Both Anne and I are

working from home. She's inbound I'm outbound but its all good. Day 2 for me working from home. It was really good. 

So I'm off for the weekend. Other then grocery stores, pharmacies, banks and gas stations, all non essential businesses are closed, indefinitely in an effort to flatten Covid-19. Walmart is open however. Everything we have is pretty handy. 

So we're expecting our Pizza in about 40 minutes. I've got a couple days off and back at it, all next week. I'm getting the hours anyway.  Anne and I are doing ok. Anyway, that's all for now.

Its been a busy couple of days

as I'm setting up working from home. All I have is my cordless phone but Anne thinks we have a couple of corded 
office phones buried in my closet.If I can't find anything suitable, I might have to charge my cordless phone. And or go out and risk getting Covid during my self imposed lock down. I'm sure this will all go pretty smoothly. 

Speaking of Covid 19, we now have our 2nd death here in Alberta. A woman in her 80's. Community spread is very important. I'm still going out to get my daily exercise. Looks like Anne bought something with my Visa earlier. What am I getting at that price? 

Last night I uploaded another video. Shotcut seems to be working pretty good. I just uploaded a short 2 minute track. Most of my stuff is going to be about 2 minutes. People got other things to do. I almost got 2k's worth of steps today. I think until they get the routing numbers figured out, I'll be taking my phone off the hook. Anyway that's all for now. 

At least the weather is nice

out there, even though we're all practicing social distancing. Not the wife and I at the moment because none of us our sick, yet.

While I might not post in here every day, I do at least once a week minimum. Best place to find out what I'm doing is on Facebook. I've always got a cute or interesting meme on my timeline. Also, there is a link to my Twitter feed. 

I did some disk compression for my bloated "C" drive yesterday, saving almost 3Gb of space. With that I was able to install Skype, and my Maschine update. I'll be needing Skype for a conference call Wednesday. In order for me to work from home, I'll be needing a corded landline phone, with a headset. Unless I can somehow get my cordless phone hoked up to my sound card. More on that later. Anyway, other then that, we're all fine here. That's all for now.

About 4pm I went out

for my walk. It was a bitter wind out there under clear skies. There was ice on the sidewalk halfway on 43rd street, so I took the street to the Sifton park school ETS bus shelter, not touching anything. The rest of the way to 50th street was smooth sailing walking wise. My iPod carrying my activity tracker died out on me at about 1300 steps. The amount of steps back should equal to about 2,600 steps. I didn't encounter anyone. Actually it was quite quiet out there. Even along 50th street and 134th Ave. Almost eerie. I'll be relieved when this virus is history.  

This hits close to home for me as Alberta received its first death from Covid-19. A man here in Edmonton in his 60's  with underlying health issues was admitted into care last Thursday and died Wednesday. I've got a scratchy throat since going outside but that was developing earlier. I hope I'm not the 2nd case to die of Covid-19. So its a little scary. but there's nothing I can do. Maybe the man never had a flue shot. I had mine last October but that wont prevent me from getting Covid-19. I probably should not have gone outside today. I wont tomorrow. 

Welcome to the first day of Spring. We need a couple of nice +10 Sunny days and we can get rid of all that snow on the ground. Anne did her first shift this evening from home and other then a bit of a shaky start but it turned out ok for her. I don't know when I'll be starting back to work. My issue is getting decent phone to work with. I'm supposed to be getting a call sometime tomorrow. Anyway, that's all for now.  

So Premier Jason Kenney called

the Covid-19 outbreak a state of public health emergency.  We have 97 cases here in Alberta, 447 here in Canada. Nobody knows yet that if someone gets Covid-19 can they get it again. Shoppers here in Edmonton and from what I've seen on Facebook and Twitter, panic buying is on the rise. A lot of shelves at Super store across the street, are depleting rapidly. Espicially toilet paper of all things. Yet My wife tells me Safeway shelves are well stocked. Why Walmart, Superstore, Save on Foods are hit with panic buying shoppers is probably because of they're the brand name. 

So far everything is okay here. Anne wants to go out for Pizza today, but we'll see if its open due to this social distancing thing. Anne might just get a take out, idk. 

Anne works from home tomorrow and it looks like I'll be doing the same next week. As long as I can use the phone/headset at my station because our phone is a cordless phone. Its good to know I still have work. Anyway, that's all for now.

