Happiness

Posted on September 17, 2013 by kdarcy21

I was asked the other week if I was happy.  Happy moving away from Ontario and now living in Alberta.

I didn’t really have to think about it too much as I have given it some thought over the last year and a half that I have lived in the western part of our country.

Work

When I was living in St. Catharines and working for the Region of Niagara, I was generally happy.  Prior to that, I was working for a small internet provider and that was good and when it became not so good, I moved on.  In the last two years or so at my previous job, I was not particularly happy – it wasn’t the best time in my working career.  Going into work on a near daily basis was a chore at best.  Sometimes, I would actually dread having to go in.  That is not a good way to be.  So, I did something about it.

Since I have moved to Calgary, I have not had one day where I have dreaded going into work.  I actually love going into work.  I really do enjoy my job.  Sometimes, it is a little slow, BUT, there is always something else to do if the office happens to be slow.  It is one of the nice things about working for a National company that has offices literally from coast to coast.  I even enjoy going in on Mondays.  Mondays have a bad rap.  To tell you the truth, Monday might be my favourite day of the week at work.

Baseball

I am not coaching baseball at the moment – I am in some sort of semi-retirement.  I am umpiring however and am really enjoying it.  It allows me to continue participating in the game that I love without having to make a huge commitment to it.  When you coach, at least at the all-star and elite level, you are committing to 5-7 days a week on the diamond and batting cages.  You are committing to travelling all over for games and tournament.  You are eating out, sleeping in hotels.  You become close with the players and their parents and families that you are basically living with for a few months of the year.  I do miss it, sort of, but not really.  I am enjoying being able to see the game from the other side.  I have umpired for a lot of years but I always umpired at the same time as I coached and when I did umpire, it would be on the odd day that I had off so it then become more of a job than anything else.  I should have been home, relaxing, spending time with my dog.  Now, when I umpire, it is actually a break from my “life” and a chance to get back on the baseball diamond and participate, even in a small way.  It really is no longer work.  The added bonus, I get paid to do something that I am now starting to love almost as much as coaching.  I am sure that at some point, I will go back to coaching.  Not sure when.  I do know why though.  My goal, when I started coaching all-star was a Provincial title.  I have coached a number of teams that have made it to the Provincials and we have finished as high as third place.  Unfortunately, there is no bronze medal for finishing third.  So, I will come back to it, someday, and try for that elusive title.

Family

I don’t think I actually miss my family.  I speak to my sisters often.  One of them, and I will not say switch (but I am sure she knows who she is) may think that I talk to her TOO often.  I will admit, I occasionally call her 8 times a day to bug her.  It is pretty easy to do.

I do miss going for dinners and going out to eat, once, twice, maybe three times a week.  I miss breakfasts at the Greasy Spoon.  I miss getting together for Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner.  I miss meatloaf shaped like a dinosaur.

I also miss seeing my sisters dog, Chloe – she’s a good girl, almost as good as my girl dog Blondie.  It will be nice seeing Chloe in October when I am back in Ontario.  I am, according to JB, Uncle Kevin to Chloe.  Yeah, she is a little bit nuts, but aren’t we all?  I am sure that Chloe will be happy to see me.  She was last year, but that was after I had only been gone for a few months.  This time around, it will have been over a year.  I am sure that a dog won’t forget someone – I certainly hope anyway.  Chloe doesn’t take well to start with around “strangers”.

I will see both sisters on my upcoming trip, my brother in law as well and my aunt.  It’ll be nice.  I am sure that in the 5 days that I spend in St. Catharines, I will be able to drive my sister nuts.  It is one of my jobs and a job that I take seriously.  I also think I do it pretty well.

The other one, BD, is harder to bug.  She just doesn’t rise to it like I would like, so, for the most part, I have given up trying.  Occasionally I can do it, so, perhaps there is hope.

So, I guess in ways I do miss my family, but we still keep in touch so that is a good thing.

