Earlier I was entertaining the idea of getting my music from Telus using Spark and almost got them to do a credit check on me but I didn’t have my idea. They need my SIN and Provincial ID. That costs $20. Actually I could do that Tuesday and get my needles and do all that before work. Then I can do the credit check. The only thing about the mobile music phone is that it costs $2.50/track which is rather expensive. The other thing is I’m thinking about going to Fast Track but they want a credit card. No problem. It’s $32 + the $20. But I don’t know enough about FTC. Time for bed. 

Sunday morning I had trouble sleeping mainly because of all the Crows. It’s Crow season around here as they are gradually making their way South. My wife was reluctant to close the window. So before bed she gave me some ear plugs. The gummy kind and I slept okay until about 10:30am until the neighbors toddler kept running around all over the place. It was time to insert the earplugs. I usually have had a bad experience with these things because they don’t work for me. So I inserted these things in laid down and noting but quiet. Now I don’t know if the kid upstairs stopped running or they went out or both but I woke up 2 hours latter feeling refreshed and rather pleased with myself at the sleep I just had. These earplugs (it seems) really work for me.

I fixed my first coffee and went out to the living room to watch a bit of the noon news. It was just a rehash of the stories from yesterday. The weather looks good. It seems we’re out of the heat wave but forecasters are calling for a +28C Thursday and a few +30’s in the days ahead but that could change. Surprisingly (to me at least) the Sun is setting at 9:20pm. The Sun sets about 9pm around my birthday on the 21st of this month. I turn 55.

Wow 55. Hard to believe. I’m climbing out of my middle age and closing in on being a senior. To me a senior citizen is around 60. I can collect early retirement at 60 but will be penalized for it. Then at 65 I’ll be able to qualify for my old age pension. Last time I checked this is about $1500/per person as long as they’ve held a job for at least 5 years. I think. There is also a supplemental pension as well but it’s not very much. The Canada pension Plan (CPP) is really nothing. In my case if I am say 65 today, I might get about $300/month but everybody’s different. It depends on the job an individual did in life and how much one was able to contribute into the Canada Pension Plan. This can be increased along the way. The pensions here in Canada work the same way as they do in the States. More or less. The thing with me is I never had a substantial job that paid me enough where I could open up a Registered Retirement Savings plan. (RRSP) The money I earned was barely enough to pay the bills and keep a roof over my head. I guess I could have if I sacrificed the things that make life worth living. But in my 30’s here in Edmonton we never had a food bank until 1982. I could have supplemented my income with the food bank and made RRSP contributions that way. But life got in the way and I never thought much about it. However now that I’m getting paid a bit more money, I’m thinking about opening up an RRSP to the tune of $100/month. That’d be $1200 by the time I turn 65. I don’t know much about RRSP’s so I think I’m going to have to investigate these a bit more.

After I post this it’s time to continue on with F. I want to try and complete the first rewrite of this today. Maybe by the end of the month I’ll have the 2nd rewrite completed. A lofty goal I’m sure.

Anyway that’s all for now..

e. Jim