Our weather is much more

pleasant  then the +28- +29's we've been struggling with last week. At least its good for sleeping. We're getting temperatures of +18, +20. Next week, +21's and +23's that sort of thing. I like Summer weather to be +18-+24 anywhere in there works for me. 

I called Anne on my 6:45pm break at work last night to check our mail. She said it's good news bad news. Uh-oh. Good news is Anne's sister Donna sent me a card and a nice surprise. Since Donna is out of the country I sent her a instant message thanking her. We'll face time her on Sunday. The bad news is I got turned down because of my 2013 income. It said combined income was cause of rejection but the income was not supposed to be combined. It was just for mine only. I knew something was up when I filled out the form a few months ago. My pcn worker said for me to call her within days of receiving any news. The letter said I have a 30 day appeal window but my pcn worker wont be back until September 2nd, which is on a Tuesday. I called my Doctor and set up a follow up appointment for next Monday. The appeal date window is from the time dated on the letter and 30 days from that date. Which should be September 23rd. If we're looking at just business days. The Alberta Government has all my financial information from the form.

Hearing the news about the benefits package letdown was a shock to the system and I could never recover after that job performance wise. Usually I can get 6-10 "sales" in a 5.5 hour shift but all I could muster was 3 by the end of the night. I feel like I'm fodder there anyway. There's two other telemarketers that work with me. One is their computer/software guy and he shows up maybe 3 days/week. Then there's a lady about my age and 3 others on salary that kind of do the same thing but they actually close the customer in the store and 'convert' them to members. I just send out brochures by email. By this time next week if I haven't got a member (something beyond my control) then I'm pretty much gone. The phone room has about 20 stations but only 2 are occupied by telemarketers like myself. So all these brochures I'm sending out to "qualified people" (no old people) if they don't come into the store, that's not on me. That's on the salary people. I must have sent out since I began about 200 packages since I began and only a small portion of those came into the store. They get a visitors pass with the brochure. Or package. Where I work, they've been around since 1971 and here in Edmonton for the last 15 years. We have no competition. If nobody is doing any renovations or projects then we cant turn them into members. I get no members and I'm out of a job. I knew that going in but the job is easy to do. I just hope I can keep it moving forward into September. 

Last night Anne made us some really nice baby back ribs for supper. A bit of a birthday dinner since my 62nd birthday is tomorrow. I had a good sleep over night and now I got to get ready to get out of here.

Anyway I'm about to have my bath a bite to eat and head out of here for my 12:30pm commute to Northgate and catch the #137 to 178th and 107th Ave. it's a long trip. Anyway, that's about all for now.

Last night Anne and I went to the

Horseshoe lounge just over here on 58th street and 137th Ave. It's just a little bar behind KFC there. Its been around for years. We checked it because they had WWE's Summer slam on pay per view. They charge $10/person but they couldn't get the sound working. My mood changed for the better as I was getting into the show. I was in a bad mood mainly because of the heat and I hadn't eaten and the heat of the day. We ordered pizza and pop but enjoyed the show anyway. They finally got the sound on about about 70% into the broadcast. They didn't charge for the show, which was a nice gesture. They had about 50 people. It's actually a nice little bar. The bus isn't that far away to take me home on a Saturday afternoon. I'm glad I went after all and I'll be back next pay per view. 

This weekend was kind of a good news bad news type weekend. Saturday morning the boss wants me in for a meeting. He gave me a 2 week notice to pick it up. It's telemarketing, what can I say? The other thing is I won on 3 of my cfl proline games. It's about enough to by a case of beer but at least I'm winning.

I'm looking at getting into the eBook reader business. After doing a bit of research I'm warming up to the 6" Kobo Aura. I'm using it for Warhammer 40k short stories and ebooks. Stuff I can't get at Audrey's. 

Tonight is Monday night Raw on the aftermath of last nights show. Looking forward to it. Anyway, that's all for now. 

Friday at work began

slow. I got 1 "sale" just before lunch. It was slow going from after lunch until break but it picked up after break and I ended up with 8 "sales." Sales isn't the right word but its good enough. My personal diary defines what "sales" is

I read in yesterdays Edmonton Journal how Nasa's comet chasing spacecraft "Stardust" had captured dust particles that might have originated outside our solar system. About 30,000 scientists and citizen scientists dubbed "dusters" are examining these fine dust particles since 2009. Findings were published Thursday in the Journal Science. Not to be confused with the Edmonton Journal. 

Overnight our local temperature has been +20 and that's what it is now at 8am but it feels like +24. I don't think I've ever seen an August so warm before and with the mosquito population so heavy. Next week it's going to be more comfortable around +18 or so. 

It was on this day in 1977 that the "Wow" signal was discovered 37 years ago.  

On the way into work this morning, I don't think I'm getting any drive through breakfast. THe ladies are but I just  had a big muffin. Coffee is free at work so I'll get one there. It's a short 4 hours. After work I'll get the #126 bus on 10th Ave/178th street at 1:45pm or so to wem and the express to Corona station and the lrt. I should be home about 3pm. Anyway, that's all for now.

It was cooler out there for sleeping over night

as I'm working through the week suffering through this heat wave.

How she came across it but Anne found this mosquito repellant called "Derma Guard." One go and it lasts for 6 hours. It works great.

I had my shave, shower and I've got just over an hour to go here before I head out the door. I had a better night on the job then Tuesday. I felt good leaving out of there.

Anne's off today and I'll be calling her on my 4:30pm break. We get a break every 2 hours. makes the day go by faster. Anyway, that's all for now.

This summer has got to be the worst one yet

for mosquitoes. The fan I've got going helps to keep them off me, to a point. They're out in full force this summer.

We lost another Hollywood star today: Lauren Bacall. She worked along side Humphrey Bogart in the 40's. She was 89.

I had a slow start on the job and for some reason I got nothing before lunch. Strange. We had 5 telemarketers when I started but lost 3 for personal reasons. Now there's just the 2 of us and my colleague had the same kind of a day I had. The boss didn't say much. Hopefully today will be better. I usually get about 6-10 leads out the door in a 5 hour shift. Even my colleague said this was the worse day she's had since she started. Could be the heat as well.  

I read this great story in yesterdays journal about the Marx brothers. They played at the Pantages theatre here in Edmonton in 1913 for 46 weeks at .50 cents a person to sold out crowds every night. About 10 years before they hit it big on Broadway and in movies. 

We're still trapped in this heat wave with no sign of it slowing down. 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.

Having a good weekend

so far despite a blood sugar crash episode this morning. At this hour I'm back to normal.

Smokey the bear turned 70 yesterday. The character was created in 1944 because of fears that America’s enemies would set forest fires while most U.S. firefighters were in battle overseas. Along with Smokey the bear was a slogan: "Only You Can Prevent Forest Fires." In the original Smokey bear there was no the in between Smokey bear. In 1952, Steve Nelson and Jack Rollins wrote a song in his honor and added a “the” between “Smokey” and “Bear” to keep the rhythm flowing. They should have a contest to update the song maybe more of a hip hop style. 

Other then lodge communications not much going on today, which means I can work on my "Hey" track. I have a Doctors appointment tomorrow and I want to get my hair cut. Anyway, that's all for now.