Saturdays

I love them because I get some time to do what I want to do. Whether that's to run down to Audrey's to get a book, or a bite to eat with a friend or both. Or just to sit here at home in front of the computer all afternoon and watch a live stream and get involved in the community. Or play a game, or even go to lodge as there was one I could have go to this afternoon. Lots to do. Its been a long week just getting back as I'm just you tubing it all afternoon and drinking coffee. Oiler game on tonight. Life is good. 

I don't let a lot of people into my life. Most of the people in my life are related to work and that's where I prefer to leave them. The guys in my lodge, they either work all the time or like me need some down time with their own families. I have one friend that I see several times a month as we go out for lunch and text a lot. Its not that I'm anti social. I'll talk to anyone as long as they don't cuss and are interesting and I have time. Today is down time. Me time. 

So lets see, I've got a diy project here this weekend. I'm trying to get my mic stand set up as seen on the left. It clamps onto the brown shelf just under the calendar. I'd like to cut an opening at the back of the hutch right above the rim of the clock. This way my mic stand can drape over the keyboard and I can talk right into the mic head on. I'm considering attaching my web cam to the pop filter so it sees me head on over the rim of the pop filter. Not sure if I'm going to like that way though. Anyway, that's all for now.

Just going into work and

back this week. Last night the project finished earlier at 7pm. I was home by 8. Next project next week sometime, Tuesday? 

Anne's out at Tim's getting us a treat and I'm working on some channel art for my You Tube channel. I'm trying to establish what my music channel is about. The heading will be Jim Shannon on sounds. With the Jim part kind of tilted. Underneath: Noodling, i0s, messing about. Something like that. I discovered a online channel art creator: Pixlr and playing around with it.

This has got to be the most coolest month I've seen here in Alberta since 1982. At the moment its -1 but it feels like -6. Its overcast gloomy, Tomorrow we're supposed to be at +6 and +9 Saturday 👍 With all this we still have snow on the ground in spots. Especially out behind us:

 

Anne's brought us out one of Tim's Turkey club and it was surprisingly good. She brought me back a Boston Cream and a coffee to have for later. Finally i have a few hours to myself. Anyway, that's about all for now.  

This morning closing in on

around 11am I got a missed call from the office, then another call (which I caught) from the office. I'm back to work for Thursday and at least Friday for Friday 4-9. Nothing is planned for next week but if we have some hours Saturday, I just might go in. I've been off for ~ 12 weeks now. At the end of the month Anne and I are splitting my hours. I get half the bill gets the other half, no matter the amount. So yes, I could use the hours.

My heart goes out to the Mexican people affected by the earthquake Tuesday. The death count is above 220. Mexico has had over a dozen earthquakes this year. Most of them have been small compared to Tuesdays. First we have hurricane Harvey, then Irma and Maria and others are out there closing in fast and now this. All we now is a asteroid to hit us, yeesh.

My Apple headphones aren't the greatest but they've held up longer then the Marley's and others that I've had over the years. I'm considering a pair of bluetooth headphones. I refuse to shop anywhere online. I support local business only. I don't mind paying $120-180 for a good rated pair of bluetooth headphones. I'm considering a pair of these before anything else. There are some local retailers that have some nice affordable blue tooth headphones that are rated pretty high. I'm tired of headphone cords that bunch up like this:

I'm enjoying my Wednesday night off. Its not very warm out there on a overcast rainy night at +6C. We're not getting much rain here in Clareview across the street from Bo didlies. Its supposed to warm up to about +11 this week. Anyway, that's all for now.

