Another Spring day where I had to wear a sweater on my way into work

yesterday afternoon. I think this will be one of the most coldest Spring/Summer's herein Alberta on record. If we have a repeat like Wednesday I'm wearing my winter coat and buying a hoodie at Giant Tiger After work Saturday. Crazy weather or what? 

If we work the election Sunday its going to be a hectic day. I'm going to be hard pressed to leave after work get a bus to Corona get a bite to eat and make it for Lodge practice. Hopefully I can leave at 5pm get a bite to eat downtown (Burger Priest?) get a travel coffee to lodge. Should be a good day. Anyway, that's about all for now.

Finally after about 8 weeks of

waiting and reporting I got my ei claim finalized. That was the good news. Bad news being they only gave me 18 weeks and 10 of them have been used up waiting. For the moment though I get those weeks paid out and it means I can get my lodge dues paid next week and we can get Skippy fixed up and pay some bills. I can also have my claim put on hold so if this summer I can recover the rest of those weeks to cover me when and if times are slow. It'll buy me 8 more weeks if I plan it right. For the moment I'm getting full time hours. So I might want to have my claim go doormat.

The other thing is I missed my Doctors appointment   and they don't like that but I re booked. I've got to call the office to confirm that the appointment is for next Thursday not this one. I booked the appointment when I wasn't working and I forgot to write down when my appointment was. Next week Thursday works good because I booked myself off for lodge.

I'm trying to follow next weeks historic Alberta Provincial election May 5th. This year our polling station will be at Sifton school. We got our voter card in the mail yesterday. At the moment the NDP are sitting at 35.1% as the Wildrose are at 30.3 and the PC's are in 3rd place at 24.1% according to 308.com. if the NDP are elected they will form a minority Government. The first time this has happened in over 108 years. I know I wont be voting NDP but Wildrose looks good. It could be real neck and neck.

Yesterday we got to +25 at last and it felt warm but we're back into a cooler trend hitting lows of +10/14's. Anyway, that's all for now.

A small mystery for me has been

solved: Directly across the street from us there has been a empty field since I've been here for the last 15 years. Now suddenly its being excavated for development. There's been heavy machinery digging up the place. On my way into work I headed towards Superstore on the shoulder of the street beside the gated off area. I noticed some idle construction workers and I asked them what was being developed. They said a Shoppers Drug mart is going in. Mystery solved. 

It was 25 years ago that the Hubble Space telescope was Launched. Hard to believe that was in 1990. I still have the original article in my diary at that time. I was still in my 30's!

Since Future shop closed its doors across the country and the one by our place a mobile sign has has been recently posted saying Best Buy opening soon. Now Anne tells me some near pristine property will be eaten away for more town homes. I don't mind the development but not at the expense of what little green space we already have.

Finally we had a nice warm day. It was +18 heading into work with a mild breeze. I had a chance to read my book enjoying some sunshine. Looks like Spring/Summer is almost here. Anyway, that's all for now.

My plan this afternoon before I head out for work

was to call my Doctor to confirm my appointment for May 7th, hence I'm off that day anyway. I got a call just now from my Doctors reception letting me know the appointment was for today. uh-oh. I thought I said May 7th and I forgot to take the time and date down but its confirmed now for May 7th, next week.

I'm going to get my bath and have a bit to eat pack my things for my commute this afternoon and head over to the construction site across the street to ask whats being built there. I don't know if they'll tell me. Doesn't hurt to ask. Then I hope I got a full 5.5 hours tonight. I put my schedule in for May except for having Thursday off for Lodge and the 3rd Saturday off to go to Commercial Lodge. Then its home to catch what I can from wrestling and get the playoff highlights.

Other then that not much going on for me this week. With the earthquake in Nepal over the weekend, the volcano eruption in Chile, the Alberta election race underway, interesting times. Anyway that's all from me.

Lots of people are

"coming out." Translation: Gender change. People have sex changes for various reasons. Maybe they identify themselves with the opposite gender. Personally I don't care what people do with their bodies. I don't necessarily condone it but for me I'm comfortable in the skin I was born with. I have 2 metal rods in my spine, I have reason to dislike my body but this is the hand I was dealt. I don't want to change that nor would I spend the thousands of dollars to do it. It seems celebs are into this "coming out" phenomena. They have the money. 

Since last October our building complex has had our 100 stall parking lot out front here closed off. Its been under an upgrade but I don't see any evidence of this. Friday night after over 6 months of guests or people with cars etc to drop people off park and idle on the side walk the parkade is open. Its been a bit of a hassle for renters. Now if I get a ride back from lodge I can say our parkade is back.

