its one thing after another. Two weeks ago management had roofers replacing shingles, before that they replaced the original carpeting. Now (and we were told about this in advance) there's a construction crew replacing the ground level concrete that passes for a patio. Over the past to days they've been ripping concrete digging what looks like a 12 inch pit. I assume gravel goes in next as a primer and then they are replacing the concrete with decorative tiles. Yeesh. What's next re siding the outside of the building? Oh, wait that's next summer.
I'm sure glad I never bought a Galaxy note 7. I think I dogged a bullet. I might buy a android phone one of these days only because they have music apps exclusively for the android platform. Since the trouble with their latest and greatest cell phone's battery exploding, I imagine consumer confidence might be on shaky ground. Lots of android users are switching to iPhone's, including the guy at unbox therapy. I suspect the trouble with the note 7 is the screen causing the battery to overheat.
This weekend we're having our Edmonton Expo. Carrie Fisher and others are expected. Its a massive 3 day sci-fi, comic book, panel, everything con. Average price is about $30 a day for a ticket but there are 3 day paces available
I'm not sure if there is a Saturday costume dance like the old Edmonton non con but this looks like a lot of fun. I'd go if I had some spare cash just to meet Carrie Fisher and Alex Kingston. So, between now and the next Expo, I'm saving up some cash and taking the weekend off for just this event. The above image is from the Edmonton Expo website and used under fair use.
Earlier this week the market research job called me while I was on my way home from the work. I answered the call yesterday and asked if I could work Thursdays and Fridays. the boss there said he's fine with that. This will give me a few more hours because the shifts are longer. Also, when our place breaks in February the 2nd job often has work. Then I resume in March. This job in March ends around mid May and the market research job about May. Then I go on ei and slide into full pension one year from now and I'll have time to enjoy the Expo. I'll work 3 days a week during the steady job. However, if this place increases the rent because of all these upgrades, we're moving. As for tonight, I'm in at 4:15pm to 8:30 and on the train tonight home. Its all good. Anyway, that's all for now.
job is in the bank. It's more money then my market research job and work is steady. No lay over or waiting for anything in between except for February. Getting to this job site is easier then I expected. Its just a bus to Clareview and the train to Southgate the #6 bus to Calgary Trail and 51st ave and a block North and I'm there. I don't know if I mentioned this before but I haven't worked on the South Side since 1993! Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, I get a ride home after work, which means I'm in by 9pm and I can watch Innerspace for half an hour. I don't mind the extra half hour it takes after work 4 Thursday. I like to leave 15 minutes early Friday's so I can get that #6 to Southgate and home by 9:30pm.
This artist render is whats called Tower B on the former location of the old Greyhound bus company. Before Greyhound this was the site of the old Marshall Wells building. The render is from "inside" the Stantec tower. The Winter garden or Ford Centre is directly below. Tower B will be a 43 story tower on top of a large podium. Its a big chunk of downtown property.
This photo was taken today (most likely by a drone) Image by Jskye. The building across the street is Rogers place arena. This Tower B land under early excavation:
I've got steady work at least until Christmas week. They might go a bit into January like last year. In January when I'm temporarily "laid off" I have a small window to get my roe and apply for ei. The plan is to apply for ei and then get on board again for March for my job, freeze ei, work, April and May, activate ei in June, July, August, September right into pension. Then work part time from there on in. If everything works out well, I can get my dental work done before now and then. As for today, I've got the Esks/Riders game, brunch, enjoy my evening off, and then get ready for the work. At some point I've got to get some blood work done at the lab this week as well. I might update this later in the day. Anyway, that's all for now.
Friday night escalated to burning pain over the weekend. Admittedly I bring this on myself but that's another story. Over the weekend I've been on ibuprofen, which didn't help at all. I've got a Doctors appointment for tomorrow for something unrelated. Shortly before midnight Monday night Anne went across the street to get me some Naproxen, I took 2 pills yesterday morning but it wore off about 7pm last night. I took 2 about 11pm so I'm good until noon or so. At least I can sleep. As soon as I get seniors benefits next year, I'm getting a full dental extraction and eventually dentures. The photo below from James White's FB page and adult humor:
I had a few hours sleep over night last night and on my commute to work on the train about 2:40 ish I remember the train at Campus station. I closed my eyes for a bit then hearing the train operator "Next stop Century park," as the train left my stop (Southgate) I slept through my stop. So I had to double back. At least the weather is nice. I bought a blackjack ticket and there was my #6 bus. Always crowded around 3pm with all the students. However once I got off the bus Calgary Trail and 51st Ave I got into the office about 3:25pm. My shift was at 4:15 but I like the station I'm at. I was 45 minutes early. I lost playing the blackjack ticket (Seems I can only win at the store at the old office) So much for that experiment.
