Kevin's Ramblings…

Lately, I’m sort of tired of the condition of the inside of my truck due, for the most part, to my 3 awesome dogs, Blondie, Hera and Twix.

Now, don’t get me wrong, they are my 3 favourite creatures on the planet and really are my family. The issue is, they are all covered in fur and Hera (my Shepherd) drools when her head is out the window as if she’s a Saint Bernard. So, the back seat area of the truck is a mess of fur and dried drool.

To combat this, I decided to look for a cap for my truck and the dogs would occupy the back and I would get the truck detailed. I found a cap and went to pick it up in Pincher Creek on Friday. It’s in good shape and was a decent price, the only downside is that it’s red and my truck is blue. I can’t have a red cap on a blue truck, it won’t work for me. Now, two of my dogs would have an issue jumping into the back of the truck, so I looked in Facebook Marketplace and found a ramp for a good price. On Sunday, I decided to go pick it up.

The town I had to go to was south of Lethbridge and I could incorporate a trip to Costco into the day. I figured I’d bring the dogs and go to one of many excellent dog parks in Lethbridge on the way home.

Blondie is getting up there in ages, she turned 12 back in March. One of the issues she’s having as she gets older is with pooping. I make sure that when she goes out, that she poops. There’s been a few times where she goes outside, is out for 10 minutes and then when she comes in, she poops on the kitchen floor, not an ideal situation. I’m unsure if she’s losing it or what. I combat this with ensuring she does her business outside and the inside poops have stopped.

Before we left for Lethbridge, Blondie pooped so I figured all was well. We drove to McGrath to pick up the dog ramp. When I arrived, there was no answer at the door, that was the start to a bad day. We continued to Lethbridge and Costco and got there about 30 minutes later. At this point, the dogs have been in the truck for about 2.5 hours.

I left the truck running with the AC on high. I was in Costco and Costco liquor for no more than 30 minutes at the absolute longest and probably closer to 25. I got back to the truck and Hera and Twix were in the back seat with their heads out the back drivers side window, not unusual. Blondie though was in the driver’s seat, something she never does, so I was surprised.

When I got to the truck and went around to the passenger back door, I saw why. Blondie had pooped all over the floor and someone had also stepped in it and ground poop into the carpet. How wonderful.

Now, remember, I’m in Lethbridge and have nothing with me in the way of cleaning supplies. I do have poop bags and Kleenex at least. I pick up the poop and scrape as much as I can from the carpets, what a wonderful experience.

I go around to the driver’s door to get Blondie to go back to the passenger seats. She won’t get up… Sigh… One of the other things she’s doing as she gets older is she’s becoming rather stubborn, taking after me, I’d suppose. I need to get her out of the driver’s seat though so I figure I’ll have to pick her up and put her in the ground. Picking up a 70lb dog from a laying position isn’t the easiest task, although it’s easier than it would have been if she was in the ground.

I pick her up and put her down and now discover why she didn’t move. She’s tracked shit from her paws and my driver’s seat is covered in poop, so is the back of my hand since I had to pick her up .

I’m not mad at Blondie during this, I’m disgusted by the situation, but I think I’m justified in that. I’m wondering what am I going to clean this up with? Well, I have Kleenex and water for the dogs to drink. I do my best and get the shit off of the back of my hand, the hand, as you can probably imagine, smells absolutely horrible. I also have another issue, there’s poop all over the seat.

Being in the Costco parking lot, I looked and there was a box in the area where people put their carts back. I break it down and use it on the seat so I’m not sitting in poop. We drive to a pet store near Costco where I buy some pet stain and odour remover. They don’t have paper towels of course, so that’s another stop. Luckily, they let me use their bathroom and I scrub my hand with the hottest water I can stand and more soap that I normally use in a week. After 4 turns, my hand no longer stinks…

We drive to a Dollar Store, with the windows rolled down, of course, and the AC blasting as it’s 31 Celsius in Lethbridge. I decided that although Blondie is probably empty, the other dogs probably need a bathroom break and we head to a great dog park in Lethbridge on Scenic Drive. Good thing I stopped there as well because as soon as Hera got out and ran a bit, she had one of the biggest poops of her life. That would have destroyed the truck.

