My wife Anne has been

binging lately, watching Mrs. Brown's Boys episodes. Her sister Donna has turned her onto this series a few weeks ago. I can hear her laughing hysterically from my office. Now she's watching past episodes on YouTube draining the iPad battery. I'm sure its outstanding comedy but its not my thing but as long as it makes her laugh, good for her. I posted a brief New Years message on my music channel the other day and that's about as far as I got with anything music  production related because Anne has been draining our iPad battery watching Mrs Brown's boys episodes. I need my own iPad.

I just realized I can't do anything about Doctors appointments today. Most places are shut down ready to open Tuesday. Besides the appointment setting clerk at PCN isn't there until Tuesdays anyway. I doubt even my Doctors office is open today. However, since I'm off work at 8pm tomorrow and my #5 bus should pick me up heading towards downtown, I should be at Corona station by about 8:45pm. When I'm there, I can just scoot upstairs get my Warhammer 40k book and pop downstairs for the next Clareview train home, easy. 

Anyone reading this use services like Yelp or Glassdoor? I use Glassdoor all the time when looking to apply at various places. The reviews are varied and its my go to source before I send out a resume. Quite often when my colleagues ask about the place I'm working at, I direct them to services like the above. This way I save face for myself and the company. These services let you post reviews anonymously, which are more honest. On tap for tonight is Monday night raw. Anyway, that's all for now.

I had a easy commute into work

yesterday afternoon. I actually thought it was going to be colder but it wasn't that bad. I got in at my usual time and I had a slow start to the day. I got a "online sale" and 1 cold before break. Pretty good for picked over numbers at the tail end of a project. At break I read a couple of pages from my book. I got one more "cold sale" after break. My commute home was uneventful. I snagged another little quote from a friends fb page so I thought I'd share. Thanks Dan:

 

I've got another job lead from a colleague last night. I knew about this earlier but now I have a name and a phone number. I'll be contacting this person after I get up from bed and have a coffee and wake up a bit. If I get to send my resume, I'll do that and see what happens. At the moment, since last April, my market research job says they don't pay deductions because of some 3 month probationary measure, huh? So my 3rd month of this "probationary measure" had come and gone last June. I kept asking about it and got no response until October I received my Provincial and Federal tax forms. I hadn't filled out one of these in awhile and I think I made a mistake. At my 2nd job I got some additional tax forms. I filled them out properly and before our break at my market research job I gave them to my boss in a sealed envelope. Now lets see if these were filed. If I don't get taxes taken off on my next cheque, then I'll take a leave of absence and if I get hired on at the 3rd job, I'll just do my 2nd job 3 days and 3 days at my 3rd job. February is a good time to do the 3rd job because of the break between projects in February. Confused yet? So am I. 

I'm up out of here today about 2pm for my 2:45pm Doctors appointment. If my Doctor doesn't come to see me before 3:15pm, (usually I'm waiting in that little examining room.) sorry but I have to go to work. I'll re-book for the end of the month. Anyway, that's all for now.

Over the past few days I've been busy

around here what with X-rays and blood tests. I thought fasting was no food but apparently it meant no drink as well, so they turned me away at the X-ray because I had a coffee from McDonald's in my hand. I got to go back next Tuesday, yeesh. 

I grew up in Coquitlam is a very active face book group and very special to me. I've been on it for a few years now. I got a lot of information, first hand knowledge of events that relate to my past. It helped me with some closure etc. Also, my siblings and family that I haven't seen for years are on Face Book (FB) and its fun connecting with them. A lot of the activity on this group are people asking similar questions, "Does anyone remember so and so?" I posted a few names of people I grew up with and liked but life being what it is people lose touch over the years. Those posts went largely ignored because they were not stand alone posts but were embedded in replies. The other day I thought I'd post names on FB of old friends I grew up with in the 1960's and a few under its own post: "Does anyone remember so and so?" Dave and Bob were two of the names I had on that list. I was getting nibbles. One poster knew Bob and it was the same Bob by association of other events that confirmed this. I had his last name miss spelled which is why he never came up in a FB name search. I sent Bob a FB pm containing my email and as far as I know I got no nibbles back from him, yet. We weren't really that close. One poster knew Dave as her ex husband actually works with him. Unfortunately Dave is not on FB. After a few replies back and fourth she sent me a pm containing Dave's phone number. Before I left for work yesterday thanking her so much, I said I'd try the number on Sunday after Anne went out for shopping. I'd have time alone by myself to make phone calls. When I got back from work last night, the group member did me one better on my behalf she called Dave on that phone # (I haven't seen Dave since 1991 almost 25 years ago) Dave told her that it would be great hearing from me again. I replied back to her thanking her profusely. That's the power of social media.

Yesterday I got some ei cash from what I set up on Tuesday and my pay last night got me a decent amount towards bills etc. I was happy about that. Anne was to. So now I'm able to go to the bbq today feeling good. The only two snags this week was the x-ray and I got written up at work quite severely. The project is only for a few days but the supervisor said he'd be calling me Monday or Tuesday for the next project and said see you next week. I'll try and take a few pictures of the bbq and post them here. Anyway that's all for now.

I'm still not sure how best to use

Periscope. I just made another broadcast (my 2nd) about reading my book in the Horus Heresy series. I forgot to save the broadcast to my camera roll but my iPod was running low on battery. I'll be playing around with this more and more over the next couple of days.

The Montreal Canadians lost their series against Tampa Bay 4-2. There are no Canadian teams now in the playoffs. Essentially this means that's hockey for for 2014-15 is over. Bring on the Oiler's off season.

