a busy day yesterday, I can finally spend a few moments and relax. I had an uneventful ride into work and got my Tim’s breakfast sandwich and grabbed my dialer 13. We played the 1 min /credit card game. That means for every credit card we get we put a tick on the board and each tick represents 1 min we go home early. I was trying to get a ticket for myself and one for Anne for the staff party last night. I only learned that the ticket (unlike last year, alloyed for the ticket owner and a spouse or whatever to attend/buffet etc. at the break I had to go outside and get some air. With Bud and Darryl out front. Darryl pointed out the location of “Jeckle & Hyde’s” where the party was to be held right across the street. I’d have to pay $20 more. We were already biting the bullet as it was. Linda wasn’t going so she gave me her ticket for Anne. So we earned I think about 42 credit cards. I got 3 of them and ended up with $560, which was line hour. I had a pretty good shift. So far only 2 people mentioned anything about the article in the paper last year. I got a lot of hang ups of course and TD’s alluding to that but nobody came out and said anything. After work I walked over to Corona station and caught the #1 bus waiting at the lights, boarded that for Edmonton Center. I was there like in 10 minutes. The weather wasn’t bad. At The Source, I asked about the keyboard and I was ready to pick up one of the less expensive ones. I called Anne about it but she said it was up to me. So I had the guy box everything up for me. here’s a photo of the box. The box looks small in the picture but it comes up to my breast. Most of it is packing inside of course. I got the keyboard. The clerk put some tape around the box for a handle. So here I was walking out of City Center Mall heading down Rice Howard Way with this big package and my shoulder bag (I always carry I’ve been carrying these things over my shoulder since 1982. When I noticed how they became popular with the kids.) I had to stop to sit down every so often and inside the Central upper concourse I got a call from Moe, our room manager saying he got me a ticket for Anne but I said how Linda had go one for me earlier. I’d still buy him that beer. (I love cell phones) So I lugged the huge box down to the lower concourse and waited for the train.

Once out of the tunnel my cell rang again. It was Anne. She asked where I was. And if I got the keyboard (and the adapter) She said “how would I like the better model?” She got an unexpected source of income as her sister had called from home. So I met my wife at Clairview watching her work her way down towards the train station. We had a bit of a wait for our train talking about the party that night. We got to Churchill and then took the tunnel to City Center Mall and then back to The Source. I paid the extra $60 and she fronted the rest so I got the EZ150 keyboard for something like $279. I think it’s priced originally at $330. We went to get a bite to eat at the food court. Anne got me some “Taco time.” I enjoyed that and she helped carry the keyboard back through the tunnel with me and to Central station. A brief wait and we were on the train home.

Out of the tunnel (again) the weather had taken a change and we were in the middle of a blizzard out there. Anne took a bus to Walmart and I took the bus to the set of lights out there. It was bumper to bumper traffic out there. I got my keyboard home at last and quickly showered and shaved and got ready for the party as it was drawing close to 5:45pm. Of course mindfull of the Oiler game on later. I unpacked the keyboard just to see if it would fit under the Anne came home with her stuff and we got ready the desk. About an inch either way and it would. Rats! So Anne came in and she got ready. I was dressed and ready. Nice slacks and sweater. I was sweating like a pig waiting in the apartment. I had those big boots on. Probably not a good idea but I didn’t want to we wear those dress shoes. The ones I usually wear for the lodge. We had a brief wait for the bus. Anne called the bus link number (on the bus pole/sign) to confirm a 5 minute wait in the falling snow. It was kind of pretty and not cold at all. We got downtown to Corona station and up the concourse area and (although I’ve never been inside “Jeckle & Hyde’s”) at least thanks to earlier I knew where it was. I’d like to go there with Anne one of these days just to go in have a couple of drinks, play the VLT’s (not that I’m much of a gambler) wait for Anne and have a Friday night supper and go home in time for the evening news and pass out and have a full weekend off. That’s be great.

It was a nice crowd last night in a small place about 2/3rds the size of a basketball court containing a few pool tables and a fake fireplace, we sat able to see people come and go. It was dark with little light. We had a couple of drinks, pop. Anne and I didn’t mingle much as most of the people there were under 40 at least. Rob came over and had a chat with us saying how he’s going to open up a North End office where we wouldn’t need to call from home anymore and we got the Crime Stoppers contract. This is good news for us. Also the trip to Vegas won’t be announced until January. We stood in line for the buffet roast slices and roasted potatoes teriyaki chicken and salad. The food was pretty good. We Didn’t go for seconds or anything and Rob came up again to say hello. Other people did as well. I invited Fran over when they brought the DJ out to talk with Anne about her cats. Anne seemed to like that. I introduced her to Greg, Rob D, Winston, Brandon (Cw) and Bendon Tony (other night room manager and friend of Robs) some more pop (cash bar) pool tables, the music was loud. I introduced Anne to other people like Sbvere and the East Indian people were there having a good time. I introduced Anne to Mo and he was saying how his downtown Boardwalk apartment is $965 ( something) month for a bachelor suite (studio). Yikes. But that’s in the downtown area. Like I said though, my 1980 bachelor apartment (now a Boardwalk site) was $250/month when I moved in, back in 1985 22 years ago. By the time I left in 1995 12 years ago I was paying $320/month. I’d hate to think what that little apartment would cost today. Inflation and all things being equal my income at the time was enough where I could afford to eat reasonably well and still keep a Coca-cola habit. I didn’t have a lot of tech toys in the 1980’s if any. But geese, a Boardwalk studio at nearly $1000/month. And that doesn’t include power.

Anne and I settled up our tab and we left out of there at about 9:30pm feeling pretty good. We walked over to Tim’s to get a coffee and some cheesecake to take home. Extra cars on the train because of the Oiler game it being a late start. When I got in Anne had to go back up to Walmart (they’re open 24 hours over the holiday season) The Oilers and Canucks were in OT and went to another shoot out to win the game 2-1. Good stuff. I like this shoot-out formula.

After the game I began the task of organizing the clutter of cables and wires behind my computer to make way for the keyboard. Anne and I were having a bit of trouble trying to et power to the instrument. Then I noticed a +/- sign on the adaptor plug in. I switched it around and voila, we got power. So I was fooling around with that for awhile figuring out the voice menu and other features. I took my sleeping pill at about 2am. I had fun fooling around with the keyboard until 3am and that’s when we retired for bed listening to Coast and I was past out by 3:30am.

I woke up at about 7am feeling all groggy thanks to the pill and did the cbi thing. I was in bed by 7:15am barely remembering Anne getting up. I gave her $20 to go get the Christmas present she wants. I’ve got about $85 left and when I get cheque next week, I’m going to use it to pay for my website for another year and get the last “Honor Harrington” book there on order. Wish the staff seasons greetings and the like and get ready to have 4 good days off. During those four days off I’m going to outline the upcoming novel project and I’ve got another short story idea (this one for SM), lean another song and do some reading. Maybe finish that book “The New space Opera.”

As for the rest of the day today, I’m going to play around on the keyboard. Even if it’s just 15 minutes/day. Right now I’m learning C scaling in conjunction with YouTube. But right now I’ve got some images to download and then to Blog this entry do some other blogging and then play around on the keyboard. I even did a bit of Cw earlier this afternoon. For about half an hour. Anne’s off tomorrow and will be doing some calling and I’m off Tuesday working in the morning to keep my attendance point‘s going for our hockey pool. This way I can do some Cw in the evening before the Oilers/Stars game here at Rexall place. I’ve got a chalk full week leading up to the Christmas break.

Anyway that’s all for now.

e. Jim