A day spent reading a book but i'm to much into this read to chuck it just yet.

This morning I headed out of here with lunch in tow and my stuff. I took a couple of pictures of the trees by our place and this tree for example should be loaded with light colored green leaves. I’ve never seen a Spring season like this before.

I got out at Belvedere because I wanted to scoop up to the higher level pedway that looks onto the construction going on and take a photo but the glare on the glass from the outside and inside kind of wrecks the photo but you can get a good idea of what’s going on here.
I had a wait for the train the rest of the way and read a bit on the way in. I got my original dialer and settled into the job. We had a full crew. I had a slow start but I ended up with $240 in the middle of the pack. I got some bottles and cans and Lucian (spelling?) mentioned how owners of the Kindle DX can buy my blog at $3/month and read it on their Kindle’s. I’m sure I have to sign up for this. But why would Kindle owners pay me/Amazon (their cut) about $3/month when they can sign up and subscribe for free? The kindle is a nice idea but the device is way to expensive. It’s not a must have item and I don’t think this is going to be the killer app that will spell the death of publishing as we know it. J Rock wasn‘t there and in a way I was relieved she was a no show because I wasn’t in t h e mood for going out of my way this afternoon.

I ended up with $330 and finally a $45 CC sale and a few more bottles and cans and headed for Corona and after a wait I got my ride home. I no sooner got through the door when Anne called for a few minutes.

I had my nap and relaxed and around 6pm I got into reading more of “TLE.” Anne called again while she was on her break. She’s getting an extra day next week which falls on Monday so she’ll be getting time and a half. I’m still going into the office Tuesday-Friday and on Saturday. I have books I want to get.

My 6/49 numbers didn’t pan out. I didn’t even get 1 number. I should have bought a quick pick. I didn’t even win on the extra. They’re not posting any winners yet. Maybe nobody won first place. We’ll see.

As bsl readings go mine a few minutes ago read 7.4. This isn’t bad considering I ate a can of stew half an hour ago with the idea I’d take my insulin only to discover my cartridge empty. Yikes. But I got distracted somehow and forgot to take my shot. The last time I took this was 13 hours ago. The shot should be taken about ever 12 hours or so. Anne had some yogurt so I consumed some of that and took my insulin.

Nobody last night won the $40M jackpot. Actually it broke down to $39,621,456.00 million. However 9 winners won 2nd place, which is 5 numbers including the bonus number for $115,069.30. Then there were 425 winners that won $2,012.90, On Saturday the draw gets increased to an estimated $49M. 16, 17, 23, 27, 30, 45 Bonus 39. So to get 2nd place you needed to have 5 of the above numbers and 39 in your mix of 6. It’s all tax free.

A bit of “good news” today for a change, Anne tells me that Alberta monitoring will cover needles. I didn’t know this before. A box of 100 costs $25 bucks. My total budget for my diabetes if I was to do this properly would be $1200/year, test strips. $131 lancets/year, $380/year in needles, $720/year for insulin. Total to me is $2,431. out of that, I’m grateful that Alberta monitoring gives me $550 towards monitoring. I have to take out of my pocket $1,881/year. This translates into $156.75/month. I get no help from Alberta health care. My place of work has a medical plan but as soon as they hear I have diabetes, forget it. I might be able to get some help from Alberta monitoring but because my wife has a little stashed away from an RRSP, we probably wont be able to qualify.

I’ve been reading for most of the night last night “The legend that was earth,” it’s not bad. Not one of JPH’s best works and I’ve read a few. But I’m not going to drop it. I‘m not a diehard James P. Hogan fan even though this story has aliens which are ancillary to the story. Today, I’m going to try and finish this story.

Anyway gang, that’s all for now

e. Jim

Left overs

I felt horrible this morning with a headache that made me feel nausea in spots. I took a cold shower after I deposited some freaky crap in the toilet. The shower helped a little and breathing shallow breaths helped as well. I passed out and now I feel a whole lot better. I’m wondering if I have the Swine flu that’s been going around lately. I’m feeling alright now with Boots sleeping comfortably beside me.


