We're in the middle of

a heat wave here in Edmonton and most of the province.

We're prbably going to max out @ +33°C this evening. All windows are closed to keep the hot air out. Most fans are on including AC. We got the labour day weekend like this. Speaking of weather, we didn't get our first snow until Sunday November 24th. I believe this late season snowfall cotributed to our heavy wildfire season.

The largest mass balloon release --a staggering 1,592,744 balloons-- was staged by Disney Home Video in Wilts, UK on August 27, 1994.

Doesn't look like we're going to have an EA° in lodge next week. I'm in for an easy night. Just doing my music. That's about it. Anyway, that's all for now.

It's 7:45pm

and we seldom get +30°C this time of night even during summer. Even the day after Canada Day.

Including the humidex it was more like +32°C. Anne and I went to the observation lounge on the 8th floor and it was a bit more comfortable. We're suposed to get some lightning activity and light rain latter. I swaer to god, we got about 4 fans running here.😀

Today Alberta created it's own Police force called Alberta Sheriffs Police Service. Headquarters in Calgary. This is not meant to replace the RCMP🤔but to provide police services service to rural Alberta where the RCMP is lacking presence. On the surface this is a good idea. Most likely IMO this is a move to appeal to the Alberta separatists fringe group.

We've had our floor AC sitting idle since we moved in. With the building AC making it so hot in here and this current heat wave provided Anne inspiration to have our AC installed. We just need to see if it's compatible with the building's electrical system. Once that's done, Anne's going to get some plexiglass from Home depot or something, take out the screen mounted on the inside and install and maybe taped. Anyway, that's all for now. 

I'm trying to cope with the heat here

in Edmonton. I rmember this time last year we had a lot of rain. Anne and I were about to head out to Memory express and I bought the 2Tb m.2 drive I'm using now. After we went to iHop nearby.

Before bed this morning at about 5am, I dl game pass for PC. Initially I thought I'd be able to play a game called Chivilary 2 but for somereason, it failed to initialize. This morning I tried again and figured this was an AV thing. I'm not sure what the issue was, but I was able to dl and install an old friend from the 80s. Bards Tale. The whole trillogy. I remember playing just the first game but life got in the way. I built & equiped a party. I'm not going to add this to my gaming channel. This is for my own indulgence.

Currently we're going through a heat wave here in the city. Right now we're at +29° We're callling for +34° C. I'm no worse for wear. Anyway, that's all for now.

Its been an easy week

what with work and all. Leave out of here at 3pm in by 4pm, 5 hours and 1 hour travel commute home, Tuesday through Friday.  The only deviation was Thursday when I went to Best buy across the street for my Logitech C270 webcam. Other then that, not much else going on. 

Some friends of mine are traveling to Winnipeg, where they will be there for a couple of weeks on summer vacation. The weather in Eastern Canada has been making headlines. Earlier this week I said how this heat wave was nothing like in 2010. Excuse me? So far the heat wave has been responsible for the deaths of 50 people! And here I am with my petulant whining about it being +30 yesterday afternoon. At the moment its +17, which is a bit better.

Anne ordered us Pizza/Pizza with her staff discount. Mine was good but she had too have hers returned for a replacement. Stingy green peppers.

So this afternoon I'm following the Esks at Toronto Argo's. Ricky Ray got injured. its a 3:30pm start. Anyway, that's all for now.

If I didn't know any better

I'd say at this point in time, the company I'm working with is playing me. For now I'm just going to site tight and see what happens. The boss said they will be back with more regular steady shifts in September. The super said pretty much the same thing. In the meantime they are running a skeleton crew doing something and with new hires. That's why I get the impression they are playing me. This company never fires people. If they don't like certain people, they just won't give them shifts and hope that they'll move on and find something else. As for the new hires since my 1 day on the 24th of July, they might be giving new hires a shift here and there type thing just to keep them hoping they wont bail. When I was there on Friday people were asking me where I've been, "Did you quit the job for something else?" The Super said that was his 2nd shift since the 24th of last month (that was the last time I worked) as of last Thursday and Friday. Out of 18 days the Super has worked 2 days? We have 2 supervisors. Where I work they have 2 pages of employees names on the sign for your cheque sheet as there are lots of people that show up periodically. I should have taken a photo of this weeks schedule when I was there Friday. Some people work a few days and I don't see them for a month. There's always that. I have enough ei to last me until that first week in September. Apparently there is another project coming up this week or next week. I'm calling in to find out Wednesday and I hope I don't get hung up on. I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt. Until then I'm not to worried, at the moment.

