Mid week and its warming up

I just fired off an email to Dan our Lodge secretary if he would be able to pick up something at Costco for the festive board for tomorrow night. Anne was going to help out by making her chili and rice but with Sparky having to be put down a few weeks ago, it sucked the life out of her.  In our Lodge newsletter were having crib night and I’m almost obligated to stick around to play a few games. As long as I get home by 11pm but that’s tomorrow night. 

I had way too much coffee to drink yesterday and I had got about 4 maybe 5 hours of sleep over night. I’m alloying myself 2 cups today and maybe a Tim’s decafe on the way home. 

Because I didn’t sleep very well, I was up at 7am reading a bit from Stardoc. It’s moving kind of slow during set up but there’s barely enough in it to keep me going so far. It’s kind of lame, something I’d write but with a bit more writers skill then I have.  

There was no occasion for me over the last 2 years to want to buy anything online I couldn’t get locally. So, I hope my Paypall account is still active. Tomorrow morning I’m putting some funds in my account and get the number again Paypal needs to take funds form my account for a big ticket item that costs about half as much as a new PC, so I hope my Paypal account is still active. It takes 8 days to upload funds to Paypal here in Canada. The item I want can’t be bought in stores.

I’ve got a full 8 hours ahead of me today and I think I’m going to move stations, because my neighbor’s voice is bleeding into my headset possibly throwing my customers off. Our cubicles are spaced back to back in groups of 3 in the middle of the room and I need a space between me and anyone I sit next to on either my left or right. Just something temporary until the TV is installed. Anyway, that’s all for now.

If all goes well

I could have "Electri6ity" ordered and a working copy to play with Tuesday March 13th until the box copy arrives. I've been doing a lot of research on this product over the last couple of years and looking forward to it. After that I'm saving up for the new computer and that should be about the end of June. Anyway, that's about all for now.

Hey winter, where have you been?

now get the heck out of town already.

At first when I got out of the apartment waiting for my bus to Clareview station I thought, with a Oiler afternoon game and I'm out here in this weather, why am I going into work today? I was ready to turn back in but what the heck, I'm all  packed up and ready to go. I got to Tim's and placed my order. I asked for a diet Pepsi, breakfast wrap (I had to explain 3 times to the lady what it was before her supervisor took over) and 2 orders of hash browns and a small coffee black. I got 1 hash brown, my wrap, a large coffee and when I got into the building, James was there letting people in but when I got into the elevator it would only let me up to the 3rd floor. James said it mus have something to do with people moving offices on that floor. I ate my breakfast at the security desk when I noticed something wrong: Something told me I should have stayed in bed. But the breakfast I had was good and I took my insulin with it. 

I had a slow start being last on board but my first sale was a card before break and they began to trickle in through out the rest of the shift. I was mostly by myself a lot of the regulars weren't there but I enjoyed watching the snow cascading outside. I called Anne at my 2pm break and had a brief chat. She gave me a TV dinner but that's ok. I got 1 sale in the 2 hours extension and that was near the last 20 minutes for a $100. No card. I mentioned to J heading out I'd be in Monday at 5pm. 

I got the score on the Oiler game late in the 3rd and it was 2-0 Phoenix. After work I packed my things up and headed towards Audrey's. I noticed a familiar face behind the counter: My book ordering fellow from a few years ago. He was on the phone so went downstairs to look around. There's a few in the first person POV books I found I'd love to get a Glen Cook and a John Scalzi offering I'd like to get my hands on but that's for another week. I had the money to buy (barely) and I wanted something to eat at the Burger Baron (BB) a few doors down. I asked about the "Full Cycle"  reprint of the Clifford D. Simak book. We discovered the company called "Armchair fiction" and he wrote it down for me. I gave him my email to let me know if he could order it. We tried calling the company but they were closed Saturdays. I ordered a large bag of fries from BB and stuck them in my bag for home. I missed my train so I ate a few fries waiting for the next train. A bit salty but hot. 

A #183 was waiting and I caught that and headed for home. I got inside about 5:45pm (still snowing) got the finale results of the Oiler game Phoenix 3 Oiler's 1. RNH scored his 15th. They should make a trade for Rick Nash that's include Magnus Paajarvi, Sam Gagnre and a first round pick. But speculation around the NHL indicates Nash to NY Rangers but other then resign players I don't think the Oiler's are going to do anything this round.

I also watched a bit of WWE Vintage and they had a match with Stone Cold Steve Austin and the Rock (with hair) in the good old "Alliance" aftermath of 2001. That was fun to watch again. I miss the old WWF during the "Attitude" era after that the WWE slowly lost it's appeal, even more so after The Rock left. 

I checked the Armchair fiction site and they released a lot of vintage "Double novels." They've got 30 of them and I've got some of them on my radar for this Spring. Anyway, that's about all I have for now.   

About 8pm tonight

it's payday and I grab a #5 to my bank and home.

The Oiler's had won a couple of games this week, Tuesday in Calgary and last night hosting Philadelphia flyers. Eberle got his 27th and Hall his 21st. The Oiler's hadn't had a 27 goal scorer since Doug Weight, a 36 goal scorer since Essa Tikkanen. That's be great to see Eberle and Hall score about 30 goals and still put us in the draft lottery. The difference maker was this years "starting goaltender."