Friends

I don’t have any real close friends in Alberta.  I had a few in Ontario and I do miss hanging out with them.  We do talk on the phone fairly often and in my upcoming trip back to the province of my birth, we have planned some outings.  I hope that time and distance doesn’t diminish these friendships, but I doubt that it will.  I have been friends with them for a long time.  I am hopeful that those friendships will last.  I am ok without having any real close friends in Alberta though.  I don’t go out as often as I did back in St. Catharines, but, I am also not in any sort of a rut.  I guess that can happen when you have been friends with people for a long time – there is only so much to do together.  As I said, I umpire, I am on the Board of Directors for a political riding association, I am involved with Big Brothers and I work and work with a lot of great people.  I guess as we get older, it may take more time to develop closer friendships – who knows…

One thing that I actually like is that I can go to pretty much any mall or whatever in Calgary and in the year and a half that I have been here, I have only ran into someone I know once.  It is a big city, 1.3 million or something like that.  I don’t know a heck of a lot of people here so I guess the odds of me seeing someone I know are not all that good.  I sort of like the “privacy” this provides me.  I wouldn’t consider myself a people person – I do like talking to people, but I also really enjoy my privacy.

Weather

I love the weather out here too.  We only have a handful of days in the rather short summer that I would consider hot and really, there isn’t much humidity here.  We had 1 day this past summer that the temps did get a bit high and we did have a bit of humidity.  I had a few nights where the house was a little too hot to sleep in comfort.  Zeus looked at me a few times while panting on the couch and I could tell that he was “asking” me to turn the air conditioning on.  Poor guy, I don’t have AC…

Zeus and Blondie

I think Zeus and Blondie are happy here as well.  We go to more dog parks than we ever did back in St. Catharines.  Zeus is also much more friendly with other dogs than he used to be.  I would credit most of that change to living with Blondie.  He’s come to accept her, I think, albeit reluctantly.  Blondie on the other hand has loved Zeus since the moment that she met him.

Am I?

So, to answer the original question.  Am I happy?

Yes, I would have to say, YES, I am.

Posted in Baseball, Personal, Politics, Work | Leave a comment

Windows 8, Windows 8.1

Posted on September 8, 2013 by kdarcy21

I saw an add for a laptop somewhere.  It might have been one of these Facebook ads, it may have been in email, I am not sure anymore.  Anyway, I checked it out and the laptop looked pretty good.  It was on sale for $329, $70 off.

I was not looking for a workhorse system or a gaming system.  Essentially, I needed something that I could use for email, Facebook, blogging – nothing fancy.

It doesn’t have a CD or DVD drive, but really, do I need that any longer?  I mean, if I have to install something, I can either share the DVD drive on my desktop computer or I can copy the contents to a USB stick.  It has a 14″ display and a pretty good resolution.  It has HDMI out which is good and has a USB 3.0 port as well.  It is an AMD processor, a first for me, 4GB of memory and a 500GB hard drive.  Believe it or not, that is the largest hard drive that I have ever owned.  I doubt that I will ever coming close to filling it – guess I will see.

Anyway, for those who are unfamiliar with Windows 8, Microsoft has greatly changed the interface.  There is no familiar Start menu (although it comes back in Windows 8.1, more on that later).  The “main screen” has a bunch of program tiles.  There is an app store where you can download programs and they do have a large collection of programs available, both free and ones that cost.

You log onto the computer using an email address – it can be an existing email address or you can setup an Outlook.com address.  I decided to log in using my kevin@kdarcy21.com address.  I really don’t need another email address.  If I did have one, I am sure that I would simply forward messages from it to my main address.

So, I logged in and configured the programs.  The built in email program is pretty good.  Most of the built-in programs are.  For some reason that I really don’t feel like resolving, is that the calendar program does not read my calendar items from Google.  Not sure why.  So, I disabled it and downloaded a free Google Calendar program – it works.  Problem solved.

