I left out of here about 3:45pm yesterday in very

windy conditions and like everyone else waiting for the autopsy news report on Michael Jackson. I picked up my 6/49 ticket at the pharmacy, as it was still very windy out there. I didn’t get anything new until I went into the office. I got a lot of empties and DC handed me my cheque. Everything right except the missing 1 hour but that’s alright. I sat at station #15 hoping Super wouldn’t move me. “James, in the back.” Disappointment. I got an end dialer and sat with one of the newer people. I had nothing for almost half an hour then I got a $100 and a $50 and I was at line hour by 6pm. Then almost nothing after that until about 6pm I had $265. I collected more empties during the break and within the finale 20 minutes Super moves me to station #15, Finally it was all over and I ended up with $320 and no cards but I got 10 on the week.

I was glad to get out of there even though the wind was still gusting. I waited for the bus just beside Tim’s feeling bad I didn’t have cash to get my Friday book. Joan one of our staff that’s in crutches met up with me saying she was in at 4pm. Once when I begin steady hours I’m going to ask bm if I can come in during the afternoon say around 1-2pm and get my cheque. This way I’ll be able to do my banking early and I can still go to Audrey’s for my Friday night.

I had kind of a scary incident at the bank. Thank God I have over draft protection. I deposit my cheque and in the envelope and the ATM spit out my balance. It’s the same banking ritual I do every Friday. The cheque didn’t show on the news balance slip and the money didn’t come out. I began to panic. I thought I lost my cheque! These are new ATM’s and this is the first time this has ever happened to me. So I put my card in again and punched a button in the amount and I heard the machine cycle through and it spit the cash out for me and generated a new balance slip. Every ATM is different but in most cases works the same. When I do a deposit a box pops up on the screen with a field to enter specific amounts for deposits and withdraws. I have to enter the amounts manually using the touch pad and decimal key. There are also buttons on the side with graphics showing option amounts that can be drawn when a withdraw request is made. I picked the last button and I got my cash out. The balance was the same. I don’t like that machine. The last thing I want to do is lose a 6/49 jackpot that way. Something went wrong when I entered the amount. The bank room where the ATM’s are held gets a steady flow of customers. I suggested this fellow not use the same ATM. He did his banking and I showed him my 3 slips. He thanked me for the heads up on that machine.

I left out of there feeling alright but I missed my train just leaving as I was halfway down the stairs. If I had left when I did I would have been home earlier. But I didn’t mind waiting at Central and read. I had a can of diet pop and a good book to read. I was feeling a bit more relaxed. I had a quiet ride to Clairview with my bag of empties and my book and I got home about 9:50pm. My usual time.

I wasn’t in the mood to watch Smackdown. I did some computer work instead and had my supper, which Anne made for me earlier. I enjoyed that and watched the news and then went to Smackdown’s main Event. After that I did some more computer work. Anne came home saying she got a tote bag and a hot cold thermos thing plus $5 off her next pizza order for putting through the most pizza “Mega meal” orders. She’s always winning things like that. I get bonus money on my cheques occasionally and she gets little performance gifts and things. She got me that Best Buy coupon which I Haven’t cashed in yet but I will next weekend. The nearest Best Buy to us is the one on the other side of 137th Ave. it’s several bus rides away and takes a whole afternoon to get out there. I’ll most likely go next Saturday and get a game and I can if I leave early enough get a few books on the way home. A video game, books a bite to eat. That’s a nice outing for me. Yawn

Speaking of video games, I Haven’t been playing Oblivion for some time. Mainly because the controller needs new batteries. Most likely I’ll get to playing it again possibly next weekend. I’m not a big video game player but I don’t mind spending a few hours a week on my little Xbox 360.

It’s a beautiful summer day out there and I’m glad I was able to sleep in and I’m not on the phones getting TD’d and F3 out the ying yang. I got up around noon as Anne went out the door with her shopping cart and I’m by myself doing my thing. She’s got a 4 hour shift today and a bank appointment for Monday or Tuesday so we can get part of our rent and she’s got her vacation pay coming in and her cheque. We’ll be a few days late but we can always give the office a post dated cheque for July 3rd. I also have enough here for July’s bus pass as well.

So far year to date, I’ve gotten $630 in bonus money over the last 28 weeks or so. Some of the guys during the afternoon shift are pulling in $100+/ week in bonus money over and above their pay cheques. Going in from 1-9 is worth it. I may as well get on that shift while I can before this DNC list wipes out the afternoon shift. I think this is going to go next. Pretty soon we’ll just have the evening shift. But they still have the business room and that seems to be going strong. They’ve got close to 32 stations running from 9-4pm but nobody likes the business room manager as she takes all the better taps for herself. Also, “team India” works business on the other side of the morning tap crew. I think if HO is going to do any more cutbacks, it’s going to be the morning shift. People from the morning crew are gradually moving to afternoons/evenings. The other option for them is business. When they cut the morning tap shooters then the room will be full coast to coast.

That’s enough business talk for right now. My friend Keith Graham is doing a John Brunner novel reading project lately. You can check out how he’s doing on his Blog. Cant say I’ve ever read Brunner but after some looking around he had quite a body of work. He published over 60 novels in his career. Sadly, most of these editions are long out of print but they can be picked up at Ebay as vintage books. The condition of these books aren’t pretty but they are readable. I wonder if any publisher has scanned these books and is going to republish them? I’d like to try a John Brunner book. One fatal flaw about science fiction is its ideas can become dated but the stories are timeless.

And finally in i09 today they have an interesting post on Science Fiction books that launched their own careers. For example, Military Science Fiction. The post talks about the origins of the sub genre and its believed that HG Wells first brought military SF to the light of day but Robert E. Heinlein with his book “Starship troopers” kind of brought this sub genre towards popularity. When I think of military Science Fiction I think David Webber.

Anne’s running a bit late here as she has to be at work by 4pm if she wants to make us a bite to eat she should be pulling up pretty soon. Speak of the devil.

This weekend is the NHL draft and sure enough NYI took their expected pick and same with Tampa bay. The Oiler’s took 10th overall and the kid has another year to go where he’s currently playing. The draft was a real let down for the Oiler’s. Lets hope something good will come out of the UFA offerings next week. There’s some big names out there. I’d like to see the Oiler’s get Jay Bouwmeester but at almost $5M/year is he worth it? The Oiler’s however haven’t the cap room to sign these big name players. They let Kyle Brodziak got to the Wild for a 99th round draft pick so that will clear some cap space. Brodziak was only getting half a mil but obviously the Oiler’s are trying to create cap space. They could get rid of Nilson for $2M> I wouldn’t miss him. The thing is a lot of teams don’t have cap space for these big names and even though cap space this year is at $56M, next year it could drop to $50M


Anyway gang, that’s about it for now…..