Now Anne has an

appointment to haver her eyes dilated. I had mine done a few months ago. I was fine. We were out running around yesterday and now today @ 5pm we're having Telus calling Anne to get her security camera fixed once and for all, and the eye specialists are calling again about the same time. It never stops. Now they want (me) to accompany her to the specialist tomorrow. Or rebook. Because we have had my PCN thing yesterday, I'm going to suggest Anne rebook for next week that way, I wont mind going with her. And no cab home.

In the Spring I hope to take the first of my 3 Cryptic Rite degrees. Two will be in the Spring, the 3rd in September. Royal Ark Mariner  February 2026. if I live that long. 

+23° is way more comfortable then +30° C. And that's cloud cover not smoke. Anyway, that's all for now.

At least I'm getting the hours but

I had to cut back on hours because it compromises the benefits I get. Super didn't like to hear this but I'm still putting in 4 days/week. At least we're no longer in that heat wave. We're down to +20's that sort of thing.

I had a busy day thought yesterday. I went to Long & McQuade to take care of some business and I got a double pop filter for my mic. On my 5pm lunch break I went over to the store to buy some black jack tickets I won $25 bucks so essentially the pop filter was "free". I had a pretty good 7.5 hour shift. I like this 7.5 hour shift but it cuts into our bottom line. We finished a huge project and making a nice dent in another one. I'm back 1-9 today but next week and from here on in I'm 4-9, Tuesday-Wednesday. I was supposed to work Friday for a few hours but the idea was to not work Friday because most people will be out doing the Canada Day long weekend thing. The shift is short anyway. Besides I got to go to the lab Friday as well among other things, yeesh. 

Next week, I'm 4-9 Tuesday-Friday. I'm grateful I got hours in. My next piece of gear I'd like to get is an Elgato screen capture device. I'm having trouble with obs and Nvidia experience (ne). I can get ne to record my screen but I'm not getting audio. I think it has to do with my sound card and basic "routing." Anyway, I'm up at 10 out the door by noon. Anyway, that's all for now. 

Just because

its rent day tomorrow, and I have about enough funds for a monthly ETS bus pass to cover my obligations, I'm not going to hit the panic button, just yet. Its a dark and stormy night in this household, desperation is looming. We haven't hit rock bottom but we're bailing water from a boat full of leaks, a cable tow's length from shore. We haven't been in this position before. Anxiety has moved in, and taking occupancy in the pit of my stomach. We're in uncharted waters but I'm optimistic dawn is right around the corner. I'm looking for the life preservers even now. I need to stay calm.

Its Grey Cup weekend here in Canada. The Edmonton Eskimos (Esks) haven't been to a Grey Cup finale since 2005. This will be a first for the opposing team as well at Investor Group field in Winnipeg. There is expected to be close to 40,000 fans in attendance. Security will be tight. Its the Ottawa Red Blacks 2nd year in the league. I'd rather be at lodge practice tonight but Anne and I are going through some challenging times here. Anne's going to make our usual late afternoon brunch, and I'm going to settle in for the game. The coin toss is at 4:30pm.  

Tomorrow, I'm out of here about noon. I'm going to drop off a resume, then over to an employment agency to help tweak a resume for a security guard job I'm looking into. I'll drop that off and ask some questions. A lot has changed since I was a guard in 1999-2000, and so has the economy. I'd like to work weekends if I eventually get hired on, its all part of a process. After that its off to a job lead and drop off my resume there again, and ask about a work from home option I know they have. I hope to be on my way home about 5:30pm. Shits going to hit the fan when I bring home under $100 bucks. I just hope Anne's paid some on the rent before I give her the bad news. In the meantime, I'm waiting for my job to call me for work. I was told the new project could start Friday, they just need confirmation, yeesh. Again, how long until pension? Times like these would be no sweat if I had a 2nd income or pension. Anyway, that's all for now.