I downloaded and installed Google Chrome, I really don’t like Internet Explorer.  Not surprisingly, Microsoft, or Windows, doesn’t really seem to like it when IE is not the default.  Well, live with it.  🙂

I had heard about Windows 8.1 and some of the benefits of it so I decided to take a look at it.  Apparently, it is only a “preview” release and, according to Microsoft, it is for IT Professionals.  Well, aren’t I lucky?  I AM an IT Professional.  So, I download it.  3.5GB in size, it takes about an hour to download and then less than an hour to install.  It reboots my computer a couple of times and then is ready to be logged into.

Well, off of the top, Windows 8.1 doesn’t look a LOT different than 8 did.  They are true to their word though.  When you open the “Desktop” app which essentially makes it look a LOT like Windows 7, there is a “Start” menu.  It brings you back to the list of programs in tile format.  Not exactly what I was looking for, but whatever.  I am not really all THAT attached to the Start menu anyway.

Thus far, the computer is running pretty well and so is Windows 8.1.  I presume that I will be able to run this preview version until the released version is available.  I am told that the upgrade will be free.  That is a good price.

I am hoping that all will go well.  If not, I may remember to post an update on this entry.

Have fun.

 

Posted in Technology Amazes Us | Leave a comment

Big Brothers

Posted on September 6, 2013 by kdarcy21

I have a new little brother through Big Brother / Big Sisters Calgary.   I originally signed up shortly after I came to Calgary and was matched in August of 2012.  It started out well, we got along and hung out about one every two weeks.  He was at his mom’s place every other weekend so we didn’t get together those weekends.

After school started, we had some issues because of some troubles in school and being grounded.  He wasn’t allowed out of the house but I was allowed to come over so I did.  We were supposed to go to a Calgary Hitmen game and he wasn’t allowed to – not much fun.  This continued on and off for most of the rest of 2012 during the school year.

Towards the end of November, we finally did go to a Hitmen game – it wasn’t much of a game as I remember, they lost 10-1 or something along those lines.

I purchased a vehicle in late January of 2013 and shortly after getting it, we went out for an evening to hang out.  That was early February and it was actually the last time that we did anything together.

I did try to schedule outings and we were supposed to go out a number of times but in each case, my little brother would cancel out on me telling me that he was out with friends, etc.  For extended periods of time, he also didn’t return any text messages or phone calls.  Although he indicated that he was interested in keeping the “match” going, it was obvious to me that he really wasn’t interested.

Towards the end of the school year, I contacted the case worker again and let her know about the issues with the match.  By the end of July or so, the match was closed at my asking – it had been six months since we went out – not an ideal match I guess.

I think that there were many issues going on here.  My little brother had turned 15 and was obviously more interested in hanging out with his friends than me – that’s ok.  I wish him the best and hope all works out for him.

So, I decided to try another match again.  I spoke again with the caseworker, went in to fill in another police background check and was told that I would be matched in the coming weeks.

I had my match meeting yesterday, Thursday the 5th of September.  We are planning on heading out on Sunday – I am not exactly sure what we are doing as yet.  My little brother just turned 12, so he’s a little younger than the last one, he’s in grade 7 which in Calgary is the start of Junior High.

I am hopeful that the match will work – I think it will.

I am sure that I will send some postings this way.  🙂

 

Posted in Personal | Leave a comment

Four months until Christmas…

Posted on August 25, 2013 by kdarcy21

Yeah, OK – that is the first and last time that I will mention that one.

I do have a friend on Facebook that seems to enjoy posting countdowns until Christmas and they seem to start sometime in January I think.  The only reason that I picked that particular title is because when I looked at the date in my system tray, I noticed that it is August 25.  OK, enough on that – moving along.