During the walk, the dogs made 2 dog friends which is rare for Hera as she’s normally very picky about her dog friends but that was a highlight to an otherwise shitty day. After the walk, I spent 20 minutes cleaning up the remaining poop. The spray I bought was worth the $35 I spent on it. Now the seat was just wet with the spray. We drive home, 150km with the windows down, it wasn’t too bad, all in all…

So, that was my shitty Sunday. Quite the ending to an otherwise good weekend. I’m getting the truck detailed, this was decided before this incident and I’m glad I had already arranged it. I think the dogs will be much happier in the back, the truck will be hair and, hopefully, poop free.

I got back from my trip to the US in Tuesday by around 11am. It was clear sailing until we got to about Sparwood. British Columbia, just 15km west of the Alberta border. That’s where it started getting smokey.

As Tuesday rolled on, it got worse and worse. There are dozens of wildfires burning out of control in northern Alberta and a thick blanket of smoke covered the province. It’s much better today, the smoke is almost clear for us, but it’s undoubtedly moved elsewhere. Fire season typically doesn’t start until late July or August, so we are months early this year, could be a bad forest fire season.

I was back to work for 3 days, and now it’s a 3-day weekend – not a bad deal. No plans for the long weekend really, taking it easy.

I purchased a new phone, Google Pixel 7a, it’ll arrive on Tuesday. I didn’t really need it, my current phone the Pixel 5a is still in perfect condition, but I guess I figured it was time for an upgrade. The Pixel 5a will become my backup phone, with all the multi factor authentication, I can’t be without a phone if something happened to my primary phone.

No other vacation time until July when I have a few days off. My aunt and cousin are remotely thinking of visiting Alberta, so that would be cool. I’ll be heading to Ontario in October, so I’m looking forward to that.

Enjoy your weekend and if you’re Canadian, enjoy Victoria Day.

My road trip to Boise Idaho was a good one. I left early in the morning from Kalispell Montana, the horizon in the East was just starting to lighten up.

My GPS took me on the route that took the shortest distance. It was a very scenic drive, but I literally drove down back roads that were gravel and dirt with farmers fields on both sides. The mountain passes were beautiful, long twisting roads with more turns than a Grand Prix course. I got caught behind a few slow moving vehicles but all in all, not bad

I arrived in Boise just after 2pm. I was able to catch a nap before heading out for dinner. One of the former team members who worked for me picked me up at the hotel with her husband and we headed to Texas Roadhouse. We had a great time, and I met with a bunch of other coworkers for dinner. Most of them had never met each other either due to working at home through the pandemic, so that was pretty cool.

Lots of great food was eaten over the weekend, I tried biscuits and gravy for the first time on Saturday morning, not overly impressed with that one. Chick-fil-A was on the menu for lunch and The Cheesecake Factory for dinner and I met another group of coworkers. We returned to the same place on Sunday for breakfast and I did some shopping on Sunday afternoon.

With it being Mother’s Day, our original dinner plans changed and we went to a pizza place which was great. The weekend zipped by very quickly. I think everyone had a good time.

So, it’s now just before 4 in the morning and I’m writing a blog post before heading out on the road. I’m staying in Kalispell again tonight and will pick up my dogs tomorrow morning. We’ll all be home by noon or so on Tuesday and then I’m back to work on Wednesday. I’m planning on taking a different route back, it’ll be more interstate highways this time, a longer distance but the same time to get there and hopefully I’ll have a cell signal for more of the return trip.

It’s been a whirlwind weekend but it was great. I’m glad to have met so many coworkers. Boise offered great hospitality. Thank you. I’m sure I’ll be back.

I planned a trip to Boise Idaho back in February or so for May, well, May is here and I’m on my way to Boise.

I’m working for IBM and quite a few of my colleagues live in the area, I thought it would be great to do a road trip and meet them.