In this country we

call unemployment insurance Ei (employment insurance) Most people when I mention Ei don't collect it. In the past Ei used to be called Unemployment insurance Commission or Uic. I think I collected Ei, 6 times in my life. Once I'd applied for Uic (Ei) it'd take 4-6 weeks to get the first benefit. Uic used to send these 4X11 reporting cards in the mail every 2 weeks and a business reply envelop. There were about 8 questions. I still recall the format: No (x5) Yes No, No. The "Yes" response would be asking me if I was ready, able and willing to work? For the most part Uic was timely in getting a cheque out. I recall one time here in the early 80's when we had a postal strike, Uic cheques would be picked up in a area just East and over what was then the 105th street over pass. Every time when I got my first Uic cheque there would be about 4-6 weeks of back pay included. I got such a large cheque in 1989 when was let go from the Army & Navy department store. Even in the late 1990's I'd have to wait 4-6 weeks. So, Last week I applied for my Ei May 31st and when I asked when my 1st cheque would be in, they said by the end of this week. Yeah right. I was shocked to learn I received my first week of Ei over night into my account. Wow! So much for waiting 4-6 weeks. I won't need the whole 24 weeks I have left on this claim but it will get us by for the summer until after labour day when I'm back at my other job. And even then I'll be on pension and its either Ei or pension, not both. My CPP is Ei exempt but I still need to report my earnings and my pension. At least my account for Circuit is secure and I won't miss any payments and I'll have Circuit paid off by September. I'll still need to do a jobs search and do my 2 week report as part of my Ei obligations. Unlike last year now I have an income into the household so there is less stress on Anne. 

Speaking about Circuit and audio recording, one of the contributors to a thread I had running explained one way I could set Circuit up to record a Circuit session. He suggested I would need a dual 1/4" jack to plug into the back of Circuit. The other end of the cable would have 2 RC ends that go into the output of my M-audio fast track. The Fast track's usb end would go into a apple camera connection kit (cck) and that into the iPad and opened up in Audioshare. No background noise no squeaky chair or room noise. I'm waiting for a reply from this poster or from anyone else in the Circuit user group that can confirm this approach. The cable is only ~ $13 so its not a big hit if it doesn't work. The other thing music production wise is my video/light box. I've had the roughly 16 x 16 x 10 inch cardboard box for awhile now as in this photo: 

In this image I'm using our old iPod 3rd gen. The reason why the iPad is closer to the left side is because te iPad is closer to the power cord. The white pillow case should off set the semi darkness of the inside of the box. I'll be playing with the contrast a bit as well. I tried a sample and it seems to work ok. I need some kind of a bluetooth remote so I can activate the camera hands free. I know a solution is out there.

I called the boss earlier today he said there is a soft start date for a new project next week. I'm too call tomorrow for a scheduled. When I make my Ei reporting I'll have to report these new hours but I think this is the last project for the season. At the moment we have +27* out there so its a hot one today. Anyway, that's all for now.

My first full week at the

job is in the bank. It's more money then my market research job and work is steady. No lay over or waiting for anything in between except for February. Getting to this job site is easier then I expected. Its just a bus to Clareview and the train to Southgate the #6 bus to Calgary Trail and 51st ave and a block North and I'm there. I don't know if I mentioned this before but I haven't worked on the South Side since 1993! Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, I get a ride home after work, which means I'm in by 9pm and I can watch Innerspace for half an hour. I don't mind the extra half hour it takes after work 4 Thursday. I like to leave 15 minutes early Friday's so I can get that #6 to Southgate and home by 9:30pm. 

This artist render is whats called Tower B on the former location of the old Greyhound bus company. Before Greyhound this was the site of the old Marshall Wells building. The render is from "inside" the Stantec tower. The Winter garden or Ford Centre is directly below. Tower B will be a 43 story tower on top of a large podium. Its a big chunk of downtown property.

This photo was taken today (most likely by a drone) Image by Jskye. The building across the street is Rogers place arena. This Tower B land under early excavation:

I've got steady work at least until Christmas week. They might go a bit into January like last year. In January when I'm temporarily "laid off" I have a small window to get my roe and apply for ei. The plan is to apply for ei and then get on board again for March for my job, freeze ei, work, April and May, activate ei in June, July, August, September right into pension. Then work part time from there on in. If everything works out well, I can get my dental work done before now and then. As for today, I've got the Esks/Riders game, brunch, enjoy my evening off, and then get ready for the work. At some point I've got to get some blood work done at the lab this week as well. I might update this later in the day. Anyway, that's all for now.

