I got 2 more days off

here before I go back to work. That's ok, at least I'm getting  (for now) steady hours. 

It was built in 1978 but satellite ISEE-3 is staying alive. Thanks to band of space enthusiasts that located the spacecraft and have managed to "talk to it" and to resurrect some of its instruments that can still provide useful data. The project is mostly a labour of love for the 75 team of scientists working on their own time, from the people (some in there 80's) that originally worked on the satellite to younger scientists in their 20's-30's. They raised about $140,000 to be able to work on this project. You can read more about it here.

Anne and I opted out of "Money in the bank" mainly because it would have cost us more money, which we don't have. We'll probably get the WWE network soon. That and my blood sugar readings were very unstable all day and by the time we would have come back, it would have been about 9pm and Anne needed to do Face Time with her sister.    

I'm heading out of here about noon today so I can get to my bank get the form for work and then across the street to get  my Eagles book. The only tough part about the job is the long distance getting there. It's not like I catch a train and walk a block and I'm there within 30 minutes. At least though, its steady. Anyway, that's all for now.

Yes we know BC

starter quarterback was on the CFL sidelines but still it's a week #1 win for Eskimo fans. Esks 27/BC 20. The difference was 5 turnovers for BC and 1 for the Esks. 

Curious to see where the next Star Wars movie Episode 7 is at in production I was surprised to discover that Harrison Ford has a leg injury for 8 weeks. The good news is that the movie is slated for a December 18 2015 release. We're still 18 months away from showtime. I'm looking forward to see how Disney will handle this movie.

Hopefully tomorrow my bank is open so I can get my bank form for the job and deposit our rent money. Then I can go across the street to Audrey's and get my Eagles book and home for Monday night Raw. 

This afternoon Anne and I are going to try and watch "Money in the bank." I got 3 more sleep in's before Wednesday. I can still sleep in until about 10:30am as I don't have to leave out of here until 1pm to get there by 3pm. The only tough day is Saturday but then I got 2 days off and a chance to go to Monday night lodge. There's 2 of them, one at Freemason's Hall and the other one at Highlands Hall, the first Monday and the 2nd Monday and then mine on that Friday. I'd rather we go on a Sunday night but that's almost sacrilege. Anyway, that's about all for now.

Five days off including Friday that is

and I couldn't be happier.

After doing a bit of research I finally have come down to a decision: I'm buying a iMac for my music production. other then the lack of a CD drive the 21" i5 iMac looks like a good deal. 8 Ram and a quad core pc running at 2.7 Ghz, I'm on board. The price is about the same as a pc after the display. All I need is room for my Cubase, Komplete 8 and Maschine. Take what I have with my pc is about 20% space on a 1Tb. For music production cpu speed is more important to me then Ram. I hope to get the iMac by labour day weekend

The Edmonton Oilers picked Leon Draisaitl 3rd over all. He's a big centre and that's what this club needs. I hope Mac T can get a big name player utilizing some of the free agent trade bait before July 1st. 

Speaking of music, I was putting a little track together in Maschine stand alone mode. It's about a minute long called "Hey." Deep lyrics huh? It's just a sample and I'm going to include a little guitar work in there as well. 

I took a sleeping pill a few minutes ago. Anne's working today so I get another night off by myself. I don't go back to work until Wednesday but I'm not going to hang around and do nothing until they decide to do something. Last Summer I was lucky if I got 8 hours a week from Late June until the end of August. I don't want to go through that again. Anyway, that's all for now.

Dilemma's are interesting and mine is

challenging to say the least. My current situation with my market research job is project based, what my availability is and my flow rate determines if I get any hours. Also, the tap on my current job in the summer (as far as work goes) trickles out like a leaky faucet. We're expecting another project but that's up to the whim of the client when we start. It's up to the whim of my survey house manager to determine how many hours I get. So here's the dilemma part, I got a more or less permanent job today way out in the West end. It's only 26 hour/week but the bonus structure is good. People have been there for as little as 1 month to 4 years, 8 to thirteen etc. It's from 3-9. I get Sunday's and Mondays off. Sometime this afternoon I could get a email from my market research job saying for me to come in Saturday onward for 6 days. That conflicts with my other job that starts Wednesday. I'm not sure what to do here. Hence my dilemma. If a schedule doesn't come in today, then great. If one does I'm going to say something like a situation has come up I'll be in on Monday. Monday night I'll explain face-to-face with my manager and ask if I can work just Sunday's as others have done 1 day a week. If that's ok, then great, there is no conflict. If not, I'm just going to ask for a couple of months off, return in September. My market research job will dry up in the summer anyway but if I work out at the new place, then all the better. I want to keep the doors open too my market research job, if the new one works  out. I'm just three years away from my full pension and the market research job would fit in just perfectly with that. "What? I'm off for 2 weeks, wu-who," type thing. Ok that dilemma is more or less ironed out. 