Anne took a call for me while I was out. My Doctor called and said he wants me to go in for a X-ray as I believe I have early dysphagia. Hopefully I can treat it and its not a prelude to throat cancer. I'll be calling him when I get up out of bed later.

I missed my CTV news as they were running a 2 hour "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." broadcast. I'm not really into this series as much as I think I should. I was really into the comic books in the 1960's. This TV series is nothing like the original Nick Fury agent of Shield. That's my S.H.I.E.L.D. This series looks good but I just can't get into it. Anne and I aren't even into Doctor Who since Mat Smith left. Anyway, that's 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.

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.

I'm out of here about

2:30pm as I have a Doctor's appointment at 3:30pm downtown off of Bay Station. I was a no show twice before and any more of these and I could lose this Doctor. I need to get a pcn referral renewed to help cover for my insulin and some medication refilled.

I'm in for a 4 hour shift but beyond Friday I don't know whats going on. I might have to take short term telemarketing job for the next 2 weeks. If I don't have any work for the next two weeks and rent for March is looming we'll be in trouble. I have  a small cheque for the 20th. Plus we have our household bills to pay. We have an ongoing project but when that's getting under way is anyone's guess. I heard Tuesday but the schedual is really thin this week. Something is going to have to give. I don't like living like this. I'm being patient but my patience is wearing thin. I miss the old Xentel days where I was more or less guaranteed my hours and I didn't have to submit a schedule for my availability every week and I got a pay cheque every Friday. The job I have now is good, when I'm on full pension but that's a few years away. 

I'm messing around with Instagram and I included a widget but I might remove it because it's stretching out the band width. I'm not sure if I like Instagram but my Flikr account is broken. This will do until I get it repaired. 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 left out of here at 3pm

yesterday afternoon not yet letting Anne know about Wednesdays shift being cancelled. I went into the 7-11 on Jasper and got our May bus pass and to my Doctors office building. I had a brief wait time and got a coffee by one of the shops that was just about to close. There's a small food court on the main level and I had a coffee in the near vacant food court. A brief wait in the waiting area and my Doctor finally came in to see me. He wanted to draw to my attention is my blood sugar count. He wrote me up a strong recommendation to AW how I should be on Metformin and recommended to AW that that I get on a medical benefits plan that would cover everything, including dental. I'll be doing that Thursday after my 1:30pm Pharmacy appointment at Northgate. I'm just thinking maybe I should go in my suit tomorrow and bring my lodge gear with me. That way I can go right to the lodge from Northgate. After lodge downtown I can meet Anne coming out of work and ride with her on the way home.

After my appointment I worked my way to the office. It was very warm out there. Beautiful day. So I got in the office and the supervisor was saying to those that got the email/phone call, whatever got their shifts cancelled for today, it was mainly due because of low survey completion rates the night before. I wasn't the only one. I think 3 is the threshold because I had 3 completions many times before and still had my shifts the next day. On my break I made a couple lodge related calls to see who is all coming out for early opening/closing Thursday. Doesn't look like I'm going to have a big turnout tomorrow night. I still have some calls to make tonight though. I ended up changing my availability for next week to include Sunday. So I'm busy on the job from this Friday-to-Thursday,if they let me that is. I ended up with 3 completions and not feeling very good about my future with this company. Short or long term, it doesn't look good. Any more shift cancellations and I'm requesting a roe. Shortage of work. There doesn't seem to be any other projects on the immediate horizon either.

I'm up at 10am for noon out of here today to use the computers and to do a job search. This employment agency is supposed to be a place that specializes in getting persons with disabilities employment. I think they use the same job bank that everyone else uses but its easier to get to then AW. It's a block West of Corona station. I have my resume all ready to go and so I'm going to be doing that this afternoon. Ideally I'd like something that I can do 3 days/week and 3 days where I'm working now and do that until I retire. If diabetes lets me live that long. 

The other thing I'm considering after my job search today if there's time is heading over to Axe music and look around and head home from there. Anyway, that's all for now.

My Doctors appointment went ok

although my weight is down by 4 pounds. I got an exact measurement on my height at 5.8." I'm waiting to get booked for some lab work and hopefully after that get a referral for the diabetic centre and maybe I can access the Doctor's network. I forget what it's called DPN something but there may be some funds in there to help me with my insulin.

After that we went over to Subway and I had a half of a chicken sub and a cookie, then we went down to Tim's for coffee and I bought Anne a large coffee and me a regular size and I won a free coffee from their roll up the rim contest. After that I went into the office.

I had a decent shift. I got my hours tweaked as I'm off Saturday but in Sunday from 12-8. It's a long shift, I realized that I'd be working from Sunday-Saturday without a break! So I got the super to make a note for me to have Monday night off. Then I work Tuesday-Saturday. If I don't hear from my 2nd job, by then I'll be looking for a new 2nd job and I have a few options in mind. The boss even asked me if my wife might want to consider some pick up hours which on the surface might be a good idea. If she can get a few shifts, then that might help us out.

When I left the building shortly before 9pm there was a light snow falling. It wasn't that cold as I had a wait for my train and got a front seat by myself. I had a headache on the way home most likely due to lack of food all day.

Kind of sad to see Alis Hemsky being traded to the "Ottawa Senators yesterday." The Oiler's haven't been trade buyers in the last couple of years. The Oiler's yesterday, however found themselves short a backup goaltender for team practice before the game with Ottawa. As she was in town, MacT asked if Olympic gold medalist of the Canadian women's hockey team goaltender Shannon Szabados to put on Oiler's gear and play goaltender for the practice game. I think this has to be a first! Oiler players were saying she didn't do half bad. Anyway that's all for now.