The alien moon base story seems to have subsided and quietly fading off into the setting Sun. I think that's all there's going to be on the topic, for awhile. What's interesting about  the "story" on ATS is there were 27 pages of comments but the photo was heavily photo shopped. 

So most of the EU is on board with Alberta oil sands oil. Good news. They're going to need it especially if there's another war in the middle east. Anyway, that's about all I have for today.

Looks like a nice day

out there. 

Ok I really have to watch what I say around where I work. My big mouth could land me in hot water and yesterday almost did. I work with a pretty good bunch of people and I like what I do. My job and work I do is important to me and I don't want to say or do anything to jeopardize it, ok enough of that.

I've got a full day ahead of me. I had a good day yesterday and I hope better today with another full 8 hours ahead of me. By about 8pm though I'm rather wiped out. 

If all goes well I could have Cubase 6 by next weekend. The full version. I wish I could have picked it up on Saturday but I hope to go over to LM and pick it up next Saturday after work.

I'm currently in the middle of some heavy memory work for an upcoming EA degree in April. It's not a charge or anything but it's a substantial part just before the WT of the degree. It's going well, I'm about 25% into the work plus the FC exam part I'm doing next week and I'm comfortable in doing all of that. Anyway that's all for now.

I'm having a coffee

trying to wake up here.

Critics of Apple protest that the Ipad etc are all made at Foxcom, in China as Foxcom is one of many sweatshops in China. For example an iMac computer can sell for about $1,800 but its the screen that makes the price go up. Dell by the same token sells the same screen by a couple of hundred dollars more but if sweatshops didn't exist the world would probably be in a depression like the 1930's. I don't like the idea of sweatshops but like most places nobody is holding a gun to any ones head to work there.

My wifi is finicky, sometimes it's on often it's stable and today it's dead. All indicators on my router are normal and I don't get what's going on? On the other hand my laptop is good to go. I have 260 Gb to work with when I get Cubase 6 installed. Anyway, that's all today.

Family day weekend had come and

gone. 

Family day is perhaps my favorite long weekend of the year because Spring is just around the corner. Anne was sleeping through most of it. I was on the computer from the time I got up at around 12:30pm until now.

Other then having the day off the only highlight of the day was watching Monday night Raw.

I'm having some trouble getting into the flow of this book "Stardoc" not that the narrative isn't good or the premise sucks, it's just making time to settle down to read it. Seems it's going to be one of those commute reads. I might have it read by the end of March the way I'm going.
Yesterday marked the 50th anniversary of John Glenn's historic flight into space. I was 9 years old when that happened. I remember watching the event as a kid but it never made an impression on me at the time. It showed the capsule with people nearby it and I can't believe how small it looks. There are more electronics in today's cars then there were in the Glenn's vehicle. The Apollo space program ended up costing $25B while the Space Shuttle Program ended up costing about $450B over the course of its lifespan. The Orion space program seems to be a step backward rather then forward but is slated to begin it's first orbital launch in 2014. I'll be dead and gone by the time humanity first steps foot on Mars.

I have a full week ahead of me as I'm working today 8 hours and the rest of the week. I'll have 37.5 hours on my check and stat pay next week, if I still have a job that is. If all works out well, I should have Cubase 6 by the end of this month.

I was reading on ATS how an alien base was discovered on the dark side of the moon but I don't believe it for a second, Here's the video and a link to the story.

. 

The Oiler's are playing in Calgary tonight. Hopefully a loss because they are 9 points from sharing last place, which could mean another 1st round draft pick depending on where we place in the lottery pool but at least we'll be in the lottery pool at the rate we'll be going. I don't see any Taylor Halls or RNH's but we might be able to acquire somebody as trade bait in a package deal. The top picks won't be released until April, anyway that's about all for today.     

Yesterday I got out of here right

on time for my 9am commute to the Clareview LRT and a nice trip down to Corona station up to Tim's. I ordered a sausage egg breakfast wrap for a change a couple orders of hash browns and a coffee for about $5.60 something. James came in and ordered coffee for management and I walked with him to the office and with CB.  

That was the only good thing about the rest of the day. I got 1 sale and after that, nothing. There were about 4 of us under $75 so I wasn't totally alone but the day sure was long and Anne wasn't home to answer my call on my 2:00pm break around 2:20pm. I thought the extra 2 hours from 2:30pm to 4:30pm would be better, but nothing. One of our hot shot sales people that has been known to do $500+ couldn't even break a $75. It was tough going but with it being the Family day weekend in a lot of places here in the country the last thing a broke/unemployed receptive customer wanted to do was to part with their hard earned (what little of it they had). Yet some people were doing well. The other thing I had going against me was my friend beside me. His voice was bleeding into my mic like a bad mix session. He was kind of loud. I like the guy and I didn't want to say anything but I'm going to sit over there up by the middle of the rectangular shaped office, to see the TV and to see the TV when we get it installed. If I last that long. But I know, all of us are expendable I get that but if keeping our jobs were predicated on our line our, HO might as well shut down the Edmonton office. I don't see this happening. Sure they could get rid of individuals but with the solid economy here, I don't see that happening either. Not that I'm comfortable in my job at all, because I'm not. The boss could get an email from HO to let anyone of us go at anytime we could be called into the office. That's why I need to look at a plan b. Plan B is in the works on my next available Monday off, which will be March 5th. 