Shaking off the summer rust when returning to the

Shaking off the summer rust when returning to the job Tuesday almost got me into trouble yesterday. I had a decent night on the job last night. This milestone is where I wanted to be in January: Oas application out the door and working at the job. Speaking about the oas, the feds actually sent me a form the other day, that if the information they had on the form was correct. I didn't need to do anything. I had sent the application a week ago. I didn't need to do all that with the bank the lineup to make sure the application was filled out correctly etc. I applied because I didn't know a form would be coming. Here's a photo of me at the job from Tuesday:

Rogers place arena is also reaching a milestone of its own today: Open house. I heard 58,000 people scooped up free tickets earlier this week for today's event. Now obviously they are not going to have that many people all in one go. Most likely the open house could be in groups throughout the whole day. The groups are allowed 90 minutes to tour the facility. They can't tour the locker rooms of course. Then they are cleared out for the next group and so on. Not only that but my lrt commute to Southgate will be a part of all that, so will Anne's, its going to be interesting today for sure. Also the Edmonton Eskimos are hosting the Calgary Stampeder's for the rubber match from Monday's game. About 30,000+ people will be at that game this afternoon. I'm up early to post this so I can relax with my coffee wake up, get ready for my first Saturday commute since last Spring. The other job hasn't called me yet but I'm calling them on Monday just to see what's going on. My office is a block away from a McDonald's so I can get some breakfast. There's no coffee at work this weekend, so I'll take mine with me after breakfast. Hopefully I can avoid the crowds. 

The only casualty for me this weekend is I won't be able to attend the bbq Sunday. Expenses mostly. I already owe $20 for this years Shrine calendar. The guy that takes care of those hasn't been to a meeting in a long time. Dick could be at the bbq tomorrow. He might put 2+2 together tomorrow. So, I'm out of here at 8 this morning, get some breakfast (I can afford that) bring my coffee along. Should be a nice day. It's only a 4 hour shift. Anne's shift is from 6-10. I was going to go to the rec centre after work but she'll need the bus pass and the Eskimo game is on at 5pm anyway. The job I'm on now has steady work up to December 22nd. More then enough for a ei claim and they might have a extension in January like they did last year. Anyway, that's all for now.

Still plugging away here

as its mostly overcast out there at about 18. Not much going on today. No football. So I'm taking it easy, working on a track in my daw, checking my email, reading, that type of thing. Anne's making us her traditional Sunday brunch later. I'm sitting here with my first coffee. Pretty basic stuff.

I've had the Alberta Health benefits contact details on my iPod Touch for quite awhile now. This last Spring, I've been waiting for our notice of assessment (what the feds send at tax time) which is a summary of combined taxable income. The noa is a accurate account of income filed each year by revenue Canada. I was waiting for that, and time off before I began to file for Adult health benefits, and a year to date printout of our bank statements. Last year when I did this I was working, and my only way to get this to the program was to fax my bank statements. The fax machine I was using at employabilities was brand new, and I don't think they were  comfortable working with it. Since I was getting insulin anyway from my pcn, I figured at the time I'd just wait until next Spring. No rush. Also, I didn't know prior to that I can access the program with bank statements year to date. The program is based on income and last year we certainly qualify. Now that I have time off, and rather then fax stuff to the program I can just drop it off in person to the reception counter. Once I have the location of course. My work schedule at the time prevented me from doing this. Next week I hope to have some full time hours for a few weeks anyway.

The other day on local news there was a story about the Valley line lrt. A "spokes person" from the program saying that they are on schedule. There's a lot of road closures due to preliminary work but they hope to have a work schedule posted within the next 4-6 weeks with a target date for 2020. Ahh, now the Sun is trying to come out. Boots seems to be enjoying himself. Anyway, that's all from me for now.

