Kevin's Ramblings…

Today marks 14 years since I pulled a pretty good April Fools joke on two friends and colleagues during the 2011 Federal Election.

The campaign office was in a sketchy part of town in St. Catharines Ontario, Queenston Street area, down by where the old Delta Bingo used to be, if you know where that was.

I lived relatively close to there and offered to open the office every morning before heading into work. I opened at around 8am.  I don’t recall who I called first, but I made two epic calls that morning. One was to a long time friend of mine, DS, and the other was to the Campaign Manager, JR.

My call to DS, was along these lines:

DS, I just arrived at the office and it’s been broken into. Everything has been trashed, the files have been burned, computers smashed. I elaborated, sounding quite panicked. DS was in disarray and said he’d get there as quickly as he could.

Before I let him go, I said I was filling in the police report as they were investigating. I said I was flustered and what was the date? DS replied “it’s April 1” with no recognition in his voice at all. I waited a second or two. I asked him to repeat it, April 1 was the reply. Nothing.

I asked if anything specific happened on April 1. There was a pause. Then I could hear anger. Holy shit, you asshole, or something along those lines was the reply, followed by some laughter. You got me good was the next line and more laughter.

I figured, well, that was good, let’s try it with the campaign manager, JR.

JR had been a political consultant for many years at this point and had run many a Conservative campaign. He also was NOT a morning person, at all. When I called him, he was definitely asleep and the call went very much like the call to DS.

When he recognized that he’d been pranked, I heard a string of curses that would make a Hell’s Angel blush.  He then switched to laughter, realizing that I got him good, which I did of course.

During the day, the story was passed to the various volunteers on the campaign and all found it rather funny, including, of course, the Conservative candidate, RD.

Both vowed revenge. Neither have. It was epic. I love it.

I’ve had a lot of changes in the last 2 months and more changes in the last 2 weeks.

I’ve moved back to Calgary and bought a new truck. I’m in a great townhouse in the NW neighborhood of Ranchlands. Three levels including a basement, three bedrooms (one is an office) and two full bathrooms. It’s got a fenced in yard and although it’s small, it’s perfect as the dogs get walks daily.

I’ve met an awesome guy and we’ve decided that not only are we having a relationship, but we are now living together. It’s working out great.

I have a feeling of relief after admitting, first to myself then to family and friends that I’m gay, or perhaps bi, unsure which I guess. JT and I are happy, and really, the guess that’s all that matters.

We adopted a dog together, Bruce, and he’s doing great and getting along with his sisters very well. I know I’m happier than I’ve been in as long as I can remember.

Here’s to the start of a great relationship. Wish us some luck. Cheers.

I have opened up about myself to many friends and family about something that I have kept very private for 30-odd years.  For that time, at least, I have considered myself to be bi-sexual.  I am now in a relationship with a gent, I will refer to him as JT as I don’t use names very often in my Blog.  JT is 30 years my junior, he is 23 currently and turns 24 this year.  Although there is a large age gap, I am surprised at how much he and I have in common, we see eye to eye on many, many topics.  There is a minor issue, he doesn’t like pineapple on pizza, but there is no accounting for taste.  🙂

We are living together in Calgary and thus far, we are getting along like two peas in a pod.  He officially moved in about 10 days ago, but a lot of his stuff is still at his last place.  He will be moving the rest of his stuff today and tomorrow.  I am looking forward to adventures with JT, this is something that neither of us have tried before.  I am hopeful that we will have a long life together.  Wish us some luck.

As I have written, I now get 3 and 4 day weekends with my new job and this is day 3 off of 4, I’m back on Sunday morning. Today is also my third anniversary at IBM. The 3 years has zoomed by for sure.

This week has gone by pretty quickly. On Monday, it was St. Patrick’s Day. I forgot to wear anything green. I don’t own a lot of green either, but that’s ok. I went to Denny’s for dinner and also, officially, started a relationship.

Tuesday and Wednesday are a blue to be honest. I did take a trip over to the Calgary Humane Society on Wednesday. They had 5 or 6 Lab puppies and I brought my dogs with me with the intention of possibly adding a puppy to my pack. Well, Fate intervened and the Humane Society was closed for a function. I take Fate fairly seriously and we haven’t been back to the Humane Society and likely won’t. It was yelling me that it wasn’t time to add to my pack.

I did some running around on Thursday. I toured the local YMCA which is right around the corner from my house and I decided to give it a try. I’d like to get my cardio back up and tone up some as well as lose some weight. Wish me luck, please.

I’m heading down to Crowsnest Pass with a stop in Pincher Creek. I’ll be having coffee with an old friend that I haven’t seen in a number of years and I’m really looking forward to it. I’ll be bringing my significant other with me as well, along with Hera and Twix. We’ll then get West to Coleman and hopefully have an early dinner with two friends there. Hopefully there won’t be a lot of snow down in the Pass. It’ll be gorgeous in Calgary but snowy in the South of the province.

I hope to be back in Calgary before it’s dark. Nothing really planned for tomorrow at all. I do plan on starting up at the Y, get into some sort of routine.  Back to work Sunday morning.

I’m really enjoying this current work cycle.  It’s a great work/life balance. I’m enjoying the work as well. Being happy with what you do is so important.

Enjoy your weekend when it arrives.

I have booked a trip back to Ontario for August. It’ll be in the middle-end of the hot and humid season, but I lived in that for 41 years, I’m sure I can survive a week.

I’ll be arriving on a Friday, the Friday before the long weekend, what’s it called in Ontario, Civic Holiday I believe. I’ll head down to Niagara to start my trip and plan to spend some time out at a friend’s trailer near Dunnville Ontario. I’m sure I’ll be meeting with other friends, nothing is written in stone as yet of course.