My wife will begin to work from home

beginning Thursday. It was nice while it lasted but I'm ok with it. She's going to set up the office computer in the bedroom. Possibly for the next 10 days, I could be working from 9-3pm and when I get home, Thursday's and Friday's Anne will be locking herself in the bedroom. I thought I had a long ethernet cable here. We're going to have to pick one up locally. I still get my privacy anyway because Anne usually sleeps in until 1pm on a Saturday and when I'm back 5-9 (unless I'm working from home) I get a few hours to myself in the mornings, so it all works out ok. 

If I get the hours I'm hoping for, I hope I'll have enough for to get the ADATA 2Tb m.2 hard drive. These ssd drives are about from Z-M on this keyboard and an inch wide. My motherboard has one slot for one m.2 drive and are a lot faster then my ssd that's the size of a keyboard number pad. $380 is a lot of cash. I'm hoping this will last me for a few years. These m.2 drives are basically plug and play. My motherboard came with enough screws and I just need one to bolt it down to the motherboard. Then all I have to do is clone my active 110Gb ssd over to the new  drive. Then in the BIOS change the boot order of the m.2 drive to "C." 😃 I'll use my current ssd as a storage drive to hold sound samples for my music.

Its been a pretty cold weekend so far. Feels different with no NHL hockey to watch because of Covid-19. I'm no expert but like Ebola, Covid-19 might take 2 years before a vaccine is ready to be mass distributed to the public, or hopefully sooner so humanity can get back to normal again. As for me, I'll be working (hopefully) 9am to 3pm all this week, so I can get that m.2 drive next weekend. Anyway, that's all for now.   

Leaving out of here about

7:40am this morning wasn't that bad out there. The train was packed. I met a colleague at ~8:15 on her way in as well. We didn't actually get under way until about 9:45pm. My 2nd day in and I'm feeling pretty good about this project.

About 1:30 the boss came up to us saying that the NHL instead of suspending its operations completely is hitting the pause button on its season due to the coronavirus or Covid-19. The NBA went a step further last night suspending its regular season indefinitely 😲. I worked out my shift and invited to come back tomorrow. When I left the office it was sunny and quiet pleasant. 

On the bus heading towards Corona station, I realized, 💭wait now didn't I want to catch the #3 on 107th to avoid Corona station due to the upgrades 💭? So much for that idea. I tried the West street entrance but ETS has that blocked off as well. Cross the street by Audrey's. I took that entrance down to the lower concourse. No problem. I caught my bus pulling into the station at Clareview. Still nice and sunny. I was home by 4pm. Other then that, yesterday was a decent day. Anyway, that's all for now.

I got another shift for

tomorrow morning, so that's good news. I'm just taking it day by day. If I can get a full 9 days of this from 9-3, I'm going to have a pretty decent cheque for the end of the month. Anne and I split my pay cheque. Groceries being so expensive.

McDavid back in action tonight as Oilers entertain the Winnipeg Jets at Rogers place arena. As the season winds down, this is good for the orange and blue. Friday its NYI/Oilers. However if the NHL is going to practice social distancing due to Covid-19, there could be no crowds at the game. We'll see how that is going to play out.

I'm still waiting for my Alberta Senior Benefit (T5) to come in the mail. Apparently my GIS and survivor benefit is supposed to be non taxable income. If we made $32,400 or less under then we qualify for the low income senior bus pass. But that's only if the GIS and the Survivor benefit are considered non taxable income. Anyway, that's all for now.

Your up early today Jim what gives?

It was shortly after I posted my last diary entry, I checked my call display to see if the office called. Sure enough the boss called and said I have 9-3pm for Monday if I want it. I'll be there at 9am, was my reply. Privacy prevents me from disclosing what project I'll be doing but we've done this before. I'll be out of here shortly before 8. One good thing about this shift is I'll be able to watch this weeks Oilers games, tonight, Wednesday and Friday.

Before bed I heard on the news that Oil prices dropped to the lowest prices in decades. Currently $32.61. Since the Alberta
forecasts its economy on the price of oil, the current news has consequences for our Provisional economy. Investor confidence is on shaky ground. Another fall out of Covid-19. Earlier the Bank of Canada slashed the interest rate to help weather the virus pain. Alberta can still make a profit on $25 oil. That scenario might happen sooner then later.