Yesterday while I was trying to fix my computer, thanks to Justin in Nanaimo BC through my ISP, Anne was out getting some peroxide to help Boots get rid of those ear mites that drive him crazy.


This morning as I was recovering from my little virus/headache that went through me the Sun was out it was beautiful out there and now it’s over cast as a cold front is about to pass through our system. So I’m relaxing with a coffee. It seems we have a long weekend coming up what it being Victoria Day and all. We don’t usually get this Holiday the last Sunday in May. I get Sunday and Monday off. Great. All that and there’s playoff hockey despite Vancouver being knocked out of the 2nd round. Chicago was too fast for them. Will we see #88 against #8? I sure hope so.


So I’m sitting here relaxing with my coffee feeling ok, for now. I took my bsl reading about 2am and it read 16.1. I took it again just now and it read 10.1.


The problem is we eat to late. I think from now on after dinner, even though it is dark out there I’m going to go for a nice little walk around the block.

About 4pm I’m off to work and I’ll put my 4 hours in and come home. Not much going on right now. I want to read a little before work.


Anyway gang, that’s all for now

e. Jim

I had a nasty couple of days what with the trouble I

had with my PC. After a few hours my ISP and I were able to get my computer working again.

Also I added some photos over at my website and a more complete Blog posting. Sorry but I'm too exhausted to post it here this morning.

Anyway gang, that's all for now

e. Jim

Yikes!

it took me about 4o minutes and 3 attempts after a cold boot to get to this point. The first effort as I was making coffee , I got as far as the back up icon on my desktop and no processing of my Ram. I had to shut my PC off manually. I rebooted my PC again and this time my Ram couldn’t get my task bar fully loaded. Shut down. I tried again and everything came on and Ram is still processing and I’ve got accesses to this my word processor, so far so good.

Yesterday afternoon I locked everything up and headed for my bus stop and then to Clairview station. I was able to read a bit on the train in. I asked Greg if he could get my pay cheque but he said sure give him a minute and conveniently for got but Super was hanging about the area. Unusually early. I got to work on a several things. I asked Super for my cheque several times but as always I get the run around. At break the run-a-round again. He was playing games with me because I wasn’t in Thursday after saying Wednesday I wouldn’t be in because of Lodge. I had a slow night on the job. No CC sales at all. All we’ve got to work with is WCS, ASB and CBF and we’re calling the same people over and over. Occasionally we’ll throw AES in there but even then. And then we get these people that say for CBF for example, “I already sent my pledge in.” But according to our pay history, they gave in August of last year. They gave to something else that sounds similar and they still insist it’s the organization were calling on behalf of. That pisses me off the most. I don’t know how many $50’s, $35’s I lost because of that. But I collected a bunch of bottles and cans and about 10 minutes before the end of shift, I got my cheque. Everything was correct of course, no problem there.

I got out of there feeling alright even though best I could come up with on a slow Friday night is $220 and no CC sales. I almost got one but the customerCouldn’t find her card. I hurried across the street and headed over to Audrey’s to get myself a book. EMS vehicles had flashing lights on the corner by Audrey’s. Inside apparently someone had passed out. A senior. But I had about $13 with me and I picked up “Eberron-Sea of Death”

I headed out to my bus stop across the street by Tim’s and after a long wait my #5 came by. I probably had a chance to read but my bus could have snuck up on me at anytime and I wanted to get to my bank to cash my cheque. At my bank, there was a homeless guy curdled up in the foyer tucked away in the corner. I just wanted to get out of there with my cash and to the LRT below. With cans and bottles in my bag in tow I hurried to Central station and my 9:20pm train came by right on time. I was home by 9:45pm and ready to watch Smackdown and catch up on the NHL playoff scores.

Anne came in and made me some burritos and mexi fries. I watched ECW and went to bed and about a half hour later I was passed out. The alarm woke me up at my 6:40am and here I am.

