We had to take Pledges in yesterday morning to be put down. Toughest day of my life

This time yesterday Anne and I were having a Tim’s breakfast at Corona Station. It was her idea to take the South Campus train to the end of the line as our Clairview home train was pulling in. We would have been home a half hour earlier.

I’m almost over Pledges now. Anne kept me home so I could spend time with Pledges which is why I was never able to work extra shifts. Now that’s changed. Beginning this week, I’m Monday 5-9, Tuesday 1-9, Wednesday 1-9, Thursday 5-9, Friday 5-8:30 and Saturday, 10-4:30pm. That’ll get me 32.5 hours. Beginning this week. There are a few things I want:

Firstly, to get Boots looked after so he can become a member of the family. No one can replace Pledges. I’ve seen lots of family cats but nobody as affectionate as he was. He really loved me and I love him. Always will and each day I’ll think of him but it’s also time to move forward. Second: I want that Blackberry Storm 2. Also I want to pick up a re loaded bank of Montreal Visa gift card. I’ve got a special project I’m looking at starting. I also want a laptop so I can sit out there with my wife in the living room instead of being cooped up in here, which she doesn’t like. Plus, I’m seriously thinking about getting an American Husky cross puppy as a service dog for my diabetes. These are cute animal, very playful and are capable of being housebroken for apartments. They use cat litter boxes. Also, this one might not cost me anything. I can get her from one of the guys at work. I don’t know how Anne will feel about this. She’s considering adapting Boots that’d be tolerable but a puppy? This wont be until the new year if at all.
Anne gave me my allowance for the weekend. My usual $20. Of this I owe $4 from last nights miserable loss against Calgary 30-7 to Warren. If he shows today, I’ll give him that. Then I thought wait now, I haven’t bought a book at Audrey’s since about October 10th. But I already bought 7 books. The last of the 2 Jedi Order books, the 3 Brent Weeks books and the 2 Dave Duncan novels. I think I’m good for this month. I got a small bag of chips for this evenings Oiler’s/Flames game for later tonight.

Nobody won on the Max last night so it goes up to $40M. A winner was selected for the $323,062.00 prize. That’s 6 numbers including the bonus number. I got 2 numbers on 3 lines. I’m getting ready for the $50M. I might get a 6/49 $13M ticket at the Redi mart on the way home and a Max ticket. That’ll be $7 on tickets.

I‘m working until 2pm for today since I’m working off of yesterdays loss. Anne worked last night for 3 hours. She went out to the South Side for a Royal Pizza for us. I don’t like their Pizza’s. not enough crust. But lately I’ve been craving for a Wendy’s double bacon cheese burger combo and I might just walk over and treat myself before the game. Have a nap if I need one and when Anne leaves for work, head on over. This way she doesn’t need to make me anything for tonight.
Last night Art Bell was filling in for George Noory on the Lunar Hoax conspiracy. There‘s a lot of compelling evidence against the Apollo 11 moon landing by Neil Armstrong. One that sinks it for me is the Van Allen radiation belt. The Lunar module was coated with 3 inches of aluminum and apparently that was enough to prevent the occupants from being exposed?
Then there‘s the pristine condition of the film. There’s lots of other evidence as well out there. It was a pretty good show.

Anne was hinting at Bragging rights. It’s a new PPV WWE concept but we can’t really afford it. Besides, when I get home from work this afternoon I want to catch what’s left of the BC Lions/Riders game on at 3:30pm today and tonight there’s the Oiler’s/Calgary. Sunday night I’m watching the Oiler’s in Vancouver. Lots of sports this weekend.

The other day our WM emailed me asking about doing the EA charge. I’d like to but there’s not enough notice and what with Pledges going yesterday etc it’s been a busy month. First we had Pat and Berry here on the 7th. Then I had that memory work for the FC exam and now Pledges being put down plus the hour changes on the job.

Robert J. Sawyer is one of my favorite Canadian SF writer. I’ve met him on several occasions and had 2 of his novels signed. Last April 23rd there’s a photo of him and I at Audrey’s. RJS with ABC TV has recently released “FlashForward” based upon a popular novel of his. I’ve been trying to find out what channel and time this show is on but so far I haven’t been able to find it in the TV listings. Most likely it’s in the evening while I’m at work. I’m going to look for it this week and make sure I get a chance to see it. I think it’s in it’s 4th episode right now.

Also sometime this weekend I want to get back into reading “The Space Wolf.” I’ve spent way too much time on this book. I began it August 31st. To be fare it’s only been 8 weeks, so that’s not too bad. I’ve got possibly another week left as I’m aiming to finish at the end of this month. Then I can go on to read Sherri S. Tepper’s “The family tree.”