Later this afternoon we're about to enjoy "Extreme rules." Its a WWE wrestling pay per view event. We're going to order our Maximus pizza and have a good time. Speaking of sporting events, I was following the Canucks/Flames series as this was game 6 last night. If the Canucks won the series gets transferred back to Vancouver for a game 7. It was really up and down Calgary finally won and sent the Canucks packing. I think I'm going to jump on the Flames bandwagon but I doubt they'll get past the 2nd round facing Anaheim, the top team in the West. Anyway, that's about all for now.  

Usually the month of April is very nice with

warm temps. This April its been anything but. We've been getting a lot of wind (like this morning) and cold temps. Right now its +1 overcast and the forecast for today is a 40% chance of snow. I this time of year in 1980 at Richards apartment we had rain but that was normal. 

The new job seems to be going along ok. I'm not sure if I'm going to get full hours today. I'll take them if I can get them.

The Provincial election race is heating up. Thursday was the leadership debate. The PC's could be in for a bit of trouble but not as long as I can help it. The NDP is the front runner. I don't see them forming a majority Government but maybe a minority one.

Also the other day was the 10th anniversary of YouTube. On the news they were saying that YouTube uploads about 300 hours of content every minute. Wow! Anyway, that's all for now.

Tuesday was the warmest day so far

this year. Once out of the bus I found a bench on the corner and read my Warhammer 40k "Mechanicum" book in front of the building. 

Once my lodge dues are paid up and the job seems to be going ok, I'm opening a LM account. I'm keen on getting the 5" Yamaha white studio monitors and a Korg Vocla. It'll be about $45/month. I usually pay the account off within 8 months or so. Even if we get a brief shut down I can still cover the account. That wont be until maybe June or July if it happens.

I got another telephone interview request letter, from yet another ei agent yesterday. I kind of knew one was coming. I have up until April 29th to respond to this. I feel like I'm a criminal here. I haven't been on ei since just before Anne and I got married and I was working with Xentel before September 15 2000.

I'll call them Friday or even Monday just to let "them sweat" for awhile. I'm about ready for bed. Anyway, that's about all for now.

For the most part the

cold virus I've been struggling with has almost come to an end. I was on the job last night holding out better then I expected. For the most part the cold is out of my system.

Anne bought me some new running shoes Sunday and I'm phasing out the Spring cloths for summer ones. The weather has been up and down a lot. We've had 1 near plus 20 day this month. More on the way I'm sure of it. Anne's doing laundry tonight I'm at work.

Yesterday I was able to pick up my Space Marine Battles book at Audrey's and I ordered another Horus Heresy novel book #30. Other then that, not much else going on. Anyway, that's all for now. 

Enjoying my Sunday afternoon and evening off

here today. That's what I like about working at this place. No Sunday shift and starting at 4pm Monday I get a bit of a weekend. I can also sleep in Monday morning and during weekdays. At least my cold seems to be about 90% on the mend.

I don't know, the Oiler's must have lucky horse shoes up the ass because yesterday with about a 11% chance of winning the NHL draft lottery, they get the #1 pick, again! Arizona and Buffalo had better odds due to their win loss record then the Oiler's at getting the #1 pick. Lucky or what? That's 4 #1 picks in a row. Unprecedented in the history of the NHL draft lottery. So this year the hype is all over Connor McDavid. The hype machine is saying this guy is a generational player like Gretzky or Crosby. Yeah right. It doesn't mean that's who the Oiler's will pick but that would be total folly if they didn't pick him at the June draft. The Connor McDavid sweepstakes is creating a lot of buzz around town this weekend. 

Anne and I were going to go out for a bite to eat today but the lrt is shut down and she has a few errands to go on anyway. Just as well as I wanted to check in on what's going on at Musikmessa 2015 this weekend. Europe's version of NAMM. Lots of great looking gear coming up. Roland is coming out with a modular AIRA type synthesis unit? Wow. So I'm glad we didn't go out today. Even though its +13, it doesn't look very warm out there to me. 

I filed for my ei claim February 26 and as of next Friday it will be almost 8 weeks since my claim has been filed with ei. The problem is (or part of it) with my last place of employment. They claimed on the roe I started April 2011 when I was still full time at iMark at the time working 1-9 Monday to Friday and Saturday. If ei can find any bank deposits from my last place of employment for 2011, good luck. Also, when I was working at Crime Watch about this time last year for 3 days before I got fired (as I submitted that roe to ei as well) The roe said I quit the job, which is a crock. If the claim is approved I'd like to keep the claim going without getting any ei money because I'm on a probationary period at the new job. So if the job doesn't work out I'll have the ei claim to fall back on as I look for something else. 

