My wife caught me reading before dinner

earlier, so I thought I'd share a couple of photos, God I need a shave. My website doesn't display photos very well.Saturday when Anne went to take the money to the bank I asked how much we have for rent for September, dreading the worst. $750 (I think she said) but I know I heard her say over $700 and I get a cheque for the rest on Friday so that's good news. With the strong possibility of her having work on Wednesday and training for a new job mid next month things are looking a bit brighter for us. The only problem I'm facing is with my job at the end of September. I might not have one in October or if I do, my job as it is now might be a shadow of it's former self. This is why I'd like to put my name in at pizza and if Anne likes it there and has good things to say about it, I'll work my job as it is and work pizza Thursday, Friday 11-4pm and Saturday from 3-8pm

This next photo is of dinner. Notice the massive backed potato? The pork chop was good as well but more then I could have handled.

But man that was some meal.

Anyway Bloggers, that's all for now.

e. Jim

Good news bad news, I guess...

Overnight we went to bed at our usual time but I woke up around 6:20am to do the cbi thing. Feed Cats, Breakfast, Insulin. Then I read for a bit. This usually tires me out enough to sleep. About 7am I went to bed and still couldn't’t sleep. I tossed and turned about. So, I got up again and did a bit more reading. Then my wife gets up and makes some popcorn to feed the birds across the street. About 9:15am I’m sufficiently tired enough to go back to sleep. But now I’m worried about our rent money for September. Or lack there of. My next cheque wont be until next Friday because of the long weekend and Lodge night. Also, my wife’s place of employment wasn't answering their phone yesterday so she could go get her pay cheque. We need that cheque today. Our rent is due Monday/well Tuesday. Nice thing to have on my mind while trying to get some sleep right?


Then I’m in bed sleeping soundly at last. I look at the clock and it’s 1pm, “Honey you want to call work?” mumble-something-mumble. WTF? Next thing I know the lights flash on and there’s Anne flinging a piece of paper at me. “our rents gone up.” I’m half awake and Anne is going into panic mode. I put the water on for coffee and my reading glasses on to take a look at the notice. Our rent went up by $50. Big deal. We’re panicking for that? It’s kind of like a good news bad news thing. Bad news the rent went up by only $50. Good news is that it could have been a lot worse. Some more good news is that because of the new Laws, they can only raise the rent once every 12 months. So we won’t have to worry about increases like over $100/200+ Tuesday I’m going in early to put a few extra hours in and to get the note there for Rob to fill out so we can apply for our subsidy. Yet she's got 2 jobs now. She goes in for training on her new job in 2 weeks and even though her current job often cuts her hours that's not sustainable. Now she has an opportunity for another job, which has better and more stable hours.


Anne managed to call her work and they have the cheques ready. Whew, our rent is covered. Plus the full Cheque I gave her last night. When she gets out of here and goes off to her job to pick up her cheque she’ll figure this thing out. It could have been a lot worse. It’s tough trying to be a science fiction-writer. But I’ve learned a long time ago, that life is a struggle. It’s all about paying ones dues I suppose.


Anyway Bloggers, that‘s all for now

e. Jim

Interuptions...

is what's been keeping me away from posting here. Just when I get a post compiled in Word, I get distracted. Then before you know it, the job thing gets in the way, supper, life in general.

I did a bit more writing on a "secret project" I'm working on. Yeah right.

I just came back from work this evening. I hate the company I'm working for. I like the people I work with and even middle management are ok. The Charities are great and for the most part so are the customers. I feel bad for Alberta Easter Seals. They started AES here in Alberta in 1951. Over the years various groups adapted the term "Easter Seals" out of the original, The March of Dimes, Alberta Easter Seals Society, Alberta Lung Association Easter sticker drive (the older public associates what we're doing with all the rest.) I'm tired of fighting with Mrs. Jones/public who is just as oblivious as our management about the different types of "Easter Seals" groups out there. I even think Alberta Easter Seals and all the rest are just as oblivious. I don't know how many times I've had lost a sale because of the various "Easter Seal's" groups Mr.s Jones had said she just responded to. It's really pathetic. The waters are really muddy with all the various Easter Seal like groups out there. I'm fed up with Alberta Easter Seals. I had a customer said something to the affect that "I got your calendar today." WTF? It just makes our job harder to do.

I gave Anne a call just before I left out of here. Meatloaf for supper. When-1am?

