Kevin's Ramblings…

I’m cancelling my road trip. I’m disappointed, to say the least. I canceled my Ford Bronco order this morning. The Sales Manager will speak with the owner about my deposit. I might get it back, we’ll see.

I think I’ll fly to Toronto for a few days though. I won’t be renting a vehicle so I’ll stick to downtown Toronto I guess. Again, we’ll see.

I’ll save myself $60,000 on not getting the new car. I’ve got a car and it works perfectly well. If I lose my license, I’ll probably just get them to repossess it, no sense in paying for it if I can’t drive. Sure, it’ll hit my credit report but who cares…

Anyway, on Friday morning I am getting radiation to see if my seizures can be fixed. I’m hopeful. If they are, I won’t lose my license but I’m not getting the Bronco, and that’s too bad.

Otherwise, things are good. I had a great day of white water rafting and an excellent visit with JB. There might be a hiccup with my friends visiting from Idaho, DH may be getting a different job and then might not be able to get the time off. I hope they can visit. Again, we’ll see.

My doctor is worried about seizures. It’s putting my trip in jeopardy, that’s for sure.

I doubt, I highly doubt, that I’ll be driving across the country. I don’t think I’ll be following through with the Ford Bronco either. There’s absolutely no sense in buying a car that I won’t be able to drive. I hope I’ll get my deposit back. I’m going to look into it today.

I may do a trip to Ontario in September but I’ll fly. I guess if I visit Niagara, I’ll take the bus. I need to see how much flights are seeing as I canceled my previous booking. I know I won’t get the deal that I had but that’s ok.

I won’t be able to see everyone I wanted to, that’s a shame. I also won’t be able to drive to Idaho nor will I be able to drive to California.

It is what it is though. Nothing I can do about it.

So I finished work yesterday at about 725am Mountain Time. The first thing I did, was disassemble my computer setup in the office and pack up my laptop, advanced port replicator, power supplies, mouse and accessories so that I could return them to IBM.

I loaded up the car and headed out, with the intention of returning them after a quick lunch. I went to Stacked for lunch for the first time.

I started with minestrone soup, it was very thick but also very tasty. I had a BLT and fries on rye. The rye was a mistake as those pieces of bread are very small so the sandwich was small. The fries were seasoned with something, not sure what, but very tasty. I had a second bowl of soup, this time chicken corn chowder. All in all, the meal was a 7/10. They don’t have dessert options, so a McFlurry did the trick.

It was pouring rain, and I mean pouring, so I didn’t head downtown after all. I made my way home where I had my first retirement nap. I slept, for almost two hours, like the dead.

Dinner time was rapidly approaching, so the dogs and I ran through the raindrops to the off lead park so they could take care of their business. I then fed them and watched some TV, er in this case.

My dinner consisted of heading over to the local pub, steak and frits was on special, unfortunately the kitchen was closed. I fear that the pub won’t be open long, they are always dead. I feel bad for the owners, they sunk a lot of money into their business and it’s not doing well. I ate at the Food Yard instead, a mixup of Indian style cuisine. I had an excellent teriyaki chicken stir fry. I asked them to turn off the bedonkedonk music and they complied, thankfully. Dinner was excellent, I’ll get that again for sure. I had a Sprite, haven’t had one in years, it was quite good.

I came home and watched some more TV then slept for about 5 hours. That brings me to today, my first FULL day of retirement and this blog entry.

My new chapter begins. Follow along.

As I’ve written, my friend JB visited the last few days from California. He arrived Wednesday evening.

The dogs and I picked him up at the airport around 815pm. We did a small tour of Calgary (he’s never been to Alberta). We visited Canada Olympic Park and saw the bobsled track, the ski jump tower, the ski hill, downhill mountain bike course, it was a gorgeous evening. We got a pizza for dinner, it was great pizza.

Thursday morning JB, the dogs and I headed towards Waterton National Park. Admission was $25 but that was a deal. We toured around the park, cooled off at a water fall, it was between 29-31 degrees Celsius.

We did two different mountain climbs and had amazing views. A black bear cutout scared us on the one drive. We headed back towards Calgary and stopped at the Twin Butte General Store. We got their chips and guacamole, absolutely amazing. We returned to Calgary via Highway 2, passing through small towns along the way. We got home around 9pm.

Friday morning we were supposed to head to Banff, but we both decided at the same moment that we needed a more relaxed day and spent the day in Calgary. We went for breakfast (was that Thursday or Friday) and the food was excellent.