The BDO Calgary office decided that we would not have our Calgary Stampede party and I believe that they have also cancelled one of the Christmas parties.  Dang – didn’t want to mention that again.  Anyway, the funds that would normally have been put into the various parties that were cancelled instead were being directed into various causes to help with the flooding that the area experienced this past June.

I know that a large donation was made (or will be made) to the Calgary Zoo which was badly damaged in the flooods.  A good cause for sure.  Apparently, from what I read, the zoo sustained about 50 million dollars in damage and it will be years until it is back in pre-flood shape.  In partially re-opened at the end of July and will hopefully completely re-open by the end of the year.  I, and I would guess most if not all of my co-workers, have no issue with cancelling a party or two in order to provide much needed funds for this.

Another “project” that we are doing is providing back to school supplies for a number of young students in the High River area.  An email came out sometime last week asking for volunteers to assist with purchasing items and stuffing backpacks.

I am one of the odd men on the planet that actually doesn’t mind shopping, especially when it involves someone else’s money.  So, I volunteered.  I was given $800 to purchase backpacks and a number of back to school supplies.  I needed to purchase for a total of 16 kids and in total, we were purchasing for 125.  I figured that I might have some issues doing this myself, so, I asked my co-worker if he’d join me on Saturday morning and assist.  Not only did he assist, he brought along his wife and two daughters to help out.

So, off we went to Wal-Mart and spent an hour or so selecting supplies for 16.  We filled two shopping carts and made our way to the checkouts.  For some odd reason, people didn’t fall into line behind us.  I am not surprised, seeing as it took the cashier about 15 minutes to check us through.  The total came to just over $500 or about $32 per kid – not too bad at all.  At that rate, the office should be able to outfit a few hundred students seeing as we had a budget of about $125 per student.  There will be some happy kids in High River come the start of school.  It is only a small gesture on our parts in the grand scheme of things, but for some families that have lost a lot or everything, it will be a big help.

We have a backpack stuffing lunch this week and then we will deliver the items to the school.  I have a large vehicle and will volunteer to drive, if needed.

This is the first weekend, I think, that I have not had to umpire all summer.  The season has ended for most of the leagues with the only baseball currently happening being Senior ball.  There are only a few games that have to be spread out among all of the umpires so I am not surprised that I didn’t get any games this weekend.  Some Fall ball leagues start up in the next few weeks so I am sure that I will get a few more games.  I have been saving the funds that I have earned for my trip to Ontario – I have not yet been paid, so when I am (in September), I will have the funds to put my dogs in a kennel and will have spending money for my trip.

Speaking of my trip, it is going to be a busy few days.  I will be in Niagara for 5 days and I am sure I will be busy pretty much from morning to night.  When I get back to Calgary, I will have a few days off before I return to work so I will be able to recover.

I am looking forward to the trip – it will be a good time.

For now, I am off to visit the new kennel that I will be putting Zeus and Blondie in for my trip.  It is south of Calgary but looks great.  Gotta see for myself.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend.

 

Posted in Baseball, Personal, Work, Zeus, Blondie, Hera and Twix | Leave a comment

Wal-Mart, iPhones and Nice Weather…

Posted on August 17, 2013 by kdarcy21

Wal-Mart

I took a short drive to the Wal-Mart just 10 minutes south of where I live.  There is a Wal-Mart in the neighbourhood that I live in, but it can be a bit sketchy plus it isn’t one of the “superstores” or whatever they are called.

So, the main purpose of my visit was to get dog food and biscuits for the beasts.  Well, biscuits were plentiful but they didn’t have any of the food that they eat – oh well.  It seems that they are out of the food more than they have it.

Anyway, I decided to do some shopping.  I guess I didn’t realize that this was a superstore or I had forgotten.  The grocery, meat and produce sections were really good.  The prices on everything that I bought were awesome – I would bet that I saved at least $10 on purchases of $100.  Not bad really.  I am sure that we’ve all seen the commercials talking about savings, looks like they might be true.

