Here I am shortly before 9am looking at my bedside

clock. Huh, its 9am. Shit, I'm going to miss my 9am bus to work and I didn't have supers phone # to call in. I'll miss my shower, I'll fill my empty pop bottle. Friday night I can leave my work file and box of pencils, etc on our stations reserving our spaces if we're in on Saturday, so at least I have my spot reserved. I'm up out of bed feeding the cats, scrambling, wait now, its Monday morning. I'm getting too old for this. I went back to bed.

About 4pm yesterday we got this huge snowstorm. It was howling out there my friends. Long range weather showed -20's never mind the wind chill. Looks like its going to be boots and my open face balaclava mask for me from now on. So this morning I'm up just before noon, fixing my coffee and it's -17 out there now. The thing is we got ourselves a dusting of snow (again) here in the Edmonton area, that's it! The long range is anywhere from -18, to -22, with an average of -20. Still not too bad. Last so called blizzard we got, was just a dusting of snow like this one but we get the change of temperatures instead. Over the last number of recent years, our snow accumulation in the Edmonton area hasn't been very much anyway. Usually we'll get maybe 2 inches of snow that stays packed on the ground and melts in late March. Besides I'm not working outside, so weather doesn't affect me that much. The only hardship winter has on me is waiting for the bus and if I time it right my wait is 5 minutes maybe 10. The only thing I don't like about winter is the freezing rain. I'd take this weather over freezing rain any day. 

My wife has her sister here in town on a working visit, so Anne might be leaving with me. She can ride in with me to University station. Her sisters hotel room isn't that far away. As for me, this week, its my South side job until Thursday. Friday and Saturday its my market research job. If I can get the next 2 weekends in at that place and my South side job goes until December 22nd, then we should be ok from there for January. About the only exciting thing for me this week, is getting my iTunes card for iM1 for Gadget and one of the 3 "Space marine battles" books I have waiting for me at Audrey's. Anyway, that's all for now.

That so called blast of winter Wednesday

was just a dusting of snow. If anything it feels like Spring out there. Yesterday morning it was nice and sunny but my commute was under overcast skies, with a dusting of snow. Heading in this morning should be ok. I'll be at my South side job because my shift was cancelled for last night and today as the market research office job is closed. They have nothing going on. My weather heading into work this morning, should be ok. I almost feel like heading into Tim's for coffee, we'll see.

Thanks to YouTube I discovered before bed this morning a Korg Gadget a "Ah, so that's how it works," moment. Gadget kind of looks like a digital audio workstation (daw), and can be played that way but it seems to me the real value is in the performance of this tool by muting and un muting tracks as parts, intro, Verse, Chorus, etc. I'd like too see as a possible future upgrade where a track could have more then one gadget on it but where each gadget is its own track, might be hard to do or even redundant. Since, there's no CFL football or Oilers hockey, Sunday, I'll be playing around with Gadget etc.

This morning I'm on my way to the job and if I run into Dave, I'll head straight into work. If not I'll pop into Tim's at Corona station. I don't mind being 10 minutes late. They wont mind either but we'll see. After work I'd like to get my free flu shot at the Rexall drugstore on my way home and pop into Audrey's and on my way home. Anne has a frozen thing in the fridge for me. If I'm tired I'll have a bit of a nap and for latter watch the Oilers game at 8pm. Anne is out with her sister Sunday night as she is making a rare job appearance here in Edmonton. Anyway, that's all for now.

Well we're back to winter at long last

which could be good or bad, depends on your point of view as a resident here. At the moment its -7 and if I was on pension, I'd call in sick. I'm not yet, so I can't. Next week we're supposed to go into the -15's. It's been a rough month for us what with losing Boots.

The Oilers went from 2nd place in the West just a few days ago down to 5th in the standings. This team's main problem is they have only one line that can score goals: Connor McDavid's line. The rest of the guys aren't scoring. I knew this would happen to us eventually. Its my feeling that the Oilers will be hovering around 9th in the West in March, in and out per game. The last game of the 2016-17 season will be a back to back weekend pair of games with the Canucks. Just a gut feeling but the Oilers will squeak into a playoff position but just by 1 game and 1 goal down to a shoot out. 