We were considering going out for a bite

to eat this afternoon but I can't justify that considering our expenses, and I'm running low on coffee as it is. I buy the brand bellow because its good bang for the buck. On the container it says something like, "makes 260 cups!" Yeah right maybe using a teaspoon, and without water. I usually have 1 table spoon cup a day. At that rate the container here usually lasts me about 3 months. For about $11 its a good deal.

Last night I reinstalled FL. Studio 10 producer edition, which I have a license for. I bought the program in 2011 but found that the more plugin's in use the more the cpu burns out and crashes the program but that's normal. I'm considering FL 12 but its a download only purchase, and I need a cd. Most likely I'll stick with this, and upgrade to Cubase Pro 9 when it comes out. My laptop still has half of its hard drive space intact but I'm leaning more on the hardware side of things instead of programing.

Still no word on the job front, and most likely none will happen until tomorrow, if that. I'm hoping I'll get the green light to come in Wednesday or Thursday. I got a job, just no work right now. It's a beautiful day out there. Anyway that's about all for now.

Yesterday was a bad news good news kind of a day

what with the bad news being, a local work from home option from a local charity said they have all the telephone agents they need. Its a closed shop kids. That and no work scheduled for this week at my other job doesn't look good. I applied at another local survey house but like most of these local market research jobs, they shut down for the summer.

The good news yesterday was just as I was going to ask Anne to call about our city centre rec pass we get a form in the mail saying we've been approved for our low income rec pass. 

After dinner we gathered our swim gear and headed over to the Clareview rec centre, to get processed. After checking us in we each got one of the above, and a wrist band in case we want to come back if we need to leave. Normally these passes would cost us about $450/year. It gets us into all city pools and rec centres, Fort Edmonton Park, Valley zoo, Muttart conservatory (pyramids in the river valley) the art gallery and lots more. We went to get changed and it's .50 cents for a locker. I met Anne in the pool area. Lots of wet tile. I didn't care too much for the lazy river. Anne liked it. I liked the hot tub but its not as good as East Glen by Rexall. From the hot tub if you look up you can see the glass enclosure and people using the work out equipment. I can use that as well. The library has the iMac but that is by booking an appointment only. All of it free for me to use. Its a good deal. They have a steam room but it was currently running at half power. The staff seem knowledgeable and friendly. The rec centre gets 4/5 reviews. I like it and we'll be going back again this month. Our rec centre pass is good up until June 14th 2017.

After the rec centre we went across to Walmart to the McDonald's for a Sunday and we walked back home. It was a nice little outing. Its a bit of a walk for me but the #11 bus out here gets me to between Walmart and the rec centre once it leaves Clareview station, and its about a block in from Walmart. I'd like to book some time for that iMac, bring my headphones and screen record a beat. I'd need more then an hour to work on it. I might be doing that over the next few days. Anyway, that's all for now.

No sooner had I left the lab

Tuesday (I just discovered last night) that they had called me moments after I had left. Maybe my phone # was on the paper at intake. I'll be leaving out of here at 1pm for my Doctors appointment. Its not a physical.

One of the biggest projects in the Edmonton currently under way is the Rogers place arena. This is going to be the new home of the Edmonton Oilers. It needs to be ready for September but there is a lot of work not only on the outside, but on the inside as well. At the moment crews are assembling the massive scoreboard. Rogers place arena will have a seating capacity of over 18,600, when its all done. The winter garden work is currently underway as well but the plaza with the 2 cranes wont be open until a year after the building officially opens in September. The building is impressive and will also host concert events as well. The cost of the building is                          

The downtown arena is all part of what's called the "Ice district" as there will be about half a dozen large towers surrounding the arena with a LRT link on the North side of the building. There's even a community rink and a casino attached to the arena as well. The cost of just the arena is close to half a billion dollars. You can join in on the discussion here.  