This Monday is Family day and next Monday I'll be working because at our next Lodge communication will be next Thursday and because we're holding a degree it's going to be a little early at 5:30pm. Even though I get off at 4:30pm, there won't be enough time for me to get home clean up dress for Lodge and climb into the car for Lodge. So I'm taking that day off and working the Monday instead. I'll have 35.5 hours in anyway. 

Right now its a snow day out there and we're getting it good but its supposed to warm up this week. It's not going to stay on the ground but never say never.

I got a email alert from my Connect 2 Edmonton (C2E) message board as I'm subscribed to a couple of threads. One is called "Edmonton construction projects." I've been noticing over the past few weeks some construction going on slightly North of the Clareview LRT and one of the posters asked about what was going on. I noticed a crane as my morning bus turned the corner at the Clareview theaters but I could see the crane for a brief second. Today I was able to (thanks to c2e) put a name to that project: The City of Edmonton is building a multi use $90 million rec centre, which is under construction and should be ready for 2014. It's also going to have a City of Edmonton library branch as well. It's going to be nice to have a hot tub and a sauna within easy walking distance as well as all the other amenities that come with it. The link is here .  

On my commute in the morning, these are the projects under development; Clareview rec centre,  Station Pointe, there's a warehouse facility being built on the yellowhead, RK East by Riverside Towers, Boyal street co-op facility and a block West where I'm exiting Corona station is the new Mayfair 250 block apartment complex almost completed and that's just on my way to work! If that isn't enough, just looking out our window I can count 3 construction cranes, one behind Grant MacEwan one over behind the old Army & Navy building and one way out east. I don't know what that one is. And if THAT's not enough, we have the new Alberta museum in the works in the next year or so, and it was announced yesterday a new 3,500 seat opera house in the Arts district. Plus the LRT expanding to NAIT line under full construction and that's just in my sphere of influence that I know of! So, there's a lot going on and I love it. 

I'm trying to catch up on my reading this weekend. I hope. Anyway, that's about all for now.      

I had a good sleep overnight

for a change Keith did a few things on the laptop for me but we have a few more things to do yet but I can begin to re install things.

I've got a full day ahead. Anne and I were to meet up the street at Sobey's because she got off work at 9pm but when I had left the building she was there outside waiting for me. Apparently she got out a bit early because of her break or something. We went to Corona's Tim's she didn't get anything but I wanted a blueberry fritter for my desert. After Keith did did some work for me I had my dinner (home made tacos) and we watched the news.

Some interesting developments from Ottawa. The Harper Govt went and labeled Greenpeace an extremist organization. Love it, then the opposition goes around and whines about it. 

The other thing on a more personal note to me is that Alberta Monitoring (diabetes) announced as of July 1st of this year they were raising the ammount they pay out to diabetics increased from $550-$650. I don't use it much because the only thing I need it for is test strips and I don;t test my bsl that much. I'm more concerned with my insulin. 

The Oiler's made a minor trade to Anaheim yesterday, Omar but I can't remember the name drop but tonight the Oiler's play Denver. Still no TV installed at the office. Anyway, that's all for now. .

My wife was just on her way

to work got a call from the vet saying that we can pick up Sparky's ashes anytime so she's going to pick them up this afternoon come home put them in a temp urn for him by his photo. It took them 11 days from the time the Doctor put him down until today so it was really fast. He was cremated separately from the other animals because we paid to have that done. At least we'll get something of hkim back. When his brother Sporty goes and Silky, we'll have an urn for all three of them together in one urn. We'll that's the idea. We also got a sympathy card today as well from the vet and the staff. Very nice. So it's finally over for Sparky and almost for us.

After work this evening in rare circumstance Anne and I get off our jobs at the same time, so she said she'd like to ride home on the train with me. Sounds good.

I got a pen drive from Keith that has the programs for me. I called him as he suggested when I got after the Leaf/Oiler game and he was supposed to call me back after supper but it was kind of late. I don't mind if he wants to wait until the weekend. It's family day weekend. Also Jordan was there this evening and he said that the program he has for me is a compressed full file but I'm still getting a license for Cubase 6 at the end of the month. Anyway, that's all for now.

I got into work

Tuesday morning no problem and had an OK first half and called Anne. She made me some sausage rolls and some mexi fries for lunch and a couple of sandwiches. I had a better 2nd half and ended up with #2 total on our board. I think everyone from De up was doing the political thing, all in all I had a good day.

The TV hasn’t been hooked up yet only because we’re waiting for the cable to come in and then the TV will be mounted and hopefully it’ll be in the middle of the room for everyone.

I talked with Anne at my 4:30pm and I asked her if I could have the $500 only because I want to get Cubase 6 and that if I only get $400 it’s going to delay me getting the program by 2 weeks, so she agreed.

Also Keith said he tried calling about 6pm but I think Anne had the Vacuum cleaner going and I missed his call. He said he would give me the pen drive and all the programs and their exe files would be available for me to download on my own and I kind of thought he’d be going in that direction. I can do this on a Saturday night.

So far it’s been day 4 since I asked Blogger for that bit of help. I should check and see if there was a response but I somehow doubt there was. Monday morning we received another note under the door that the plumbers are coming in to fix pipes and taps and crap. This was like 2 weeks ago, yeesh.

