Dallas Stars go on to force a game 6.

That means we'll have NHL Playoff hockey, in late September, again! Last nights game was won in double OT. Game 6 Monday night. This series will be the only time we'll see two NHL teams and one of them hoist the Stanley cup in Rogers Place Arena Edmonton. At least in my life time.

The issue I had with my Nintendo Switch, wasn't HDMI, DRM's or anything like that, it was an old power bar that was disconnected from the outlet. 🙄 Now I have Elgato working with Switch, but I'm going over to Stream elements. I opened an account with them the other day for Jim Shannon gaming. I got some serious cable management, issues to take care of. I did a short stream test this morning with my Nintendo Switch, Elgato capture card, works great. Now all I need to do is set up and adjust Stream elements. I hope to stream Live next weekend. For how long I don't know. 

Well, last week my sister unfriend me on Facebook over politics no less. Talk about shallow and week. I thought she was smarter and more mature then that. Most of my family are centre left while I'm centre right. To disagree on politics is all fine and well. Lets argue, lets debate opinions, and move on. I don't want to change the political or religious beliefs of others. We all come from different places, culture and geography. Too unfriend family over politics and unwilling to hear someone else's world view different then your own is petty, and lacks character development. Not everyone needs to agree with me or even needs to be my friend. I stopped caring what people think of me when I was a teenage. Even more so now that I'm a senior. If my sister sends me another friend request, then fine I'll accept it. For all I know, she might have unfriended me for 30 days. You got to let them go so they can grow I guess. Anyway, on that note, stay sassy & classy people. 

At the moment our overnight low

is 7 degrees. That's as cold as its going to get today but it also makes it good for sleeping and I'm wiped out not having slept much over night last night.

Anne's nephew Steven and his family came to visit my wife from Moose Jaw. Nice family, Steve and his wife, their teenage daughter and family friend arrived about 4:30pm. I never met them before. Steve works for a railway company and his wife works at Sask tell. Their daughter is into show horses. It was mostly talking about Anne's side of the family. They were more interested about Anne then me and catching up. Its all good. Anne made us a great roast beef dinner, which was well received by all. They stayed for a little over two hours. I'm glad they paid us a visit, nice people.

This morning I'm up at 8:30 to call in and cancel the x-ray I forgot. I had to fast and having Anne's company over put that on the back burner. Then I can go back to bed. I'm hoping after Anne leaves for work I can call about my school transcripts and get that ball rolling before the Esks/Lions game. No calls in yet from the job front but I'm going in tomorrow anyway to pick up my cheque. Anyway, that's all for now.

The world owes me absolutely

nothing. That's my family, my wife, my colleagues my lodge etc. I'm fortunate to have Facebook that lets me connect to my family. They have busy lives. We all do. I love my brothers and sister. We might not be able to face to face with each other but they are always in my heart and prayers. I always think of them in a positive way. I don't expect anything from anyone, anymore then they expect from me, which is why I removed when my birthday date on Facebook sometime ago. Last thing I want is all my friends and brothers and sister is to acknowledge my birthday every year. It means I have to reciprocate. When I'm on their Facebook page I try to send birthday greetings etc. One of my brothers has been dead for sometime and one of my brothers doesn't use social media, my sister barely. That just leaves Jeff and me. 

Moving forward. I caught my #137 bus at Northgate to specifically get out at 170 and 107 street for lunch at Harvey's. I had a double bacon and cheese burger combo. It was ok. I walked to work from there. 

My shift yesterday wasn't the greatest. I have 7 days left. By this time next Friday I'll have a better idea if next Saturday is my last day or do I continue with this job. If not, at least I have my market research job and I'm in all day this coming up Sunday and Monday night. The idea was to work my day job 3-9 Tuesday-Friday and Saturday 9:30-1:30 and bus it from wem downtown work 3 hours Saturday and work all day Sunday and Monday night. That didn't materialize until this weekend. Except Saturday. If the 3-9 job doesn't work out, then at least I have the other job 5-9 Tuesday-Friday, Saturday afternoon 2-6 and all day Sunday and Monday off. That's 55 hours in a 2 week period. Good enough and I wont have to travel so much to the West end. Either way I'm ok with it 3-9 or 5-9. West end or downtown. Anyway, that's all for now.

For the most part its been a busy couple of days around here

and next week isn't going to get any easier for reasons I'm not able to disclose, for now.

I went and called for a emergency lodge meeting for next Friday for reasons I can't get into here and I got my notice in the mail today.

