Kevin's Ramblings…

I’ve been looking on Facebook Marketplace for the last few months for a trailer. I didn’t want anything too big, something I could pull with my truck, easily. I also didn’t want to spend an arm and a leg.

I saw an ad a few weeks ago for an older trailer, fully renovated though. I decided I’d go and look at it, it was about an hour away. So, off I went.

The couple selling it were great people and they spent quite a bit of time showing me everything the trailer had to offer.

When they originally posted the ad, they were asking $6000 for the trailer, after a week they lowered it to $5500. I negotiated with them and got it for $5000. I was happy with that amount. I went to pick up the trailer on Friday evening.

They went over the furnace, fridge and AC and various features. I didn’t have the correct ball size on my hitch, so he towed it to Pincher Creek for me so I could get the correct ball size at Walmart. Job done, I connected to my truck and headed the 50km home. One thing is for sure, my fuel economy will drop towing my trailer, but that’s ok, it was expected.

My main purpose for the trailer is for a place to stay when I’m umpiring in Calgary. It’s going to save me $70-$100 a night in hotel charges. I’m thinking about finding a place in Calgary to store it, shouldn’t cost me any more than $50 or so a month, that’ll save me $$$ towing it back and forth. I will do some camping in it as well, but camping with 3 dogs will be tough.

Anyway, I’m looking forward to the adventures in sure you have.

I left around 6:15am yesterday to get Hera to my vet in Calgary to be examined. The plan was to put her under sedation and do an x-ray to see what damage had been done to her rear-right knee. We had some slight delays in getting to Calgary so we were a few minutes later than I wanted to be.

I had a long talk with the specialist about our options. He showed me how Hera’s knee joint was moving side to side where the left knee was not. For Hera’s size, there was really only one surgical option. If Hera was an older dog, 11 or 12 years old, we likely would have kept her on pain meds, but seeing as she is only 6.5 years old, she hopefully has another 7 years of life left, so surgery was the best option for her.

I was given information on possible complications, although they are rare, they did not sound like fun, at all. Luckily, there were no complications, the only thing that was found was some arthritis in the knee joint. The surgery went well.

I picked her up just before 6pm, she had a bunch of meds to take for a few weeks, of course they all have to be taken with food and Hera doesn’t want to eat today, so the meds have to wait for a bit… She got some rest overnight, she was wearing her cone so she’d leave her leg alone. I got some rest as well, but woke up several times in the night. I have temporarily moved my mattress into the living room so I can be close to Hera.

The next 10-14 days will be the hardest on both Hera and myself. She’s a good dog though and one of the smartest dogs I have ever met, I think she knows not to bother her leg, she’s been good this morning without the cone on. She’s getting around on 3 legs pretty well.

Thanks for the well-wishes on Facebook for a quick recovery. It’s greatly appreciated.

I received an email via LinkedIn from a headhunter looking for a candidate for a position very similar to what I was doing at BDO. It’s a 1 year contract position with IBM. It’s also a remote job, which means I can work from home. The job description looks pretty darn good, so I decided to reply to the email and see where it goes. Working from home is awesome. I know a lot of people have been doing that for the past 12-18 months and some don’t like it, but I worked from home for 6+ years and I love it. We’ll see, can’t hurt asking for additional information at any rate. I have a friend in Ontario who’s worked for IBM for more than 20 years now, so I presume it can’t be too bad.

I got my new Weber BBQ setup and I did my first cook on it yesterday. It has far better even heat than my old one has, that’s for sure. I will admit, I didn’t assemble it myself. I have little patience for such things. The guy who cuts my grass (yes, I have someone who does yardwork for me, I also hate yardwork) assembled it for me. Anyway, it cooked my steak very well, I will need to watch the heat it produces for sure, I could easily burn things. Thus far, I am very happy that I picked it up. I am selling the old BBQ, which is just a year old. It’s in really good shape, so I hope it goes fairly quickly.

I will be dropping Blondie and Twix off at boarding today, sometime this afternoon. Hera will probably wonder where her sisters have gone, but, if any of my dogs will enjoy being an “only” dog, it will be Hera. I think she’ll love it. Now, I am fully hoping that she won’t need to have surgery, but that will be determined tomorrow. My Vet has made me feel comfortable with the specialist that will be examining her tomorrow and if surgery is required, will be performing it. I am heading out tomorrow at 5:30am to get to the clinic for 8am. I should know what’s going on by 9/930am. Hera will be sedated and will have her knee x-rayed. They will be able to determine what’s going on based on the x-ray. If she doesn’t need surgery, we will be able to go home after she comes out of the anesthesia, so likely by noon. If she has surgery, it will be around 5pm. Regardless, Blondie and Twix will be in boarding at least until Thursday morning, or if surgery is needed, for 10-14 days, depending on how Hera’s recovery goes.

I am hoping it was just a strain and surgery isn’t needed, but I will do whatever is best for Hera. Give her some positive thoughts if you would. We appreciate it.