February it’s NHL hockey trade deadline and there are some Oiler names floating around: Ales Hemsky, Nikolai Khabibulin, but no Paajarvi or others. Most likely the Oiler’s are going to get screwed again. Their “trades” lately have been lack luster at beast. It would be nice if we could get a Rick Nash but when the Oiler’s “trade” they usually unload salaries and talk future considerations. As usual the Oiler’s could remain quiet but never say never, anyway, that's all for now.

The plan was to head out of here

about 7:45am this morning and head over there to Alberta Works in Northgate Mall. Last week when Anne called, they said they’d send us a package in the mail about adult health benefits, which we got today but other things kind of got in the way. We’ll go next Monday morning.

So I have a night off, before I have a full week in front of me. I’m working Tuesday for a full 8 hours, same with Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday is 7.5 hours and my favorite day of the week, is Saturday afternoon at 4:30pm, which is home time and 2 days off.

Most likely Keith will be able to set something up with me this week for my laptop but I‘m only using my laptop for music production. My web surfing, blogging and other activities will be done on my desktop. Eventually this year, I want to get a new desktop and a more powerful laptop, anyway that's all for now

I had a nice day off today just lounging around. Even wrestling was good this evening. Maybe they'll have the big screen TV up in the office when I go in for tomorrow and I hope they have it in the main floor so everyone can see it. After 2 days off, I'm happy to go back to work tomorrow and get on with my week. I'm going to pop into Tim's and get my usual cup of coffee and find my usual seat and settle in for the afternoon. I've got nothing pressing to do for the short term or even long term.

By this time last Monday Sparky was dead. Anne mentioned that he was moving under the blanket that often drapes over the couch onto the floor. The last image he saw of us was Anne about 6pm last Monday night and I'm heart broken all over again. I know it's not so but lately Anne's been upset about all the cat litter she has to clean and I'm wondering did she talk with the Doctor to invent some excuse to have Sparky put down for her own ends? Did the Doctor have a slow day and invent this "heart condition" Sparky allegedly have? She was the one that harped on Pledges dying. I might have been in denial until I saw the blood spot on the rug. Anne thinks it was some form of cat Leukemia. Too me Sparky looked like a healthy cat, except he wasn't eating. He would eat a little bit here and there and I did see him drink water Sunday night. I don't think any of our cats are going to get ill and die anytime soon, not that I'd wish for that. Now that I think about it, I should have sent Anne out first and let Sparky's last image be of me. 

After I get Cubase 6 at the end of the month, I'm saving up for a new desktop PC. I'm looking at a HP Pavilion; it has 8 Ram, a T2 hard drive and 6 core processor, all for under a grand. Anne and I will share the laptop. I'm going to start saving for it after I get HAlion 4 in March and save up for the desktop beginning first week in April. It's going to take me 3  months to save up for it, so I figure I'll have it around the end of June. Well that's the plan. Anyway that's all for now. 

I love my Saturday nights

My favorite time of the week is when it's 4:30pm and I'm putting on my coat and packing my gear to head out the building and on the LRT heading for home. 

I didn't realize I had forgotten that because the Oiler's were on the tail end of an Eastern road trip the game being in Ottawa would have began about 10am our time. It was probably all but over by our noon break. If we would have had the big TV set up we would have been able to watch some of it. The Oiler's won 4-3 in OT.

Despite me getting ill with this bronchial thing or whatever it is and losing Sparky Monday, it's been a rough month.I still have whatever this thing is but I've got a bit of a break here. My voice is stronger then ever and despite the rough week I've had, I feel pretty good. I've got a sleeping pill here ready to take and I'm haeding into bed about 2am. 

Today, Keith said he'd call me to set up the programs I would need to have my laptop ready. Then I can install my music programs and work on a couple of instrumentals. I also asked Blogger for some help as I'm having some layout things that are bugging me. Namely my Header. I have some text I want to re-size, realign, change the font color and save some real estate on the Blog. Other then that Sunday is going to be a reading kind of a day. 

I've been checking around and there's a "new" occult bookstore here in the City: Holy Graal books. Apparently they have a large collection of Masonic material. Maybe next Saturday, I'll check them out.

One of the websites I like to visit is "Above Top Secret." it's a alternative news site. Under "breaking news" is this article: Deadly attacks on Iranian nuclear scientists are being carried out by an Iranian dissident group that is financed, trained and armed by Israel’s secret service, U.S. officials tell NBC News, confirming charges leveled by Iran’s leaders. The original article is out from "Rock centre." I could see the Israeli's actually doing something like. There was an assassination of a high ranking official, I think in Syria. Anyway, that's all for now.   

I'm

feeling less and less depressed about Sparky. Anne had a talk yesterday with the receptionist yesterday paying the balance of our bill and she said that they were not really 100% sure the FIP virus is what took Sparky because FIP is very complicated and apparently not all that well understood by vets. Sparky's main concern was his heart as it was somewhat abnormal and that and the possibility of having FIP is what did him in. We were talking about this on my break at 2:30pm. I said how after 1 of our other cats dies off, then we're could look at adapting a couple of young cats from the same cage so they all get along. Anne thinks Boot's will go first. I hope not, I kind of like the little guy.

Enough about cats already. I left out of here shortly before 9am and after a brief wait under clear sunny skies. I caught the train waiting at Clairview for awhile and 15 minutes later I was taking the escalators at Corona up to street level and into Tim's. There was little James and Kingsly leaving with coffees and I enjoyed my breakfast inside for a change. This time I brought my insulin

.