Some people don’t like Wal-Mart for various reasons.  Well, as I see it, they employ people, many people and even if the jobs are not top notch, they are jobs.  The prices are great – sure, I had to drive a bit to get there, but really, do I care about that?  Not really.  As long as they continue to offer products that I want at good prices, I will be a customer – no doubt about that.

iPhones

I have been having some issues with my Blackberry Bold 9900 in the last couple of weeks.  Several of the keys don’t work, well, they do, but using them is painful.  Sometimes they work, no problems, other times, they don’t work and then when I press a key, I get 9 of whatever letter I was looking for.

So, I contacted the “powers” at work to see if my device was still under warranty.  Nope.  I was not surprised about that, it is a year and a half old.  I was told that I could upgrade.

My choices where a Blackberry Q10 (with keyboard) a Z10 (without keyboard) or an iPhone 4S.  I have set-up all three devices at work, never really played with them all that much though.  I honestly am not sure what is going to happen with Blackberry – will they be around much longer?  Who knows.  Over time, my opinion of the Q10 and Z10 has improved, but I was not completely convinced.

So, I decided to go with an iPhone 4S.  I realize that it is a model out of date but I didn’t care too much about that.  My new iPhone arrived yesterday and my co-worker in Toronto was able to squeeze my activation in.  I setup the device and did some playing yesterday afternoon.

I must admit, at first glance and use, I do like it.  The keyboard is pretty good and my typing speed is pretty good.  I was able to activate and get going pretty quickly.  The mail, contacts and calendar functions, primarily what I use at the office seem to work pretty good.  As a bonus, I can sync quite a bit of my music to the device which will be an upgrade to the iPod Nano that I currently use for my trips on the train back and forth to the office.  I am sure that I will post some sort of update on here in the coming weeks and months.

Nice Weather

We have had some great weather in Calgary the last couple of weeks.  This past week it has actually gotten pretty warm, not humid, at least by my standards.  My house has heated up pretty good during the day – too bad I can’t store that heat for winter.

Summer will be over soon enough I am sure.  September will likely be cool and I would bet that the snow will fly by shortly after the time that I return from my trip back to Ontario.

 

Posted in Personal, Work | Leave a comment

An Ontario Visit

Posted on August 13, 2013 by kdarcy21

Every year, in the Fall, my company has an IT Conference, somewhere in Ontario.  This year, we are in Collingwood at Blue Mountain.  So, they fly those of us in that are outside of Ontario and they are nice enough to also fly us back.

They are also nice enough to allow us to extend our trips as long as the price of the flight doesn’t change that much.

The Conference is Monday, October 7 through Thursday, October 10 and I will be extending my stay in Ontario until the 15th so that will be good.  I will be able to see family and friends that I otherwise can only talk to on the phone or whatever.

I have booked the Deluxe Suite at Chez Brenneman for 5 nights.  Friends have booked some of my time and I have put in orders for some of my favourite food that my sister has been so kind to accommodate.  Since I will be there over the Thanksgiving weekend, turkey will be on the menu – this is good.  It is one of my fav foods but I am not about to make a turkey dinner for one.  A turkey TV dinner doesn’t count – nor is it real turkey either…

I am planning on meeting some former co-workers for coffee, hanging out with another former co-worker at the Balls Falls Thanksgiving Festival and going out for a few meals.  I am hoping that I can catch a few innings at least of a Brock University baseball game on the Friday that I am in Niagara.  I do get enough baseball by umpiring in Calgary, but I used to catch a lot of their games – it was a good wind-down to the otherwise busy baseball season.

Zeus and Blondie will be trying out a new kennel, Country Club Pet Resort.  It is cheaper than the previous place that I took them and the facility is huge.  There is a swimming pond with Blondie, she will love that – I am sure that Zeus will just watch from the shore, he doesn’t like to get A) wet or B) dirty.  It is a bit south of where I live, but it is only a 25 minute drive so not too bad at all.  My 10 day trip will cost me under $600 for the dogs being at their “resort”.  I am sure they will have a good time and will be well taken care of.