While Anne and I were out this afternoon after our successful interview, we had just missed our #137 bus. I always bring my camera along. We waited in the hot Sun at 108th Ave and 178th street waiting for our 137th home so Anne snapped this photo of me sitting on the grass on the corner there with the Evergreen tree behind me:

People are already saying good things about the picture above. So our bus came along and it packed up in a hurry. I sat facing East to get a good glimpse of where the new West end Long & McQuade (LM) store is. We got held up by train traffic in a bus that was standing room only. I caught a glimpse of the LM logo and now I know where it is just off of Saint Albert Trail and 137th Ave. Anne had a great idea: Lets go into Wendy's at Northgate for dinner. I hadn't been at that location before.

Coast to Coast has another great show underway. Tonight they are talking about water locked up in rocks 400 miles under the earth, strange droning sounds in Michigan, and "Kewper Anonymous," the US Army cryptographer who worked for the CIA in 1957-1960 and was briefed about UFOs. Sounds like a great show. Thursday's usually have great shows.

We decided to get the #11 bus at Northgate home and got in about 7:30pm. It was a long afternoon.

I bought my first CFL Proline ticket earlier at Clareview, 4 games all ties on a $2 ticket. If I played this out correctly it would have paid to win $554! First game underway, was Argo's/ Bomber's. First Quarter it was Winnipeg 28 Argo's..0? Whaaaaaat? The game ended  up Argo's 24- Bombers 45. Note to self, next week Home teams to win. Anyway, today I'm sleeping in. Anyway, that's all for now.

Its been a quiet week around here

but yesterday got a bit active. We  got a couple of nibbles on the job front as Anne is up for a interview this afternoon and its all the way out in the West End in the industrial park area about 8 blocks north of West Edmonton Mall (WEM). Or West Ed as locals call it. Its for 4pm and I'm going out with her upon her request. We're leaving out of here at 2:30pm. This time of day we can take 1 bus and its a one way 40 minute bus ride. We're going to have a look at the operation anyway. 

Waterfalls are a splendor to behold no doubt about it. We have Niagara Falls in Eastern Canada. There's Victoria Falls bordering Zambia and Zimbabwe and yes we have our own waterfall here in Edmonton! Yes, you heard that right. It's not that well known but water comes from the North Saskatchewan river. It's recycled water that is pumped up to our high level bridge 156 feet from the river below. Its only turned on a couple of times/year but this year there has been a project called "Light the bridge." It's a privately funded project to raise $2,560,385, from nearly 12,000 people. The light-the-bridge project will feature 1,120 luminaires (fixtures) containing almost 60,000 light emitting diodes (LEDs). Each luminaire will be fastened in such as way as to achieve a 3G vibration rating to maintain the integrity of the presentation through the natural rattles and vibrations of the working bridge.The lights can be individually controlled and dim, flash, glow and glitter in one or every imaginable colour. In other words the lights can be programmed. Its an interesting project. I don't know if the led's will be on year round or at (obviously at night) what times I'm not sure. I can almost see it coming where this will turn out to be an advertising opportunity. "Shop at Acme 50% off on all housewares tonight only from 1-9pm."  Yeesh.

Sunday afternoon Anne and I are going to Horseshoe lounge just over here to watch "Money in the bank." That's our favorite WWE event next to Wrestlemania. I like Horseshoe's pizza and we're having that and watching it on their big screen. I'm having a beer as well. It's not like going to WEM or anything but we don't have enough Scene points for that and as far as I know the WWE network isn't available here in Canada yet. 

I'm actually enjoying this week off even though there's been no income coming in, until tomorrow. I'll get my Eagles book and hopefully a nice weekend. Also, there's a CFL game on for tonight Toronto/Winnipeg and the Esks are playing Saturday and a game on Sunday. Looking forward to this CFL season: Bring it on. Also, there's the NHL free agent frenzy coming up. Good times for sports fans. Other then that not much is going on. Anyway, that's all for now.

Nothing much of anything materialized on the

job front yesterday. I managed to, however get the email contact of a call centre job I wanted to apply to. I got my resume out and managed to email my resume.