About 8am yesterday morning Anne screams waiking me

up. I have geriatric issues called restless legs syndrome. Or RLS. It took me 3 hours just to get to sleep from there and after she woke up screaming, I might have had an hours sleep. This came about because Anne likes to have our Siamese cat Sporty dig his claws into her but it got too much, which woke us up. Shit happens.

Earlier this week I got my medical benefits appeal form and I've got to go through even more hoops and more of the same to get any extended benefits for my teeth and diabetes supplies then before. As for getting my dentures I'm about as far away from that as I am for my computer upgrade. If I put my name on the UA dental program waiting list, in about a year I can get students to work on my teeth for free. Most likely pcn will say something like, if you wan t to continue getting free insulin, you need to go through these steps other wise we wont be able to continue funding you. I think my Doctor might have  something to say about this. It's not all bad news. or is it? Read on:   

So much tenure at Pizza 73. The pay wasn't that great even less then my current job. I really wanted to keep this job but they wanted 85% on a test of 84 questions. The first time I did this Thursday I got about 30% of it. They put me next to some lady named pat. She said if I have any questions just ask. I got moved a couple of times because the station wasn't cooperating with me. Then last night I got about 65% and the supervisor encouraged me to try again. It was about 9:45pm and I was working away then that Pat lady cam up to me and had a chat and then asked me into some office and fired me. Then she wanted to shake hands with me. I wasn't in the mood and she never hired me. I wasn't feeling very good on the way home. All this while yesterday I was emailing my boss saying how I wouldn't be in for Wednesday and Friday. Now I'm back for Friday again and more shifts next week. In other words, I'm back to square 1. I'm a long way away from getting my pc upgrade now. This is 3 jobs I lost within the last 5 months. I'm 23 months away from applying for my pension. So now what? I'm not unemployed or anything but I've got just enough hours to make my bottom line.

In one week I lost an appeal (may as well have.) to get medical benefits and a job that was steady and held a lot of promise. I'm not having a good week. Did I mention I'm just 23 months away from applying for my pension? Anyway, that's all for now.

What with my hours changing at work so much and other calendar dates on my mind

I didn't mark on my calendar that the District meeting isn't until next weekend and I've been so busy this last week to check my calendar and as a result I not only lost a day's pay but I did absolutely nothing all day. The Installation was yesterday. I know one thing, my Big meeting is today, I hope.

The race for Edmonton's next Mayor is down the home stretch on Monday night we'll know the results. I don't normally trust political polls but the majority of them are saying that the front runner is Don and Karen is right behind him with Diotte in the back but anything can happen between now and tomorrow night. Most likely my choice will be either Karen or Don. I like both of them, Diotte, no way.

Unless something new really gets my attention, and other then the existing series I'm reading, I'm not buying any new SF. I'm still buying my SF favorite authors and anthologies of course. The Sawyer's, Peter F. Hamilton's, Weber's, Zhan's, Star Treks, Star Wars are safe. Mostly I'm concentrating on Warhammer 40K, Western's, vintage SF like the Ace Doubles and old school mysteries and Marvels on my iPad. Yes, you heard me right! The bulk of my reading activity is mostly Warhammer 40K now. Mainly because I don't have a lot of time to read and I doubt I'll live beyond 80 years or so anyway. There's just not enough time to read all I'd like to.   

This Thursday it's going to be staff appreciation day at work, which means that the boss is buying the staff pizza served in the office. I just had left over Pizza last night from what Anne got us. So if it's free, why not? If the boss really appreciated me he'd give me a wage review and or more hours but  its a nice gesture.

I was watching CFL football Saturday afternoon as I'm thinking the Oiler game won't be on until Saturday night but it was a afternoon game. Not only did I miss a day's pay but a meeting I thought was supposed to be today that never happened, which I missed but also the first road game the Oiler's won, and I missed it! 

