Kevin's Ramblings…

Next Friday, May 29 will be my last day at IBM. It’s been an interesting run.

IBM isn’t a bad place to work, but it’s not a great place to work either.

The benefits are good, the pay is mediocre. You get three weeks of vacation but it takes 9 years to jump to 4 weeks of vacation.

IBM is extremely top heavy in management. There are so many levels of management that the workers are nothing more than a number. I suppose it’s probably like that in all big companies.

Anyway, next Friday is my last day. I’m looking forward to some down time, although I’ve had downtime lately anyway.

I don’t know what the next step is but I’m thinking of becoming one of those courtesy drivers for a car dealership. I definitely do not want to do anything in IT, that’s for sure.

Wish me well, if you will, I can use some luck.

I probably can’t legally call them egg McMuffins since that’s what McDonald’s calls them. Mine are way better anyway.

I guarantee I use real eggs, I’m unsure what McDonald’s uses sometimes, they don’t taste very egg like. I also properly toast the English muffins, not just warm them up. I also add a slice of cheese, just a Kraft Single but they are decent.

I’ve been eating a lot of eggs lately, I guess if I continue I’ll buy the large pack at Costco instead of a dozen at a time at No Frills.

It’s a good breakfast and takes the hunger away. I meant to take a picture this morning, but they were gone before I remembered.

I figure they cost well under $1 each and they are $3 something each at McDonald’s, so a good deal for me.

Anyway, enjoy your oatmeal.

Yesterday was a stat holiday in Canada, Victoria Day. In honour of Queen Victoria from way back. No idea when she passed and I’m too lazy to look it up. Luckily, I have Alexa, and she died in 1901. So,we still celebrate her birthday over 125 years since her passing.

None of us will complain, I’m sure. It’s a paid day off of work.

Yesterday was a relaxing sort of day. The weather wasn’t bad, a bit cool.but typical for this time of year, to be sure. It’s supposed to warm over the next two weeks so that daytime highs are in the upper teens. I can handle that.

My friend of 35 years visits next week, JB from California is coming for 5 days. We have a packed week planned. We are going to Waterton National Park on Thursday, with the dogs, and having Mexican food for dinner. I’ve actually never been to Waterton National Park so that’ll be a new thing for me. Should be a good day, it’s about 3 hours south of here.

We are heading to Banff on Friday and will take the gondola to the top of the mountain for some amazing views. The town of Banff is quite nice with little shops and cafes everywhere. I think we are going for Indian food Friday night.

On Saturday morning, first thing, we are hitting up the Calgary Farmers Market and then going white water rafting for the afternoon. We might go to the Calgary Tower in the evening for dinner, I’ve never been to the restaurant there.

He leaves Sunday, so we’ll go somewhere for brunch before I drop him off at the airport.

The week will zoom by, I am sure and it will be a good visit. We haven’t seen each other since 2020 so that’s 6 years now. We met back in 1990 at Camp Wahanowin in Orillia Ontario and have even friends since. I visited him when he was a student at UCSD when I was 21, we didn’t see each other again until 2006 but we’ve all kept in touch.

I’m looking forward to his visit.

The May 24 weekend, the official start of summer weekend is almost over.

Like most May 24s in Alberta, we received snow on Saturday..we got about 4″ in total. It was, thankfully, gone by Saturday evening when the sun came out and melted it.

Sunday was cool, but dry. It got up to 10C or so. Today was slightly warmer, 14C but we had off and on rain.

It was a very relaxing weekend. Today, I picked up a nice bistro set for the patio. It is in good shape although the table could use a layer of wood stain.

Eventually, I’m sure the weather will be nice enough to sit outside on the patio having a coffee in the morning.

At least day time highs are in the teens now, quite comfortable.

Wherever you are, I hope it was a good weekend.

I’m going to look at a house tomorrow, well, the main and upper floors of a house anyway.

It’s in the south east of Calgary in an area I’ve never been to.

Am I moving? I highly doubt it. But I want to look, anyway.

It’s a 3 bedroom, 2.5 bathroom and looks quite luxurious.

It’s way more expensive here, $2275 plus utilities. That alone will stop me from moving. But, I still want to look at it.

This place is good. It’s the perfect size and includes everything that I need. I only pay for electricity and nothing else. After a year, my Internet won’t be free any more. The property management people are a bit insane as well with unwritten rules. But, in general, I love where I am.

I might be able to negotiate a bit on the price of the house I’m looking at, who knows. I think it also has carpeting upstairs which I am NOT a fan of, but I’m not totally sure. It also doesn’t have a fenced in yard so that’s not ideal for Apollo. He definitely needs to be contained.

So, the appointment is for tomorrow. I’ll take a look as that should be that.

I’m staying put. Aren’t I?

Yesterday started out quite cool with rain. The dogs and I got wet going to the dog park in the apartment complex, but they were pretty quick about taking care of business.