Anyway, after the Doctor's appointment, I'm home for the evening and I want to catch the Eastern conference game. Should be a good one TB/Pittsburgh. Anyway that's all for now.

Our local weather has been

Spring like with a light rain and snow mix in the evening and its been cold over the last few days. Its been about 4-9 degrees. We don't get the teaming rain like we used to around here for this time of year.

I was lucky to get my #5 bus just after the shorty (short bus) and into the job shortly before 10am. A brief kick-off and surprise Joyce showed up. It meant I get a ride home! Wu who. I actually had a decent day as well getting 4 confirms and 1 online. I'm concerned about after May 15th when this job runs out of work, because my market research job for this month has been in a state of suspended animation for this month. They've got a few projects coming up hopefully next week. What I'm hoping for is my market research job lasting until the end of June. Then after the market research job breaks for the summer I've got a lead on another possible job. A colleague I've been working with since the year 2000 is going over there but its all the way out by Direct buy. He worked there as well a year before I did. Its a long way out but I only need the job until September. Anyway, after work, Joyce drove me home under cold Edmonton skies. Heading East along 129th I noticed Rob had a bit of a crew working. I went to the blood pressure machine after Joyce dropped me off at Shoppers and I got a reading. No paper in the machine to print off a copy so I took a photo. I got home before 3pm. Anne made us a nice lunch before she headed out to her job. I had the evening to myself at last. Let the weekend begin. 

The Valley line officially got underway Friday. There's still preliminary work to be done but that's been more or less ongoing now for awhile. The Cloverdale footbridge will be closed in July. There's a small NIMBY group opposed to this but they don't matter in the scheme of things to come. My concern with these "Save our footbridge" people is that they will somehow get a 11th hour court injunction to stall this line at the last minute. These protestors are doing this more of a stunt then anything else. Anyway I'm enjoying my first coffee and my weekend, that's all for now.

I didn't get much reading done

this weekend. My goal for the novel I'm reading was to have it read this month. Just too many things got in the way. I hope to have it read in April.

Our dinner outing was nice. We took the #11 72nd street by Londonderry junior HS and walked towards our destination: Capital Pizza.

 
From the photo I took Anne is waiting for me in the bus shelter up ahead, about in the 11pm position if this photo was a clock. The little hand would be at about the 11pm position. Ann popped into Giant Tiger (the yellow sign) I went ahead of her to reserve our usual seat in the back. I ordered a diet Coke as Anne need to go into Giant Tiger to get her new cart. The pizza this time wasn't that great but I wasn't complaining. What we don't finish eating (and that's usually the case) we take the rest home. We went to DQ and I got my chocolate Sunday and then we walked back to the bus stop across the street from the basketball courts and home. I like that bus because it drops us off on our side of the street. It was a nice quiet day and had a Sunday feel to it. We were in by 6pm 8 hours ago. 

After some sober thought, I decided to hit the pause button and put my plans on getting a custom built iMac on hold. After seeing the upcoming iPad 9.7" pro on YouTube, I thought so much for the iMac. The 9.7 has 4 speakers, is 64 bit, about the size of the iPad air, and can support the iPencil. Plus the 9.7 has a better camera and a better chip. I'd like to get the 32Gb version, but its priced at $800. When I'm ready to buy however wont be for at least Q4 of next year. By that time Apple will have released the 9.7 2 or +.

Today I'm at my 9:30pm job but I think this current project could be winding down today, and we might be going home early. It's a new pay period anyway. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, I'm at my 8:30pm job. Its a lot easier. Thursday, Friday I'm at my 9:30pm job and Saturday,10-6pm. Anyway, that's all for now.

About 10am or so each morning I like to get out of bed and feed the cats

and then try and get another hour or two sleep. That wasn't going to happen after I fed the cats this morning. I laid in bed for about an hour and a half. What the heck, I got up and fixed myself a coffee and I noticed a fresh blanket of snow out there. Its a snow day. We haven't had one here in the Capital region in a long time. These Spring snow showers however don't last long and the snow doesn't stay on the ground very long. By Thursday it should be all off the ground. It's back to wearing boots for a few days.