When this day is over I'll breath a sigh of relief! If I pass this exam, then great. All of my 5 years of hard work would have paid off. If not then it's see what happens at my next Lodge meeting. If we're "off the rails," it might be because of what happens today. The picture will be a little less murky by the end of the day. If it's announced that we're going to have to turn our charter in or some other option, I'm ok with what ever the IPM's suggest. If we vote on turning in our charter, I'll activate plan B. Plan B will be to get 2 certificates of good standing a petition for affiliation for another York Rite Lodge and apply for that and then obtain a petition for the Royal Arch. Now watch, I'll call one of the guys today and he'll say "It's November 20th!"

Sometime this week when I get the chance I need to get a usb flash thumb drive to get about 10Gb's of video and photos off my iPad. They're not that expensive and there's not much room left on my iPad's hard drive. Anyway, that's about all for now. 

I'm on the phone this afternoon trying to reach my contact but that failed to connect

and it's been derailed until later this morning.

On Coast this morning the topic is JFK! About time something good crops up from this show but I support this theory.

Then Anne gets up and says she has bad news. Our green budgie bird Chippie died. We had him now for almost 2 years. We lost 3 birds in about 5 years. Just as we're trying to come to grips with this, I get a phone call from the office. I've got x2 5 hour shifts and a 7.5 hour shift added on for this week. That's for this week. At least that's good news. I'm off Saturday/Sunday. But Friday's shift means, I miss the Eskimo game. So I'm in the office and then just before shift starts I get some more bad news: The quota's are back and if we don't make quota we could be sent home. In all my 13 years at my other job I've never been in a position like this. I think I was sent home once and that wasn't because of the boss but because of the manager. Now it's Déjà vu all over again. Not even during my previous job's "ghetto projects" cold calling in a recession was I ever sent home. Sure I had low totals but we were always of the premiss "as long as the effort is there." On one hand I get the hours but on the other it could cost me. So I didn't even take a break because every call was important. I got a "pick it up" warning and I ended up with just a bit shy of quota. I told my wife this when I got home and she said she's getting me an application where she works. I'm going to try for at least 1 day/week there so I can at least get my foot in the door. Earlier I said $10/hour jobs anymore just don't cut it? I'd rather work $10 steady then $11.54 and the stress part time and 2-3 shifts here and there.

City paving crews are finally out there getting our side of the street done. Hopefully it's going to be a quiet weekend for a change. Anyway, that's all for now.

Yesterday we got up to

+30 and I'm glad I got out of lifting that hide-a-bed out of here because I had a heat stroke in the morning that lasted pretty well much all afternoon. It was brought about by my sinus condition bit I feel a bit better although we could have used the AC unit on. I was in bed before midnight. 

Still working on my Warhammer 40K Space Wolf summer read and wondering if I should get the online or print version of What dwarf magazine. I'll probably get the online version because I own an iPad anyway.

Currently on my mind is a major decision city council is going to vote on Wednesday. It's to decide to borrow the money for a new downtown arena. People don't realize that Rexall place was built with public money. At the moment it wont be the end of the world or anything if city council votes "No." The Oiler's will still be at Rexall. It means the Oiler's will still have the oldest arena in the league and about 2-3 billion dollars worth of projects in the area that would not be developed if the arena does not go through. Plus if we don't build it now, it's going to cost a lot more a year or even 2 from now. Also, the tax benefits to city coffers is huge, like about $160 million/year. 

Anyway, it's a regular back to work day for me. I wish we could start at 8:30am and leave at 4:30pm but I'd lose an extra half hour. Anyway, it's a long day ahead for me. That's all for now.

For a Sunday evening

leaving out of here last night was like a weekday. Transit time wise that is. I got to the Lodge shortly before 7pm. One of the semi retired guys was nice enough to drive me home. 

 A Second Higgs Boson? Physicists Debate New Particle of another Higgs Boson. At least they'll have something to compare the one discovered last March. Now if we can only figure out what to do with it? Read the story here:

What's the matter with these celebrities and their off the cuff comments? Case in point Justin Beiber saying that if Anne Frank were alive today she “would have been a Belieber” — or fan of his — if history were different. I don't think he meant to insult anyone intentionally or anything. But it's just like these whacky politicions that can't keep their comments to themselves but it's okay they can say what they want right because there's no onus of responsibility. 

