family Day Monday. Even if we have another day project, I think I'll just work just 5 hours, from noon-5pm or something like that as I close in on my retiring years. 

About my 2nd job, which has been on hold for the month of February, starts Saturday March 1st. It doesn't look good that I'll be invited back. According to my super last night that works at my first job, she said the boss sent invitation letters out by mail last week. If I get a invitation to return, I'm making my 2nd job my primary job and work Saturdays at my current job, so at least I'm on the payroll of my first job. My 2nd job pays more but it's not steady and that's part of the problem. otherwise, I'd be there instead of where I'm working now. If I don't get a letter from my 2nd job, that's ok but it's going to have to be between today and Thursday of next week. I think the reason why I wouldn't be invited back would be because of that accusation made against me (unsupported) by one of the volunteers and that I was working just a few days/week. Those two things could go against me. As far as I know, I might even get a letter today from my 2nd job. I won't know until Anne comes back from work tonight.

Switching gears, I'm on the last 100 pages of "Horus Rising" of the Horus Heresy series and I should have the novel read by the weekend. I came across this one site which seems to be supported by the Black Library (BL) "Bolthole." I'm looking for fan fiction. The BL is publishing a Warhammer/Warhammer 40K short story on a weekly basis over the last few years. I have the first one. It makes sense to have a fan fiction site to get an idea of emerging writers that could advance to having their work go from armature to pro. I couldn't say, how many short stories BL has published so far and I get the email notices all the time. I'm enjoying this Horus Rising book though. 

This is the last weekend of the 2014 winter Olympics in Sochi. I haven't been able to enjoy much of this because of our current crisis with our washer and dishwasher. Also what with events on TV at odd hours due to Sochi being, what 11 hours difference? I've been following bits and pieces of the Olympics on the news and in the papers. We got 2 gold this week in women's Curling and Bobsled the other day and a gold today in women's speed skating. I think we have 7-8 gold medals. In mens ice hockey Canada beat USA in the semi finales today to go on and defend the gold Sunday! It's going to be Sweden/Canada. I'm going to have a front row seat watching this one.  

Our family Doctor's office reception called earlier to rebook Anne's appointment. I asked if I could book one as well March 5th. Mine's at 2:30pm. I want to get some blood work done and check for my diabetes. I haven't had that done since I became diabetic in 2004.

So far Anne's not doing anything about our washer/dryer crisis. She has (sort of) about our washer and we have that taken care of. We have until next Thursday to get our dishwasher out of our suite but they still have to give us written notice they are coming in to check and see both appliances are out of the premises. If not we will be faced with a eviction notice. Not an option what with a near zero % vacancy rate. One of the downfalls of have a strong economy. My wife knows what the options are but if nothing has been done by Wednesday about our dishwasher, then I'll be doing something about the it myself. I got a number of a guy with a hand dolly and a truck and I'll be calling him to have it hauled out Wednesday night. Anne has that number as well. If Anne hasn't done anything before, then she knows the consequences but keeping me in the dark like this wont do either. She says "I don't want to talk about this over the weekend." I have a couple of options as well and I'm sure she'll do the right thing. I'll be relieved when it's this time next week. Anyway, that's about all for now.