Also, I’ve been wanting to pick up on some of Rich Horton’s “Years Best” anthology’s. He has Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror genre’s. Also this month I’m going to pay a visit to the 82nd Ave Wee Book Inn. Apparently according to one of the guys at work WBI has a lot of the old Edgar Rice Burroughs’s and John Norman novels as well as a lot of Ace doubles. I think he’s reading “I am a barbarian.” He said he paid $2.50 for it. Sounds like I’ll be heading over there one of these Friday nights soon. Today’s been a long entry. I had lots of stuff to cover.

Anyway gang, that’s about all for now

Jim

Sunday, Monday and yesterday had left their toll on me. A lot of things went down at once.

Just before my shower, I called Audrey's books and I asked Trevor if he could order the 1st several novels of “The Dresden files” by Jim Butcher (Urban Fantasy) for me and the next 3 in Elizabeth Haydon’s "Symphony of Ages series": Requiem for the Sun, Elegy for a Lost Star, The Assassin King. He did that and I should have those books this month sometime.

My wife had left to Superstore across the street to get me a sandwich for my lunch about 3:30pm yesterday as I was getting ready to leave for work. Just as I was leaving she comes in and packs my lunch away for me. I barely get my bus and I got myself a 6/49 ticket with the extra for today’s draw and a bottle of diet cola at the Redimart. I’m on the train relaxing and reading “The Legend that was Earth,” or TLE heading into the job.

I got off at Corona and crossing the parkade there it began to rain a bit. We need the moisture as its very dry out there. But the rain didn’t amount to very much.

I had a decent night on the job. I think I pulled in around $700 and 2 CC sales and I got a lot of cans and bottles in the 2nd half. DC paid everyone a visit and I got him to settle up with me. Greg’s working evenings now so I don’t have to fight with Subvere for the hockey game for his NBA. So I settled in and watched the Vancouver at Chicago NHL game. At break it was something 2-0, then 3-0 and then 3-1. From what little I did see I it looked like a pretty good game. I had Dave R sit beside me in JT’s day dialer. I got a lot of bottles and cans and hurried for the train after I packed everything up. If I do this I can get the early train shortly after 9pm, like I’ve been doing for the last 2 nights now after work.

There was a lot of smoke in the air from what Anne told me when I called her on my cell on the way to Corona. My train came and I read for a bit on the way home. I was able to call Nathan from the Lodge and to let him know, Anne didn’t know about the Eastern Star and that’s understandable. I’m already for my part for tomorrow night. The FC is a short ritual even with the exam.

I was able to catch the last 2 periods of the Wings at Anaheim game and the Ducks are leading the series 2-1. Odds look pretty good for a Vancouver/Ducks Western semi final. Vancouver and Washington in the finale? Quite possible.

On Coast to Coast this evening George Noory has Richard C Hoagland on this evening. Good stuff.........1:32am> About 40 minutes ago I checked my BSL reading and my BSL was ay 18.9! Yikes. So I got some cloths on and I decided to go out for a bit of a run in the park just beside us here. I was out there for about 20 minutes or so but the air quality was bad due to smoke from grass fires in the area. I built up a bit of a sweat so in about an hour my bsl should drop, I hope. 2:10am> I took a bsl reading just now and what a difference 20 minutes of exercise can make and 45 minutes later. My bsl has dropped down to 10.5! Better then it was at 18.9 an hour ago. What I need to do is when I go into the office I should walk down to Clairview station and then take my bsl reading after lunch. I can even run down to the train but I don’t like going into the office all sweaty and like. 1:05pm> Ok, it seems Phoenix Coyotes owner Jerry Moyes has filed the hockey club for bankruptcy protection. Jim Balsillie out of “Research in motion” (RIM) steps up to the plate with a $216M offer to buy the team and relocate it to Southern Ontario. It’ll never happen. Not because of Gary Bettman, the Commissioner but because the NHL board of Governors doesn’t want a team in that market. The 2 factions against this would be Toronto maple Leafs and the Buffalo Sabres. Reasons for this is the fan base that would be divided between the 2 clubs if a 3rd club would be in that region. However there is a 50 mile rule that states there can be no 2 teams within 50 miles of each other. Even New York Rangers and New Jersey Devils are at least 50 miles apart. Also, moving a team is a last resort. They’d rather fix the problem then move a team out of a city. That‘s what happened with Nashville a few years ago.