The only down side to this weekend besides the lousy weather was Anne telling me that Boot's has worms making it sound like a life sentence or something. So now that's another issue to contend with. It was actually warm in the Sun waiting for my bus to take me to Clareview station last night.

Anyway, tonight it's wrestling and I've got a bit of memory work to do if I want to be ready for Thursday. I'm about 6% of the way there. Anyway,that's about all for now.

Anne went all the way out to the

airport to meet her sister in town for a couple of days but due to the weather fights have been delayed. It means she wont get in until about 8pm,so that ruins her day with her sister. Well one of her days.

By the end of this month we should be out of this cold snap. It means I'm during my commute tomorrow morning,I'm wearing my cleats.

I decided to change browsers and go with Chrome over Firefox because Google is retiring iGoogle after this November. I really liked iGoogle because everything was right there on the same page. I discovered the Google webpage similar to iGoogle where I have my email, Twitter, YouTube, Google maps, Docs and Drive on the same page and I can even put my blog header icon there as well. Google is also getting rid of it's news reader service. All I need now is a Facebook icon link on my Google page. My next step is to sync this with my mobile device and I'm good to go.

I was going to head out yesterday get my haircut, my book, some Tim's breakfast and over to LM and pay my bill and head for Lodge. That would have been a productive morning/afternoon but the weather kept me at bay. 

Nothing special going on this week. If the weather improves then I think I'll be able to get all the above done on this coming up Saturday anyway. 

In a couple of hours, it's Nashville at Edmonton. Should be a good one. Anyway that's about all for now.
  

Ok so the big

“End of the World” even is supposed to be tomorrow: 12-21-12 the day of the winter Solstice. Or just about anytime give or take a couple of days. A caller on Coast called in last night claiming how he was working with a quasi government organization collecting solar data suggesting that major solar activity 100 times more in magnitude of the Carrington Event of 1859. Now I‘m no expert on this but according to Wikipedia on the Carrington Event from August 28, 1859, until September 2, for 6 days the soar storm was active, shorting out Telegraph lines etc. At one point Gold miners up North began to prepare breakfast because they thought it was daylight. The caller said that major coronal mass ejection will take place within the next couple of days. The caller said that a cme 100 times more powerful could wipe us out. Sunspot activity has been very active lately. According to Wiki we get about 2 every 100 years. We had 1 in about 1921 but nothing like in 1859.

On this date December 20th the world got its first look at the Zodiac murders, December 20th 1968. Lots of crazy things going on huh?

On Coast tonight Expert in theology, Biblical languages, and world civilizations, Mike Heiser will discuss the history of apocalyptic beliefs, why for millennia we have predicted "end times," and which ideas have some validity. I’ll listen in on this for tonight.

Anne said, she’d run down to the ban for me to deposit that $40 in my Scotia bank for my Telus account. The last of the plan 35 for awhile. I’m still considering Ivanhoe Lodge’s installation but nobody knows me there or can vouch for me. But it depends on how Friday turns out as far as my severance pay goes and if my direct bank deposit form went through without complications. So if My Friday turns out ok, then I might just head over to Ivanhoe. We’ll see.

This weekend depending on how My Friday goes I hope to go down to Audrey’s for another Warhammer Space Marine Battles book. I’m hoping to do this maybe Saturday morning and get some breakfast at Tim’s and head home. My LM monthly payment is ok up until the end of march. I was hoping to have it paid off by this weekend or at least by the end of the month.

I’m not doing anything with my CPP until the New Year. There’s no point on doing anything right now. I’m more concerned how My Friday is going to go tomorrow. If my severance forms were sent out as J said they were last week, then I should get something in tomorrow. If there was a complication on my Direct Bank Deposit form (DPD) then the cheque would have been cut and mailed out Monday meaning I won’t know anything for a couple of weeks yet. If I don’t get my cheque in my account Friday, then I know it’s in the mail this Monday/now. Meaning to say, I might get it next week. If by 4pm Friday there’s no indication that nothing is in my bank, then I’ll know that it was mailed and J didn’t get the form out or there were complications. But I’ll be checking and I should know by this time tomorrow. For all I know, it might even be in today but I’m not going to hold my breath. Christmas mail is notorious for being slow like this.