My day wasn't bad. I work in a call centre and I had top total, which for this campaign isn't saying much. I got $100 in card as well. I was happy to call my wife at 2:30pm and even happier to leave out of there at 4:30pm.

Over the past couple of days I've been doing some "Youtube research" about a keyboard workstation i've been kind of drooling over: The Roland Fantom G6. This is a sweet keyboard with loads of instrument patches. It has a slick editing feature and comes with Cubase Ai. I can't see myself learning how to play a guitar or buying a dedicated guitar emulator with a 50 Gb sound library. This makes more sense althogh its very pricey: $3044 after taxes but my colleauge who's a dedicated shopper at LM suggested I open an account. He said LM wouldn;t ecpect anyone to just come out and buy the whole thing out right. Thing is I don't have a credit rating but I have the same job for over 10 years and lived in the same place for about the same. My friend said that if come up with about 50% he'd vouch for me (not co sign or anything.) After Komplete 8, this has some possibilities.

Anne's bringing deli pizza home tonight and I'm watching the Oiler's in Ottawa playing the Sens. Plus I have all day off Sunday and that business we have to do Monday. Other then that..Anyway, that's about all for now.

It's been 5 days since

we lost Sparky and the thought of losing him breaks my heart. I can't believe I'm saying this but work right now is the best therapy.

Right now it's a bitter -17* out there but its supposed to warm up after the weekend and I'm looking forward to that. 

Anne's heading down to the Legislature to bring those pension forms in and then she's coming up to pay me a visit at lunch (4:30pm) and is bringing me some "Taco Bell." She wants to see the new office and check it out. 

What really upsets me about losing Sparky Monday is that we had him and then he's gone. The signs were there that he was just withering away and even if we did bring him home, he would have suffered even more and might have had heart failure right here. The FIP was also stressing his heart as well. Sparky's passing is a wake up call for me as it makes me realize how we can have something one minute and it can be taken away from us the next. I know Anne is really hurting and if I could make a deal with God my life for a healthy breathing Sparky, in a heartbeat. I would even make a pact with the devil if I could, I love Sparky that much. 

After work it's to my bank and home and a few short hours off and in bed by about 1am and back at it 10am to wait out in the cold. Saturday morning I'm having my breakfast at Tim's. None of this waiting in the cold for 15 minutes while somebody opens the outside door. At 10 minutes to 10am I'll leave Tim's and then walk to the office. It's still not open as James or somebody has to open the door to let outside staff in. But at least I'm having my breakfast and my insulin.

If those pension forms are ok, Anne's going to give me $400 to help pay Sparky's expenses. Another $200 more and then I get Komplete 8. I'll use FL Studio for now then Cubase 6 later in the Spring when I get that.

For good reason Anne doesn't want another cat and I don't either. At least not now maybe when we're down to just 2 of them. I'd like to adapt the cats if say there are 2-5 in a cage and I can pick one out and Anne the other. One I'd like to name Jazz and the other Skippy. Nothing can replace any of our cats, it doesn't work that way.

Why in 1974, living in my little New Westminster studio apartment, I never had a cat? Assuming I could have kept him for 18 years he would have been with me up until about 1992 and I would have got Pledges a year later. Anyway, that's all for now.

Since Monday night

its been really depressing around here what with losing Sparky Monday.

This year so far hasn't been very good to me/us. For me, it starts off with moving into this new office and I'm having trouble getting used to it. Then I go on holidays and I get this bronchial thing or whatever it is. When I come back from "vacation"I get a large amount of vacation pay and a voice in the back of my mind was telling me to hang onto as much of it as I could. Then my laptop breaks down (my fault) Then Anne loses some of her hours and then Sparky gets ill and dies on us. What has God got in store for me next? I believe it's going to get wore before it gets better.

I've got a full day of work today and I'm not feeling all that great with the death of Sparky still on my mind haunting me. the "good news" is I've got only 3 days and I'm off for Sunday and Monday.

This week I'm calling AW too see if we can get some income support and or some health benefits for me. My wife wants to find another job as well so maybe we can utilize their resources for us. I'm going to set us up an appointment for Monday.

Yesterday we had the inspectors here checking things over. They want to come in and fix up the taps and things.

If you have just joined this program in progress you might have seen some new window dressing. I added a photo of me in the description and added a couple of photos of my dearly departed: Pledges and Sparky, I love them so much.

I'd like to fix up the blog description and fill up a lot of the blue empty space there and add some photos underneath that. I'll ask the forums for some help soon. Right now, I'm still not over Sparky.

Hey, hey, I've got my 2nd follower to this blog. Welcome aboard. There's no words of wisdom to this site or anything but welcome just the same. I hope you find it entertaining. Anyway, that's all for now.

I feel a bit better

better about Sparky. I think what gave him this Corona virus (FIP) was Boots, he's a carrier.

Slowly Anne and I are phasing back into our old routines but Sparky will never be forgotten. it's going to be a long time before we get another cat. But if Boots is the carrier as I suspect he is, next to go could be Silky or Sporty and that could happen at anytime. As soon as I hear one of them gasping for breath, it's going to be time to put that one down, right away.