I went kayaking yesterday morning with my across-the-street neighbour. We went to Island Lake as Crowsnest Lake was a bit rough, I wasn’t sure I was quite ready for kayaking in white-capped water as yet. I have to say, I really like my new (to me) kayak. It isn’t quite as long as the one that I had borrowed the last time I went out, so it didn’t seem quite as stable to begin with, but I quickly got used to it.

The winds were rough, coming out of the West, kayaking in that direction required a little extra effort for sure. You also quickly discover the currents on a lake that doesn’t look like it has any currents, at all.

We were out for about an hour, the sun was behind thick clouds and it got rather cold with the wind, so we decided to call it a day. It was my companions first try at kayaking and she loved it. All in all, a good morning to be sure.

We returned the borrowed kayak and headed home. My original plan was to take my dogs back to the same lake so they could go for a swim while summer still held on, sort of anyway. Shortly after I got home it started to rain though, and although I was planning on going to a lake where the dogs would undoubtedly get wet, “rain wet” is different, I can’t even get them to go outside when it’s raining. So, we watched baseball instead. Well, I watched baseball and they napped. It’s a pretty good life for them, I think.

I also went out last night to the Twin Butte General Store which has an amazing Mexican restaurant in it. I had Mexican lasagna, which is basically layers of tortilla shells with refried beans, Mexican rice, salsa, cheese and chicken, all baked with cheese on the top, absolutely amazing meal. If you leave hungry, it’s your own fault because the portions are huge.

So, all in all, it was a pretty good Sunday. I hope you enjoyed yours.

Yesterday was cleaning day in the house. Now, don’t get confused, I don’t clean, it means my cleaning lady comes in to clean. I do end up doing stuff around the house at the same time, but I hate cleaning bathrooms, dusting and washing floors. Apparently, by the amount of dog hair that was on the floor, I hate vacuuming as well. LOL

After the cleaning was done, we went for a late lunch to Chris’ Restaurant. I had chicken strips and fries. When they arrived, they weren’t chicken strips, they were chicken hands. Literally, they were a half chicken breast and there were 5 of them, plus a massive plate of fries. I could not eat them all, I ate 2 and about 2/3 of the fries. The left over chicken hands were great at lunch today.

I caught my first football game today, the Bills were playing in Chicago against the Bears. Although it’s only pre-season, I have missed football and the Bills creamed the Bears, demolished is more like it, the final was 41-15. I am now watching the Astros and they are killing the Mariners 11-0 in the 5th inning. It’s odd, they couldn’t buy themselves a run when they played a 4 game series in Kansas City.

Not much else going on today – I am making dinner for the neighbour across the street. Texas Twinkies are on the menu, that’s a cream cheese stuffed jalapeno pepper, inside a chicken breast, all wrapped in bacon. Amazing. We’ll have a Caesar salad with that. It’ll be good for sure. We were supposed to go kayaking this morning, but we had another day of rain. We are hoping tomorrow will be better weather. I hope that the fires in BC are being knocked down by this rain.

So, tomorrow, kayaking, weather permitting and I am going for Mexican food for dinner. I had Mexican lasagna the last time and it was excellent. I might have it again, but there are so many good choices, I may have to try something else.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

The rain ended late on Monday night or early Tuesday morning. We needed it. It has been rather dry around here, for sure. BC needed it more, I am unsure how much rain the fire areas received but I hope it was as much as we got. There is now snow in the upper mountains. I was surprised when I saw that, but then again, it was down to 5C the other night so in the higher elevations, it would have been below zero. It is 3C right now, perfect temperatures for sleeping, that’s for sure.

Yesterday I did some running around. I had asked that the dogs go to doggie day day, but I never received a response from the people who run the day care. I think, and could be wrong, that they are busier than they can handle. A good problem to have, I suppose, as long as they don’t lose clients over it. I wish them well at any rate.

I went and looked at a camping trailer in Hill Spring, Alberta, about an hour from here. It’s an older trailer, but the inside has been totally renovated. My thought process is that if I use that next summer when I am umpiring, it will save me getting a hotel room, it will pay for itself in one season, never mind any camping I might do in it. I have to ensure that I will have a place to store it in the winter. They are asking $5500 for it, I think I can trim that down to $4500-$4800 or so. I think it’s a good investment anyway. Everything works well in it, so that’s a bonus. It needs some minor work on the outside which I can get done, but it is in drive-away condition for sure.

I am going to look at another trailer tonight, slightly older and not renovated. It will definitely need work. I do have a friend who lives in the area that should be able to take care of any fix-ups that I need. I am in absolutely no rush though, so, if these don’t work out, there will be others along the way.

I also stopped for lunch at Boston Pizza, used some of the gift cards that I received for my birthday. Although I told people it was “best wishes only”, some people decided that was only a suggestion and got me gifts anyway – thank you all. Lunch was great, a grilled chicken sandwich with bacon and tomatoes and fries. I stopped at Walmart for some light shopping as well and headed home. The dogs were still there, so I am guessing they did not get picked up for doggie day care.