However on the way into work and home I was able to get a good bit of reading in. I reached just over the half part of "Judas Unchained" and I'm 13 days behind reading schedule. I should be around page 645/1008. So much for reading schedules, otherwise at 15 pages/day. Even at 15 pages/day I won't have this book read until about the end of September. Most likely I'll have it read about Mid October. It's a long but entertaining read. Then I can go onto read the "Forgotten Realms" trilogy. (see website block of books I'm reading.

Anyway Bloggers, that's all for now.

e. Jim

My wife

rode in with me as she wanted to actually apply at Pizza. I was running in late but got to my dialer about 4:45pm. I had a great night pulling in 5 CC’s for a $15 bonus and $875 on the night. On the way out the office it was raining on the way home. I had a good reading session there on the train home and on the wait bus. I got in just before 10pm and watched a great episode of Raw.

Before We left out of here I did a bit more writing fleshing out scenes. I’m not sure I know where I’m going to be going with this thing yet.

I want to fill in that “Currently reading” block and also hoe to upload images to a static page. I know about the src tag but there’s got to be more to it then that.

My wife has an interview on Thursday for pizza.. I hope she gets the job. If she gets in and starts next week I might be (part time) soon to follow.

Anyway Bloggers, that‘s all for now

e. Jim

A laid back Sunday

That was my weekend such as it was. I got a lot accomplished. I did some reading, Piano practicing and yes even some writing that wasn’t Blogging. Real writing.

Not much going on today. It’s into the office for my 4pm shift. Anne hasn’t heard anything yet from pizza. I hope they got her resume. I think because there was no cover letter it got pushed to the back burner. She’s mentioned she’s going there today. We’ll see. I want her in there so I can get in there and use Pizza as a back up for when Xl goes under. I suspect it will before the end of the year. I hope I’m just overreacting here but in case I’m not, I want a spare parachute. What I’d ideally like to do is work security 5-9 and pizza after that. I’ve got mixed feelings about this.

This afternoon, I’m going in at 4pm for the job. Put my 4 hours in and come back for Raw. Yes it’s a typical Monday.

I tried calling Mike and Doris about 7pm, 6pm their time but they were not home. I tried. I’ll call again about Wednesday. I’d like to ask Mike what he knows (if anything) about our Grandfather on our father’s side. We know next to nothing about my Grandfather. My mother’s father there’s lots about JJ Johnston. He was a fixture in New Westminster for many years. I wish I knew more about my family.

Anyway Bloggers, that‘s all for now

e. Jim

I'm an edit post behind had a nice ride

going into work this morning even though I was feeling a bit tired. When I got into the office. Bud was playing "shuffle the staff around." One of the “sweethearts of the day staff” was going to come in and make a rare shift appearance on a Saturday that I’m here 9-10 times on. “That’s her dialer during the day.” I knew this but I didn’t know she was coming in today. I said “Well it’s my dialer everyday and this morning.” He squeaked like a chicken. “Bud," I said, "the only one that seems to be worried about this is you.” I was ready to go home because of this. I really hate being pushed around especially something that’s so childish, yet this happens almost every Saturday. I held my ground and this person came in without making a noise. When she came by she said, “can I get my stuff under this station?” She smiled and thought nothing of it. Wow Even Dave R came in and made a cameo and sat with me. We got along good as he showed me his new cell phone. Despite the crap from Don I had a pretty good shift even though we played that stupid “Line hour or move type boiler room game,” Moe's been puting on every shift lately. I had a couple of large taps roll in and a few CC’s as well. I was at $450 by break and in the 2nd half I slowed down a bit pulling in $625 and 3 CC’s for a $10 bonus for the whole shift. I left feeling pretty good and almost past out on the train to Clairview station home. I had a nice wait for my bus home in the warmth of the +24C afternoon.

When I got home Anne was no where about. I immediately went to bed and past out having a snooze for 3 hours. At the moment Anne is out getting a slurppe. She wanted me home this morning and I was all but about ready to pack it in then I recalled the “3 strikes” and your out (without a Doctors note.) crap. So I decided about 8:30am to head into work anyway. You don’t play games with the boss.

I’ve been awake for an hour now feeling alright. Other then Don and his antics this morning I’m glad I went into work today. JT confirmed the DNC list and Rammu explained to me how it works. At anytime in the conversation the customer says that he’s on the Dnc registry, we have to terminate the call. This is why this weekend my résumé goes out to Pizza. So far Pizza has yet to call my wife but last year when I had my name in for a job there, it took them awhile before they contacted me so Anne told me. We were porbably fighting at the time and she didn't feel like telling me. I hope who ever is doing the email job monitoring sees Anne’s name and calls her for an interview.