Some good news on the tech front, in my search for getting rid of unwanted audio on my video, there has been success. Thanks to YouTube. In Windows movie maker I can use the edit panel, go to the volume sound icon. Click on that and a sound meter appears. Scroll the volume knob to mute, go to save video and save as computer (low resolution.) It renders the file into a Mp4 file and I can add my own voice over music from there. The upload options like Youtube don't work very well with Windows music maker. All I do when I'm at my You Tube page is upload the video from there. Slick. I uploaded the new video last night with crappy music. It was just a test anyway. Very happy. The new video is in landscape mode and you can watch the new video here.
When I get some hardware after the computer, I'll be doing more music video's. These music video's will be of my hands adjusting knobs playing with various types of hardware. Once hours at work are more or less steady, I can take out an account at LM for the new Electribe Sampler.

Later this afternoon, Anne is taking Skippy in for her needles. I'm home until further notice. So tonight I'm watching Monday night Raw trying to beet the heat suffering through this cold. The long range weather this week is calling for 29's-30's up until Friday. Uggh, too hot for me but this might be our last heat have of the year (thank God) I'm not going to worry about my job situation just yet. If they can't give me a schedule by the 21st then I'll be looking for something part time to complement this job, 3 days/week until this job has more steady hours. I can see 3 here and 3 days there type thing. What I'd like is something part time steady so when this job has slow times I can work more hours at the job that's steady. At least until pension, then as long as we have our health, I'll work a 1 week a month where I am now. If I get steady hours this fall, I'll build up enough hours for another ei claim for the future and put it on hold (pending another part time job of course.) The idea is when this job has another slow time and I have 2 months before my pension clicks in, I'll activate the ei until pension. They won't let me collect pension and ei at the same time because they are both Federal Government programs. Anyway, that's all for now.

This heat has been taxing my

patience as of late causing friction in the family. I just need to find calm and be steady. Right now I've got a nice cool breeze coming in through my window, which almost gives the impression of a fan.

Lets see, so far for movies this summer, there's been a Mad Max reboot, a Mission Impossible, Avengers, Terminator and now a new Ant Man movie. The only one that has any appeal for me is the Mission Impossible movie and I might go see it in the fall at the dollar theatre. I heard that the next Star Wars movie "Rogue one" would be December 16th 2016. That's 8 months away from their historical original May openings. Initially I was concerned because Disney was involved that this new trilogy would be a dumb down version for kids. Disney does not just do kid movies anymore. They did "Tron," "The Game plan," "Pirates of the Caribbean" and others. From the Star Wars trailer released in April, this new movie, looks to be a little on the "darker side" from what I've seen of the trailer. I'm not going to go out of my way to see this Star Wars movie, but I want to see it in the theatre for sure. I hadn't heard anything Star Trek yet. Apparently James Bond Spectre will also be out next year as well. Anne and I see about 1 movie/year on the big screen.

Since Anne and I were fighting a bit last night over that ei cheque that was supposed to come in but didn't, I never had a chance to get at that Heineken in the fridge. I'll have it Saturday night. If its still there. I tried calling ei just now but I my wait time was 45 minutes. Our cordless phone would have timed out by then. I was going to do this earlier but I didn't sleep well over night. 

I called one of my lodge colleagues a few minutes ago to arrange a pick up ride at Southgate this Sunday. We're holding a planning meeting near Stony Plain at 12:30pm at the Lodge masters residence. Its a good way to spend a summer Sunday afternoon. I'm off work at 8:30 tonight and it kind of reminds me the old Xentel always off at 8:30 Friday nights. I'll do my banking after work and come home. I hope to get a full 7.5 hours for tomorrow since I missed last Saturday. Anyway, that's all for now.