I got some good news from my vet. He agrees with me that Hera may not need surgery so we are postponing next weeks surgery to allow her more time to recover, he is also thinking it may have been a bad sprain. The specialist may still want to see her, we are trying to figure that out now. She has not been limping at all unless she is really active, so, to me anyway, that’s a good sign. I trust my vet and his recommendation, I am unsure about the specialist, who knows, he may be trying to line his pockets with my money. I will trust what my vet has to say. I hope Hera doesn’t need to go through surgery at any rate.

Nothing else much going on. I sort of like it that way.

I’m catching up this morning on some baseball that I’ve missed. The Field of Dreams game was played on Thursday, August 12 and I was umpiring the Tier 2 Championship for Babe Ruth, so I missed it. I’m not even 100% sure who won the game, so it’s new to me. The Field is amazing, as is the story.

Today will be a sort of relaxing day, we are getting much needed rain. I hope that BC gets rain as well, the fires there are insane. I’m hoping everyone stays safe from the fires that are burning all over the province. The smoke here has been bad and we are nowhere near any of the fires. I can’t image how bad it is where they are burning.

Last night I ordered pizza and wings from The Pass Beer Company in Blairmore. The pizza has a thin crust and is wood fired, absolutely amazing. Finally, a restaurant in Alberta who knows how to make good pizza. I’ve tried many pizzas from many different places and it’s just not good, it’s one of the only things I don’t like about living in Alberta. But, I have rescued by this excellent restaurant.

Nothing else much happening today, maybe a quick roadtrip to Sparwood to pick up something from Facebook Marketplace. Speaking of Facebook, I’ve closed my account of 14 years, deleted it actually and opened a fresh account. I kept getting suspended for, what Facebook considers violations of their community standards. Someone posted an idiotic comment on something I was reading and calling them an idiot isn’t allowed. Another time, a friend in Mauritius who’s involved with dog rescue posted the saddest picture of a dog being abandoned by their owners (they are driving away), I commented that anyone who abandons a dog like that should be shot, that, apparently, is promoting violence. Sure.

Anyway, I need to try to be a good boy now. It’s tough, in this Liberal, cancel culture, everyone’s offended by everything world we seem to live in. I’ll try…

I am glad to be back into a normal routine and I am sure my dogs are as well. They slept most of the day yesterday, undoubtedly recovering from being rather active at boarding, playing with dog friends and whatever else they do at boarding. It was a hot day yesterday, so we didn’t end up going anywhere at all. In fact, it didn’t even cool off much over night as it is 24C right now, odd for the mountains for sure.

The forecast shows much more seasonal temperatures over the next two weeks though. Highs in the upper teens and low 20s and nighttime lows in the single digits – just like it should be. Yes, summer in the mountains is basically over.

I hope that winter doesn’t make an early appearance. It was nice last year not having to turn the heat on until the middle of October and having the windows open all day and most nights. I would like to get some kayaking in, hopefully until at least the middle of October. It’s great exercise and you see some great scenery.

Today, I am heading to the dealership in Fort McLeod to get an oil change and tire rotation on the truck. I have it almost 6 months now, this is the second oil change, that’s how much I have been driving. I have gone to Calgary often, every weekend pretty well all summer to umpire, it all adds up. I am remotely thinking of buying a small trailer for next summer so I won’t have to use a hotel. If I got a trailer with a shower, I could even make myself gorgeous before umpiring. It might work well. I would use it for camping as well, although I can’t see taking all three dogs with me, that would be nearly impossible.

Another week starting today (yes, the first day of the week is Monday, NOT Sunday) and August is now half over. Time is indeed flying, I must be having fun. 🙂

I had an early start yesterday, which is very typical for me. I was out of the hotel and picked up my kayak by 6:30am or so and at Denny’s for breakfast when they opened at 7am. Not bad, I can be motivated, when I want to be. More than anything, really, I wanted to get home. Over the past 2 weeks, I have spent just one night at home. I am sure my dogs missed being here and having their regular routine, I know I did.

I stopped at Costco on the way home, for gas. I went in as well, bought a few items. The trip home was uneventful, other than the huge line of slowish moving cars, trucks and SUVs heading south. I stopped at the butcher shop for bones for Blondie, Hera and Twix, they will enjoy those for sure.

Today’s task, before it gets too warm, is to assemble the new BBQ. I have never tried to assemble a BBQ, so I don’t know how hard or easy it is, but, I presume (and hope) that they make it pretty easy for people like me. I will give the dogs a bone each, that will keep them occupied.

I was supposed to go to an Okotoks Dawgs baseball game this afternoon, but we’ve decided to skip it. The temps are supposed to be in the mid 30’s and an afternoon game would have the sun beating down from right-center field. That doesn’t sound like much fun. Plus, I am sick of driving. I have driven all over Alberta and when I was on vacation, I drove all over Ontario. I want a break from driving, other than to the grocery store or to the lake with the dogs.

So, not much planned for today, I might utter some swear words when assembling my new BBQ. We’ll see. Enjoy your Sunday.