I've been so busy lately I forgot a critical Doctors appointment I had yesterday but I was able to rebook for 2:45pm this afternoon. I think he wanted a follow up on the extended benefits package he wrote his PCN on my behalf. it's stalled because I had to edit my health #. If I can get on this program, it will cover my diabetic needs, my vision, dental, the works. It's basically a waste of a Monday afternoon. I'm seeing his PCN July 4th anyway to edit the application.

Anne had went out shopping: Value Village. They have half price days and she got a few goodies but didn't come back until well after my Monday night Raw Anyway, that's all for now.

I sent out one resume earlier today and so far it has

yet to bounce back. I hope I get a interview, even though it's in the West end I don't care.

Nasa has been hard at work developing the James Webb Space Telescope. It's slated to be launched in 2018 taking up position a million miles away from Earth. It's supposed to be a 100 times more powerful then the Hubble. Apparently it has the potential to even image planets orbiting their parent stars. 2018 is just 4 years away.

Yesterday afternoon I sat out on the balcony enjoying my first coffee of the day watching the parade of people go by. Even though it was a bit breezy it was still a nice warm sunny day. I love this time of year.

I'm not much one for Soccer but the World Cup has captured a lot of interest in this city. My brother likes it. I'm more of a CFL fan. Incidentally the Esks made all of their finale pre season cuts. Their first game is next Saturday facing the BC lions.

I've got some more business today making a few phone calls. I've got about 3-4 advertising type jobs I can try for but I'm not in a rush for those,yet. I don't mind doing outside sales as long as there is an hourly rate of pay attached to it and I can sit down every so often. Anyway, that's about all for now. 

Summer Solstice is the longest day of the year but after this the days -

gradually get shorter. 

I haven't watched Saturday afternoon wrestling in a long time. Kind of reminds me of the old Stampede wrestling  days of the '80's. It was also good to have a night off.

The NHL is releasing its schedule for the 2014-15 season today and the Oiler's first game is October 9th. I try to watch as many games as possible.The Oiler's have a few players coming up through the ranks but unless they start playing better defense, then his upcoming campaign will most likely end up with the same results as this years. I think Taylor Hall is becoming a little frustrated with being on a losing team all the time. It showed a little with the water bottle toss at the coach earlier this year. Even the fans are getting frustrated tossing jersey's on the ice.

For the most part Saturday was very quiet. I stayed indoors all day. Anne made me a great burger/fries before she went to work. I had a relaxing night to myself and I'm almost ready for bed.

Summer officially is finally here

or so one would think. At least I have a weekend off.

The football (pre-season) Esks/Riders game ended with a Eskimo victory. On hostile turf no less. The bad news is it wasn't televised. TSN would rather have us watch a Calgary/BC. Boring. It was also good to see Ottawa win in Montreal no less.

Coast has a pretty good show going on right now: Paranormal Great Lakes and Mississippi River. The story of the Edmund Fitzgerald. I'm reminded of the song by Gordon Lightfoot "The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald." It's a long drawn out song. The ship Edmund Fitzgerald has been seen again 10 yeas after it sunk in 1975. 

There was no work schedule in my email in-box, and I sort of was expecting it, but it means I have no work over the weekend and for the rest of the week. Fortunately for us and my cpp, I'll have most of the rent paid. The rest by mid next  month when I'm back to work at the end of this month. It also means I can't sit on my butt for 2 weeks either. My wife and I are really struggling. It means I'm going to have to take an advertising job at a place I don't care about. Something disposable so I can get the money, in and out. I'm going to send out some resume's this weekend to places that I can work long term that's steady. I'm tired of hand from mouth type thing

I might as well enjoy the weekend off, I might not get another one for awhile. Anyway, that's all for now.

This morning before bed I was able to

get my little Samsung camera to upload a 30 second video to YouTube. The frame rate has to be set to 320 x 240 and no longer then 30 seconds. It doesn't upload directly to YouTube but the work-a-round is to email the video to self and then drag and drop the video to YouTube. I can upload YouTube video's ok from my iPad but then I still get those black bars on either side of the video, uggh. 

 
I would have had my schedule emailed to me by now, and so far nothing in my in-box from the office. In other words it looks like I have no work lined up for next week. Anne was looking around last night and found a couple of things of interest, we'll both be looking into. I'll find something to keep me going until work becomes available between now and the end of the month. 