On Coast last night as they were talking about the electrical grid and how a massive CME would take it out, I began to do some research and the first street lights that went up here in Edmonton were in 1891 along Jasper Avenue and were turned off at 1am. They were turned on 24/7 in 1902. In 1905, Edmonton Light Department had 53 customers! In 1982, work began on the Genesee Generating Station, 50 km southwest of Edmonton.  The project cost was $1.2 Billion. Recently the Alberta Government went ahead with the Heartland transmission project but that’s a whole other topic.

Sometime around next August or so (2013) I’m looking at getting a new digital camera. In researching wifi cameras from the main brands I’m liking the new Kodak Easy Share M70 but I don’t think Walmart has the new wifi easy share versions yet, maybe they do but once. Future shop and Best Buy as far as I know I don’t think they carry them in stock. 

Seems that our Mayer Mandel and NDP leader Brian Mason are in a war of words here as Mandel claims that Mason doesn’t seem to support Edmonton very much when it comes to gaining funding on the proposed downtown arena. Mason said that while Mandel was making his money he had spent 12 years on City council. He doesn’t care about Edmonton? Sorry Mandel as much as I think you’re the best City Mayor we’ve ever had here in Edmonton in all my 35 years here, while I don’t like his politics I have to give this one to Brian Mason.

After Warren had to use the mens room

we went "next door" in Rexall to check out the wares in the Oiler store. I was looking for a Oiler's wind breaker but they just had Oil Kings, Oiler Tees, hats and Jersey's and stuff. Nothing that would interest me other then maybe the Jersey's but at $240/pop, I have reservations especially as my job designation is on the line. So we went off to the LRT platform as it was very chilly out there about -15. Warren got his train first and mine came almost right afterwards. The #11 pulled in after a brief wait there I was home by about 10:15pm.

About 11:15pm Anne comes in all pouty and whinny giving me jabs about being out with Warren and Kyle. Kyle wasn't with us at the game but Anne is full of piss and vinager and I'm not in her good books right now. I feel a fight coming on, it's called "marital bliss/pms" type of a thing. It's whinny, ugly and its all directed at me. So in other words, shut up James. She forgets that it was last weekend that I took her out to see the James Bond movie "Skyfall," last weekend. She also forgets that I work with these people and for years. She also forgets that I told her about this "outing" with Warren weeks ago.  

Anyway I need to listen to some music to unwind, that's about all from me today, maybe..

 

On this day

 (Friday Nov. 22nd 1963) was the assassination of JFK. This is the 49th anniversary of the shooting in Dealey plaza and of course on the eve of the anniversary Coast has it’s usual JFK show on. I’ll be listening to this in a bit.

This morning it was colder the usual out there. My leg felt better. I got into the office and decided to see if I could log into Ched because of the JFK show on Coast but because of my iPad Adobe Flash can not be used but then one of the guys told me about “Tune in Radio.” I downloaded this free app and it works really good. I’m going to get the paid version, eventually.

Yesterday the NHLPA made another offer to the NHL but it was a little to late. They agreed to meet before the end of the week. The significant part of all this was that the NHLPA made some forward movement, more then they had done before. It seems that the owners are losing about $18-$20M/day! The players are losing between $8-$10M/day. Both sides are losing a lot of money also the league is losing sponsorships. They already lost Kraft foods and might also end up losing other sponsors like Coors etc.  

My day yesterday was ok but not great. I was glad to get out of there at 9pm, while the getting was good. I need to have a good day. Anyway, that’s all for now.