My PCN/AW councilor is trying to meet the request from my Doctor to obtain medical benefits for me. PCN needed our tax forms, a list of meds we take from our pharmacist and a 3 month bank statement and Government ID. I was going to drop said items off later this week. It looks like now, I wont be able to do this until next week. Possibly Thursday. I was going to get them out this week but with my shifts at work being on and off so much and other things happening. 

Ok don't ask me how just yet but there's a good chance that between now and the end of this month I might be able to get my new PC, and a account on a new keyboard work station. The PC this month and the workstation next month. I'm seriously looking at the Roland FA 06 and possibly Cubase 7. I've been researching the FA and I really like what it can do. Stay tuned.

My wife is having her sister and brother in-law coming out to visit from Nova Scotia. It's going to be sometime next week as they are going on a cross country tour of sorts. 

I'm in the office today 2-9 and off Thursday and in for Friday and Saturday. I could be off Sunday and Monday but I'm not sure yet. Anyway, that's all for now.

So much for my Saturday off

though it had it's ups and downs. On the down side the Oiler's lost (again) dropping their 6th straight. On the plus side I got a free ticket on my lotto 6/49. Speaking of, which somebody here in Edmonton won Friday's $50 million Lotto Max millions! Usually these large amounts are won by a group of people at the workplace. On my 2nd job it was announced for those that have signed up for the lottery they didn't play this round because the office broke for Christmas  on the 20th. It's ironic that the office that didn't play is living in the city that won the $50 million. Saturday nights 6/49 draw was for $5 million but because nobody won, it climbs to $11 million. Winning $11 million would be a great way to start the new year. I'd split half of that with my wife, give all my immediate siblings something and live off the rest.

This photo was taken of me at the Florida Panthers/Oilers in early October 2011. 

I'm discovering more interesting details about my family all the time. I learned my father was married twice before. My mother was his 3rd wife! I was kind of worried I was conceived out of wedlock but my parents were married a year before I was born. I thought my father grew up in El Centro California but he grew up in Vernon BC during the 1930's.

Today I'm up at 11am just to go over a bit of email and out there door shortly before noon so I can be at the office by 1pm. I'm there from 1-8 today but I get a half hour and 2 ten minute breaks. Add a couple of bathroom breaks in there to stretch my legs and it'll be a fast shift. Anyway, that's about all for now.

busy couple of days here. 

I had a great day on the job last night. Tuesday slow, Wednesday great, Thursday slow (I had to duck out at 7pm as my knee was causing me some greif and I was having a long day as it was.) First time that's ever happened. I'm hoping for a solid day today.

I'm out of here in about an hour, then over to Tim's for some breakfast and in the office for 6 hours. I arranged to have one of my colleagues to drop me off after work this afternoon so I can make a bill payment at Long & McQuade on my program. I'm ahead by 3 payments, today will be 4.

The guys asked me over to BP's for drinks after work today but I think I'm just going to go over to Wendy's by LM have a bite to eat and catch the #2 to Corona and head home.

I was in bed by about 12:30 this morning giving me about 5.5 hours of sleep.

Anne’s giving me the silent treatment, fighting with me this weekend. Most likely because it’s a long weekend. It means I don’t have to call her today but she’ll call me this evening on her break.

I had a better day on the job yesterday. I got a $400 sale that went through on a Visa (I was told it went through last night) I think I ended up with about $1200 or so and about $400 on card doing CPC all day.