As I post this it doesn't look good for a schedule in my email. It's already going on to 2:30pm. Next week also includes tomorrow but at least I have enough hours for most of July's rent. So I've got to get my ass in gear and get onto something after the weekend. We still have bills to pay. With $4 bucks to my name, the weekend doesn't look good. Yet I recall when I had nothing. Anyway, that's all for now.

About 5am this morning was when I finally climbed

into bed after finishing the last few pages of "Galaxy in Flames."

Last night when I came home before getting off the bus, I could feel my blood sugar dropping. I get lightheaded. If I had eaten those sandwiches at break, I might have been fine. My glucometer readings dropped from 13.4 about 7pm to 5.8 at 9:30pm. My pharmacist wanted me to go from 24 units to a dosage of 28. Normally a vial of insulin can last me about a week dialing up to 18 dosage. Now with up to 28 dosage it's going to be interesting to see how much a vial will last at 28. The pharmacist was also suggesting yesterday that we increase the dosage even further to up to 30 or even 40! 

Looks like there's no work available for this weekend. This current project is about to wind down. We have a new project coming up within the next couple of weeks or sooner and I don't know if its days or evenings. 

My commute is overcast out there with a bit of showers here and there. At least I have a rain gear poncho. Anyway, that's about all for now.  

Yesterday on my day off

I was able to remove a lot of files off my C drive. Actually about 4 Gb worth:

Now all I need is funds for a internal drive but preferably a better desktop PC. This one is closing in on 10 years old already. It's had only 1 upgrade since 2005 but the external drive above was a good deal for less then $100.

One of my colleagues on Facebook was asking what am I doing for work these days but I don't discuss my job situation on FB. On my blog, I only talk in vague generalities. Except of course if the company folds and are no longer in operation like Xentel. That's where most of my colleagues are from and they hit me on FB hoping I can find jobs for them, yeesh. Go look on Kijiji that's what I do.

At Corona station Sunday night, I noticed a long panel strip of some kind hanging over head between track 1 & 2 in the early stages of being installed. On the Connect 2 Edmonton lrt thread one of the posters mentioned about it earlier today that it's supposed to be a signaling panel for the metro line extension. Since I wasn't there last night, I'll be able to see it's progress tonight.

I'm just about ready to finish "Galaxy in flames" and move onto "The Flight of the Eisenstein." Looking forward to this part in the series.

I'm out of here at 4pm for my afternoon commute. I've got for hours tonight and I won't know until I get into the office to see if I have hours for tomorrow or Friday night until I see any changes to the schedule. I want to catch the boss before he leaves. If I've got nothing, then I have to resort to plan B.

I had fun

watching Monday night Raw, good show. I haven't seen Vince in quite awhile. He's almost 69 years old. He's about due for an appearance on Raw.

It was a short shift Monday night. I don't know what's available for next week, so it looks like I'm going to have to get something disposable. There's about half a dozen advertising jobs I could do do. Most of them give about 3 days. I think there's another project starting up near the end of the month but I have no conformation on this. if I was working at the warehouse job I had in the 80's and this, it'd be a match made in heaven. If the new project starts by the end of the month, then it could go to August. 

I have today off and I go back Wednesday. Hopefully I'll have something for Thursday/Friday. If not and there's no schedule for next week then I'll be doing advertising. I'll set that up Thursday/Friday. Anyway, that's about all for now. 

Although I missed out on a few hours I'm

ok with leaving out of the office with 5.5 then 7.5 yesterday. We lose two hours but I'll be making up for it, somewhere this week. I'm also more or less ok with having Tuesday off.

Lately I've been getting a lot of request or notifications from the "latest and greatest" social media trend, Linkedin. At the moment I have little or no interest in linkedin or what anyone else is doing on linkedin. If people want to contact me, I'm on Facebook. 

Google has been working on a self driving car fo awhile now. The Google car. You get in, program your destination and it drives itself. These cars will be most likely wifi enable to protect passengers in cars from other cars. Some US states already allow for testing of these kinds of vehicles. You can YouTube this and get a bunch of responses. Most likely when early models come out, the price point will be high. Later as they catch on and with more features, and killer apps, the price will drop. I doubt  the Google car will work here in Edmonton weather though. My main concern is these cars could be hacked into. Even cars today have been hacked into what with recent cases with "Onstar"etc. I think the Google car will go quietly away like Google glass but one never knows.