All that and I even managed to get a bit of reading in as well today. I think I managed about 10 pages. Also I did my Saturday evening data backup routine. Were good to go.

Anyway Bloggers, that‘s all for now

e. Jim

Anyway last night

I went into work. Anne’s been off all week but she gets another cheque and that will cover September’s rent. I found my end dialer I got my first couple of sales right away and even a CC. After that I couldn’t get anything going but at the break I asked Moe to keep me on the taps. I’ll do a lot better in the 2nd half. I did and managed a slow recovery to $365. $20 less then Wednesday nights total. About 8:45pm they brought the cheques around. Nobody in the office especially the old timers said happy birthday to me. Of course most of the old timers are gone.

I was glad to get out of the ofice and I walked down to my bus stop with John Mc D and caught a bus to my bank on a colder then usual dark August night. Surprisingly it wasn’t raining. I did my banking and tried calling Anne from our cell phone as she had wanted me to take some money ou of the account. I called twice and she didn’t answer. Friggin vacuum cleaner. I was about ready to leave for the LRT and taking the stairs half underground she called. A few more steps and I would have lost her but I answered and back up the steps to the bank again and took out the cash and I missed my train coming down.

Two LRT trains headed the other direction while I waited for mine sipping back on the diet Coke I hadn’t finished from earlier and reading my book. Finally the train. I got a seat with some guy lifting his leg up on the short seat high railing with his bag on the floor. There was no one else sitting with him. I endured this until just before we pulled into Stadium and took the other window seat. The Stadium LRT ramp must have had a thousand football fans taking the train to Clairview. By this time I wasn’t in a very good mood. Most of the fans were happy so that meant the Esks won. I realize there was no reason to be in a bad mood. I mean it was my birthday. There was no bus at Clairview and the Abbotsfield was going the other way. Then I realized I was up against the Fringe and the football game. At 10pm another Northgate bus for the short distance home, would be another 20-30 minutes away yet. I walked home with $200 in my pocket. What in the world did my wife need $200 that made me miss my train and force me to walk the rest of the way home in the dark on my birthday no less? I was mad. And I showed it when I got home. We got into a bit of a brouhaha, but it lacked the teeth I’d normally would have and my reason for it quickly evaporated. I put that behind me.

I watched the news and Anne made me a nice upper of tacos and mexi fires while I felt better about the world and watched the news. Markets were up on all fronts. Speaking of which Lucian had a piece of paper titled “9 reasons why stocks for Apple will rise in 2009.” It seems that Apple stocks are trading on the NASDAQ for about $175/share. Don’t they have to be bought into groups of 10? He Didn’t seem to think so.

Anne typed up her résumé for work as I finished my dinner and watched the news and sports. Yes, the Esks won. Their record is what 6-2 now? That’s not bad. They had something like 48,000 fans there last night.

I had a great experience with Shaw technical support earlier this morning. A tech person Kerry was very helpful in retrieving my Outlook Express and with my permission took over my desktop from their call center and set up 2 identities, one for my wife and one for me. She was very nice and professional. At one point I accidentally lost my cell phone connection and because of our Shaw phone she was able to call back on our home phone to conclude the email set up process. The whole thing took less then half an hour.

This all came about due to my wife trying to send her résumé over to Pizza via email. Something we haven’t done before but Pizza must be using Outlook as well and I had thought that Microsoft has Outlook only with Office and they give you a 30 day free trial with PC‘s. Apparently that was irrelevant. Find Run, type in the command they gave me and another set up wizard popped up. This is when the fun began. I filled out their complement questionnaire and marked all 3 positive.

I copied & Paste her résumé into Pizza’s email box and sent it off. I hope they received it. There’s nothing on Anne’s cell phone indicating a missed call or anything. They’re training is on the weekends so she could still get a call today or this weekend. We know people that have worked in their office and they have nothing but good things to say about them and their operation.

On a colder then usual Friday I’ll be out of here about 4pm on a bus to Clairview and into work. After work though I’m taking $25 into work and I’m picking up 3 more books from my book order and home to watch 3 hours of wrestling. I want to see the Smackdown aftermath of Summerslam. I don’t know if I’m going to watch all of Smackdown though.

All of the above, well most of it is what happened on my 56th birthday.

Anyway Bloggers, that‘s all for now

e. Jim