I'm back to my 2nd job today, leaving out of here at 3pm. I don't need to be in until 4pm as we start at 4:15pm. This gives me enough time to set things up, get my file etc. The good news is I'm off at 8:30pm and home by 9:30pm so I can comfortably watch Monday night Raw. Anyway, that's all for now.

My wife should have had her week off this week

then last week as this is her birthday week yesterday. She bought us Maximus pizza, which I paid for at the door from cash she left before she went to work.

I've changed this blob post title colour to indicate Saint Patrick's day. I'll reset it back tomorrow. I wish there was an easy way edit this just for one day without having to go into any complex css code. 

  
I left for work at my usual time and caught the bus to Clareview. I had a quiet trip to Central and upstairs/street level. I caught the #3 bus to work. I made good timing and had a good shift. I got home and went to visit my friend down the hall and asked her about her laptop. She mentioned that she doesn't use it all that much but she said she uses it for important things. Ok, no big deal. Anne came  in and she said because she got some birthday money from her sister, I could keep my new toy:

Anne picked up the new Ntendo 3ds xl at Eb games (Games stop) for me Monday night. The Hyrule edition. She also bought me the accompanying charger as well. the reason why it took me an extra day to open it because she didn't know if her other sister would be sending her any birthday money. I don't have any games for it yet except for the AR cards. I want to get the Korg Ntendo ds-12 music app but that's next month and I have a bunch of books that are coming. 

Anne suggested that because I've been going strong for 7 days I deserve a unscheduled day off. I'll call in later today. Having the day off will allow me to play around more with my new toy. Anyway, that's all for now. 

Its over at the other job

tomorrow 4:15-8:30pm. The other job isn't as involved as my primary job but it grantees work for me when my main job has down times. 

When I woke up this morning, I missed my alarm.  Nine am, shit! I called Super saying I could be late. I had to scramble to; feed the cats, pack my lunch, get my cola for the day, some change for later, dress and head out the door for the 9:20 bus. After a brief wait I was out there in the bus shelter under a grey snow/rain mix of ugly weather. However I made good timing.

 

I usually loiter about where that grey box is by the curb waiting for my bus coming right of this photo. The image above is just West of 100th and Jasper. Would there be time to grab a coffee at the Subway at the end of the block? There was nobody in line and I got a small coffee, no cream/sugar and a chocolate chip cookie to munch on my way into the office. I was 20 minutes late. I missed half an hour but that's not too bad.

At least it was nice enough outside at 6pm, and for a change my commute home was still in daylight. I was tired when I got home but still felt good that the day was over. Anyway, that's all for now.  

I spent half my shift yesterday

cleaning up a project. The other half on our recent project. Both are pretty good. This current project should go until about mid March, which doesn't sound right because its such a big project. Its ok either way because I go back to my other job March 1st.

Blog update: 
We went to Cora's and I just got in (3:50pm). Anne took this photo of me finishing my coffee:

                 
 On Coast tonight currently under way the topic is about alien abductions. More specifically about a couple of campers out in the Mojave desert that claim they were abducted by aliens in 1989. Recent history has no shortage of these kinds of tales. The alien abduction tales that fascinate me the most are the ones where the abductees are under hypnosis. I'm not that familiar with the Hess brothers case. There are certain steps in the case against hypnotherapy in this regard. Some of them include; A person is predisposed to accept the idea that certain puzzling or inexplicable experiences might be telltale signs of UFO abduction. Or    Alternative explanations of the experiences are not explored. There are others as explained here. The other tests that could be used would be a polygraph such as the Thomas Walton UFO polygraph test. There;s also the Betty & Barny Hill case, which is fascinating in its own right. There are other ways to uncover the truth such as voice stress analysis, or VSA test. I'd like to put all of these recent Cosby casses under a VSA test to see how well they stand up against VSA results. Years after the JFK assassination researchers took the Oswald interrogation tapes over to a VSA specialist and apparently Oswald passed a VSA test but would he would have taken a VSA test if such a test were available in 1963? Even VSA tests has its critics as well. Getting back to the Hess story, would their story hold up under hypnotherapy or a VSA test or both? The results might be interesting to find out.