Some sad news from Hollywood: American disc jockey, radio personality and actor Casey Kasem died yesterday at the age of 82. While Kasem barely entered into my consciousness growing up as a teenager I was aware that Kasem was the host of the music radio programs such as American Top 40 etc. Sad indeed. 

I actually had a good day on the job yesterday pulling in 4 completes. We had a smaller crew on today then Saturday. I'm in for 4 hours today and off Tuesday and in for Wednesday. If I'm off for Thursday and Friday I have a plan B that I need to set in motion Tuesday for Thursday and Friday. I'll be doing this Tuesday if I'm off for those two days. I won't know what next week will bring until Friday. For the most part I was kept employed at my mr job last Summer from July-August pulling in 2 shifts/week and living off my tax return. Worked picked up in September, and it's been more or less steady since then. I expect shifts at my job to dry off though this summer at the end of the month. I know of a place that might start up in mid August but for the most part, it's going to be a struggle for Anne and I until I can get my pension. Anyway, that's all for now. 

Saturday morning I went into Tim's for my breakfast

and morning coffee and had a slow start for the day. I ended up with 6. I think my total was the top one for yesterday amongst the room. 

I almost dozed off on the train home, too exhausted to read. I have another full day of it today. I need the hours, although I'd like to have today off. 

Update: It was a long day today but I got my hours in. A colleague took this photo of me after I showed her my camera. It was taken about 6:20pm this evening. Thanks Rebeca:

 I hope everything in Calgary turned out ok yesterday. I felt bad about not being able to attend but I needed hours more then I needed an outing down to Calgary, even though it had to do with Grand Lodge. Anyway, that's all for today.

About now the guys are ready to

get on the bus for Calgary. I had options to get on the bus via Dan, possibly Mike. With Anne's hours now reduced to X2 4 hour days and my hours could be reduced as well, with 7.5 hours today I'm not going to lose $130 just to get down to Calgary for the day. It's not going to happen. If my hours would have been more steady and Anne had her hours, fine. There's always next year. 

There's been trouble again in Iraq with the AL-Qaeda splinter terrorist group known as ISIL is over running the fragile country. It's causing the price of oil to rise here in Alberta. Syria is also lending a hand to it's troubled neighbor in response to the rebels.

Finally the 2014 playoff race is over. The LA Kings won again, twice in 3 years. They were saying lat night  that NY Rangers goal tender was playing his 666th game on Friday the 13th! The Rangers we're just pouring it on in the finale 6 minutes of double OT. Maybe the numbers above had something to do with it..

In they're first pre season game the Esks held the lead in the game until late in the 4th quarter. BC won 14-11. We had 2 field goal attempts for 6 points and blew it because of a rookie kicker. The guy hit the goal post and kicked it wide. Plus the Esks squandered a pretty good run in the first half resulting in the sloppy field goal failures. BC had possession of the ball most of the time.

I watched the last hour of Smackdown and Anne came home with a deli pizza. It was that thin crust kind. All I have are just the roots of my front teeth and a few bottom ones so it was kind of hard to eat. If I get any medical benefits this Summer, I'm getting these teeth out and getting dentures. I'd rather go through a couple hours of pain for long term gain.

Today my commute begins in about an hour and I'll get some breakfast at Tim's and I'm off for a full day, and home. I think there's a CFL game on for tonight but I doubt it. I'm also going to tweak my resume as I'm applying for a security guard job. I could see myself working 5-9 for 3 days/week and the security guard job as graveyard. Something like that. I'll be sending my resume this weekend Anyway, that's about all for now.

Slight change of plans

as I asked the boss for today off instead of Saturday because there are more hours for Saturday. I get 7, instead of 4. Besides, if the Stanley Cup game is tonight, I'll be able to see it and if that's not enough, there's the Esks first pre season game and Smackdown. I have the night off to myself as a bonus.

My train yesterday arrived about 4:20pm at Corona station so I decided to take advantage of the patio at Subway and read out in the warm Sun before I headed into the office. After reading the paper in the lunchroom I logged my hours in and got right into it. I'm working from a Excel spreadsheet, so I don't need to log into a server. Work went by very slow as I didn't get one completion the whole night. I wasn't the only one. Closing time couldn't have come soon enough. 