I'm more or less happy with the PM's decision yesterday that saw approval for a couple of pipelines. It was the right decision to pull out of the Northern Gateway. He gave the green light for the Burnaby Trans Mountain pipeline, and the Edmonton/Wisconsin pipeline. There are a lot of hoops to go through first and I'm not holding my breath the 2 pipelines will get underway, anytime soon. Its good news for Alberta though. 

Ok, my schedule for the rest of this week, is looking good. my last day today at the South side job for this week. I got my 3 days in. Then I got lodge tomorrow as its our installation. Then I'm working at the West end job Friday and Saturday, and that is confirmed. Hopefully I can get a full day out of Saturday. I've got possibly 3 weeks to go for December. Anyway, that's all for now.  

The only problem with blogging

once a week, is there are events that unfold in the world, that go missed in this blog. I'd like to cover as much as possible. While I'm not a socialist, my eyes cut to the death of Fidel Castro. His death and legacy brought the attention to the world stage. Castro was a friend of Canada (not of me) but this country. There are many in my generation remember the Cuban missile crisis. Later many Cubans left Cuba and fled across to Florida in what's known as The Mariel Boatlift. It wasn't until recently US President Obama brought the two countries closer together.

Closer to home, a few yards away from us on our side of 137th ave, there was a Police presence and first responders flashing lights just as Anne was coming through the door. This is just across the street from "Chianti's." Its a dangerous heavily marked 4 way. We latter learned during evening news this was another traffic fatality but there were few details. So, this morning I'm checking local news and the fatality indeed occurred at the 4 way on 40th and 137th involving another ETS bus. The fatality involved a 13 year old girl as she was crossing alone as she must have done dozens of times before facing South crossing to the other side of 137th. The bus apparently was crossing as it must have done hundreds of times as well at about 7:45pm last night. The girl might have been shopping at Walmart. Apparently the bus was found at Coliseum station later that evening. So the bus was apparently trying to cross 137th facing South on 40th turning onto 137th Eastbound and the driver doesn't see the pedestrian in a marked crossing? The driver's field of view covers a wide area and ETS is blaming the bus's blind spot? Is this just a case of careless driving on behalf of a ETS bus driver or something else? The bus driver might have been about to go on a shift change most likely at Abbotsfield and didn't know he/she hit somebody until ETS informed the driver. However, another ETS bus driver that was involved in another collision last month involved a collision with a 83 year old woman and the bus driver was charged in that situation? Something doesn't add up here. This doesn't look good for ETS that's for sure. Most of these bus drivers are okay and are good at their jobs except when they become distracted by bus patrons standing behind their shoulder chatting away at them. I'm not sure but I think that's what happened in this case last night. Many of these bus patrons stand right behind the fare box, blocking the driver's point of view as the driver is trying to make a lane change. I've done it myself and often chat with the driver as well. If anyone is to be charged, charge the person distracting the driver. The "blind spot" has nothing to do with this case, its distracted driving. This is a real eye opener for me today.  

My day yesterday was a lot better on the job, however I missed my bus after work as it pulled up by Tony Roma's. Even if I wan for it, I'd not have made it. And I missed my train at Southgate. A trip that should have taken me an hour, took me almost 2 hours to get home. I had a great night playing with the Korg Gadget app. I need to get the sampler as a in app purchase called Bilbao. For $7 its a good deal. There's not much bass options without Bilbao. Also, I'm trying how to see if the sequencer can have the play head scroll across the tracks and down the scenes. Gadget's sequencer options are limited.

Anyway, I sent a email out to lodge saying I won't be at the practice tonight. I'm not required to do anything at installation anyway. This afternoon in about half an hour is the Arizona/Oilers rubber match game. Also, I'll be following the Grey Cup game as well. I think that's a 4pm start as I'm enjoying my weekend. Anyway, that's about all for now.

Its often hard for me to get any sleep

overnight when I need to go into work on a Saturday morning. I might have got an hour and a half sleep. Usually when listening to some ambient music on YouTube can put me to sleep. Not earlier at 4:30am. Its hard getting up to go  into work on a Saturday morning but once I have my first coffee, I feel pretty good going in. 