The downtown arena is progressing nicely. They put a huge adjoining truss between the egress of the winter garden and the arena this morning. Anyway that's all for now.

I'm up and out of here in about 20 minutes

just time enough to have a quick coffee before I head out of here to work. I hope I get the full 7.5 hours today but it depends if we have numbers to call. My schedule for next week is again 4-9:30pm, which works for me. 

In my last post I talked about old colleagues I missed and  haven't seen. Again another incident as another outside of work friend I haven't seen in years has emailed me. We used to game Advanced Squad Leader a lot in the 1990's but I got married and so did he and through a mutual friend got reunited again through email. I hope next time he emails me I get his phone number. He's keen to set up a game. If he ever contacts me again.

After work today I'm coming home to catch the results of the NHL draft lottery today. See what picks the Oilers get (if any) and watch some playoff hockey. Sunday Anne wants me to take her out for a brunch at Rickies. Sounds like a plan. Anyway, that's all for now.

I was able to read

for about half an hour before work, enjoying some sun. As soon as I got on the phone my voice became rough and raspy all night. I was asked if I wanted to come for this afternoon to stuff envelopes, that sort of thing. Sure. I left out of the office feeling ok. At Corona I hurried into Tim's to get a donut and got my train to meet Anne at Bay station. I ate my snack shortly after 10pm and I see a familiar guy coming down off the escalator: Tim Waterson:

He says he was downtown to drop off his car or something. So we had a nice catching chat. Anne too the photo. Its not a very good one though. I don't take a very good photo. He is managing a Go Pro Kiosk in West Edmonton Mall phase 1. Anne took this photo of us. Its not a good photo of me. Tim rode the train with us to Rexall. Meeting up with Tim and my Space Marine Battles book in at Audrey's was the highlight of the day. Anyway, that's all for now.  

Just before I began my shift in the lunchroom I completed

reading "Battle for the Abyss." It was well written. I really enjoyed this book but the ending wasn't what I wanted or hoped for. Still I gave it a 4/5 stars.I'm now onto reading Mechanicum, book #9 in the Horus Heresy Warhammer 40k book. The only book in this series I thought sucked was book #6 Decent of Angels. For some reason I just couldn't get into it. So far, I've read 7 in the series as I have all 29 and 2 more to be released this year. I still have the ebooks that I haven't counted as well.

Work went ok and I got some coaching on the new project. its a 5 minute survey and I think I got about 30 of them. The night went by fast. I got home about 10:30pm to catch what was left of wrestling. Anyway, that's all for now.

My Sunday consisted of the following

and in no particular order: Reading my Warhammer 40K book, answering email, music production research on YouTube, Connect2Edmonton message board, that sort of thing.

My cold seems to be on the mend. Sunday morning I was having a sinus-phlegm coughing attack. It began to abate after I drank a lot of cold diet cola. My voice is about 70% back to normal. It should be back by Friday at the latest. Now Anne has laryngitis and talks with a whisper.

This weekend has been cold and windy. Hopefully by the weekend we'll get up to some +16's and without that howling wind. It'd be nice to get some sunny skies in there was well.

Sunday the Oiler players were at Rexall cleaning out their lockers before they get on the course, putters in hand. What a disaster of a season. That's a 9 year drought of not making the playoffs. At least we did not finish in last place. The playoffs begin Wednesday Ottawa/Montreal. My prediction for this year: A Canadian team in the East and Saint Louis in the West with Saint Louis to win overall. 

I'm in the office from 4-9:30pm all week as we have a new project apparently Monday. which is apparently supposed to keep us going until the end of May. We may also be doing some political stuff as well because the upcoming Provincial election May 5th. So basically it's a 4-9:30pm thing Monday-Friday and Saturday 10-6pm. There's no Doctors appointments, no lodge. Just a straight Monday-Friday work week. Anyway, that's all for now.

Funds are limited for us

this weekend but at least we have groceries and cat food for the cats to get buy until Friday. Anne and I both get paid. Friday.

Yesterday I got 3 hours on the job but we ran out of numbers so I'll have 25.5 hours on my cheque this week. After work I decided to go to Audrey's to see if my Space Marine battles book was in but its on ts way. I went to Burger Baron and ordered a large order of fries and a diet coke. While enjoying my snack inside facing the street the wind picked up outside creating a huge dust storm. I tried to wait it out and I took the stairs down to Corona and took the train to Clareview but dozed off and found myself heading South. Ok, I was tired anyway. I got off back at Clareview and home.