This morning in an hour I’m off for my 10-2pm. Anne’s working from 2-midnight. They cut back their 2 am shift so they don’t have to give their late night staff a ride home. She still won’t get in until about 1am. I worry about here when she’s out after midnight like that. As for me after work I’m going home and if the Redimart is open I’ll get a 6/49 ticket a bag of chips at Rogers and home for a nap until 6pm, have a bite to eat and then watch the Chicago at Vancouver game. I think it’s game #5/7.

Anyway gang, that’s all for now

e. Jim

I've added a few social networking buttons

that I'm not all that comfortable with. I like the Twit This button and the Digg button but I'm not sure about the Buzz button. The thing is I need to have these buttons at the bottom of the page along side the Twit this! I'll figure it out somehow.

My wife Anne is quirky if anything. Her place of work last week reset her hours for this week and then they said she can make up for those missing hours by going in Monday for just 2 hours. So she goes in and takes care of that. Yesterday morning she has me getting her up at noon. Ok. I wake her and I'm about to ask what time she goes in for today but she's like half awake. She ends up leaving out of here at 2pm. About 2:15pm I'm getting a call from her thinking, uh oh, is she laid off? Did she lose her job? What gives? She told me that she wasn't scheduled to be in until around 4pm. She was mad at herself for going in 2 hours earlier then was needed. I could have had a nice lunch but I had to eat ravioli instead. When I got home from work she later told me all she did was ride the train from Clairview to South Campus a couple of times and that killed time for her. Me I'd have no problem with killing time. Give me 2 hours to read a book and I'd be happy.

I had a slow evening on the job last night. We did CBF and the taps were not very kind to me. I got zero CC sales and a measly $310 in sales. But its a Wednesday. Need I say more about that!

To say I'm a little nervous about my gig in the Lodge later this evening is putting it mildly. But we're going to have a bit of a practice session before we get underway. I'd be nice if the fellow ends up being a no show. Yeah like that's going to happen.

And I didn't win on my 6/49 draw yesterday either. I even bought a quick pick with no Extra added to it. Strange though, the Quick pick and my ticket both had the number 44 at the end.

Over there at SF Signal, they're talking about the Kindle DX. I don't know much about this device except the following: It is set for a Summer release, it looks huge, Price around $500 and its supposed to replace newspapers. Fat chance. But what about the Canadian market? Are we going to be shut out due to the US credit card thing, again? There is a work-around this for Canadian consumers but there shouldn't need to be.

Anyway gang, that's about all for now

e. 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

It's been an interesting week, sort of

Alright I decided to cut a lot out of the Blog post some of you might have seen me rant earlier. I’m grateful for the delete key. Some people liked the post.


I had a pretty good night on the job yesterday.

Anyway getting back to last night on the way home I was able to finish reading “The blood red harp,” by Elaine Cunningham. Here’s my “review” as it were:

Synopsis: A necromancer wants to know why a dark elf vampire is looking for a blood red harp. The necromancer has the harp but he needs a bard to uncover its secrets. Our elf heroine tends to exaggerate the telling of tales and the necromancer puts a curse on our heroine so she can learn to play the harp/tales properly.

Pros: The authors use of language against a backdrop of fantasy lends credibility and realism to this superb story. The scenes are rich with characterization sprinkled in with a generous amount of world building still leave me with an aftertaste wanting for more.
Cons: None that I can think of.

Bottom line: I enjoyed this book and Elaine Cunninghams use of language made a game franchise novel worth reading. The author clearly put a lot of effort into this ambitious novel. I highly recommend any reader of fantasy turn to the works of Elaine Cunningham. The future of this genre is in excellent hands. I just wish there was a sequel. I wrote to the authors LJ Blog and she responded back with this. Elaine Cunningham’s “The Blood red harp,” made this reader an instant fan of her writing.

My Rating: I give “The Blood ed harp” 9.5 e. Jim’s out of 10.
Now it’s off to read James P Hogan’s “The legend that was earth.”

I had a good shift earlier today and I got 4 CC sales. Not that they do me any good. I’m glad I’m home

Anyway gang, that’s all for now

e. Jim