In doing some more family tree stuff, Robert Wacaser suggested it might have been Richard Martin Shannon (James Blaine Shannon’s brother, which would make him my father’s uncle) that paid us a visit that summer in 1968 but that wouldn’t make sense because he died September 26 1955. Thirteen years before the visit  He was born 1891, which would put him at 64 years old. If he lived until 1968 he would have been an old man at the age of 77. I know JBS had another brother as well but that would have put him at about the same age by 1968. According to Find a Grave.com, All of JBS’s brothers had no children resembling 2 boys. Even when I was 16 in 1968 dad would have been 46. My brother Mike might know. By 1968 though, Florence Shannon Monsees would have been 22 years in her grave already.
    The other thing Robert mentioned was that in 1940 Florence was very sick, which might have been the motivating factor for them to come up to Canada. From 1926-until 1940 I wonder how much contact Richard and Evelyn had with Xel and Florence? It’s quite possible that Xel invited Richard and Evelyn to Vernon in 1940. Perhaps Ken Grandbois himself was a member of the Knights of Pythias and was initially from Vernon. He was born in 1915. He’d be 97 if he’s still alive today.
    Apparently Evelyn and Ken have a daughter Carol Round and even gave me a phone number to call. So I’m going to call when I get home tonight. Maybe she can tell me more about Ken and Evelyn if she’s open to it. She might even tell me if Ken was a member of KOP, where they got married where they lived in N Vancouver. I vaguely remember in the family car in the 1960’s paying Ken and Evelyn a visit in North Vancouver. I assume it was in North Vancouver. I don’t remember much about this visit. I think we were told to wait in the car.
    The other thing I’d be interested in knowing is where did Evelyn and Richard go to school in El Centro? John Elder was in El Centro and I think he might have met Alta there 1935 because by 1954 they were married. Alta had Dorothy Jean Shannon.
    Getting back to dad’s uncle Richard Martin Shannon (RMS) his only wife was Roxie Paralee Marlin Shannon (1893 - 1979)* She died at the age of 86. This would have been dad’s aunt. RMS and Roxie had 2 girls, Margaret Laura Shannon Holmes (1915 - 1995)* Margaret never had any children and she would have been 53 in 1968. Lola May Shannon Coon (1921 - 2001)* These were my dad’s cousins. Both of these girls would have been about the same age as dad. Lola May might have had a child as there is a photo from “Find a grave” of her holding a baby. So far I can’t find any link to any member of dad’s family that had 2 twins. I guess I was wrong about the JBS having 2 other brothers, he only had 1 and that would have been RMS. His two girls have no twins. Roxie had never been married before Richard. So then was this on Ken’s side of the family? There was nothing significant going on in Vancouver in 1968 that would compel those people from coming to Vancouver. So who were they? 

I'm off for 2 days, 1 with pay. However I got the wife fighting with me this weekend. It's going to be one of "those" weekends. Sigh, what I don't go through with. Anyway's that's about all for now.

Too get temperatures

like what we're having at this hour this time of year here in Edmonton, It's +10 is significant! Tomorrow we could get +4 but after that it drops. By mid month we could be back in the deep freeze.

I've been doing some genealogy research on my family tree on my father's side. Somehow after 1940 my fathers sister got married in 1942 but I don't know if that was here in Canada or in California. Apparently they lived on the island of Catalina in 1941. My father would have been 19 and his sister 22. The only thing I can think of that what motivated my father and his sister to come to Canada was his older and only sister, got married in 1942. I know who and why but not the when and where, if that makes sense.

I'm in hunker down mode this weekend even though it's Monday it's still my weekend. 

I'm also learning my SW parts as well for next year when I take the SW chair. 

Speaking of the above LM has a recording workshop happening this month and wouldn't you know it, it's on the same night as our Lodge practice. I would have loved to have gone to this thing.  

Tonight is another Monday night Raw and Anne is doing laundry. So I'm going to be in for a decent night. 

Not much in the way of book buying this month although I'm interested in Repo Men by Eric Garcia and Elizabeth Bear's Shadow unit series are out in paperback. I might see if I can special order 1 of them, try it out. Other then that, anyway, that's about all I have for now.

We got our first snowfall

We got our first snowfall of autumn just after Thanksgiving weekend but we haven’t got the snow that stuck on the ground yet.

I got a large sale within the first hour and 2 all afternoon but the evening as a bit better and I did taps to help shore up my lousy Card showing. All in all though I had a decent total, which surprised me because usually Wednesday’s aren’t that kind to me. The last hour I was losing energy and I knew it.

So the cargo supply ship launched over the weekend arrived at the space station and brought some experiments as well. Speaking of space news, the Mars rover Curiosity spotted a curious object on the surface of the planet not far away from Curiosity. Many just think that it’s a piece of plastic from the rover itself.

We got our GST cheque today which was a welcome relief as we were scrapping for pennies there for awhile earlier this week. Speaking about the Feds, it was mentioned over the news that the production of our Canadian passports are going to be outsourced to The Netherlands as a cost cutting measure. The NDP asked what’s next our currency? I don’t always agree with the left but in this they make sense.

For hours I was struggling how to open the midi key editor in Cubase 6 and I haven’t found any way how to open it. More then likely it’s something I’ve done wrong or forgot but I opened up a test file in FL Studio and Battery 3 works out fine. Actually better then I even hoped for.

I’ve been piecing more information about my father’s side of the family, my grandfather. His name was James Blaine Shannon born 1897 in Bonham Texas. He married a local woman named Florence at the age of 17 and she gave birth to my Aunt Eve in Bonham in 1919. They were  married in 1920 My grandmother gave birth to my father in El Centro CA 2 years latter. My grandparents divorced a few years after my father was born. My grandfather remarried and in 1931 my grandfather while working for the City of Imperial died in an industrial accident overcome by sewer gas while trying to rescue 2 of his co workers. My step grandmother married again and during lengthy custody battle gained custody of aunt and father and lived in San Diego. It gets a little murky after that but apparently my father married during the war years. He flew bomber aircraft over the Atlantic to get the planes to their destinations. He wasn’t flying bomber missions or anything like that. But what motivated him to move to Canada I have no idea. That’s where it gets murky. I found out that my grandmother got married again and  moved to Vernon BC and died at the age of 44, which is still relatively young. How she died I have no idea but she’s buried in Vernon.