Early this afternoon Anne and I are going across the street to try out Cora. Its a restaurant cafe chain that's popular here in Edmonton. We have a location right across the street. 

                     
as its been there for a couple of years now. Anne's sister in Winnipeg says its good and so do the people on the Connect 2 Edmonton forum. They close by 3pm but even if we arrive late they wont turn us away. After that later that evening, I've got our finale lodge practice for our degree coming up on Thursday and we're going to rent the last James Bond movie "Spectre" when I come back from lodge practice.

This week after holiday Monday, I'm in the office 4-9:30pm, Tuesday and Wednesday. Thursday off for Lodge and in Friday, Saturday and I hope Sunday. I missed checking the schedule on the way out of the office. I'll know when I get back to work Tuesday. Anyway, that's all for now.

We are on the bit of

a "cold trend" so to speak at 0 degrees. For this time of year, nobody is complaining. During a normal February we'd have at least 18 inches of snow on the ground, and it'd be about -15 about now and a -20 wind chill.

                       

Rant time: I share my commute with people I see all the time. I don't make friends with anyone on my evening commute, especially at night. Most people after 9pm just want to get home, without incident. I'm much the same way. Occasionally if I had a good shift and I'm in a good mood I'll smile and nod to somebody sharing my booth on the train. I see this one guy, middle eastern looking all the time and he gets off at the same stop as me every night. One night at Clareview station, I smile and nod and I thought that was the end of it. Only recently as of this autumn I've been taking the 3pm bus out here to Clareview station. The same guy shows up. He lives somewhere in our building complex, apparently. While waiting for the bus I begin to engage in conversation. He works as a custodian at WCB downtown, married etc. How does he like the weather here etc. He never asks me anything. So, I thought that was the end of it. When he shows up out here he makes eye contact with me, and now I feel obligated to say something to the guy. Like now he's my shadow. Gees mister, I'm not trying to make friends here. Not just that but he follows me around now. Yesterday while I'm getting off the bus at Clareview to catch the elevator to the upper concourse to catch the train he's in the elevator. There are usually 2 trains at Clareview station and its hard to tell, which one pulled in last. I'm deciding which one to take, and I see out of the corner of my eye, he's doing the same thing. So I make a decision and he follows me. I get up and leave one train for the other on track 2. He follows me. He doesn't sit with me but he's up ahead of me by a few booths. The train I was on pulled out and left us waiting there for 10 minutes. I was ok with that because I can catch the #3 or #5 from Central. I realized this morning that the call boards should have shown which train to catch. It wold have said, "just arrived" while the other one should have read Century park, 2 minutes or something like that. The other thing to shake this guy off my back is to leave a few minutes earlier, but I shouldn't have to do that. Its not like he seems to be a bad guy or anything but now I have a unwanted guest. Unless there's a way I can shake him off by making him feel uncomfortable to be around me. I've got a few ideas.   

What I liked about Xentel was I'd go in and I didn't need to sign in and or sign out. I didn't need to fill out a time sheet. We have 2 supervisors and one is 4 days the other 2 days. The 4 day super always announces what time to pack up and through your time sheet in. Its all done on computer screen by project number, hours etc. I almost forgot to fill out my time sheet last night because the 2 day super doesn't announce when to do that. My #5 bus was heading towards the 124th/107th street intersection. The light was green, traffic both ways light so I looked both ways and crossed before the cross walk. As soon as I got to my stop, the lights went amber and then red. If I miss that one, I'd be home at 11pm. Anyway, that's all for now.