So, only a few short weeks until I return for a bit – I am looking forward to it.

If you want to do something, book me soon – my free time is running out.  🙂

Posted in Baseball, Personal, Work, Zeus, Blondie, Hera and Twix | Leave a comment

Volunteer Coaches

Posted on August 9, 2013 by kdarcy21

I am borrowing this from a Facebook post that I saw today – it is well written and represents what I believe all coaches think.  It was written from a soccer coaches perception, but, I can relate as a fastball and baseball coach.  Although I am in a semi-retirement from coaching currently, I am sure that I will get the coaching bug again and will be back on the field.

Letter for a Volunteer Coach:

Today I heard a comment made about me behind my back. I started to turn around and look, but then decided better of it and kept my eyes on the field. My wife hears things like this more often than I do, because many of you don’t know who she is. She tells me what you say. I have received angry emails, full of “suggestions,” about who should be playing where and how I… lost that day’s game for the kids. I thought I’d write an open letter to all of you parents, even though I might never send it. I’ll start it this way: “I am a volunteer.”

I’m the one who answered the call when the league said they didn’t have enough coaches. I understand that you were too busy. I have some news for you. I’m not retired. I’m busy too. I have other children and a job, just like you do. Not only do I not get paid to do this – it costs me money. I see you walk up to the game 15 minutes after it started, still dressed for work. Do you know I’ve already been here over an hour? Imagine if you had to leave work early nearly every day. I’ve never seen you at a practice. I’m sure you’re plugging away at the office. But I’m out here, on the field, trying my best to teach these children how to play a sport they love, while my bank account suffers.

I know. I make mistakes. In fact, maybe I’m not even that great of a coach. But I treat the kids fairly and with respect. I am pretty sure they like coming to my practices and games, and without me or someone like me, there’d be no team for them to play on. I’m part of this community too and it’s no picnic being out here on this stage like this. It’s a lot easier back there with the other parents where no one is second-guessing you.

And I also know you think I give my son or daughter unfair advantages. I try not to. In fact, have you ever considered that maybe I’m harder on him than on the others? I’m sure he hears plenty of criticism at school from classmates, who hear it from you at home, about what a lame coach I am. And if, even unconsciously, my kids are getting a slight advantage because I know them better and trust their abilities, is that the worst thing in the world, considering the sacrifice I’m making? Trust me, I want to win too. And if your son or daughter could guarantee we’d do that, I’d give them the chance.

After this game is over, I’ll be the last one to leave. I have to break down the field, put away all the equipment and make sure everyone has had a parent arrive to pick them up. There have been evenings when my son and I waited with a player until after dark before someone came to get them. Many nights I’m sure you’ve already had dinner and are relaxing on the couch by the time I finally kick the mud off my shoes and climb into my car, which hasn’t been washed or vacuumed for weeks. Why bother cleaning it during the season? Do you know how nice it would be if, just once, after a game one of you offered to carry the heavy gear bag to my car or help straighten up the field?

If I sound angry, I’m not. I do this because I love it and I love being around the kids. There are plenty of rewards and I remind myself that while you’re at the office working, your kid is saying something that makes us all laugh or brings a tear to my eye. The positives outweigh the negatives. I just wish sometime those who don’t choose to volunteer their time would leave the coaching to the few of us who do.

Posted in Baseball | Leave a comment

The Story of Zeus

Posted on July 19, 2013 by kdarcy21

So, back in July of 2006, one of my then co-workers was planning on visiting the Welland Humane Society to visit a dog that she and her daughter had found as a stray.  They could not keep the dog so they brought it in with hopes that it would either find its owner or be adopted.  For some unknown reason, I decided to go with her even though Welland is a little out of the way for me.

