Not busy lately

It was kind of hectic heading out of here Tuesday afternoon. On the bus turning left onto 45th here as I sat on the side seat in the center of the bus I could see Anne trudging her way through the snow covered sidewalk working her way home from her KFC run. The City still hadn’t plowed the roads downtown.

At least I didn’t have M & L sit near me. I had Gary sit with me instead and just as loud as the Oiler’s at Washington game was getting under way. The Oiler’s scored first. Surprise. I had a real slow start to the shift. I didn’t get my first sale until about 45 minutes in. Too many customers were associating the charity with wheelchair basketball."I allready paid." That and writing up more TOL's slowed me down. The Oiler’s were leading 2-0. Wow. I gradually did a lot better and ended up getting a lot more sales, by break the Oiler’s were leading 3-0! Holy smokes. I called Anne at our home phone number and we had a chat. After break the fellow that mentioned about AW was talking about something else about AW and his friend filled in some gaps for me. Washington finally scored in the 2nd and The Oiler’s scored making the game 4-1 Oiler's. AW doesn’t look good for us. Again it’s seeing a worker. I felt better when the Oiler’s finally won 5-2. I really enjoyed that game from what little of it I was able to see and I won $2 off of JT.

I called Anne just before I left out of there and had a brief wait for the train. The train usually rolls in about 9:20pm at Corona station. I should have taken the train headed to HSC- South, away from me. The Clairview train seemed late and I was thinking about taking the HSC train and double back but the Clairview train finally arrived, packed with University kids on 2 cars. I barely found a seat. At “Bay station” (next stop) the announcement came on saying the train was out of service. Are you kidding me? “Everybody board on the other side of the tracks.” After a 5 minute wait and the train was the last one heading from the HSC and packed (2 cars) came by. A lot of us groaned when that one came in from earlier. I was lucky to get a seat. All that and we got shortchanged and late missing my bus to get home at 9:45pm. And the train took its sweet time getting to Clairview. Of course we missed any Northgate busses at Clairview. I was 45 minutes late because of this snag and really pissed off to say the least. There were Transit people around ready to receive questions from what was going around but I didn;t hear anyone ask. I called Anne at a Clairview pay phone saying I’d be a bit late. I could have walked back but it was too slippery out there. I sat tight and read “Runner” waiting for a Northgate bus to come in.

When a Northgate bus finally arrived and hauled us out of there it was 10:35pm by the tune I got home and inside our apartment. Did I say I was PO’D? Anne was apparently right behind me after I had to clean off my boots in the stairwell.

The good news tonight was the Oiler’s won and I ended up with top total for the room. $510 was top total? Anne made a great perogie lunch for us with a couple of smokies.

In light of this news about AW I‘m going to call my Doctor to book a cancellation scheduled for today. After that I’m going to call AW and get more information. What’s at stake, does it help me being employed needing income support? Is it for transitional workers only? Would I qualify in my position etc? I have these and other questions I need to have answered. So in other words, this I/S from AW doesn’t look good. In a way I’m kind of glad about this because I really didn’t want to go out to the West end this afternoon and take time off work. Last time I went out to the West end was Saturday May 24th to West Edmonton Mall to get the piano book.

I felt kind of bad for a coworker friend of mine last night. Supie was feeling pretty low losing a good friend of his Sunday morning and he came up to me before shift wanting to talk. He was clearly shaken up over this. I feel bad for him.

Lately this last weekend I saw bits and pieces of Star Wars/Empire strikes back and Jedi. I always thought that “Jedi” was the weaker of the first 3 Star Wars movies. I recall paying $4.50 for my share of the ticket. Helga, Ellen, Charles and I went out to see it together. They picked me up at my place living at Trudy’s rental house at the time on that first Saturday since it’s release. We went up the road to the Jasper theater in Helga‘s car. I remember that warm sunny Saturday May 28th 1983. I paid for everyone. I think it was $20 and I still have the ticket in my 1983 diary. Hard to believe it was 25 years ago this May. Ellen and Charles were barely 2 years into their marraige. I was 31 years old, and thin LOL!

Okay some 12 hours latter have passed and it’s a bleak looking day out there. Temperature reads -14C/23 wind chill. In other words folks, its cold outside.

I called my Doctor to cancel the appointment and I haven’t called AW yet. Most likely I’ll do that this afternoon when Anne leaves for work.

One thing I’ve been thinking about lately is early retirement. Early retirement for me, simply means my income wont change. But I still have to work a little and more time off, in theory. So when it comes time for me to take early retirement, I’m going to go for it. Early retirement is at 60. This means that anyone that has been making CPP (Canada pension plan) contributions can access this pension at 60 years of age with a penalty for not taking it out at 65. The penalty is you don’t get the full amount. Usually the full amount is $500 at 65. For me, I’ll be lucky if I get about $200-300/month but I might be able to qualify for income support from AW, which could bring my income up to where it is now. Or near to where it is now. I’m still going to have to work part time but maybe 3-4 days a week instead of the 6 that I am putting in now. Of course early retirement is just speculation on my part and its still 4 years away. By September, it’ll be just 3 yeas away.

While everyone this January is fired up for the Obama inauguration (yawn) yours truly couldn’t care less. No disrespect to my American readers but there is another event that is way more important to me then watching Obama: This Sunday, the Edmonton Oiler’s proudly raise the retired sweater/number “9” Glen Anderson to the rafters of Rexall Place this coming up Sunday January 18th. For those of you not in the know, Glen Anderson helped the Oiler’s to win 5 Stanley Cups. He’s won 6 Stanley Cups and earned 498 goals over the course of his career. Glen Anderson is the last of the Edmonton Oiler glory days and possibly the last sweater to retire above the rafters at Rexall place. Glen Anderson was known for his reckless play and a real fan favorite. Obama? Gimmie a break.

When trying to talk with the Super leaving out of the office last night one of the younger kids was waiting in line to talk with him holding a black hard cover book. S her and me were talking about the book “Twilight.” it’s another Harry Potter kind of a thing. People trying to be the next J.K. Rawlings. A lot of writers are trying to cash in on the Young Adult fad going around.

Anyway Bloggers, that’s all for now.

e. Jim