that gravel pill really worked for me. I passed out just after 3:30am and I slept until about 7:35am to do the cbi thing and I was back in bed by 8am and passed out having the possibility of that labor strike on my mind and waking up periodically to pee,

According to the report I read, dated Friday July 20th, from the Edmonton Sun-There are 5 Unions that are in a legal position or soon will be where they could walk off the job as early as this week. These are refrigeration and boil makers among 3 others representing 25,000 workers. “A job action would cripple Alberta’s construction sector, particularly in places like Fort McMurray. Salmon added the impact could spread beyond the five unions currently in a strike position since other workers would likely refuse to cross the picket lines.” The reports said. The good news if there is any in all of this- “He (Union’s spokesman) wasn’t, however, ready to predict a strike is certain to happen. He also said that all five unions wouldn’t necessarily walk off the job at the same time. If the labor board certifies the strike vote results on Tuesday, the unions will have to give 72 hours notice of any work stoppage.” This is also positive news: “Neil Tidsbury, president of the Construction Labor Relations association, downplayed the threat of a strike. “I don’t think anybody’s going to walk off the job next week,” said Tidsbury, whose association represents many contractors that employ the union members. “We’re doing our best to settle this thing.” This is also interesting: “The five unions represent electricians, boilermakers, refrigeration mechanics, millwrights, and plumbers and pipe fitters. A key sticking point in the negotiations is the length of the contract. Unions want a two-year agreement while contractors are looking for four years, Salmon said.

The workers have been without a contract since May 1. Ched news said they were also looking at a 24% wage increase.

I don’t think the demands are all that unreasonable. But if the job like LRT expansion requires more then 2 years. Why wouldn’t union members want to continue on a long range contract? I think it’s so they can call for a Strike so they can ask for more money. More money once every 2 years isn’t that unreasonable. I get a raise at least once/year why should they?

Summer means festivals. Currently under way is the “Taste of Edmonton.” at Sir Winston Churchill Square park in the downtown core across the street from City Hall. I’ve been to it once but not since I got married. I want to go again some evening before it goes next week. J the (fresh off the boat from India) helping JT said he was going to go last night. Then of course there’s the “Capital Ex” going on at Northlands (adjacent to Rexall place.) for ten days. Also this weekend is the Edmonton Grand Prix racing currently going on. Lots of things happening this summer. And if that’s not enough there’s still Heritage days coming up not this weekend but the weekend after K-days < “Capital Ex” then there’s the Edmonton Folk festival and to round out the summer is The Fringe. Then Oilers training camp begins Sept 17th. Lots of good stuff going on.

Later this afternoon I think Anne wants to drag me off over to The Keg seeing as how we didn’t go last week. She wants to try out new places and I’m okay going out there today. It’s just like heading out to Chapters and the LRT will take us to University station and then a quick shuttle bus (on a Sunday afternoon?) to 104th St. and Whyte Ave. We’ll probably head out in about an hour.

I had my digital camera batteries recharging overnight night and they were ready when I got up this morning to do the cbi thing. A couple of things I don’t like about this camera. 1.) being the shutter speed is too slow. 2.) the battery door is fragile and hard to close. I’m afraid I’ll break the damn thing.

The ultimate cell phone for me would be a contract phone with Bluetooth compatible camera both still and video. Internet. And of course where I can get sports scores right on my phone. Like I said though if it’s going to be as much as my home Internet service, it’s too much and not worth it too me.

I’m still thinking about taking on a Security guard job but I need to know if I can get a guards license due to a little misnomeaner I had in the year 1980. But I won’t go into that here. I don’t even know if the incident is on the books anymore. I remember back in 1999 I was doing some work with the Alberta Job Corps. This was an agency set up by the Alberta Government where for people on Welfare at the time could try out for an 8 week “get off Welfare for a job” type of program. Before you could even start the program, you had to go down to the main Police station and get a criminal record check. I passed. This passing brought me a kind of closure however, there was still some doubt in my mind at least if I could get a guards license. So, after the program I found my own job anyway as a Security guard. I wanted this because I thought this was (with my scoliosis) about the only non Telemarketing job I could do. So I got to work for Inner tech security. Head office at the time was right in the Royal bank building on Jasper Ave. So when they called me up for the job I was delighted. I worked at several locations mostly patrolling apartment large apartment blocks and I was on my feet all the time. I worked at the Clairview shopping center just North East of us here on Victoria trail and even though I enjoyed the job it was on my feet but at least it was the most steady place I had. I worked with Inner tech from September 1999-January 2000. I was at a Boardwalk site near West Edmonton Mall doing the Graveyard shift. Again a lot of walking intensive on my feet job. It was that one day in January Inner tech had said that I was laid off because they lost the contract with Boardwalk. I spent the next year on unemployment puling in barely enough to live on. I should have signed up with Xl where I am now. But let me tell you, working with Inner Tech was one of the hardest jobs I ever had to do.

The funny thing about inner Tech? I never did get a guards license. They kept on saying I can do that latter. At that time, the economy was just starting to turn around. It’s been going strong ever since. But all the security jobs I’ve had haven’t been all like Inner Tech. Like I said the best one was at the Pacific Rim Mall. I just wish I had more hours. When I talked to Amad at the help desk he said it takes 10 minutes to do a patrol. When I explained about my little misnomeaner to him he dismissed it as so trivial he doubt it would even be on the books. So, short of going to the Main Police station and to do this as discreetly as possible how do I find out if I have a criminal record or not? It’s not like we have our Canadian version of Homeland Security.

I took a couple of photographs of the condo complex under development. Anne tried to take a photo of me as I was coming up the escalator but it didn’t turn out well. She took the photo on the stairs as the stairs were moving. I wanted her off the stairs to take the photo of me not with both of us on the stairs at the same time. I don’t know what she was thinking. I'm trying to get some images up but the learning curve on my imaging software is a bit high for me.

That’s all for now.

e. Jim