Ahh the memories, it was this weekend 34 years ago, was the first Sherwood park "Medieval days." This was a defining moment in my life because of that weekend I was able to resolve the weekend before when my girl friend dropped me. That was part of it, but it was also special because as the Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA) was the guest of honor at the event. I was flirting with the SCA, not that I was a member or anything. I was asked by the head of our dignitaries to lead the parade as hundreds of people watched. Why I was signaled out I don't know. Later the SCA was asked to meet in a huge nearby city building. We didn't know what to expect but we were surprised when we entered the building in darkness. The lights came as we looked up and saw thousands of people gave us a standing ovation. I always thought this was the Sherwood park arena but it was the leisure center. We sat down at specially designated tables and apparently they had a nice buffet arranged for the SCA and the organizers. Many of my colleagues at the time were disappointed shortly after organizers of this event began to play contemporary music and people would get up and dance. Some of us walked out in protest. It was quite a weekend. After looking at Google maps, the whole area where we had "Medieval Days" has changed drastically. The main grounds is now a man made lake. There's the Sherwood park arena, a baseball diamond, a foot race track, Festival Place and residential development. Thirty four years can do that.

Fast forward to 2014. I got home last night shortly before 10pm. Anne made me a burrito platter, we watched the news and I'm enjoying my Innis-Gunn original beer. 

I'm going to try and read my book for a bit before bed and get up around noon today. Anyway that's all for now.

Anxiety over the pdf email was lifted

from my shoulders when I came home last night to see the pdf in my inbox. Now I hope I have enough hours for my rent for July. If I was working at my Xentel job (now long gone) I wouldn't be worried as much over this. I'm working for July's rent, now. 

Yesterday was ok going into work. Coming out of the building I was met with a torrent of rain. I was worried about my book in my bag because I had no rain gear. The Matrix hotel's Starbucks offered some shelter as I found a better spot in my bag. I should have just waited the rain cell out with a decaff or something. I checked at Corona station and the book was ok, so was my camera. I was soaking wet on the train coming home. After the train got out of the tunnel the storm clouds were exposing blue sky and drifting apart. Just coming off my bus I took this photo of the sunset about 9:45pm It was a lot lighter out there then this photo

Tonight could be the Stanley Cup hockey game as LA hopes to win it in 4 games in New York. Although it would be nice to see a Stanley Cup game Saturday night. Tonight it's game #4 and if there is a game #5 it will be Saturday night in LA and let it be done there. Bring on the off season!

We got a beautiful day out there, for now. if my hours get dropped from my current job, then I'll try out another advertizing job. I like the job I have now but it's not steady and that's where the problem lies. Anne's just got to get something going. She's beginning to make an effort and she wants to go register at another employment agency this week but I have the bus pass but she's got tickets. 

Tonight, it's a 4 hour shift. If I can work all hours in this pay period, I'll have enough for at least 2 thirds of our rent for July. I hate this. The other day at the tm job I asked a colleague who's more or less steady there, if he misses Xentel. His response was "no way." Consider the stress he's under and the source he's calling, I doubt he's getting $375/week like I was. A lot of call centre jobs are promoting their work from home option. Where my wife works, they are doing that, which is why she's only getting 2 days/week. OAS can't come early enough for me. Anyway that's all for now.

At the moment I'm concerned about a email pdf

payroll stub that comes into my email usually sometime Tuesday. This tells me what to expect in my pay cheque for Friday. I know I input my time for Friday and Saturday. Its only for 11.5 hours. Those hours are going to help us pay the rest of the rent for June, so I'm holding my breath so to speak waiting for the pay stub to come in. I just hope there's no complications.

I had a nice day off yesterday and I worked on a song I'm calling "sit in a chair." It's a little rap style number. It's in the rough draft stages for now. I have no time line for getting it out either. it's a fun project.

I didn't go out at all today. I got up about noon. Anne went down to drop off a resume downtown and went to Walmart and got me some "cheese pleasers" (cheesies) and brought us each a couple McDonald's quarter pounders/cheese as I was bouncing back and fourth between the LA/Rangers game and Monday night Raw. Raw was lame and I was hoping for Rangers to win. Anyway, that's all for now.

Saturday on

the job was long. Or rather the day was long. I'm happy I have work though. Lately I've been thinking about security guard work. Maybe work weekends and the other at my mr job. Something like that. Today the train is offline until 1pm but I'm in from noon-8pm. ETS is riding contingency buses until 1pm this afternoon. Another long day.

I snagged this off my friend Mary's FB page. It made me smile.



Last night I watched the Rangers/Kings game and that was some sloppy officiating to say the least. Goal tender  interference wasn't being called, holding the stick, holding, the works on both sides. Anyway, that's all for now.