I left yesterday morning and dropped the dogs off in boarding just past Elko British Columbia and then headed south to the US border. I’m spending the night in Kalispell Montana and will head to Boise at first light.

I got into town yesterday at lunch time. I hit up Chick-fil-A for lunch, amazing chicken. I made stops at Costco and Walmart and was surprised to find that even with exchange, the dogs food was about $10 a bag cheaper than in Canada. I had a relaxing evening and fell asleep shortly after 8, hence while I’m awake at 320 in the morning.

It’ll be almost a 10 hour drive to Boise today, I’m not planning on making any major stops. Dinner tonight at Texas Roadhouse with some coworkers and then I’ll be in Boise for 3 nights.

The drive today should be scenic anyway, mountains, lakes and remoteness. I’ll have the music going and plenty of coffee, sounds like a good road trip to me.

Ever since I’ve moved to Alberta, I’ve had some sort of a competition with Mother Nature about my use of the heat in the houses that I’ve lived in.

I try to go as late in the Fall as I can without using heat and a target date of October 1. If I can wait that long, I consider it a win. Last year, we had an amazing Fall and it was October 22 before I had to turn the heat on, definitely a win.

I try to turn my heat off on May 1. That was easier to do when I lived in Calgary, Spring tends to arrive a bit earlier there than here in the mountains. This year, I turned my heat off on April 28. Now, the competition is can I leave it off until October 1. It’s been in the mid 20s, Celsius, for the last few days and will remain there until the weekend, then on Saturday it’s supposed to be a high of 10, so Mother Nature is trying to get me to turn the heat back on.

I’m stubborn and don’t mind being a bit cool, we’ll see how it goes. Next week, the temps are supposed to rebound back into the upper teens, so this may be a battle I can win.

Wish me luck, and good luck with your own battles with Mother Nature.

I’ve turned the heat off today, a few days before my target date of May 1. I’ve opened the kitchen window and the front and back door, plus the window in my office, it’s nice to have fresh air.

I’m not convinced that the heat will stay off, but, if I close the windows at night, the house might not cool off too much and maybe it can stay off. We’ll see.

Two weeks until I head out on my road trip to Idaho. Such an exotic destination, I know, you’re all filled with envy. I’m looking forward to it, I love road trips, I’m sure it’ll be a good time.

The dogs are staying in a new kennel, I hope they’ll like it, it seems good anyway, here’s to hoping.

So, if the weather is decent where you are, get out and enjoy it. Have a good weekend.

Apparently, Spring isn’t ready to arrive just yet. I woke up yesterday morning to about 6″ of snow on the ground and we got a couple of additional inches during the day.

One thing that the dogs and I almost daily is head out for a hike at lunch time. When we went out yesterday, it was snowing so hard that I literally couldn’t see 20 feet in front of me. I thought it was probably too bad to drive the normal 9km to the west for a hike.

I guess it’s one of the downfalls of living in the mountains. I typically keep the heat on until the middle of May, although I try to turn it off May 1, it’s always too cold to keep it off.

The gorgeous mountain views make up for it, plus we don’t get any humidity or really hot weather in the summer, very different from living in Southern Ontario.

I’ve been in Alberta for 11 years now, I arrived in Calgary on April 18 2012. I loved it there and may return at some point, but for now, living in the mountains is great. As of July, it’ll be 5 years down here. Friends occasionally ask if I’m going to return to Ontario – nope, not going to happen other than visit, one is coming up at the end of October.

Anyway, hoping Spring will arrive one of these days, I’m done with snow.

This was a pretty insane week at work. It was my second week with my new client, officially although I was sort of with them for 2 weeks prior to me officially taking over. In a short time, the team is meeting all of our objectives, so that’s a very positive sign. It’s definitely busier than I was with my last client, perhaps it’ll keep me out of trouble.

We had a quarterly review with the client on Tuesday. It went well. The ideas that I’ve brought forward to fix issues were taken well. My team seems happy and is doing a great job. I finish most days mentally exhausted and I sleep like the dead.