So, after work, we zipped down the highway and arrived at the shelter.

DB showed me the dog that she had rescued and suggested that I could be the one to adopt it.  I had never had my own dog – we did have a dog while I was growing up and although I did a lot of the work for the dog (feeding, walking, cleaning up after it), it was actually my sister’s dog – Brandy.  I came up with the name.  🙂

Anyway, I don’t remember what breed this specific dog was that DB rescued but it didn’t seem to like me and therefore, I didn’t really care for it.

I had no intention of adopting a dog.  None at all.  Then I came across this dog in its cage:

Zeus 1

 

The name tag on the cage read Iggy.  OK, sure, why not.  Nice name, I suppose.

Anyway, Iggy seemed like a nice dog.  As you can see, he was a happy looking dog and he seemed to be smiling.  He let me pat him through the cage and made no attempt to bite at me.  That was nice.

After spending 15 minutes or so looking at the various dogs, we left.  DB was disappointed that I had no intention of adopting the dog that she wanted me to, but I was thinking about the smallish Shepherd cross.

A few days passed and I kept thinking about this dog.  I called the shelter and asked if the dog that I was looking at was still available.  They assumed the dog that DB had rescued – I quickly corrected them and said, no, Iggy.  Yes, he’s still available.  So, at lunch, I made the trip back to Welland and put a deposit down on him and filled in the paperwork.

I was a bit worried that I wouldn’t be approved since I lived in an apartment with no fenced in backyard, etc.  As far as I am aware, they never contacted the landlord nor did any other checks.  I was asked to submit some references and they weren’t called either.

There was a delay in me picking up my new addition.  I was told that Iggy would be about a week before they would be able to get him neutered.  I told them that I would not be using that name and chose Zeus.  They changed his name tag right away.

For the next week or so, I would spend my lunch hour by driving to Welland and taking him for a walk so he’d get to know me.

The day came for me to pick him up and I asked my friend to come with me.  On the trip home, Zeus puked.  Nice.  Well, as it turned out, he puked every time we went for a car ride.  I asked the vet about it and he said that it was just nerves and that he’d probably be ok after a few weeks.  Sure enough, Zeus doesn’t puke on car trips any longer.

Zeus 2

 

Here is Zeus a few weeks later, guarding my trailer that I had in Dunnville.  Although he is about 40 lbs (now, then he was a little skinny and was around 30 lbs), he thinks he’s a full-size German Shepherd and often acts like it.

As of August 3 (only a few weeks from now), Zeus will have been a member of my family for 7 years.  He’s turned into a pretty good dog and we get along well.

In December of 2009, Zeus and I took a trip to Washington, DC.  It was a full day in the Jeep to get there and we were both tired upon arrival.

Zeus 3

 

Zeus took quite well to the king size bed – he looks pretty comfy.  I have taken him to baseball tournaments all over Ontario and into the US.  We’ve driven all over Ontario and Western New York – he decided that puking on trips wasn’t necessary along the way, so that’s a good thing.

A little over two years ago, I got a companion for Zeus (and myself).  Blondie.  Zeus is her best friend, no doubt about it.  She worships the ground that he walks on.  Zeus tolerates Blondie and even plays with her, but I think he still doesn’t really like it that I added another dog to our family.

Blondie & Zeus

 

One of those rare shots where he will actually lie down beside her.

More on Blondie some other time.

So, that is how Zeus came to join me.  As I said, it’s been a good 7 years (nearly 7 anyway) and Zeus has become a good dog.  I am glad he’s been there through thick and thin.  He joined me, likely against his will, in my move to Alberta and he’s changed a bit since he’s been here.  He has become much more accepting with other dogs since we’ve moved here – Blondie might have something to do with that though.  I am sure he enjoys it that the temperatures in Alberta don’t get anywhere near as hot as they do in S. Ontario.  The winters are colder, but I think he likes that too.