Friday morning I made my way over to see Rob

so I could get my cheque. I had a coffee said my "see you later," type thing and home. I thought Anne had left hearing the door close but she was still in bed. 

I was able to get a hold of my Doctor's reception to rebook an appointment I had yesterday. Also, I was able to call this program OSP about some job search called "The Futures project," to get one on one support. When the voice on the phone gave the address, I had to get a second look. She said "The Baker Centre," I said '2nd floor just above the security desk?' She said, "it sounds like the old place you used to work at." Yes indeed the old office is reoccupied. So I'm going in Tuesday before work to register. Anne mentioned something and she said maybe there is a program for disabled semi retired seniors not quite 65 to get maybe cpp early. Maybe I might be able to get partial assistance and able to work part time or something like that until I can get full OAS in 3 years based on my income and not our combined income, we'll see.

I caught my 4pm train to Corona and picked up my  Warhammer 40K "Vulkan lives." I was happy to get that.

This morning I'm out of here about 9am, get my breakfast at Corona and off for a full 8 hour day, ugggh. Sunday 12-8pm but I get Monday off Anyway that's all for now.

I headed out to

PCN Northgate yesterday afternoon. While waiting for my bus I took this picture of this unusual tree. Probably bent like that from the recent wind we've been having recently:

My bus took me to Northgate and I was half an hour early. I needed a coffee and took a look around in Coles. They had 3 Warhammer 40k Omnibus books I'd love to pick up. I went upstairs to the food court and got that coffee, then over to look around at Future Shop to waste a bit of time. 

There wasn't much the pharmacist could do for me as we're ok for insulin for now and I needed to see the AW worker. She was detained with another client. So I went back over to Future shop again but they pharmacist worked with me and said I might be checking up about every 15 minutes or so until she's free. They had some nice desktop pc's and even a few laptops but there wasn't anyone around to get help how fast the cpu was for the laptops I noticed in the $600-$800 price range. Not that I'm shopping around or anything.

I brought the papers for the AW worker and Anne missed the major piece of paper she didn't fill out, so I was under a bit of pressure just there with Anne on the phone trying to get my health number her s.i.n. etc, it was stressful to say the least. I had to arrange for Anne to get there that evening to put her signature on the paper. The worker gave me a pamphlet how it deals with getting jobs for disabled individuals better then employabilities. Looks like it's a federal program. 

It was a longer ride home and Anne made me a bit to eat and headed out to Northgate to do her stuff. I caught a 5pm bus to Clareview and to the Lodge. For the most part that part turned out ok but I'm glad I'm done for the summer, such as it is. Anyway, that's about all for now.  

Over the last couple of days

Anne and I had some family as Pat & Bary were on a camping trip pulling a trailer. They said best time to go camping anywhere in this country and in the states is in June before the kids get out of school. Now they are in Lethbridge and heading towards Yellowstone and then to Devils Tower, then to see Mount Rushmore then heading back to Sydney NS.

I can't believe that I'm pinching pennies just to pay the balance of rent. We don't have much left on it but I'm getting a bit here and a bit there and I have next Friday to get it all. Fortunately I have some resources and at some time this month, I might have to do some temporary physical paid daily labour but I work a week and there's half my rent I haven't done stuff like that since the early 1990's!

In the next half hour or so, I'm heading out of here to go to the Northgate PC and drop some papers off. I'm applying for medical benefits to cover diabetic supplies and maybe to even get my teeth done this summer.

Then after that I'm off to lodge but its casual dress tonight. The festive board is starting early but most likely we're starting at the usual time, then it's the last lodge meeting for the summer. Hopefully I can find a successor. Anyway, that's all for now.

That was great to see

Pat & Barry yesterday and they are coming back for a couple of hours later today before they head out to Southern Alberta. This leads me into Thursday in which case I have to visit Northgate PCN to drop those papers off. I also need to apply for that 6 month course for October and I'll be doing that tomorrow as well before lodge. 

When I read this from my friend Bill's Facebook page, I thought this deserves a place here. Spread this around if you agree:




I've got a crowded studio but I moved my laptop off the ledge there by the clock and put the laptop and Maschine side-by-side and my midi keyboard on top making enough room for Silky to get by. That's his usual path to get on top of the book case behind me.

Once I get my employment picture on steady solid ground I'd like to get this little baby: It's the Roland FA 06 music workstation. Roland sounds in my opinion are the best in the business but Google/YouTube is finicky this afternoon and wont let me post a video. I'm looking at the 61 key version.