No plans for this weekend, other than a hike or two with the dogs. Hikes are now shorter since Blondie doesn’t like going anywhere near as long as we used to, but, she’s 12 now, so definitely not a young dog. She’s still one of the happiest dogs I know, so that’s good. My big, exciting adventure night be returning recycling for my deposit. An exciting life that I lead.

I’m looking forward to my road trip to Idaho in a month. Idaho, I’m sure it’s right up there on the hot destination map. It’ll be a good weekend, I’m sure.

Well, enjoy whatever you’re doing this weekend and be safe. 😊

I had a long weekend this past weekend, I took Good Friday off. We were open at work, we’re 24/7/365 but I figured I’d take the day off. For those of you who know me, I’m quite religious. Ok. That was a lie…

The 3 day weekend zoomed by like it was a 3 hour weekend, I guess it means I had a good time. I think I did, it went by too quickly to remember.

Back to work today, my second week with my new client. The team has made excellent progress. For the first time in, well, a LONG time, we are meeting all of our SLA’s, so that’s fantastic. I have a quarterly meeting with the client tomorrow, and although it covers time that I wasn’t there, I get to talk about what I plan on doing. Should be a good meeting. Luckily, things like this do not make me nervous.

Nothing else much happening, I lead a pretty quiet life really. I ordered some excellent Chinese food tonight for take out, I didn’t feel like cooking after finishing work at 530pm.

Here’s to the week ahead – enjoy 😀

Well, I have not made a blog entry in a year and a half. Why? Not really sure, definitely have not had the blog bug. Has anything happened in my life? Definitely.

The last time I wrote, I had just returned from an excellent trip to Ontario. I was unemployed and my severance package from my old job had run out. I was living on EI and it’s not especially easy to live on EI.

So, I started the job search. Yes, I could have started the job search earlier, but a clause in my severance package had my severance cut in half if I started working, a real incentive NOT to work, I wanted to take my former employer for all that I could, and I did.

I wasn’t sure what type of a job I was going to get, I would have loved to stay working from home, but I didn’t think that was too likely. I also wouldn’t have minded getting out of IT, I could have, but my salary would have taken a nosedive.

I had a few interviews in November, not too many though and nothing that I was really interested in. I didn’t do much searching in December, I figured most places would not be hiring I’m December. I started looking, in earnest, after Christmas.

I had an interview or two for a job completely out of my realm, with Teck, a mining company, it didn’t work out. I had quite a few interviews in January and more in February, no offers though. I applied for a job early one morning in late February and I heard back from them within minutes, I was hopeful.

We had a phone interview that day or the next followed by a technical test, which I breezed through. My interview was set for the next week and I was looking forward to it. It was scheduled for a Monday afternoon.

I thought the interview went pretty well, although I wasn’t happy with some of my answers. I received an email the next morning though indicating that they were very impressed and the recruiter expected an offer to be made. This was, to say the least, good news.

I was offered a job and I started on March 21, 2022 with IBM End User Services. I was going to be a Team Lead for a group of 12 or so agents. I started my training and all was going fairly well when one of the dedicated leads resigned from his job and they pegged me to fill his shoes.

I was in charge of a team of 9 who worked for our client, indeed, the job search people who I had just used previously when looking for a job, although I didn’t get this one through them. I stayed on that contract for the past 11 months until they decided not to renew due to budgetary constraints.

This past Monday, I started with a new client and a larger team, we support Palo Alto Networks. It’s challenging, and I’m enjoying it thus far.

I am glad to be back to work, that’s for sure. Bills keep coming in and need to be paid and my 3 dogs definitely enjoy being fed. The year at IBM flew by. I didn’t do a lot other than work and hand out with the dogs. I kayaked a few times, went for daily walks with the dogs, but really didn’t do too much. I’m glad I went to Ontario twice in 2021 as I haven’t been anywhere else since.

I do have 2 trips planned for this year. I’m going to Idaho I’m May to meet some of the people that I work with and in October, I’m visiting Ontario again. I’m looking forward to both trips.

Well, that’s the last 18 months in a nutshell. I do plan on blogging more often, perhaps not daily, but at least weekly. If you come along, enjoy the ride.