Actually I went into work this morning for the afternoon shift and I got Anne's pension release forms completed. My boss said if I wanted to take the day off, that's ok and I took him up on that. I had a chat with Noreen. She's the woman that Anne and got Sparky & Sporty from in May 0f 2005. So I had a talk with her and she says she's still got 3 of the original 6 in that litter. I told her about Sparky on Monday and about this Corona FIP virus and she said all her cats are healthy and obviously the same age as Sparky was. So this leads me to believe that Boot's is the carrier and infected Sparky because Boots was the stray. FIP is incurable to cats. It's fatal as it was to Sparky.

Anyway, I caught the train home at about 12:30pm. It was brisk and clear outside under sunny skies this morning and coming home. I sat on the right side on my of the train coming home this afternoon and passing the back end of Costco, I could see the Pet Smart loading zone but Anne tells me that the vet hospital doesn;t have a loading zone so Sparky's remains would have been taken out the front way. Every time that I'll go near that building on a bus or a walk home from Wendy's, I'll always think of Sparky.

Anne and I were talking though that if we ever did get another cat we'd adapt one from Pet Smart. Give someone else a home. But so long as Boots is here and has the FIP he's going to infect every cat that comes in here.

Ok, onto other things. I still haven't got the programs Keith was going to install for me from last weekend. I want to star making some music but I can't even install my FL Studio. little alone Komplete 8 when I get a chance to get it. If I do.

Tomorrow I have a full day ahead of me, a full 8 hours and next week a short check but also I have no further Lodge stuff to do this month as well, so that is good news. Anyway, that's about all for now.

And lastely here are the 2 brothers together

now only death separates them from life. The thing with Sparky was he never developed properly. He always had a tiny head and a large body but his passing is going to leave a huge void around here and it's going to be hard to fill, if ever

 

 and that's going to be the hardest part. Anne and I don't have kids and these guys are our kids. I just wish we didn't have to separate Boot's from Sporty & Silky. Anne doesn't want another cat and to be honest it's too soon to even think about it. Anyway, that's about all for now

And this image of Sparky

taken 9:51pm Saturday July 19th 2008. He would have been 2 years old here.

I managed to snag this one of Pledges from my Picasa

library of photos. It was taken Monday April 4th 2008. He would have been 17 years old here and at this time he was perfectly healthy.

I called into (RIP Sparky 2006-2012)

the office last nigh to let the boss know I wasn't coming in for today because we had to put Sparky down last night. He had what was called the Corona virus a strain called FIP, which can't be cured. It's fatal, the Doctor said. he took us in privately to a small room and showed us x-rays and samples that he took. He said if it was his cat he would take him home and monitor him for a couple of days and see what happens but in his opinion Sparky was to gone into the virus. He might have survived until the weekend but to put him through any more suffering because his breathing was labored and he wasn't eating anything. it might have given us a few days with him but prolonged his suffering. I don't know what happens to a cat in the finale stages of this FIP and we'd have to put Sparky down eventually. I made the decision to end his suffering and put him down. Anne and I talked about it and thought it would be the best thing for him. Good for him, bad for us of course

At first I didn't want to say goodbye and I waited in the Doctors office then as I was mulling it over and the Doctor came back in said I would like to say my goodbyes. So I went into this room and there was Anne poking her head in his cage crying. Sparky perked right up when he saw me. An image I'll never forget. Anne made room for me and kissed him and said my goodbyes for about 10 minutes we were there. It was already passed closing time for the clinic and at 6pm we went to the reception desk and filled out the form to give the Doctor permission to euthanize Sparky. He wont feel a thing. We're also going to have him cremated later this month and we get his ashes in something called a scatterbox until we get him an urn. He'll be sitting next to Pledges on the coffee table.

We got Sparky & Sporty in the Spring of 2006 from Noreen in the business room. Anne and I were looking for a couple of cats to keep Silky and Pledges company. Anne was attracted to this little male Siamese kitten and I asked if there was another male but there was only a female. I noticed this spunky little tabby kitten and I said I'd take that one. Anne named him Sparky. Little did any of us know we'd have him for a short 5 years.

The Corona virus (or FIP) can be transmitted 2 ways, 1, it can rest in the imune system as a "time bomb" for years and the cat that has it display no symptoms. Usually activated by stress (Boots) 2, through bite marks when cats get into fights with each other (Boots) I think what happened because Boots was an outdoor stray cat he had the virus in him and Boots and Sparky did get into a fight recently this year and I think that's what caused it. Otherwise Sparky would have had it in his system for years if Boots wasn't in this apartment we would still have Sparky with us. I don't blame Anne because we knew nothing about this. Boot's is what's called a carrier of the virus and I think he gave it to Sparky. I'll know the next time when Boots and the other cats get into what Anne calls a "Tumble & tuk" (TT) if within 6-8 weeks of that, one of them get it. We'll know Boots is the carrier. I went to bed earlier then Anne this morning and I heard a TT from Boots & Silky and left it at that. If Silky got bitten by Boots in that last TT, within the next 6 weeks or so SIlky begins to display the same labored breathing conditions, we'll know that the FIP virus came from Boots or it was lying dormant in Sparky from birth.