Also, I heard today that Ebay is closing it’s Vancouver office to consolidate and as a result 700 jobs there will be gone by September. Wow. But on the other hand oil has reached up to $55 so that’s a good sign. The TSE has reached the 10k level. Yet in the US 1-9 homes are empty. That translates into 19 million homes in the US left vacant. Another wow.

My wife ran out of here to her job for her 2-10. I’ve got a few hours here by myself to Blog and maybe read a bit before I need to get ready to get out of here for my job. I’ve got to let Super know I won’t be here for Thursday because of Lodge, which suits me just fine.

Anyway gang, that’s all for now

e. Jim

A nice holiday off

I went into work yesterday afternoon, business as usual and I get the silent treatment from the staff for the first half of the night. Not everyone has to acknowledge me. I had to set some people straight about NHL hockey players and hockey players in general and their “huge salaries.” Firstly, not every 3 year old kid makes it to the NHL, because that’s where their careers begin at 3-6 years old. They begin getting up at 6am every winter morning often in -30C weather here in Alberta. They go through the ranks, from Mites-Juniors:
Mite (ages 3-4)
Tyke (ages 5-6)
Novice (ages 7-8)
Atom (ages 9-10)
Peewee (ages 11-12)
Bantam (ages 13-14)
Midget (ages 15-17)
Juvenile (ages 18-20)
College
NHL
And their career could be cut short at anytime due to injury or life in general. It takes a lot of practicing and hard work to make it from Mites-juniors. Usually at Midget or the juniors as we call them here (Oil Kings) get to play at the top level. Very few are drafted by NHL teams. These kids work hard at what they do. They got to be in excellent shape if they want a career in hockey. So when I hear idiots say, “Oh thee multi million dollar hockey players can’t hold down a real job.” Many of these Canadian kids grow up on the farm stacking bales of hay. And not all NHL hockey players are millionaires and not all Pro hockey players are millionaires. Many of them get entry level contracts like $500k to start. For some it’s a $1,000/game Hockey players are prone to broken noses, concussions, black eyes and injuries that can take them out for half a season or end their careers indefinably. Also consider that an NHL hockey player if he goes through his career reasonably healthy his career is about from 18-32. Not many NHL players play past age 32. And when they’re done hockey they go on to something else. Still on hockey Greg and I were watching the Oiler’s in New York and they won in OT 3-2 for 2 points. A 7 game road trip comes to an end and they are in Rexall Thursday.

I ended up around $390 at break and called Anne. The game was over by 7:30pm and I worked out the rest of the night. I was glad to get out of there before Moe makes some kind of statement that Tuesday is a regular working day. My finale total was $785 and 2 CC’s but do I get a job well done or anything like that? I got out before any further preamble and the early train as well and home to watch wrestling.

Raw was pretty good coming from London England. It was a good show with a few surprises. On a scale from 1-10, I’d rate this an 8.5.

So today is Remembrance day. I won’t go into a speech about this except to say I’m a supporter of our troops and the work they are doing in Afghanistan. Also I support our veterans and the sacrifices our troops made in both World Wars and the Korean conflict. Yes I support our troops, “let em finish the job they started.” Most of them wouldn’t have it any other way.

We have a pretty good snowfall developing out there for our first snow. It looks like it wants to stay on the ground but I don’t think it’s going to last. Warmer temperatures are on the way.

Some 8 hours later after the above it’s Remembrance day afternoon. Most countries around the world have something similar. I’m not sure if it’s a stat holiday here in Canada or not but I’m taking today off. My Grandfather J.J. Johnston fought and survived Vimy Ridge and in 1922 went onto become Mayor of New Westminster 1922. That was before my mother was born of course.

Earlier this morning about 4am Anne brought Boots inside. It wasn’t cold out there she just wanted to give the little guy some warmth. He was scared and crying a bit. He didn’t stay long until Anne returned him to the outside. He’s got a little crawl space under a maintenance shed owned by Edmonton housing across the street park.

I’m nursing a nice coffee right now. It’s overcast out there sitting at +0C, which isn’t so bad. What do I care? I’m warm comfortable and enjoying my first coffee.

I’m anticipating Manpower to call me this week. Hopefully before I head into work and I can set up an interview. Even though oil is dropping holding at $58/barrel our local economy is sitting at a 3.5% unemployment rate.

Still working my way through Icewind Dale and once I post this I’m going to delve right into it. I did my piano practicing earlier in the wee hours of the morning. So I’m good to go there.

Anyway Bloggers that’s all for now

e. Jim