26-30 is what our average temperature

will be like for the next 10 days, uggh. In other words its going to be hot but July has always been a hot month in the region, especially here in Alberta. I don't mind the heat but it just makes it hard for sleeping over night. At the moment its +17 but less then 2 hours ago it was +27 as this apartment retains the heat. It's probably 5 degrees hotter inside then it is out there. The heat affects people different ways. With Anne it tries her patience and she says things she doesn't mean. Its not her fault. 

I hadn't been to Tim's in awhile and Saturday morning seemed like as good as time as any to go get some breakfast. I usually go for the sausage egg sandwich hash brown combo/coffee and I wanted to put $20 on my Tim's card. I was ready to order and the clerk said they were out of eggs. I wasn't very happy, so much for breakfast. I'm at the corner of 107 and Jasper facing East and there was my #5 bus pulling out and away while I was in the crosswalk. I caught the bus barely and it was unusually loaded on a Saturday morning at 9am? I barely got a seat. What about breakfast? I had a long day ahead. Then I realized a Tim's alternative was MacDonalds but there wasn't one around. Then I remember my supervisor mentioning PetroCan as they have a A&W in each location. There was one at 111th Ave and 124th street just up the block. I had about a hour to kill before my 10am shift anyway. I ordered the breakfast sausage combo equivalent and coffee. It was like sitting in a mini food court meant for about 6 people but my meal was great and I had a nice walk back for about 4 blocks. I think I'll be going for my Saturday morning breakfast at PetroCan for at least the summer. It was a good experience.

Normally for a Saturday we have a full crew but we had less then 10 staff, including me. I had a decent day on the job and got home shortly before 7pm. I watched what was left of the Bomber/Riders game got my call from Anne and other then the fight we had after lunch about an hour ago and this heat, everything is more or less fine. Anyway that's all for now. 

Sunday would have been a good day to get out because of the weather

as temperatures climbed up to 9.2 Sunday afternoon. I was surprised to hear Anne say she ordered Royal Rumble for me. Great. I had a bag of chips lots of pop after our breakfast for the show and had a good time.

Next Saturday after work (after checking out times etc) I’m going to go to the new Clareview arena. Hopefully I can get a tour of the facilities and use the pool, hot tub and steam room. Maybe spend an hour or so. I think this would be great for Anne and I after she has her Sunday face time with her sister. I need to see my pharmacist anyway so I can get some more Insulin and maybe arrange for a free rec centre pass. I’d use it every weekend if It was free.

Earlier today I was fooling around with iMovie on my iPod Touch. It's an app that came with my iPod. It's not as good as Windows Movie Maker but for the iPod, it is what it is. I'm trying to find a way to have the iPod mic enabled so I can just have silence and over dub on top of it and add my own music etc. There are other iMovie apps that are similar to iMovie.

Later today Anne and I are heading out of here at 2pm to the Apple store at Southgate. We're having issues with our sound on our iPad and I need to find out why I can't access iTunes from my iPod. They have our Apple ID on file to set up the appointment and my email address in case we have to rebook. After that we're going to Coles Indigo to cash in on my gift card and get a bit to eat and home. Anyway, that's all for now. 

We are in the middle of another heat wave

this week, with +29, +30's all over the place and it brings out the skeeters. 

I was in good spirits about 1:30pm heading towards Clareview station. I got to my Doctors office about 2pm but apparently my appointment was for 3:30pm. Uh-oh. It was very warm about +30 so I went to my barber only his shop was closed. No note or anything. Ok. I went over to my part time job's office and put in my availability. I've got Saturday 3-6, Sunday off because of the birthday outing Anne has planned for me then I'm back at it Monday for 4 hours. Normally it's supposed to be Saturday and Sunday but I've got  Monday's as I'm trying to save up for the computer. Once I've got that, I'll go back to just Saturdays and Sundays. After that I went over to Audrey's and picked up my Warhammer 40K "Hunter's moon" cd, since I didn't get the haircut. Then to the Doctor's office building and I got a little ice cream treat. I had about a 40 minute wait. The main attraction for my appointment was to check my blood pressure and it was 132/70 something much to the Doctors surprise. I took the train home and had a bit of supper and watched a great Monday night Raw.

While I never was a fan of Robbin Williams and only remember him vaguely in Mork and Mindy, I was aware of some of his work. He was the same age as me. We lost 2 Hollywood stars this summer: James Garner and Robbin Williams.  