My first day getting

back on the job was slow, I got no sales all afternoon. I was then asked to do WR ret. Today was cold grey and in a word, Meh. I felt tired and not with it. Taps were slow to come by but once I got rolling I did great. They had more prizes to give away and the iTouch is still up for grabs for someone to win it between now and the end of the month. I’d love to win it. I’m waiting for some big stuff like the new iPad mini or an iMac or a laptop.

One of my favorite SF authors is Timothy Zhan, writer of the Quadrail series. I’ve read them all “The Domino Pattern.” (book #4) released in 2009. Now book #5 “Judgment at Proteus” is out latter this year. I’m looking forward to it.

I mentioned this elsewhere but yesterday Apple released 2 new products: The Apple 4th Gen iPad and the iPad mini. Now the mini looks interesting and with a price point of $350, looks appealing but I’m in no hurry to go out and buy one any time soon. Same with the 4th Gen iPad, no hurry.

The 82 game deadline is Nov. 2nd. This means that as of today the players have 8 days to accept a deadline by Thursday Nov. 1st. Failing that then the season is officially cancelled. And you know what? I say good riddance!

Today is another working day on the job. Another 8 hours ahead of me but that’s ok. Today’s weather will be very much like yesterdays, cold grey and, meh. Anyway, that’s about all for now.

Despite having been woken up to

an annoying stereo behind our bedroom wall where our bass board of our bed is at 9:30 this morning, I had a good day.

We had a real change in the weather as well as earlier this afternoon it was about +20 until the wind picked up.

Also, I found out how to remove photos/video off of my iPad, which gave me an extra 3 Gb of space on my iPad.

After the wind storm above Anne went to get us some Pizza from her staff discount and it was really nice. 

I've got a nice bag of "Crispers" chips here for Monday night Raw, which will get underway in about half an hour. That's one of the reasons why I don't like working Monday nights is because Raw now is a 3 hour show and I don't want to get the encore edition at 10pm and be up until 1am watching wrestling all night. 

My blood sugar reading is way to high right now sitting at 13.4! Too be fair though, I had just eaten a small pizza and a small piece of cake

This is the last week of standard time as ext weekend we go back to daylight savings. Anyway that's about all I have 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.

My wife

comes barging in claiming a change of plans, great now what?

So she says she spent 40 minutes in a broken down humid bus and she's a bit stressed out. I was mad and upset but followed her to the Swiss Chalet just down over here and felt a little better when we finally got inside. I wasn't that hungry and all I had was a side of fries and a diet cola. We talked about the potential of my Scene movie card and how many points we could earn towards free movies when we use towards big ticket items like rent and stuff. We get 4 free movies (just for sighing up) which I haven't tried yet so Anne want's to use them today while I'm watching Monday night Raw tonight. On our way out of Swiss, I stopped in for a coffee at the Tim Horton's express and a couple of double chocolate donuts.

Anne had to take off again on another errand and I had a bit of a nap and got woken up around 8pm when she came in. My ipad was ringing and it was Anne's sister from Winnipeg wanting Anne to use Facetime, that comes with the ipad. She got a kick out of that and that was a first.

Now Anne and I had been trying to watch the 2nd episode of Season 7 of "Doctor Who" and it didn't disappoint. About an hour after the show and as I began to open my Blog I checked i09 one of my go to source for all things SF etc. Then I cam across this *fascinating story about how this weekends Saturday nights World Con broadcast got shut down just as SF author Neil Gaiman received an award for his Doctor Who script "The Doctor's Wife" got pulled for copyright *infringement. The broadcast got pulled essentially because the service gave priority over it's paid subscribers then it's non paid subscribers. Too funny. There's more to it then that of course and you can read about it here.

Just a note here but "Doctor Who" is probably the best thing going on in Science Fiction TV at the moment. The characters are great, the writing is top caliber and the FX is about the best anywhere. I don't know if in my lifetime, I'll ever see a new Star Trek TV series but in the meantime, Doctor Who suits me just fine.
 