This morning I’m getting my Proline CFL game for week 16. Just 3 games left over until the season is over. I’m not sure about my picks yet. Anyway, that’s about all for now.

I never knew my grand parents

on my fathers side of the family. I met my grand mother on my mothers side numerous times but I never had a chance to talk one on one with her. A few days ago I got this email from somone with my last name. She said my father had the same last name as her husband's but with a Jr at the end. They provided me with some details that more or less confirmed they were doing honest research. My grand fathers name was James Blaine Shannon (JBS) and my grand mother's name was Florence. JBS died in 1931 while trying to save the lives of two of his co workers in a sewer gas industrial accident. Mom told me a bit about this but the story this lady told me kind of supports what mom told me. FLorence died in 1948 (5 years before I was born) and is burried in Vernon BC. I'm trying to get my sisters contact details because she knows more about our family history then I do. I've been out of touch with my sister since just before Anne and I got married. 

What's interesting is a photo from "Find a Grave" shows a nice grave marker with not much details but showing the logo of a group called the "Order of Knights of Pythias." This might have meant that her new husband was a member of this order. They were very big in New Westminster back in the late 1800's. 

I got more information as well about my grandfather and a photo of him and his wife probably at the time they were married. My aunt Ev was born in Bonham Texas and my father in El Centro. My Grandfather was 34 years old when he died in an industrial accident in Imperial county in 1931. 

Well, I'm back to work for a full week this week but at least I have I have my stat pay for Thanksgiving day yesterday. Anyway, that's all for now.

It looks muggy out there

this morning. I'm enjoying the summer but in a way I'll be glad when it's over and ETS returns to normal hours. The #12 I used to always be on time for at about 9:25pm, pulled out of Clareview station as soon as I got about half way down the ramp. I had to wait about 10 minutes for the #183 and another 5 at Clareview. Now, I don't get home until about 9:50pm half my evening commute is spent waiting or on ETS.

Last night I didn't mind waiting to much. My Telus Flex plan was working Ok, temperature was +24C and the air was mild with a nice evening breeze and despite having a better evening then an afternoon (sales wise) my spirits were high.

The CFL begins early week #4 as the games begin, Wednesday night (tonight) Thursday, Friday, Saturday. Tonight it's Winnipeg/Toronto(T), Thursday it's Saskatchewan(W)/Calgary, Friday it's Edmonton/BC (T), Saturday it's Montreal/Hamilton(T), so I'm getting my ticket on my way into the job. I'm picking mostly ties because that's where the money is and it seems that's where the wins are within 3 points of each other for Proline purposes a 3 point game either way is a tie game. Matter of fact, I might just make all these games to be ties. I'm still pissed at BC in week 2 for not making the field goal.

I'm doing some genealogy research at the moment. I'd like to ask my brothers but they are nor very forth coming in giving me any information. I doubt they know much information then I do. But I'm pretty sure the materials I was supposed to receive when mom died in 2000, contained things like dad's birth certificate etc. I'm about to contact the California department of vital stats to get my fathers birth records because in those records they might tell me the names of his parents and so on. Birth records go back to the mid 18th century and costs about $20 for a search/copy, I guess. I need to contact the right department where to send a money order in US funds and wait for the results. I'd like to get some information this summer if possible.

I'm about ready to post this and shut things down, pack my things have some cereal and get ready for my late morning commute. I'm usually in the office shortly after noon. Our shift starts at 12:30pm-4:30pm and at 2:25pm we break for 10 minutes, I call Anne and have a quick touch base chat and a sandwich or something and back at it until 4:30pm and have my lunch in a mad rush to the microwave and after that the game tonight starts at 7:30pm. I'll "see" the first half and then it'll be all but over by the time I get home tonight. Tomorrow will be much of the same as today same with Friday but I'll post. Anyway, that's about all I have for now.