As I'm beginning to sort this out in my mind it doesn't make it any easier Sparky's passing last night and overnight surprisingly I was able to sleep ok. I heard Anne laughing at something on TV but she still wanted me here because through out her day she's going to be crying and choking back tears. She doesn;t deserve to be alone on a day like today. Over the next couple of days and weeks and months ahead, life will return to "normal" and we'll move on with Sparky in our hearts but not forgotten. Life always compensates as I firmly believe for every loss there is a gain, somewhere if you know where to look. It might not happen right away, it could take weeks or even months but the universe has a strange way of filling in gaps in a void. 

Anne and I will eventually let Sparky "go" and move on and like I said life will "return to normal,"  RIP Sparky, 2006-2012.

There could be an absence of posts here over the next couple of days. I'll post something on Twitter of course but it's going to take some time to work this thing out with Sparky. Anyway that's all for now.

I called into the office just after 9pm and

explained to the boss I wouldn't be in today because of what happened to Sparky. Anne needs me at home as she couldn't bare to be alone without me. It's going to be a long night. Hard to believe Sparky is just about 1,300 feet away from our location and will be there until after the weekend when a outside contractor will take his body and cremate it for us. We get his ashes and into an urn he goes. I still miss Pledges 2 years ago.

I decided against reading James p. Hogan only because I'm in the mood for some 1st person point of view stories. When I have enough energy and I'm more or less have moved on from the initial shock of losing Sparky, I'm going to begin S.L. Viehl's "Stardoc" series and I'll flip between that and Timothy Zahn's Frank Compton series and of course the "Song of fire and ice series."

But for now I just don't have the energy to deal with any novels. It's going to be a rough week ahead. I'd be satisfied if I can make it through the work week. This is a real shocker for both Anne and myself. Sparky's ordeal is over with but ours is just beginning. We're the ones hurting not him. I just can't get that finale of image of him in the cage as we had it opened and he perked right up when he saw me. That's going to stay with me for the rest of my life. At that time he had maybe less then half an hour of life left. 

Anne and I have learned a lesson though from this: we are not going to get any more cats from a litter. I wish we could get another cat though but not while Boots is here. If boots goes within the next couple of years or less then I'd suggest we get another couple of cats from PetSmart but we're a long way from doing that. Anyway it's going to be a long night and an even longer day. I love you Sparky. Anyway that's all for now.  

I really hate days like

this. We had to take Sparky (see below) to the vet just down here at the Pet Smart. Anne hauled him down this morning about 11am and it didn't look good she said. When she came back latter she said Sparky had a heart condition and a virus and we were to go in at 5pm. Anne said the vet was going to try a few things throughout the afternoon. So, at 4:30pm we went down in the brisk clear afternoon air as the Sun was almost blinding me. 

 
This was one of the hardest walks I ever had to do. We had about a 15 min wait. The vet was a small complex just off the side by PetSmart. The Doctor came in and showed us xrays and sample fluids he took from Sparky. The Doctor said he had whats called the Corona (Feline Infectious Peritonitis) virus or FIP. There are 2 ways a cat can get this almost fatal virus. 1.) From birth as a carrier and have it all the cats life and activated at anytime. 2.) From other cats in the food or bite marks when cats fight each other. The Doctor gave us 2 alternatives; A.) Take Sparky home and monitor his condition, which will get worse. He might have days left. B.) Put him down. I thought the easiest thing to do for Sparky was to put him down so he wouldn't suffer.

We said our goodbyes as Anne went in first and I went in second. Sparky perked right up when he say me. I kissed him told him I loved (love him) him and spent some time with him. I still have this sickening feeling inside. I left the door first and Anne later and we went to the reception desk to settle up our bill. 

What we're going to do is to have him cremated and then we're going to get his ashes in a scatter box and buy an urn from Micheal's and at the end of the month have his ashes alongside Pledges. Anne was reluctant at first but saw the wisdom in it. With Sparky dead it's going to leave a huge hole in our hearts and this place is going to be so empty without him. This was his last Christmas with us. On the bright side we still have his brother Sporty & Silky and those two love each other and we have Boots as well, but I'm going to really miss Sparky.

When Pledges went in 2009, I didn't mind it so much because he was old and had a long life and we still had the 4 other cats. Little did we know that Sparky had a time bomb in him that could have gone off at anytime. Did he get FIP from Boots, or from the mother as a kitten? It's hard to say. 

But it's going to feel pretty empty around here over the next few weeks and the months ahead. We'll get through it but in the meantime losing Sparky was like losing a piece of my soul. When it was their turn he'd always cuddle up beside me. He was a very loving cat.

We left out of the vet at about 6pm over to Tim's for a coffee with Sparky weighing heavy on our hearts. By 6:30pm as we began our way home crossing the 50th street intersection it was hard to keep my vision focused on PetSmart knowing we were less then a 100 feet from our lifeless cat. If there is a heaven and I think there is, if I go I hope I'm with Sparky and Pledges and my wife. Sleep is going to be hard to come by tonight. 

I love you Sparky, always. Anyway, that's all for now.

For me the mark of a good book is when I can

finish it in 2 weeks, like I did with Timothy Zahn's "Domino Pattern." I'm no in the early stages of James P' Hogan's last novel "Moon Flower." I'll probably have this finished about the end of March what with all my Lodge work and everything.

Today I'm going to swing down to LM in the morning and get Komplete 8. It's going to cost me nearly $600. Normally I like to use a demo of the product before I buy the whole thing but because this has 27 different instruments and I've done a lot of research on this product, I'm just going to buy it outright.