On Saturday we went to the Calgary Famers Market and bought eggs and two French baguettes. They were great, well, the white one was but the other with seeds was gross. I made chicken for Curry for dinner. That was after an amazing but cold afternoon of white water rafting. It was a great trip and I thought it would be cancelled seeing as the Bow river was closed, but this was on a man-made river named the Kananaskis River, damn controlled so it was great.

Today, I made my amazing French toast with sourdough rye bread. The dogs and I dropped him off at the airport and then had a 2 hour nap after getting home. I feel great now. I watched the Astros game and they unfortunately lost 2-0. Oh well. Pasta and sauce for dinner.

JB should be home now. I hope he had a great time, I know I did.

Can I make a New Years Resolution on May 27?

Well, since it’s my blog, I’m doing it, regardless if I’m allowed to or not.

So, as I’ve written I am in a new apartment and am loving it here. I’ve got a washer and dryer in-suite, so, laundry is not an issue. Laziness is.

I have more clothes than any “normal” person should. I tend to wait until I’m about out of clothes before I do laundry, then I do a load or two, don’t put anything away and take clothes out of the laundry basket, or out of the dryer and go on about my day.

My resolution is that I’m now going to do a week’s worth of laundry and fold it and put it away. Every week.

I’m catching up today, I’m on load 3 and have 3 more to go. I’m going to keep up with it, I am, I really am.

Now, you might be thinking “sure, you’ll catch up today (maybe) and get everything folded and out away, but you’ll forget or do something else”… Well, stop thinking that. I’m really going to do it.

Honest. I am.

As I’ve written, my friend from California is visiting this week starting Wednesday.

The weather forecast for the week is better today than it was yesterday, but they are calling for significant rain this week, which, for the end of May isn’t typical.

The worst day is this coming Saturday, calling for all day rain, we are going white water rafting. I suppose we’ll be wet anyway, but I’d prefer dryer weather.

We are going to Banff and also to Waterton National Park, rain is forecast both days although not a ton of rain. It’ll be a good time regardless.

We were planning on taking the Banff Gondola, but if it’s too overcast, we’ll probably skip that. I was shocked that it’s over $100 each for the gondola to the top of the mountain, but then again, nothing is cheap in Banff.

It’ll be a great visit nonetheless.

Enjoy your week and if you’re American, have a good Memorial Day.

My new natural gas BBQ was delivered this morning.

It’s a Broil King. I haven’t BBQ’d since late January or early February. I had a great Weber BBQ, but it was propane and we can’t have propane BBQs in this building. They do offer natural gas connections, so that’s great.

One small issue, I need to get an adapter for the natural gas hookup, so a trip to Home Depot is in order before I can use it.

I also need to buy some oil to season the grills, that’ll be a job for tomorrow.

I’m looking forward to grilling my first steak this week when my friend from California visits.

I shouldn’t have posted that my insomnia might be going away. I woke up shortly before 1am and was wide awake. I jinxed myself.

I tried to get back to sleep, but it was a losing battle so I got up.

I let the dogs out since they tend to get up when I do. They are now sleeping on the couch, snoring away. Must be nice.

I’m watching a movie that I haven’t seen in years, Blue Thunder. I was surprised to see it’s from 1983.

I’m sure I’ll have a nap later, getting up at 1am isn’t normal, that’s for sure.

At least I’m off work, so I can nap. My new natural gas BBQ is being delivered at some point today and I plan on BBQing a steak for dinner with roasted potatoes. I’ve missed not BBQing over the last few months.

Enjoy your Sunday.

Today was a very relaxing day. I’m hesitant to say that my insomnia seems to be leaving me. I slept in until after 5am.

Despite sleeping well, I had two naps today. From 9am-11am and again from 130pm-3pm.

I watched some of the Astros game between naps, but they had it well in hand and ended up winning 3-0.

I made homemade pasta sauce this afternoon, it’s simmering waiting to be added to the pasta, rotini today I think.

Spring has finally arrived and today was the nicest day thus far this year, it’s 23C.

The weather over the next week doesn’t look great for when my friend from California is here. The temperatures are good, but they are calling for rain every day. I hope it’s not as wet as they are calling for as it’ll curtail outdoor activities. I don’t necessarily believe a forecast that’s 5 days out, but we’ll see.

For now, it’s sunny and gorgeous. I’ll take it.