I got my bus a bit on the late side of things leaving Friday out of here and bordered the train at about 4:20pm. Yikes! It was about 4:45pm when I got to the drugstore in the building to check to see if they had any of those “Cheese Pleasers” cheesies and, yes! They did. I got a bag and headed up to my dialer. Rob was there chatting with the boys ignoring me. I ignored him right back content with reading my book. To be fair he never said anything about my dismal total Thursday night and my lack of credit card sales. The job is not predicated on credit card sales. My main concern was how am I going to keep up with my 1 book/week buying goal with $10 this week and that’s going to cut into my Saturday Tim’s breakfast. Also heavily on my mind was last nights Oiler game.

I had a better night on the job then Thursday night. My first sale was off a semi and it was a $100 sale. I got a $50 and another $50 and by break I was at $200. Anne called and I got the score of the game as Moe was talking with Greg on the phone. It was tied at 2. My first sale after break was another $100 sale on a semi and I got it on (finally) a credit card! Good stuff. I even got a bit of reading in. I stopped semi taping and it made all the difference and also I stopped thanking the 2004 taps for their support. I treated everyone like semies. I ended up with a $350 total but Dawn was $200 ahead of me by the end of the night, according from what Moe put up on the board. I went to the kitchen where the ghetto blaster was and turned on the hockey game to here the Oiler’s pull ahead 4-3. Good news! I felt better about leaving the office even though it was a bit more on the cooler side of things last night.

Crossing the street there to the open ground parkade where I go to Corona station, I noticed some remnants of ancient footpaths or pathways to what could have only been entrances to businesses long since abandoned from the area before First Edmonton Place and the City tore down the buildings for the First Edmonton Place office tower and subsequent parkade. Only one such pathway presented itself and I’m sure this was the entrance to Hobbits Fantasy shop above the Embers restaurant. I recall Hobbits in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s in that location before they were forced to move to the basement of The Boardwalk. Other then Adventure Gaming Supplies, and Audrey’s books, Hobbit’s had to be the best store in Edmonton. When Hobbits moved to the Boardwalk it was the end of an era. This is when Carmine (Co- owner) started to get into TV’s and video cassette recorders. I’d say this was in 1981. By 1983-84 Hobbits moved over the Manulife area into a smaller store abandoning the electronics line to get back to their roots. What made them great in the first place: Comics, SFF books and games. Their competition “Dark Star” comics on the south side is what I think caused their demise and by 1988 “Adventures” showed up in the West End a few blocks away from where I was living but I didn’t know they were there at the time. Hobbits was a cool place to hang out and was the hub for anything Science Fiction and Fantasy here in Edmonton. A lot of SCA types would show up there as well. Later in the early 1990’s Adventure’s took over as the hang out  place. They had a small store but gaming tables in the back. "Galactic Empires" was their in house paper game. I got into playing this with my buddies. It was a blast. The game was played weekly. it was simple. You'd write up your orders on a Friday/Saturday and handed them in on the weekend. By Monday or Tuesday, you'd go to the order counter and ask for the updates.  Get your orders back in an envelope that had your name on it grab a Coke and see if you won battles and aquired planets or ran into NPC's and got you fleets wiped out. It was a blast. I wish I had a place to hang out like that again. I know there’s Happy harbor comics. I haven’t been in their stores yet. But as I was going by the footpath Friday night, I remembered Hobbits. I think Hobbit’s would have still been there right up past the 1990’s if the City hadn’t tore everything down in that area for a parkade and the building. What a waste of real estate.  

I got home about 9:30pm and fired up the computer and caught the last little bit of the hockey game. Just 6 seconds to go, the Ave’s scored tying up the game, 4-4. What a heartbreaker for the Oiler’s. Would Gerron have made the difference if he was healthy and in net? I don’t know. The Oiler’s almost won it in OT, when Anne called on her way home and lour guys lost in the shootout. They got 1 point out of it. 2 points behind Nashville. Tonight is a must game and it’s a back-to-back game in Calgary. They have to win this game. If they don’t then Oiler playoff hopes look dim.

Speaking about tonight, by now most of you have heard today is “Earth Day.”

This global warming skeptic does not buy into this hysteria like the masses seem to. Those in the dark about “Earth day” or “Earth hour” basically buy into the AGW of global warming (Al Gore Warming). A lot of Cities have signed up for this scam already. Behind it all is the push to use eco friendly light bulbs. These light bulbs contain mercury and some reports suggest exposure to these light bulbs may cause cancer. Welcome to “Earth Day.” Yeah right. Now “Earth Day” or “Earth hour,” thanks to Al Gore, wants us all to shut our lights off for an hour this evening to reduce our carbon footprint. Al Gore thinks planting trees help to offset his carbon "foot print." Thank God he's got that big limo and jet airplane and that huge mansion.  So does this mean that in every City across the country it’s lights out? Imagine the chaos this will cause. Muggers and looters rejoice! God help you if your scheduled for an operation and the power goes out and City streetlights go out and your depending on an ambulance or a in need of the fire department. And what about all those Nukes the US military is trying to count? Earth Hour is a terrorist loophole waiting to happen. Next year Earth Hour will translate into Earth 2 hour and or maybe even lights out for the whole day. Ok, so the above is hyperbole on my part. I doubt it will get as bad as all my doom and gloom I paint above but if the AGW alarmists reading this can spill out doom and gloom, why can’t the more rational AGW skeptics? AGW is happening. It’s all part of natural Earth/Solar cycles. If anything right now the planet is cooling but not all climatologists/scientists agree with the AGW  Polemic and the IPCC global warming model. For those reading this that are undecided on the issue don’t buy into this “Earth Hour” crap folks. It’s all based on politics. If my Oiler game is interrupted for this Earth hour scam, I’m going to be royally pissed off. And on that note, y’all have a great night. If you can see your way in the dark that is. Too celebrate "Earth hour" I made sure all lights in the house were on.

Anyway Bloggers, that’s all for now.

e. Jim