At the moment its dry and overcast out there

as we're sitting at +12 degrees C. Conditions are still dry. Although there is no rain in the short term forecast. It's tinder dry out there now we desperately need a couple of days of solid rain, especially for the folks in Fort McMurray. I was reading earlier that insurance could cost as much as $9B. Other communities in the area are also being threatened.

Over the past few days I've been doing some family genealogy on my mother's side. On my father's side other then a few holes, that side of the family more or less checks out. Our family had five kids with me being the oldest. Mike isn't online that often. He has a Facebook page but he doesn't use it much. My sister has one as well not much more active then Mike's but not by much. I'm on mine at least once a week. Jeff is on his 2-4 times/week but not interested in genealogy, much less family history. My mother's side has a lot of holes. For years I believed that we were related to the well known JJ Johnston family of New Westminster. JJ Johnston held 3 terms as a Mayor in New Westminster (where I was born) and was always known as Mr. May Day because his father William Johnston founded the May Day festival. On find a grave it shows he had 2 children Gordon and Mona. Why no mention of my mom? This bugged me for years. William Johnston and his wife died well before this. Mom was born in 1922 and died at the age of 78. I have a "visitors pass" with Ancestry set up by a cousin in Dallas on dad's side of the family. I tried looking for a obituary of mom but there doesn't seem to be one available. My sister would know if mom had one but my sister is hard to get a hold of even on Facebook. If the obituary is based upon the same information as I have, then the obit is wrong. I doubt an obit can be used as evidence in a court of Law, but its good too set the record straight. Thanks to Ancestry I was able to determine that there were 249 families with the name Johnston living in New Westminster during the 1921 municipal census. I checked on find a grave, and I've been to the grave site page often. During the 1960's a couple times a month dad would load up mom and the kids in the station wagon and we would drive from 944 Regan Ave in Coquitlam to where mom was living at the time. For awhile she had a apartment in uptown New Westminster. I recall that in 1964 on one Sunday in that summer, mom sent me to escort the kids to see a Sunday matinee of Mary Poppins. I knew that sending us to the movies was a ploy for something but we didn't care. After that our Sunday outings to Grandma would take us to White rock. I vividly recall it was shortly around the time of my back operation on one such trip. Somehow Grandma was in the car with us on a sunny afternoon and I don't think it was a Sunday. Grandma was blind at this time. It was sad. Grandma wanted to know what it was like outside on our way to her place in White Rock. I'm sure this broke moms heart to describe the beautiful sunny day. Dad eventually dropped us kids off at the new Guildford town Mall. I was 14 at the time. All this time I never knew Grandma's first name. That part was kept well away from us kids. We just never asked. For the most part it was "go with the flow" for us. Here's where it gets interesting. So I'm looking on the find a Grave site the other day and there's no grave marker for Grandma? I knew as of a few years ago that Grandma's nick name was Lottie. Then I discovered recently that she died in 1951 just when mom and dad were married. If that's the case then, who was that lady we drove to visit in the 1960's? Dad's mother Florence died in 1946. I recall mom telling me she went to technical school. I think I only half listened at the time and I did some more research and there was a notorious school in New Westminster called Trapp tech. It was located Simcoe park. Notorious because it was once a old prison converted into a school. If Lottie (Charlotte) died in 1951 and find a grave lists only 2 children as descendants then our Johnston name had no relation to that family. The family name Johnston was related to Raymond Burr but not our family. Most likely by 1930 for instance the same 249 families living in new Westminster at the time of the 1923 census were still there in New Westminster by 1930 in, which case mom would be 8 years old. I'm thinking how far back does school district 40 keep school records? All I need do is check to see how many kids with the same name as mom were in their data base between 1928-1939 and weed out from there to get a match. I'll be doing lots of this over the summer. One thing is certain we are not related to JJ Johnston.      

I had a great sleep overnight getting up to use the bathroom a few times. Tonight, I'm out of here at 5pm to get to lodge for 6pm to help set up the festive board etc. I'm not drinking anything other then a few cans of Coke. I sneak out a few deserts after the meeting because as a steward we leave a bit early before lodge closes. Friday and Saturday I'm at my market research job. I tried that other job and the line was busy. I might have a work extension at my 8:30pm job until the 20th of this month. This will at least cover us for rent for June. I'm trying to put together enough hours for a finale ei claim. I can't collect unemployment and oas at the same time. If I have steady work from after May 20th and work from my other job until June 15th, then I should have enough ei hours for a claim. Its for 15 weeks and 4-6 weeks are consumed in processing the claim but that's paid out in one lump sum. If I get a ei claim mid August before I get my first cheque for 2 weeks. That will leave me with 7 weeks left then I'll pause the claim when and if I'm called back in September to the 8:30pm job. Oas application process would have already kicked in by that time. Then I just work out the winter/spring of 2017. By this time next year I'll be looking forward to just working out both jobs and activate what's left on the ei. Then activate what's left on my ei before pension. I'll be on partial pension by the end of next August. That all covers my bottom line and anything I work covers for me, in theory. Anyway, that's all for now.