I was trying to watch the last Oiler game and I passed out on the couch and near the end of the 1st period it was 2-1 Oilers. What? I sat up to take notice. Then Anne called, she's getting sick as well. I went to watch the 2nd period and again I dozed off on the couch and woke up the score was 4-3 Oilers. I paid attention after that. At one point it was 5-3 Oilers. Then they blew a 2 goal lead and the Canucks won in OT. Typical Oiler's. At least that season is over with, thank God. Bring on the playoffs. 

Anne got home early because she's got what I've got and lost her voice. She made me a burger and fries and went to Walmart. I was watching the news when she got home and on local news they showed a overhead city shot of the dust storm that went through. Reminds me of some of the massive dust storms they receive in Australia. Anyway, that's all for now.

I went into work

and told the boss not to expect too much because of this cold. At it was I could bare talk and I don't know how the heck the client even heard me. But I managed to do a lot better by the end of the shift. On the way home with a colleague I had no voice at all. Anne met me early at Bay station and felt bad for me. I got to go in for tomorrow for another 5.5 hour shift and a 7.5 Saturday. I don't mind because we need the money. Anyway, that's all for now.

Sunny skies and decent April

weather accompanied me on my commute. I went to Tim's and bought a coffee and at my stop on 107th & 124th I had a half hour to relax in the shelter reading my book, enjoying my coffee before my shift.

I still have yet to have ei make a decision my claim other way. Now my reports are dated for 2 weeks away. Its now been 5 weeks since I filed for ei. I'm hoping for a decision one way or another this week. I haven't been on ei since before I got married back in 2000 when it was called Unemployment insurance. There's been a lot of changes with ei over the years.

I entered my availability for the month as I'm 4-9:30pm Monday through Friday. I work Saturday's from 10-6pm. After work I caught the bus to Corona station and boarded the train and got out at Bay station to meet Anne. We rode the train to Clareview. She had to make a pit stop to Superstore and I continued on home from there. It was a great day yesterday. No drama, nothing. Anyway that's all for now.

Lots of people are talking about the price of

oil. Oil prices can make or break a Nation's economy. Just look at what its doing to Russia as their currency is devalued. Sanctions over Putin's missadventure in the Ukraine have something to do with it a well. Oil prices sank to a low of about $43/barrel earlier in March and for the longest time has been floating around $47-$50. Oil prices are having an affect on our local economy as well. Yesterday the price of oil reached a land mark high lately of $53! At the moment oil is at $53.98 and its going to go up and down like that for God knows how long. 

Some sad news recently out of Hollywood. James Best better known as the actor that played Rosco P. Coltrane (Dukes of Hazzard) passed away. Best had roles in dozens of TV shows. I always thought James Best and Sorrell Booke (Boss Hogg) made the Dukes better then it was. Roscoe kept on calling people in the show dipstick. The Dukes of Hazzard ran for 7 seasons and was one of the highest rated shows 2nd behind Dallas. Best passed away Sunday from complications of pneumonia.

I left out of here feeling better then I have had in over a few days now. We're not sure what's going in across the street when whatever it is that's being built. I was a bit early and I had a wait at the bus stop on the for half an hour reading my book and went to the office. Work went along ok and I had a couple of coughing episodes. I'll be able to work the week out. Its going to be a struggle but I'll be ok. Anyway, that's all for now.

Four days off was sure nice

but having no cash to go out and do anything wasn't good for my moral either. Struggling with this cold also isn't helping. It is what it is. I've got cough drops and I'll do the best I can on my shift tonight. If I'm bombing out after 2 hours, I'll keep going in until 2 hours become 3 and so on. Anyway, that's all for now.

Sunday morning I could barely

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

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

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

Still I have today and Monday off before heading back to work

on Tuesday. I just hope (since its a new job and all) this cold virus is on its last legs by at least next Saturday.

Anne didn't feel like cooking tonight so she went and ordered our favorite Maximus pizza. I have a bit left over for latter.

Not much going on for today, it being a Sunday I'm just going to answer email, internet stuff and read.

I'm a little late by a few months

and I sensed a head cold was just around the corner. Right now its in the throat, with a bit of scratch and phlegm. Its a "good" time to have one while I have a few days off on the new job.

If your out of town or a shut in and are curios as to how our downtown arena is coming along, you can go to the webcam and see in real time the current progress. Crews are working around the clock. The link above will get you to the action. 
Also you can go to time laps on the same site and see other views. In the first view you'll see the Metro line lrt. It's been ready for use for over a year now but because of mismanagement, nobody is saying with any surety when the Metro will be operating. The recent start date is the end of May of this year. Its a bit of a running joke around here. One thing is for certain, the downtown arena will be ready on game day October 2016 when the Edmonton Oilers move into their barn.