Rogers Place arena opens for business this Friday as country star Keith Urban pays us a visit. It looks like the new casino is opened as well, even at this hour. Might be a nice evening out get some dinner play the tables and walk to the North end of the building to catch the train and then the other train home. I don't know how much of the arena will be accessible from the casino on game nights. Anyway, that's all for now.
Shaking off the summer rust when returning to the job Tuesday almost got me into trouble yesterday. I had a decent night on the job last night. This milestone is where I wanted to be in January: Oas application out the door and working at the job. Speaking about the oas, the feds actually sent me a form the other day, that if the information they had on the form was correct. I didn't need to do anything. I had sent the application a week ago. I didn't need to do all that with the bank the lineup to make sure the application was filled out correctly etc. I applied because I didn't know a form would be coming. Here's a photo of me at the job from Tuesday:
Rogers place arena is also reaching a milestone of its own today: Open house. I heard 58,000 people scooped up free tickets earlier this week for today's event. Now obviously they are not going to have that many people all in one go. Most likely the open house could be in groups throughout the whole day. The groups are allowed 90 minutes to tour the facility. They can't tour the locker rooms of course. Then they are cleared out for the next group and so on. Not only that but my lrt commute to Southgate will be a part of all that, so will Anne's, its going to be interesting today for sure. Also the Edmonton Eskimos are hosting the Calgary Stampeder's for the rubber match from Monday's game. About 30,000+ people will be at that game this afternoon. I'm up early to post this so I can relax with my coffee wake up, get ready for my first Saturday commute since last Spring. The other job hasn't called me yet but I'm calling them on Monday just to see what's going on. My office is a block away from a McDonald's so I can get some breakfast. There's no coffee at work this weekend, so I'll take mine with me after breakfast. Hopefully I can avoid the crowds.
The only casualty for me this weekend is I won't be able to attend the bbq Sunday. Expenses mostly. I already owe $20 for this years Shrine calendar. The guy that takes care of those hasn't been to a meeting in a long time. Dick could be at the bbq tomorrow. He might put 2+2 together tomorrow. So, I'm out of here at 8 this morning, get some breakfast (I can afford that) bring my coffee along. Should be a nice day. It's only a 4 hour shift. Anne's shift is from 6-10. I was going to go to the rec centre after work but she'll need the bus pass and the Eskimo game is on at 5pm anyway. The job I'm on now has steady work up to December 22nd. More then enough for a ei claim and they might have a extension in January like they did last year. Anyway, that's all for now.
with some patchy clear breaks and a few dark clouds. Sunsets at 8:17pm I like this time of year. It's not to hot or cold. Nice mix of Sun and rain. Gone are the +30's. Thank god.
Friday I had a few things to take care of like my Doctors office first. I arranged this over the phone with the reception a few days ago. I needed to pick up some sample meds over the counter in and out. I left out of the apartment under threatening skies and rising humidity to my Doctors office about 1:45pm. So far so good. I had 3 items to take care of yesterday afternoon: Doctor, bank, Service Canada in a small 2 hour window. Travel time would eat up a lot of that window. The reception at the Doctors office said something like "Oh the Doctor wants to take your blood pressure before he gives out the samples," "I don't have time for this now. I thought this was a just over the counter pick up like in our phone conversation a few days ago. I have less then a 2 hour window and its already 2:10pm, alright." I was becoming anxious. Experience has taught me that seeing a Doctor on a Friday afternoon (especially on the start of a long weekend) is going be awkward and could compromise my window. I spent more then a few times waiting up to an hour in his office. After the 2nd blood pressure reading, I had enough of this and unhooked myself off the blood pressure machine and headed out of the waiting room to the reception counter. "I don't mean to be rude, but I don't have time for this, can I re-book this for next week?" All they had were morning openings until the week of the 12th so I got a 1:30pm on the 15th. I can go without for 2 weeks. It's not like I need penicillin or anything like that and I have a bit left over. Its not life or death. At first they wanted to send it over to my pcn but that's another appointment and something about email? Don't they know that C means confidential :) The 15th will do. Its entered in my calendar. I walked East along the South side of Jasper Ave up to my RBC and got the form I needed. Then I worked my way up past the renovated Alberta Hotel. I thought about ducking in for a beer, maybe later. At Service Canada there was a line up but I had my iPod touch and some offline reading I could do in the mean time. Very little waiting and I was able to see somebody right away. All my details were in order for my oas, bank form etc. I didn't know I could apply for my GIS in the Spring when our Notice of Assessment's came in. That's pretty cool. I was out of there at 3pm and I thought maybe I should try the Doctor's office again but I was sweating like a pig and all I wanted to do was to get home.
