I’m up a little earlier just to get some me time and to enjoy a coffee before we begin to head out of here in about an hour with 2 cats this time. Now Sparky has the sniffles and has hid himself away someplace.

Yesterday the Alberta legislature was busy drafting up bill C34. Affordable housing. The opposition got lots of items in but they didn’t get rent controls in. I can’t blame the Government for not introducing rent controls because if they did developers wouldn’t be motivated to guild more units. I don’t mind paying $2,000 month on an apartment if the PC’s will grant me a housing subsidy. I haven’t read the draft of C34 yet but from the sounds of things, this is now the law of the land. One thing I’d like to do on Monday is to go down to social services and to see if my wife and I can access this. My guess is because we have pension money in the bank, we’d have to exhaust that first before we can get to it. I don’t know that for sure but I do know that if our rent climbs to $1000/month we’re going to need some relief now.

At least the weather is nice and we got that going for us. We’re going to look for the #182 bus. It’s a faster and more of a direct route to where we need to go this morning.

This may be the last year I’m at my current job. I’m going to ask for $12/hr. Rent’s are going up and so are transit passes. Here in Edmonton we’ve had the lowest transit pass rate in the country. It’s about to go up to around the $75 mark. At $9/hr, even once I begin to work 31 hours/week I will barely have enough to cover the bills as they are. The only good part about where I’m working now is the working conditions are easier on the job and my vacation pay is sitting at 8%. By putting more hours in I accomplish several things: If I get enough hours in after 3 months I’ll qualify for the company medical plan. That means in around September I can get my teeth done at the UoA dentistry as its for low income earners and it covers I think 60% of the dental work. The medical plan will cover 80%. This means that I may only have to shell out a bit out of pocket. Secondly I can sock some cash away as I’d like to get a laptop. I may need $1500 for a good one. $1.500 = 15 weeks, or 4 months. This means about the same time my medical plan would kick in, I’d have socked enough funs away for the laptop. So there’s 2 good things about working the extra hours right there. It also improves my bank. Also, by putting more hours in I’ll be placing myself in a good position for asking Rob for a raise to $12/hr. If he doesn’t agree I’m worth that then I’ll be asking for a letter of recommendation and it’s time to move on to something else. I’ve got my eye on an inbound call center across the street from where my wife works. The hours are better and I can work from 11pm until 5am and after an hour lay over for the train I can be heading home with most of my evenings off and Saturday/Sundays as well. I don’t want to burn my bridges where I’m working now and Rob might just grant me the $12/hr.

After the vet we’ll most likely be home before noon. I’m just hoping everything will be ok with our little guys. Three mornings in a row I’ve been up early and I need some sleep. Tonight, if Anne gives me that $15 I’m going out for a couple of books. I’ll come home to watch ECW and crash out for bed. That’s about all for now.