That was my day off yesterday. I've got a 10 hour day tomorrow but only 5.5 hours is work. I get the bus about 12:30pm and I have about a half hour wait from 1-1:30pm and about a 40 minute bus ride and a half hour wait on the job site. It's just that the job is across town for me. It's a long day. Anyway, that's about all for now.

Beating the heat here in Clareview

Edmonton but at least it's not like +40 like in some parts of BC

I'm cleaned up, I just need a bite to eat get dressed and pack up for my afternoon commute it's going to be a hot one this afternoon. It looks breezy out there, so it doesn't look that bad. We could use some rain. 

It's just the commute from Campus to wem that's annoying. It's not a long shift today only 5.5 hours and I get a half hour break and a 15. Plus my pay goes in for next week and hopefully I'll get a ride to Belvedere station.

Like my last Tweet said, not much is going on this week. My blogging could be weak. Anyway, that's about all for today.

My plan was to go to

Long and McQuade this afternoon but I'm not that ambitious and it's my last day off. I'll go on a Saturday afternoon, maybe on the 26th. I really want to open a account and get the Juno Di or the Yamaha mx. Not sure which one yet. 

Last night Anne went to Walmart East of us here on 137 and picked me up a new glucometer. The battery died on my last one. However the old test strips wont work with the new reader. We just picked 2 boxes. Each box is $100 but Alberta Monitoring covers my test strips, up to a point. That point is almost over, which is why we need to get the rest of the paper work my health benefits. These benefits will cover everything.

We're in for another heat wave. At the moment it's 2:30am as I write this and it's +19 out there. It's supposed to get up to +30 today and pretty much the same all week. K-days begins next weekend. The summer is just flying by. Anyway, that's all for now.

Looks like we are in for another

warm day here today and it's supposed to be warm like this all week. I like the warm weather, I just don't like all the noise from magpie birds out here to contractors working on a Sunday and screaming kids that go along with it. I miss the quietness of the West end.

Yesterday while waiting for my bus home at Clareview I had to take this shot of these two cherry trees or whatever they're called next to the green one. This was taken about 3pm yesterday. They're' all over the City this time of year:

Last night as I was about ready to settle in for the news I heard the name Tommy Ramone mentioned by the news anchor just before the broadcast. Uh-oh. Stuff like this is usually near the end of the news as filler and I didn't want to wait half an hour to confirm what I already had a hint of. I went to my iPad and learned the news the fast way: Tommy Ramone dead at 65. Talk a about a shock to the system. This brought back a flood of memories. Tommy Ramone was last of the original members of the punk rock band "The Ramones" that passed away Friday. First it was Joey Ramone that passed away of lymphatic cancer at the age of 49 in 2001. Dee-Dee Ramone died of a drug over dose in 2002 at the age of 50. Then Johnny Ramone, died of prostrate cancer at the age of 55 in 2004. While the band never gained commercial success and I never had a chance to see any of their shows or buy any of their albums, I was always aware of them. Their first self titled album only recently after 38 years went gold. They came here in Edmonton June 1983. Hearing about the death of Tommy Ramone last night was sad to say the least. I always knew he was getting up there in age. He was struggling with Bile Duct cancer and in the end he lost that battle. While I was vaguely aware of the emerging punk rock scene in the mid 1970's it was off my consciousness for the most part until while living in Calgary in January 1976-77. I recall looking for new music in a Calgary record store in the Spring of 1977. I think I was on my way out of the "Under the stairs basement suite" situation  in this Calgary home I was renting from my boss. I was doing telemarketing at that time. I recall getting my last pay cheque and shortly after that I was about to move into this transit hotel situation not far from the Cecile hotel. I stayed there before after I lost my job with Best Cleaners. I didn't have a plan after I lost the telemarketing job but I recall how I needed to get some new music. I found myself looking around in the record bins at a record store in downtown Calgary. I found The Clash and The Sex Pistols records. I saw the Ramones album and knew nothing about them at the time nor did I knew anything about The Clash or Sex Pistols. I had enough cash for 2 albums and I bought these two as a trial and the Ramones didn't look like a punk band. I remember buying the records "Lets hear what punk rock sounds like" type thing. I got home as there was nobody in the house at the time and I played the music on a low volume setting and was immediately impressed. Both albums were keepers. I wasn't into music like I am now in the 80's and 90's. When the Internet came along with Napster I renewed my interest with punk rock because it was so accessible and free. I tried Napster before it went under then Audio Galaxy and they went the way of Napster, then YouTube. I remember sometime in maybe 2003 getting off the train at Clareview after work seeing this woman with a Ramones jacket and paying it no attention at the time. Because of the Internet, I rekindled my interest in punk rock. It was unsettling to say the least to hear the death of Tommy Ramone's passing. These guys were about the same age as me and most of them died of cancer. It makes me even more aware of my struggle with diabetes having all these people die around me and last night hearing Tommy Ramone.