Its my Saytuday night Sunday morning which is my

favorite time of the week. I get a whole day off and other then going to lodge tonight I'm able to just relax. 

This morning on Coast the 2 topics are Robots and psychedelic research and lost ten tribes. Sunday's show is on ufo mysteries. I've never seen a ufo before but historical like the one pictures from Independent.co.uk, here give me pause.

                        
This last show especially intriguing to me because not only is it George Knapp, but about the case of a young girl that digs up a human looking skull that has no human DNA ,and a Mount Shasta California ufo encounter of a black triangle caught on film. This weekend is closing out the month with some great Coast shows. Love it. 

Anne ordered us some Chinese food not just to celebrate Chinese New Years, year of the monkey. She ordered it for a 10pm drop off. I paid for it at the door. It was really good. Anyway, that's all for now.    

At Clareview station last night about

9:15pm it was like a Spring like evening. As soon as I got off the bus just outside of Shoppers here, boom! An instant blizzard. Talk about a shock to the system. Anne suggested I call off the appointment and not go in. I did that before bed after I finished reading my book and left a message saying something that I'll re-book before Family day. So this morning I get up and I look out  my window and:
                          
At the moment its -12 out there and we got Rusty inside because it was pretty cold for him over night. We got him here for a couple of days.

So, its my last night at the 2nd job. Hopefully I'll have work at my main job tomorrow and beyond. My 2nd job has another project, which they send out letters of invitation at the end of this month. Its a smaller project so they'll need less staff to do the calling. If I get one of those letters in the mail, great, I'll go back. Unless there's another opportunity first. Last night a colleague was telling me that he will receive his first Guaranteed Income Security (gsi) cheque next month. Its pro active from the time he applied for it last year. The applicant for this has to be on oas first. That means he'll be getting a lump sum and the gsi will follow. I won't know how much he's getting (as his situation is similar to mine) because when and if I go back, I'll probably never see him again to ask. He told me he likes the job for pocket money. So, we'll see. Anyway, that's all for now.

Its been a rough week for sure last week what

with losing David Bowie and Sporty. At least the first half of January is in the bank. It's been a tough month so far. Pension is less then 20 months away. Can it come soon enough?

Anne's been looking after this outdoor stray cat that's been discarded from across from us in Edmonton Housing. He's been hunkering down under a utility shed all last winter. Anne goes over every night to feed him change his blanket and make sure he's comfortable from the elements. She brought him inside here 2 days after losing Sporty. I know that sounds kind of ghoul but its so cold over night. He's been hanging out here, separated from the other guys. I nick named him Rusty because of his colours:

 
 Heading into work yesterday morning I had a headache and I felt I could have used another 4 hours sleep. It was very cold waiting for my bus but I was inside at Central, about 4 paces away from my #5 that pulled up about 9:30am and then into the office. At least they had the coffee ready. After a briefing I was screwing up all day about 4 mistakes, logging in, adding conditions. It was brutal but the shift was shorter then usual. I screwed up near the end as I was getting a lot of call backs and I found out that I somehow added an extra number, which was the call backs for Monday. That's how my day was. I'm on thin ice at my job and almost expect to be fired on Thursday when I go back but Super said he wasn't going to write me up but I'm pretty sure I'm going to have a chat with him and the boss on Thursday behind closed doors. I've got another job lead I'll be following up with in the next few days and my other job ends on Wednesday. The rate of pay is better then the job I was at Saturday but the hours aren't. My second job doesn't get underway until March and ends May-15th. If I get that other job, then I wont care so much. I haven't got anything yet from the 3rd job. 

After work I thought about heading to Wendy's for a Baconator burger but Anne's getting me one for WWE's "Royal Rumble." I settled in to watch the Flames/Oiler game. The Oilers won in a shoot out. Cam Talbot was amazing. Now the Oilers go on the road for a few games. I'm just relaxing today sleeping in late and reading. Anyway, that's all for now.