Fortunately lodge is come in my work cloths so this could be an interesting night for the last lodge before we break for Summer. Then I can have a break and focus on other things for a change. I've got 4 months to go after August and I hope I can get someone to take over in December for the next year and reduce my membership to affiliate and join RA. Well, that's the plan.

I'm not big on stats but I thought this graphic was interesting:

 


As for today not much is going on. I'm waiting for my mr boss to call me to see if I have work over the next few days. I made my availability Sunday-Friday but this is not a stable work environment. I'm only as good as my last shift basically. All I'm doing now is trading space for time. Pretty pathetic just to keep the status quo engine running until I retire isn't it? This is what it's going to be like for me for over the next 3 years. It's basically month-by-month. Anyway, that's all for now.

I felt better heading out of here yesterday afternoon

shortly before 3pm. It was warm almost muggy. Also, the mosquitoes were out in full force. Early this time of year but they were not biting.

I took this off the Rogers Place Arena live cam from about noon. Trucks are moving between the loader and the crane as soon as they are filled with dirt. 

 My boss wasn't all that happy with the $75 I had from Sunday's total and even less with today's $25 total. I was even calling from the phone book of all things. I said I'd be off Tuesday but back Wednesday as I'm going to have to make a decision: Miss lodge or miss 2 days of work when we need rent the most. That decision might be made for me later this morning as the boss want's me to call him to learn my fate. If this is the case, I'm going to ask my mr boss if I can work this Friday/Saturday. The problem with my tm job is in the source I was calling. Most of it was Winnipeg, BC and Medicine Hat. I was kicking it up old school actually calling from the phone book of all things of all things and that's where I got my first and only sale. If the tm boss says, he's going to suspend me until after the weekend when we do the "new campaign," no problem. I hope I can go in for Wednesday and Anne gives me the green light for lodge, then great. Oh, I took this photo shortly after 9pm waiting for my bus to Belvedere:

^ I'm smack dab in the middle of 129th Ave looking East. That's 50th street where that white building is in the background. Anyway, that's about all for now.

After all that running around after work

last night just 2 of the guys showed up. I tried this new kind of a grapefruit flavor type beer at the bar at the meeting. Very nice. That was the only positive outcome of Sunday. Pretty much the whole day was counter productive.

Not only am I being squeezed on the job front, I'm being squeezed on the lodge front as well and if that's not enough I'm under pressure as well here at home, my back is aching from the 2 metal rods in my spine and my diabetes is slapping me around. 

So on top of all this the wife has me in the doghouse again complaining that the lodge is controlling my life because I've been with them twice over the weekend. She has a point because last month, I've been to my regular lodge meeting, a celebration of life service, an emergency meeting, the lodge BBQ and a meeting last night that never happened. I have one more lodge meeting Thursday and it's the last for the summer but the lodge wanted me to go to Calgary for the afternoon because of the annual communication. One of our lodge members is up for DGM. I've got no way of going down the for the day. I'll be glad when my term is over and I can just sit on the sidelines and help out to fill in at various chairs if need be. Sigh, it's a great life if you don't crack under pressure. Anyway, that's all for now.

Saturday I was up about 10am

ready to head out of here to meet my pick up ride to the Shrine club. Dan met me across the street from my stop at McKernan /Belgravia station about 1:15pm 

Dan picked me up right on time and we took the long way around and got there to the Shrine club about 2pm. People began to. Show up shortly after we arrived. My JW arrived and so did the caterer. We had about 30 people there. it was pretty good but expensive. We even had jobe's daughters and the D'Molay out to perform a murder mystery dinner theater. It was very nice, although I got home a bit later then I wanted.

I think from when we left the Shrine Centre to Southgate shown above we must have ran into 3 rain cells. Love this time of year. 

Today I'm leaving out of  here in about an hour for work. It's a short 4 hour shift but with the lrt off line and replacement buses taking over to fill in the gaps it's going to make things a bit awkward for me to get around today. I've got to catch the replacement bus from Clareview to Belvedere to get to work, then the bus to get from Belvedere to Rexall and the #8 from Rexall to my Lodge "Executive Committee" meeting. The last one before the summer. Then I can come home enjoy the rest of the hockey game and get ready for the week.

Speaking of which, on my plate for this week is continue with employment agency doing a job search, even though I have 2 part time jobs, I'm looking for a full time steady job. Then I have my last lodge meeting before our Summer break. I long for the "dog days of Summer." Anyway, that's about all for today.