Speaking of software and such, Keith said he'd call me at noon today and install the finale pieces of software he said I'd need before I can install. I'd like to reinstall FL studio and when I get Komplete 8 install that and have some fun but I can't do that until Keith does his bit. He has Team viewer a popular remote desktop application that lets users from other locations take control of your desktop (with your permission of course) to work on your computer. 

Tonight, I'm buying Anne and myself Pizza and I'm off for tomorrow running down to LM early in the afternoon and pick up the program and head home. 

I watched the first quarter of the Super Bowl and lost interest in it. I had a $5 bet on NY and I guess I won, whu who. Anyway that's all for now.

I've got 6 hours toady but it's going to be a long day

I'll get my usual Tim's breakfast head into the office, wait outside for my usual 10 minutes and then have my breakfast take my insulin and start another 6 hours, uggh.

Since I have barely enough to get what I really want from LM I'd be pushing it so I'm going to go and get the Korg SOS and an xlr cable for my audio interface. After that, it's over to BP's to meet with some of my colleagues for a drink and home. I'm not sticking around unless the "entertainment" value has some possibilities otherwise it's home, have a bite to eat pass out and play around with the SOS for awhile and then watch the Oiler game.

 

Speaking of witch the NHL is still buzzing over Sam Gagner's 8 point night He became the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd star of the  night. That‘s only happened I think once in Oiler history. Mario Lemieux was the last player to get an 8 point night. Gretzky did it twice and Paul Coffee once. To get 8 points in 1 night along with 4 goals is quite the thing and I'm glad it happened to the Oiler's. The bad news is Calgary won 3-1 last night which doesn't do the Oiler's any good. I wish I could have seen that game but I was at the Lodge, screwing up all over the place. Anyway, that's about all I have for today.

I needed to be prompted a few times and

I missed a part about labor to refreshment, which I didn't even know was part of the degree. My bad and I broke the gavel as well. But others were had to be prompted as well.

I got the scores on the hockey game from a brother through out the night and wow, the Oiler's sure do have Chicago's number. Sam Gagnre had 4 goals! The Oiler's won 8-4! Wow, I'm sure the Rexall faithful appreciated the effort and the W. 

I was going to mention this from last night but most people around the night, already know about Facebook going public. I use Facebook maybe once a week, if that.

Despite screwing a few things up and my attention drifted when they called me "JW" a couple of times but earlier I did say how if "I tune out its I've been having a bad had cold with some bronchitis." It was fun but I was off my night all while we had somebody from Grand Lodge there and a few guests. I screw up but so did a lot of others as well. Next month is going to be an easy meeting so I'm going to feel a lot better.

Next week, I'm working, Monday 4 hours, Tuesday 8, Wednesday 8, Thursday 8, Friday 7.5, Saturday 6. That's going to be: 41.5 hours. 

Coast has had a couple of boring sows this week but tonight is on ancient astronauts, so at least this could be a good show. 

Work is has been going slow for me lately. I got $100 in sales all day Wednesday and $45 in sales for half a day yesterday. One of the main things I'm getting is the customer is asking for a website for further information and they can make donations online. I had about 8 of those in a 4 hour shift yesterday. I also get this a lot, "If you send out information, we'll take a look at it." Then my colleagues around me are getting huge sales. At least on this one I'm able to get a few  sales in a shift. On the other one, I've been 2-3 days without a sale. It's time to get out of there and I'd love to get something other then telemarketing. Monday Anne and I are going down to Alberta Works and put our name in. Anyway, that's all for now.

I've got half a day

here and then it's home grab a bite to eat and then make a phone call to set up a ride and then shit, shower, shave dress and head out to Lodge. Don't forge my keys/apron. 

I have a big night tonight, help to Open the Lodge, EA exam which I have to ask the candidate all the pertinent questions, then there's a part in the FC work I have to do and then another part, and then Closing the Lodge, and then the festive board after that. It's going to be a big night and I'll be relieved when it's over.

Anne's experiencing a slow time at work as she's getting a minimum of 6 hours/week. I thought they had to give at least 16 hours but I guess not. Until she gets her 4 days back I can't justify buying Cubase 6, at least not just yet. This Spring for sure. If I still have a job myself in early April, I'm going on leave for 10 days and hopefully if Anne's up to full strength at her job at the end of this month, then I'll get that and Halion 4, that'd be cool to have those at the same time just before I go on my time off.

At least the weather is good, they call this effect "orbital oscillation." It's the upper portion of the globe wobbling keeping the jet stream around the middle of Alberta but it's causing havoc in Europe. They're having their worst winter in years. After the winter we had last year, we'll take this no problem.

I slept ok over night but I could use another 4 hours of sleep. What to do, head in for 4 hours or sleep for 4? We need the hours. At the festive board, I'm going to have a beer and with that in my system, I should sleep ok.

If nothing happens with my job and I put full hours in this month, rent for March will be taken care of. Utilities, food and our ISP are our 3 main concerns. Other then this week for the month, I'm putting in full hours. That's 44 hours/week. Too say I'll be exhausted on Saturday afternoon's this month, is an understatement. 

It's kind of interesting what's going on in Iran right now. The Russians are blocking activity at the UN and are allies with Iran because they have their only navel base in Iran and Russia is Iran's main customer for military hardware. With the presence of the Russians Iran could shut down the straight of Hormuz. That'd be interesting. Anyway, that's all for now.