Ok, switching gears here Anne's out at the truck getting a few things and then we'll have our Sunday brunch. After that Anne is going to Walmart and she's going to pick me up a replacement gluclometer for my blood sugar tests then she's on the iPad face time her sister, while I'm struggling with this old laptop trying to make a beat. 

Tomorrow on my day off I'm going to cancel my Doctor's appointment as he's concerned about my blood pressure. It's been a little high as of late. I haven't been taking these blood pressure pills he gave me because my wife is on the same ones and she said they are causing her problems. So I'm reluctant to take them. I'm going to call and cancel the appointment and rebook for after my pcn next week. Tomorrow I want to go and get my go mic at LM. I'm going to call first to see if they're open first. Anyway, that's all for now.  

It was a nice uneventful train

into the office but I stopped in at Tim’s long enough to get a bottle of diet Cola and waited outside for my colleagues to show up.

I got a few sales on OPC but nothing like Thursday day. I had 3 sales all day and they weren’t very good and some of us had lousy totals even worse then me and that ‘s not saying much.

Tim asked me if I was taking the train home but only if we could  make a pit stop at Tim’s. I got a small bowl of lasagna and a donut and we got a crowded bus to the game of Eskimo fans. The trains sure emptied out at Commonwealth. I was home by 5:30pm listened to a bit of music and had my lasagna and watched some of the football game passing out on the couch. At the half the Esks were leading 15/10 but they let the game get away as the outcome was 18/19 BC. A Pro-line tie. There goes my ticket. I won $25 on the NFL office pool, so that’s good news and my picks are in for the weekends NFL games. Warren and I had a double or nothing and he won that back, so I had a loss kind of a day all way around.

Despite all of this, it was a beautiful warm autumn day out there at +25. I’ll take it. On a scale from 1-10, I’d rate today a 7. Not good but not great only because it’s the end of the week and the weather is nice. I think the reason for my flat kind of a day was because I had a bit of a soar throat. Anyway, that’s about all I have for today.

Its going to be another hot one in E town today as we're in the middle of heat wave with no end in sight

This morning I headed into work at my usual time and enjoying a nice breeze waiting in the shade for my bus. I forgot my shades though. I never made it to the bank appointment. I was dreading work inside the office all day but when I got inside it wasn’t bad. I didn’t do that badly as I ended up with $225 for the first half and 1 card sale in the 2nd half but nothing after 7pm. I posted a couple of Tweets and was counting down last hour. I was glad to rid the day but it wasn’t bad. I was happy to get out of the officered though I had a 10 minute wait. My train was loaded with it being late and full of summer festival goers. Usually there would be maybe 4 passengers on the 9:10pm train and I could make the 9:30pm bus at Clareview. Not anymore. It’s going to be this way until September.

Coast has another decent show on this evening on Tesla and energy and tomorrow Urantia Revelations. A good couple of shows.

I was talking with Tim about the Fender Squier Bullet guitars. I want to get the one with the double Humbucker pickup and the 2 single coil’s. All I need is a guitar>amp quarter jack cable Tim says I should ask for one as they’re about $5 each. Like my mic into my audio interface I can plug the guitar into it and Audacity etc and I’m ready to rock. I should ask for a couple of picks and a strap as well.  The bullet strat is a good first learning guitar from what I’ve been reading.

We’ve got another day of +30 today or near abouts. I don’t mind the hot weather really. It’s all good but I’m ready for bed, that’s about all for now.