I was able to buy the Filmora Go remove watermark license for just a few bucks (My gopro alternative) for my iPod Touch from the app store the other day. Works great. Then I discovered Pinnacle Studio for the iPad. It's like iMovie but more robust, more options. iMovie won't work that well on my iPod Touch 5 Gen and barely on our iPad 2. Pinnacle is pricey but I'm seriously thinking about picking it up.
Learning Pinterest is a bit of a struggle. There's lots on you tube but its old and out of date. I've got a blog board and I'm going to pin a couple of other items to my wall soon. I don't know how I was able to get over 390 page views (Pintrest) and 16 followers last week but maybe that was a fluke. Since on my blog I have 1 follower. It'd be cool to have some of those Pinterest followers as blogger followers. Anyway, that's all for now.
Rogers Place arena. There's been talk of an open house tour when the developer hands over the keys to the owner and 19,000 free tickets were picked up in 80 minutes! The tour is on September 10th but I'll be working that day anyway. The following Sunday our lodge is having its annual BBQ from 1-9pm.
Anne was out shopping before my wrestling show last night and returned with Mary Brown chicken and taters. I'm not a big fan of junk food chicken. Mary Brown's competitor's chicken is greasy and often raw around the bone and the fries are cheap. When I tucked into a box of Mary Brown's 3 piece dinner and the taters I lit up. Good. Way better then the other guy. Anne brought back a few more packets of taters in the order, 1 packet isn't good enough. I had a fresh iced cinnamon bun for desert. Awsome.
Anne was on Skype with family while I was watching my show. I don't usually talk a lot about wrestling. Like its wrestling. It is what it is. Last nights show's main event was a no disqualification (uh-oh) fetal four way for the Universal championship title. The outcome came out of nowhere Triple H? What? Kevin Owens the new champion? What, no way. I'd like to see how Smackdown Live will respond to this tonight. What do you do for an encore? Wow.
This Thursday I'm at lodge and Friday I'm taking care of some business, then over at Service Canada to see if I can get some help with my oas, so when the application (its usually a sure thing) goes through nothing comes back to me because I failed to dot the i or crossed a T just to cover my bases for this time next year. I'd like the oas out the door and at work after the labour day weekend. I got the first half of the last sentence secured, all I need is the paper work for the 2nd part. Anyway, that's all for now.
and lately has been somewhat over cast over the past few days with threatening skies. It didn't impact the Esks CFL game last night at Commonwealth. Right up to the end of the first half the Visiting Riders hadn't be able to anything on the board until the closing seconds of the half. They could barely register a field goal. Our D was brilliant and they took Chris Jones and his 1-7 record to record a 1st half rout. The Riders made it a bit more interesting managing a 25-33 comeback. As the weather held, it looked like they might tie the game as they had possession of the ball but it was too little too late. The Rider fans left probably dreading why they took the Eskimo Grey cup winning coach from us knowing he was going to be this bad for them. They were gloating about the jump ship during the off season. Riders are now 1-8 and the weather held.
Not much going on, just having a quiet night at home for a change. I'm just drinking juice, reading, email that type thing. All is quiet on the Clareview front. No drama, no excitement. Its just over cast +14 with a hint of rain.
I've been messing around a bit with the Flimora (Wondershare) iPhone app on my iPod Touch. I uploaded a recent nature video test to my JimTube channel and the video upload was surprisingly slick and easy. I haven't added any of my music to any video's yet but I'll do that when I get a license. What I like about the iPhone app is that it doesn't need my slow lagging computer to process the video. For $40 bucks its a good deal. Anyway, that's about all for now.