I was doing a bit of

research on my family. More specifically on my father's side. The only thing I know about  my father was that he was born in El Centro California January 1st 1922. Richard Warren Shannon. I know he had a brother and a sister Evelyn. She was married to some guy  named John and they lived in North Vancouver. I can't recall what his last name was. I remember when I was recovering from my back operation dad's brother came up to Vancouver 1968. I don't recall meeting him but I had a chance to talk with his kids. They were blonde twins I vaguely recall and I think about the same age as me. I think I met them once. I don't know much about what brought my father up to Vancouver. We have a photo taken of him on the street in 1940 when he was 18. I'd like to know more about my father prior to marrying my mother in 1951. My mother is Anglican by background about my father I don't know. From what my mother tells me, my grandfather died from some kind of an accident. I don't know if that was work related or what. I did some research that lead me to the California department of records or vital stats. I think the photo we had of dad was when he went to enlist in the armed forces shortly after Canada declared war on Nazi Germany. A lot of boys his age joined because of the depression.

Switching gears here, I was able to contact our Lodge secretary about the BBQ and he is unemployed again but might be taking a 3 month shut down job, which like last year could take him out of action as far as helping me out here. Apparently his sponsor in a pinch often help him out do the cooking and all and he's going to see if about enlisting his aid again to cook the steaks etc. I'm apparently going to be getting a follow up email, soon but we're running out of time.

I'm back at the job thing again in the morning. I've come to the conclusion that I don't care if they fire me now. I'm going to be getting my CPP pension in September. The thing is, this is going to only provide me with about 10% of my monthly income but I have some other options but I don't want to work in another call centre again if I can help it. Anyway, that's about all I have for now. 

I had a great weekend and a day off for Friday

I’m very close to obtaining a copy of my fathers birth records. This could also have parents information street address as well. Its out of the California department of vital stats. Or CDVS. They have birth records going back to 1905. I know Richard Warren Shannon’s name is in the database because of a search under one of these geneology companies that flagged it but in order to get the info, you have to join. It takes 10 weeks though to get a reply and if there isn’t any response then they send the funds back to you, I think. But I might be able to also find out death records as well and from there find out about my grandfather and if he died in California as I think he did, which is what brought him and my aun Evelyne out here. I know my dads brother is/was in San Diego. If I can find his birth certificate and it has listed my grandfather, then that validates my enquierey as the right one. I’ve just got to get the right forms and process together and away I go. It costs $16 for the birth certificate and $20 to get an acknowledment of parentry. I just need the right forms. If I can do it all online (except payment) that’s a check or money order, then fine. If I have everything in place, then I’ll get the process started this week.

Other then the great news about Ryan Smyth returning, Canada Post is back and mail will resume again this week. I was worried I’s be laid off it dragged out like the NDP wanted.

I hope I can get some family closer from the above this year on my dad‘s side. I‘d like to also know if my grand father was born in California (CA) If so, he‘d more then likely be born within 20-30 years of my father. Probably in the late 1890‘s. In that case the county (Imperial valley) would have that information. I even tried looking for a El Centro phone directory for around that time.

After I read this Star Wars book, I‘m going to delve right into RJS‘s WWW trilogy. I hope to have it read by the end of September. All but the 2nd book is signed by the author. If Sawyer comes to Edmonton next April, then I‘ll ask him to sign the 2nd one for me and his new book, he‘s calling Trigger. Then to round out a week book reading year, I‘m going to jump into another Warhammer 40k Omnibus book and if possible, book #4 of Timothy Zhan’s Quadrail series. This will make it for 8 books on the year. But because my reading time has been a bit compromised du to my work schedule bouncing back and fourth between and business and add a busy Lode year, my reading has taken a setback this year. After the WWW books, that makes 6. The Warhammer and Zhan books only goes to 8. If I take out the Warhammer book for next year, (Lodge work doesn’t get easier when I take the Jr. Warden chair.) but at least I can revisit the City of Pearl series, and another Star Wars series in there as well and if I‘m lucky I can get something small to carry me to 10 books on the year. All Science Fiction. The other series I‘d like to get into is the Star Trek Voyager and SCE series.

And if all that isn’t enough last night while surfing You Tube, I came across some more Advanced Squad Leader videos. I uploaded a few of them to Itunes. They’re good primer videos featuring the Starter packs. I don’t have the 2nd ed rules book because it’s out of print. They can be bought on Ebay for about $110. $80 at the MMP site when they get back into circulation.

Switching gears here: This completely escaped me Saturday as I was leaving the office. Friday is Canada Day July 1st. I have another day off with stat pay. Sweet. I took today off which is my regular scheduled day off little realizing, wait now I’m only going to get 24 hours, +4 for Saturday for a total of 28 hours. My stat pay will make up the difference but not by much. If all goes well I should have the funds for Cubase 6 by the end of July. Anyway, that’s all for now