About noon I'm off down to Canada Place to Service Canada to see if there I can fill out my CPP forms and at the same time, to see if I can get a new Sin card or at least get the paper work together for it. There's a little Chinese kitchen there as well and I'm either going there to get some lunch or to City Centre food court. Anyway, that's about all for now

August has been one

long month to say the least and I’m glad its almost over. At the moment its +13 out there overcast with a hint of rain in the forecast.

An interesting side note about the Mars rover Curiosity mission “Black eyed peas,” singer Will.I.am had the song “Reach for the stars” beamed down to earth. The first song ever to be sent (downloaded) from another planet. The song was stored on the rover and beamed back to earth. Pretty cool.

Last night a late story reported (must have been a slow news day) but a starving cougar saw what looked a large morsel attacked a woman looking after her 2 puppies in her yard in the small community of Trail BC. There was also another cougar incident in White Rock BC (know it well) So here I go ranting again but what do these Troglodyte “wildlife officials” do? Hunt the poor animal down and kill it. Now I could see this as an option (maybe) if it were say North Vancouver, would it have been too much forward thinking to tranquilize the animal, give it something to eat and then release it between the Columbia river and the US boarder? Unbelievable. Most of these wildlife officials can barely think outside of the handbook. Is my rant unfair? Maybe but I see this kind of thing happening all to often. Why doesn’t Peta get behind an issue like this? Because they’re not to bright either. I don’t blame the woman that was attacked and she probably would have hoped for a better option then what “wildlife officials” did last Saturday. Trail BC is just 7 clicks away from the US boarder.

I’m not going to worry about my job any more, I can always get another one. Its not going to be the end of the world. I don’t see the place full every night and with all the past employees coming and going and those that seem to show up whenever they want, doesn’t bother me that much. Also, I don’t see a lot of stellar totals out there from my peers either. My place of employment seems to be like a revolving door. “lets use it as a point to something better.“ I don’t know how many people that get a “better job” only to come back to where I work for a couple of months and then leave again. There are these people that show up for a week and then you don’t see them for a month and they’re back again for another few days and off again. I’m just taking things day by day now. I go in put my 8 hours and leave but its when I‘m there and yes I get down because I get maybe 1 sale for the day. It‘s a tough job but it‘s something I can do, it‘s stability.

Last night about an hour before I got home, Anne called Earls and they had a jacket left over resembling mine. She went there about 8pm and picked it up for me just before she got home it began to rain and just before she got within a few feet from the outside door she got drenched by a bucket of rain, LOL, sorry Anne but thanks for rescuing my jacket. Anyway, that‘s about all I have for now. 

I got up a little bit

early to do a few backing vocal takes. I did about 8 of them and I'll review them a bit more on my morning commute later. 

Not a lot going on for today. I'm not at all that concerned about HO leaning on me and my colleagues. HO must think that we're all in a recession or something, which here in Northern Alberta (for now) we're not. This is Edmonton, not 10% unemployment rate in some US city. Also, I think we have about 30% of our office empty during the day and about 60% empty at night. I'm hearing what management said (improver your diallers or add more diallers.) If I get a pink slip in my pay check, fine I'll deal with it when it happens. If I can get passed the end of July (and I'm taking it day by day) I'm taking 2 weeks off to get my CPP in order and I'll be looking to see what my options are. I'd like to check out a few operations maybe even go in for a few interviews and talk to some people, get some names and numbers etc. You know, I like my job and I like the management I'm working with, I'm there every day and if they want to kick out a solid employee like me because I'm not up to the national average sales wise, well they may as well fire everybody in the office and shut the whole company down. I think HO knows all of this and I met most of my higher ups and they're good people.

Anyhow, that's enough of that. Today it's in for my usual 8 hours. It was this week, 32 years ago I fled the Meyer's place. By 6pm on that Wednesday afternoon it was all over. I was in my new place breathing a sigh of relief. I didn't stay very long because the land lord that let me hadn't realized that the previous tenant before me had left temporarily and said they'd be back. I had a week to find something before said tenant returned. I did the same thing when I left uptown New Westminster for Calgary in late November 1976 living in the Anderson house. I returned back to New West in May back to my old room which was awaiting for me. I think I was paying $100/month at the time, which in 1976 dollars would have been like about $200 in purchasing power today.