It was a stay inside sort of day. The temperature dropped and we ended up getting a few inches of snow, but by the end of the day, it warned and the sun came out melting everything.

We always seem to have shitty weather over the long weekend. It is Alberta after all. The 2 week forecast shows temps in the upper teens, I can handle that for sure.

Next week, my friend of 30+ years, JB, visits from sunny California. We’ve got a busy few days planned including a trip to Banff and white water rafting. We’ve only got 3 full days to explore, so I can show him everything that Alberta has to offer, but Banff is beautiful and shouldn’t be missed. It’ll be great seeing him, it’s been 6 years since I was in California and we went to Six Flags, that was a great day.

Today will be a slightly warmer day than yesterday. I’m planning on dropping by the ball park for a bit, presuming games are on and heckling my friend who’s working the plate. I’ll bring the dogs as well, they love going for car rides and also love people.

Tonight is a meatloaf night with mashed potatoes. I was going to make it yesterday, but I made egg salad sandwiches from a recipe from the Fairmont hotel and OMG was it ever good. The key ingredient was Dijon mustard, I mean aside from the eggs and it was amazing. I wish peeling eggs was easier. That was my first attempt at making egg salad, amazing and a bit sad that it took me almost 55 years to make it. Now I’m going to make it regularly.

Enjoy your Sunday.

It’s the May 24 weekend and it’s going to be cold and rainy. That’s a typical May 24 weekend pretty much.

No outdoor plans for the weekend. Today’s high is supposed to be 5C and it’s supposed to rain most of the day. It’s only supposed to be slightly better tomorrow.

It’s not snowing, so that’s a positive, I suppose.

I guess it’ll be an inside weekend, I’ll watch some baseball and movies I suppose and maybe make some comfort food, like meatloaf and mashed potatoes or a chicken stuffing vegetable bake. Both sound good, to me.

My friend from California arrives a week Wednesday.  We’ve got a bunch planned including a trip to Banff and a white water rafting excursion as well. It should be awesome, we haven’t seen each other since 2020 when we went to an amusement park just outside of Los Angeles. That was a great time.

Otherwise, it’s pretty much same old. Hopefully the weather is better where you are than here. Enjoy your weekend.

As I’ve written, I’m getting a new vehicle in August. I’m slated to pick it up on August 14. It’s a factory order, Ford is building it on June 8. When you factory order a vehicle, from Ford anyway, you get a birth certificate. Sorta cool.

Anyway, I’m getting it August 14. On August 17, I’m heading to Edmonton to have dinner with family. My brother, sister in law, two nieces and their families. It’s my one nieces birthday, I think she’ll be 40.

I’m heading out on my epic road trip on August 21, a Friday. I’m off to Twin Falls Idaho and picking up a friend then we are off to Denver Colorado and we are going to catch a Colorado Rockies baseball game.

From there, I head to Houston Texas and I’ll be catching a Houston Astros baseball game.

Next stop will be New Orleans for a day. Then to Florida and eventually Key West. I’m stopping to pick up a friend in Florida as well.

I then head north to Nashville Tennessee and will spend a couple of days there with two friends.

Next stop is Detroit Michigan and a Tigers game with a former coworker. I’ll then hit up the Niagara Region and the GTA. I’m hoping that I can see a Buffalo Bills game if they are in town for a pre season game. I’ll spend 5 days or so in Niagara and the GTA.

I’ll then be off to Ottawa then south to the US crossing at 1000 Islands and then heading east to New Brunswick, PEI and Nova Scotia.  I’ll be seeing friends in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia and PEI is just to say I’ve been.

I’ll then head back to Calgary via the northern states.

All in all, it’ll be an epic 25-30 day trip. I’m looking forward to it.

Hopefully I’ll see you on the way.

Yesterday morning, Apollo puked a couple of times. This isn’t unusual, if you’ve ever had dogs. They either get into something they shouldn’t or whatever, and they occasionally puke.

Now, come to think of it, I didn’t think Twix has ever puked. Not once, Blondie was my puking dog, Labs tend to put everything and anything in their mouths.

Most dogs, perhaps all dogs, other than Apollo puke in a dramatic fashion as well. There is the hacking sound that’ll wake you up faster than anything else. Then they puke in a little pile and you clean it up.

Not Apollo. Nope.

He pukes with absolutely no warning at all. I’ve second he’s fine and the next, puke. Yesterday, he projectile vomited as well.

The first shot was all over the duvet cover and bedroom wall. Nice. Then he jumped off the bed and did it again, all over the small carpet I have beside the bed.

The rest of the apartment is all vinyl plank flooring which makes cleaning puke very easy. The duvet cover, well, that has to go in the laundry. So does the small carpet. What fun.

Anyway, hopefully the description of him puking didn’t turn you off of your breakfast. He’s good today, no puking. I hope you don’t puke either.