Over the last couple of years I've been wanting to get Korg's digital audio workstation or daw, for the i0S called "Gadget." At $54 its an expensive app. Last summer Korg had a major update for this app and made it available across all i0S platforms, including our iPad2 and my iPod Touch 5Gen. Plus its 32 bit. However, I never had the cash even when it was reduced in price at that time. Since I was able to save a bit of cash from my blackjack winnings earlier this week, and it was black Friday, would Gadget be at 50% off again? It was. I hurried over to Shoppers Drug mart across the street got x2 $15 iTunes cards and hurried back home across the street. I opened up iTunes on our iPad and let the camera do its thing to take the picture of the code and I bought the app. It works great, very happy. 

That set me off feeling good about black Friday and I headed into work and I figured, eh, why not buy 2 more $2 blackjack tickets. At my station settling into the free hot chocolate, I played and got nothing. My shift wasn't great either. But at least I got a ride to Southgate, and I feel good about that, and the Oilers were winning in Arizona. Happy days. The supervisor at work doesn't like me at all. She's a young 25 something, loaded with tattoos. But my ride encouraged me that the offer to drive me to Southgate goes beyond just me. I know Super goes to Southgate. I asked her on the way out at the end of the shift if she wanted a ride to Southgate. She said "I'm good," mainly getting in a car with me even with another person in the back with us (I take the front seat anyway because I'm the old guy) is not agreeable to her. I'm on the Southgate lrt platform and I can see the #6 bus roll in and Super in her familiar red coat. I know she needed this Clareview train and it was coming my way. She'd have to take the escalator and run through the over pass run down the stairs beside the escalator to catch it. I knew she was going to miss my train. I had to smile at that. When I got home, to catch the last 5 minutes of the Oilers game it was tied at 2 and went into over time. McDavid scored but fractions of a second went down. The goal was under review. Even colour commentating said the goal wouldn't hold up. The ruling was no goal. Into the shoot out. We got 1 goal but lost in the shootout, 3-2. Wait to Sunday when they come to our barn. By then the 104th grey cup game (hopefully) will be over. Lets go Ottawa. 

Except losing at blackjack, my negative performance and the Oilers losing. I felt good about yesterday. Today, I'm going in for my south side job and out of there at 2:15pm. I might go get my Space Marine Battles book at Audrey's on the way home, go to BP's and have a drink at the bar and head home. Maybe pass out on the train. Anyway, that's all for now.

Its been overcast for about a week now

which is really strange. We're supposed to get a bit of sunshine today. I recall when living in the lower mainland in the 1970's, we'd go through a week or two with straight rain. So this week kind of reminds me of that.

Tuesday I got $12 bucks playing Blackjack, scratch 'n win. Then another $10 Wednesday. I bought 3 tickets yesterday and not one winner. 

Basically I'm at the South side job all weekend (which is good) I need to call Monday to see whats going on for the market research job. 

The Eskimo's lost the Grey Cup, but the Oilers won Saturday again on Monday and again last night. This is unbelievable. We're #2 in the Western conference. I caught the 3rd period and where most of the goals occurred. Anyway, that's all for now.

Having a nice Sunday

and Sunday evening. I watched the CFL Eastern finale Edmonton/Ottawa. They were playing in a snow blizzard. The first half it was Ottawa 17/Esks 3. Finale result was Esks 23, Ottawa 35. It got interesting near the end when we scored 13 points in the last Q. 

I between the football game, I was in chat with a friend and doing some research on running virtual Linux and answering email. then Anne made a late brunch and at 6:20pm, here I am. While having brunch the BC Lions were in Calgary to decide who is in the West. it was a pure blow out but with better weather. BC lost 15-42. It was 32-0 in the half. BC Lions barely showed up. So, next Sunday its the big show. The 104th Grey cup in Toronto, Ottawa Red Blacks/Calgary Stampeders. Should be a good one. So this afternoon was a lazy Sunday, just the way I like.

Over the last few days The City of Edmonton issued a presser saying they want to install 200 electric vehicle (EV"s) charging stations across the city. The city wants to get a Federal grant worth 1.2 million. The City will match that grant to have the 200 charging stations in place by 2018. Its a important step in climate change. Its a step in the right direction. Some of the more advanced charging stations could recharge a EV in half an hour. The charging stations could be installed along major roadways like the Yellowhead or the Anthony Henday, or along the Whitemud. The article is located here. 

This week it could be (or I hope it could be) my South side job, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. My West end job, Thursday and Friday. Saturday I'm back at my South side job. No Doctors appointments, just straight work. Anyway, that's all for now.