I’m hoping to see another friend from Ottawa. We used to meet in Peterborough, which we discovered was about half way between Niagara and Ottawa.

I’ll visit my Aunt and Cousin of course, they are in downtown Toronto, right in the financial district.

One thing that I do want to do on this trip is scatter my parents ashes. My Mom passed away back in 1988 and my Dad in 2015. It’s not a significant event for me, but it’s something that needs to be done. My ex brother in law also has my sister Barb’s ashes so I plan on collecting those and scattering all three somewhere around Lock 3 of the Welland Canal where my Dad worked while I was growing up. My Aunt and Cousin will accompany me and after so long, it’ll finally be done.

The trip is going to be relatively expensive. The flight was just over $700. I’m renting a vehicle for the 8 days and that’s $900 and then there’s my dogs needing to be looked after, another $800 or so. Then there’s spending money for eating out, gas and other miscellaneous expenses.  I still need to arrange someone to look after the dogs.  Oh well, it’s just money and I can’t take it with me, can I?

The trip is in just under 5 months and I’m sure that time will fly by. Baseball season is nearly here and  I’m looking forward to umpiring again. The trip will happen after the season has ended, I’ll just miss some of the playoffs.

It should be a good trip, I’m looking forward to it.

I worked some OT this evening. There was a change for my client at IBM and I’m one of the Windows Specialists (or becoming one, anyway) so I volunteered to do the maintenance tonight.

There was a miscommunication. I was told it would be 1130pm. What wasn’t specified was the time zone. The 1130pm was Eastern and not Mountain. Luckily, I woke up around 910pm and my phone sent a reminder for the 930pm meeting. Technology is wonderful.

Anyway, I logged in and started the maintenance. I’m not sure who wrote the instructions, but other than some names not being perfect, the instructions were great.

The server maintenance went perfectly and the testing (that I didn’t have to do) passed, so, all is well.

Although it was simple work, it’s satisfying when it goes flawlessly and the client thanks you. It’s a good feeling.

Now I’m watching a bit of TV until I get tired and then off to bed I go seeing as my next shift starts at 6am. That would be 6am Mountain Time.

I started my day yesterday very early, around 3am. Winter is hanging on, it was -13 on Friday morning.  I’m used to waking at, what I call Stupid O’Clock, but it’s still annoying. I had breakfast at Smitty’s in Airdrie with my former dog lady. Allow me to explain, she used to let the dogs out and/or walk them when I was away from home and scheduled her, she’d also stay at the house and look after the dogs when I was away in extended trips. The dogs didn’t have the anxiety of going to a kennel and there was someone to look after the house, it really was a win-win. Smitty’s has one of the best breakfast bowls going, blackened Cajun chicken, eggs, home friend, some spicy sauce, quite nice and reasonably priced as well.

I had an eye exam at the doctor at Costco. It’s been a few years since my last one so it was time. Thankfully she didn’t use those eye drops that make your pupil the size of Jupiter, so that was good. A slight change to my prescription, nothing serious. I wanted to get new lenses in my Oakley frames, but they won’t do it for whatever reason, so I’ll go into the Oakley Sunglass store today to see about Oakley making the lenses as they originally did.

Costco wasn’t too busy for a Friday morning so got some essentials and spent about $120 without even trying.

My cleaning lady was at my place by the time I got home, my dogs adore her so they let her in without question. She does a great job and it’s reasonable.

I napped in the afternoon, a necessity from getting up so early so my plans for the rest of the day were curtailed. I’ll try to get some of that done today. I’m working tonight at 11pm to do some server maintenance then back at 6am tomorrow, that won’t be all that much fun.

Enjoy your weekend. Hopefully spring will arrive soon.

Today was the first day of my 3 day weekend. I didn’t do a lot, actually I didn’t do anything.

I went to bed very late, it was around 330am and I was up and out of bed way too early. Not only was my schedule messed up, the dogs schedule was messed up as well.

I sort of puttered around this morning, doing some stuff around the house. I had an epic nearly 4 hour nap this afternoon. It was needed.

I finally got my new 65″ Google Smart TV setup. Any larger and I could not have done it myself. It’s great, has all the apps I want built in and also supports Chromecast. It was on sale at Visions Electronics for $498, so a great deal.

I was so relaxed today that I’m surprised I didn’t revert to some sort of liquid state. It’s after 10pm now and the bed is calling.

Since I started working 12 hour shifts, I now have three and four day weekends so my work weeks end either on Tuesday night or Wednesday night. This is my long week (4 days) so today is my last day. The 12 hour shifts are a breeze, and the longer weekends are really quite amazing.

I don’t have a lot planned for my time off. My cleaning lady is coming on Thursday for her bi-weekly cleaning, every other Thursday. She does a great job and my dogs absolutely love her, especially Hera. Hera might love her more than she loves me. She whines and cries if she isn’t given attention – it’s very cute.

I am having an eye examination on Friday. It’s probably been 5 years or so since my last eye checkup. I am sure that I need a slightly stronger prescription. They will probably try to get me to get bifocals as well but I will pass on those. When I need to see something close up I can put my glasses on my head – problem solved. I did find an old pair of sunglasses that need new lenses so I think I will get those done as well.

I have a couple of things I need to do around the house including STILL needing to setup my new TV. For those that know me know that I have a Doctorate in Procrastination and I use that often. I will get to it, I suppose it’s just not top on my priority list.

Not sure what else is happening, guess we’ll see. Enjoy the rest of your week and the weekend, once it arrives for you Monday through Friday folk.