Mostly last night I watched wrestling sucking on cough drops (Halls) and dozing off on the couch. I know this cold is going to get worse before it gets better. Anyway, that's all for now. 

Some days are just golden

such as Thursday. These days are good news days. As days go I'd rate today on a scale from 1-10 a 8. Most days lately they've been meh kind of days.

I left out of here 2pm and I caught a bus to Northgate. I didn't need to wear boots. A bit on the cooler side but sunny. At Coles all of the Warhammer 40k Omnibus books were slightly over my $20 budget. I picked up a Star Wars "Legends" series books "Crucible."Happy with my purchase I went to see my pcn and my pharmacist saw me right away. I got 3 month supply of insulin. Happy about that I headed across the street to Wendy's and almost got ran over by a ets bus in the bus loop. My Wendy's was good but the bacon was a bit undercooked. I got the #182 to my place with about an hour to clean up and get dressed. I was out the door by 6pm and at lodge at 6:30pm to read on the steps in the sun. Kelly showed up and people began filing in. Even George Rockw... showed up after wintering in Arizona. Yet the big news

         .    

for me was receiving my past masters (pm) certificate. That's me in the centre of the photo. John Slade is our DGM and the guy on the right Kelly is our lodge master. Actually he's a pm and the one that presented this to me. I have a medal like what Kelly has but I must have taken mine off. I wasn't expecting this until about October. I still got the certificate and I haven't paid my lodge dues yet. I'll have it paid off before the end of May. After that I had a Sleeman's beer at the festive board. It was a good day. I'm going to sleep in until whenever.

George gave me a ride home on the tail end of a bit of a blizzard. It'll burn off later today. The only downer today was the Oiler's losing 8-2 over LA. Anyway, that's all for now.

Having five days off is a blessing and I'm going to

take advantage of it. I won't get paid for Friday but that's ok. If I last beyond the week, I'm doing something right.

My commute Wednesday included a pit stop to buy a lottery at the Redi mart at Clareview. At $35M, I couldn't resist. The snow storm was wet snow and I was at Corona Tim's at 3:20pm having a coffee and a double chocolate donut. I had a wait in the bus shelter by BP's, and I caught what I thought was the #5 but when it did a familiar detour off of 124th street facing West on 102nd Ave, I had a funny feeling I was on the wrong bus. I had a wait at the bus stop and my #5 came along and I was at work but I thought I was supposed to be in at 4:00pm. I thought training was at 4pm and the shift was 4:30pm-9pm. It's actually from 4-9:30pm. I wasn't alone, I was told the shift was from 4:30-9:30pm. I can site the snow storm and being new on the job. Not good for my first day on the job. I made up for it performance wise. Its not often with these kinds of jobs the company provides for a 15 minute break. The 9:40pm bus came in on time as well and I got to Corona station for a Clareview train about 5 minutes before 10pm. I got off that train at Bay station to meet Anne and home. 

Yesterday about 85,000 Alberta temporary foreign workers or tfw's received their deportation orders from Ottawa. I feel badly for a lot of these tfw's. Many of them want to live here but they need to work in Canada for 2 years and then reapply for later. Its got nothing to do with the economy or anything, it's just part of the overall immigration process.Its bad news for them but at the same time, it's bad for a lot of employers that depend on these workers. At the same time a lot of employers abuse the tfw system. Its good for us here in Alberta because the vacancy's provide work for people..  

I'm out of here about 2:20pm for Northgate pcn to get my insulin. Then Coles to get my Warhammer 40k Omnibus book that Audrey's couldn't order for me. After that its over to Wendy's for a bite to eat. The #11 bus at the other end of the mall from Wendy's will drop me off in front of my place. From there its clean up and head for Lodge. Anyway, that's all for now.

The important thing last night was

I got the job. Getting is one thing, holding is another. At least I get a paid 15 minute break. The last place I worked for gave me only a ten minute break. 

The Internet site i09 the other day asked a very good question: "Which movie can you abandon for a pee break without missing anything?" Most likely that would apply to a lot of long movies. For me it was Star Trek the motion picture. That long part leading up to the Verger encounter. Some people say the 1998 Godzilla, and almost all Young Adult movies. There are a lot of others of course.

I'm in at the new job, 4:30pm-9:30pm. I'm off Thursday because I have a pcn appointment and lodge Thursday night and Friday is Good Friday, we're off Saturday and Sunday and I'm back at it Tuesday. I'm for another 5 days.Anyway, that's all for now.