Anyway, if you are thinking of getting yourself a dog and if you have the time to dedicate to one, there is, I am sure, a shelter near you with many dogs looking for forever homes.  Maybe yours will be as good to you as Zeus has been to me.  Thanks Zeus.

 

Posted in Zeus, Blondie, Hera and Twix | 1 Comment

My New Vehicle

Posted on July 18, 2013 by kdarcy21

Well, it is new to me anyway.  It is a used, 2008 Dodge Nitro with just over 80000 km on it.  I doubt that I will ever purchase a new vehicle again, they are too damn expensive and lose way too much of their value far too quickly.  I digress.

I wanted a 4×4 before the winter returns.  If you know Calgary (and Alberta), winter returns early and hits hard.  I didn’t really mind the previous vehicle that I had (a 2007 Dodge Caliber), but, it wasn’t a 4×4 and wasn’t really my “style” of vehicle.  I like riding up fairly high and living in Calgary, there are so many trucks and SUV’s on the road that if you are in a car, you can’t see around/over other vehicles very easy at all.

So, after I had looked around a bit and test drove some various SUV’s, I decided on this one.  I had never driven a red vehicle before so that is a first.

Front Back End Back Seats Drivers Side View Inside Front

 

It has a leather interior so cleaning up the dog hair and paw prints will be a breeze.  I sort of wish the floor was leather as well, that would make clean-up VERY easy.

Zeus has a little hesitation in getting in this – it is much higher than the Caliber.  He needs to be encouraged a bit, then he makes the jump in.

The year long saga with my Jeep is coming to an end.  Well, essentially it has ended.  I may detail the happenings here at some point in the near future – guess we will see on that one.

For now, I will enjoy my new ride.

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Big Brothers

Posted on July 17, 2013 by kdarcy21

As I am sure that I have logged, I decided to join Big Brothers shortly after I arrived in Calgary.  I had previously been involved when I lived in St. Catharines with sort of mixed results.

The first time I did this I think I was 18 years old so that would put this in the late 80’s.  My first “little” was a good kid but we had very little in common.  The only real activity that he wanted to do was fishing.  I don’t mind fishing, but, unless I am fishing from a boat, I could do without.  Well, since he liked to fish, we went fishing.  Now, in saying that he liked to fish, this means he liked sitting there with his line in the water but baiting the hook or getting the damn fish off once caught, well, that was my job.

I had an un-official little brother next – he was in the program but they didn’t match him and I coached him in fastball so that is how we met.  He played for me for two years and we stayed friends for a number of years until he went off to college and what not and we lost contact.

A few years ago, I was matched again with a kid from Pelham.  It didn’t work out well – he never wanted to go out or do anything, he wanted to stay around the house.  The match didn’t last long – perhaps part my fault and perhaps part his.

My “little” in Calgary was/is a good kid but I don’t think he was really interested in being matched up.  First of all, he lives with his Dad.  That made the match a little awkward from the start.  I almost felt as if the Dad was too lazy to do anything with his son, who knows.  The other issue was that this “little” was 14, nearly 15 when we were matched and really was a bit too old for the program.  He had more interest in hanging out with his friends than hanging out with an old guy such as myself.  After not having much contact with him for a few months, I spoke with the case manager at BBBS and we decided to end the match.

So, I am waiting for another little brother.  I have asked for someone a bit younger, doesn’t matter to me.  There are a lot of cool things to do in Calgary and the surrounding area and I know that they have a lot of kids waiting for matches.  I think that I do have a fair amount to offer so I really hope I get a good match.  I have coached baseball since my late teens and enjoy working with kids.  I think the only thing that kept me from becoming a teacher is that I didn’t enjoy going through university.  Oh well…

So, hopefully a match will occur in the next few weeks and I will take it from there.  Summer in Alberta is short and before we know it the snow will fly.  It will be nice to be able to get out and have some fun while it is still warm enough to be outside.

 

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