Currently I'm reading Brent Weeks, I've had this book  and the other 4 since November 2018. "The Black Prism." I just couldn't get into book 2 of Robin Hobb's "Royal Assassin." Nothing wrong with the story, its just there's been so much other things in my life going on lately. Anyway, that's all for now.  

I'm just chillin my beans as Doug Woods would say

from The Sound Test room. Today, its visiting Artfx's you tube channel for some drum n bass. Tonight, I'll watch Friday night Smack down, mess around with the new sample pack I bought from ADSR the other day. Looks a bit chilly out there, but about 4pm, I'm thinking about heading out to get some steps in. For the most part the sidewalks are clear.

With about 14 games remaining in the Oilers 2019/2020 season, the boys should make the playoffs. That is if they can put together more then 3 straight wins in a row. That's happened only once and that was early in the season. Its almost like they are snake bitten. Saturday the Oilers are in Columbus. Oilers have been above the playoff cut all season, bringing it every game. They lost 3-4 in Chicago. Monday's game is critical because VGK is at Rogers place arena.

Last night at lodge we had a great turnout. 18 years for Nathan, Dale and myself. The plan is next Saturday morning to go back to Highlands Hall to Ye old Craft, as they are holding their installation. I haven't been to their lodge yet. I had a cold beer chatting it up with Jack. I had a good time. Tomorrow morning, I have my "Band of brothers" men's breakfast prayer group. Its a chance to fellowship. Its a nice walk home in the fall and Summer months. Most likely I'll go back to bed with my lovely wife for an hour, then lunch. I'm holding down the fort for Saturday night, hanging out with our cat Skippy. I have a couple of scheduled live streams, produce my upcoming funk track and get ready for the Oilers/CBJ game. Saturday-Sunday its daylight savings time. Life is good. Anyway, that's all for now.

Last nights Oilers Nashville contest was

quite the barn burner. Leon Draisaitl scored 4 goals to get his 44th. That's his 2nd year of back-to-back 100+ points. Apparently Draisaitl is one of 7 Oilers to reach that milestone in Oilers history. Save-on Foods "score to win" if one player scores 5 goals to win $1m was in jeopardy last night. Last nights win puts the Oilers 5th in the West. However, tonight the boys are in Dallas and its another back-to-back game (6-1) playing those types of games. Game is on at 6:30pm.

On the surface I can eventually forgive somebody for what they did to me. No problem. I have wounds that need binding first then I can forgive somebody. A friend of mine shared this meme this morning:

It speaks to me, when a friends of over 25 years ghosted me. My friend cut me pretty deep but once the bleeding stops, I can think about forgiveness.  I'm a long way from forgiveness and I think my friend is as well in forgiving me. 

I got 3/4 of my T4's. I got one more from the Alberta Government. I'm hoping this comes in sometime this week, so we can file. Once we do that and our notice of assessment states we're under the $32K threshold, we can qualify for the adult low income bus pass and the leisure access pool pass for free. I'd rather go to the Clareview rec centre for free, everyday then walk around the block or in the hallway. For 2 years we have been above the threshold. That's all for now.

Coronavirus is a hot topic lately and for

good reason. I'm no health expert or professional, but I've been hearing that people that are healthy should recover. Apparently. Its people like me that are 60+ and have diabetes are in the at risk group. I was fortunate last November I got my flue shot. Apparently the risk of catching this virus is low. How that is defined, I have no idea. Not to panic or scare anyone, but if you notice I haven't been posting in 6 months to a year, I'd suspect that I might have succumb Coronavirus. Contact my Facebook friends list, if your concerned. I'm not saying I'll get the virus, but anything is possible. I haven't been posting to Fb much these days, except my friends and family on messenger.

Anyway, that being said, life goes on. I've been interested lately in funk music. Not future funk or disco funk, but regular funk, sprinkled with synth sounds etc. I'm interested in a sample pack from Loop masters, called Bass funk. The sample pack is by Bombstrikes. I'm going to order this, in the next few days, put some stuff together, funk guitar and fx. Should be great. My project for March 😃

Tonight, its the Oilers at Nashville plus wrestling, then Oilers/Dallas tomorrow, lodge Thursday, my band of brothers
prayer group at the church Saturday. And who knows I might even be called into work this week. Anyway, that's all for now.