Other then the job thing, I slept ok over night, except around 6am I find it hard to fall back to sleep. I got another 8 hour shift ahead of me my 3rd one for the week then tomorrow and 6 hours Saturday (I hope) Saturday I'm going out with the guys and splitting a jug of beer with Warren. A jug is $13 and I'll give him $7. There's about 3 pints of beer in it, which I only drink 1, watch some of the Argo/Edmonton game and at half time head for home to watch the 2nd half. Anyway, that's enough silliness for now, it's a beautiful summer say out there and I'm going to enjoy my commute. This time I'm bringing my headphones. Anyway, that's about all I have for now.

.

Summer, day 1. June

is one of my favorite months of the year. The mix of rain Sun and cloud and the colors are amazing. The Sun setting about 10pm is a bonus as well.

I’ve been following the sequel to Star Trek 2 the next movie by JJ Abrams but it’s probably way to early for a Summer release date. If anything I’d say May 2013 but I have no conformation about this, it’s just a guess on my part. 

I was visiting various places around Google earth earlier around the Swedish Island of Gotland. It’s a big place with only a few small communities and it kind of reminds me of Alberta without the hills and mountains. It’s more of a farming area. It’s largest community is Visby a community of some 22,000. If I ever get the money I’d love to visit there maybe during the fall. A flight would leave out of here from Edmonton International>Seattle>Frankfort>Stockholm on a return trip first class about $1,500. It’d be about 12-14 hours not including stopovers. I’d love to go by myself spend a week there explore and return (with a lot of photos of course.) But if I didn’t have Anne with me, I’d save up the money and go for 10 days. That’s if I ever win the lottery.

Speaking of which Friday’s Max draw is for $50M, tomorrow’s draw is for $17M. I’m getting 1 for each today.

I had a decent day yesterday pulling in a $500 sale (but not on card) I had a couple of $50’s and a $110 sale on card. That’s almost $800! I love days like those. We had a different campaign as well which helped a lot.

About 4:30 this morning I was feeling my stomach tighten as I was breaking out into a sweat. I ran to the toilet moaning and groaning. My head was spinning. Vomit erupted from my mouth, it was a disaster. I must have sat there on the toilet in the dark. Anne was just going to bed about this time helping me out. I was gasping for air when I break out into another sweat. She helped clean me up as I was in a mess. I had a shower and went back to bed. Twenty minutes or so latter, here we go again with more of the above. I hurled about 4 times into a bucket this time Anne had given me. At this time she called into the office for me saying I won’t be in for the morning shift. I felt a little better and went back to bed. We both agreed it was a case of food poisoning. Something I ate yesterday played havoc with my system.

This evening I’m heading out of here shortly before 4pm so I can head on over to the Backer Centre and get a 6/49 and a Max and a $20 Visa card. Loopmasters has a product I want called “Essential dubstep.” I’ve never ordered from this company before and their ordering set up doesn’t seem to work properly for some reason. I hope to place an order for tonight when I get home

I feel a lot better now. I got up about 10am had a owl of cereal and that was kept down and my insulin and fed the cats and went back to bed. So I’m in for 4 hours this evening and I’m going to ask the boss if I can come in for Thursday morning for 3.5 and the rest of the day for a total of 11 hours to make up for missing today. We’ll see how that goes. Anyway, that’s all I have for today.

I feel I'm getting better a little bit each day

but far from out of the woods just yet.

I've got another 5 hours ahead of me but I don't mind a Sunday shift. It happens every other Sunday but management is fickle and always tries to "change things" so this Sunday shift introduced I think in September will be short lived as management changes as well. Since I've been with this company, this is my 3rd office, my 4th general manager, 11 managers, 2 name changes latter and the people I've seen come and go from this place is staggering so I'm not worried whatever they through at me.

And on that blessed note, anywaw, that's about all for now.