Kevin's Ramblings…

This has been a busy week and I have gotten a lot done.

Tuesday afternoon I made a return trip to Okotoks to return a shed that I had purchased just on Sunday. I didn’t want $1500 some dollars to appear on my credit card statement when I am no longer working. The shed that is currently here will have to do, I guess. It was a good trip to Okotoks and then continuing on to Calgary. Got home around 9pm, the dogs were happy to see me, of course. The neighbour let them out so they were taken care of.

Wednesday and Thursday were days to work around the house. The kitchen furniture has been moved about, not much I can move in the living room since the sectional couch I have will only work in one corner.

I cleaned up my work desk which badly needed it. I got rid of dust on my IT hardware which needs to be returned to BDO. It’s all in a pile, waiting for instructions on how to return. I completely love dealing with HR…

I picked up the last item for my in-house gym, a spinning bike. I was either going to get that or a rowing machine and the rowing machine would have been tougher to fit in the room. I am pretty well set and ready to go. I am looking forward to getting into better shape. As soon as the weather warms up, I will start riding my bike around the area. Should be a great spring and summer.

Today, nothing much planned as yet. It’s cold and snowing. I might do a dump run perhaps, I have a bunch of stuff in the basement that needs to go and since I will be in Pincher Creek if I do that, I might as return 4 or 5 bags of recycling for deposit – I will be rich, or, I will get $20 some dollars.

My former next-door neighbour is returning for a visit, will be nice to see her. I am thinking I may take a few days and return with her to Saskatchewan to decompress. Sounds like a good idea to me.

The weekend is nearly here – I hope you enjoy it.

So, I posted on Facebook yesterday that I have left my employer of almost 9 years (my 9th anniversary would have been Friday), and a lot of people are confused and are asking me questions.

Well, I can’t say too much as I was terminated without cause and I am working with a lawyer. Without cause basically means that they just fired me but had no valid reasons. This is really all I can say.

For now, all is well. I am not worried about what the future holds. I am a firm believer that you are never dealt a hand of cards that you cannot play. I will play this hand and will come out ahead. I really believe that.

Please don’t worry about me. I am fine. My dogs are fine. Everything is fine. I will admit that I was a bit shocked yesterday but that wore off fairly quickly. I am going to enjoy some time off now. I am not sure when I will start looking for work or when I will return to work. For now, there is no reason to look even.

I am sure some of you can read between the lines and understand what I am NOT saying.

I do thank you for your concern, believe me, it means a lot. I recently have trimmed my Facebook “Friends” list to people who I would actually consider friends. I trimmed my list from well over 500 to just over 200 now. Thank you for being part of my life and I ensure you, you will enjoy whatever this new chapter will bring.

Again, thank you all. Take care.

This past weekend was busy and pretty productive.

Saturday was a day to do spring cleaning and organizing. My cleaning lady came over to do her thing and get the place all sparkly.

I put a couple of items on Facebook Marketplace for sale, stuff I don’t need any longer. I got rid of the dining room table that I’ve been using as a TV stand for the past year and a half. Sold a hot air popcorn machine and also my Shark robot vacuum.

I took a break to go to Costco in Okotoks and bought a replacement shed for the yard. The one I have is falling apart, you can’t open one of the doors and the other folds in half when trying to open it. My landlord is coming over this weekend to assemble it.

I did more work around the house on Sunday. What a difference a day makes with weather. Saturday it was 22C and Sunday was -3C with about 4″ of snow. Gotta love spring in the mountains.

There is lot more room in the living room without that table in here. Glad it’ll have a new home. I replaced my robot vacuum with an upright. It’ll do a better job and won’t terrorize the dogs.

Enjoy the week, we’re getting there.

Yesterday was spring cleaning day number one. I had my cleaning lady come over, she arrived at 930 but by that time, I had been working for a bit.

I needed to get my gym equipment moved into the share bedroom and the bedroom stuff moved into the basement. It’ll be nice this coming summer when it’s hot outside sleeping down in the basement as it’s at least 10°C cooler down there.

I had a new TV stand to setup and the old table that the TV had been on to remove. I sold it via Facebook Marketplace and it’ll get picked up Monday.

HH did a great job cleaning the kitchen making it sparkle. She and I drove to Costco in Okotoks and picked up a new shed for my back yard. I can’t wait to get rid of the old metal shed that has seen better days. I’ll have a great place to store all my outdoor stuff and what not.

I invited HH to stay for dinner, BBQ chicken and roasted potatoes plus stir fried veggies. Dinner was completed with one of the best cakes I’ve ever had in my life, three layers of chocolate cake with caramel in the middle, covered in chocolate and some other caramel invention, quite amazing.

Today is day two. The home gym will be setup and ready to go. The living room is also good to go. Cleaning will be completed and I’ll be ready for spring. Yesterday, it was the low 20s, today, it’s going to be just above 0 with rain and snow. That’s typical for the mountains this time of year.

Wherever you are, enjoy your Sunday.

It’s been a busy week at work, the week flew by and it is Friday. When I woke up this morning, I thought it was Thursday and just realized it is Friday a few minutes ago. Let me tell ya, when you think you have another full day to work and then find it’s Friday, that’s a good feeling.

Wednesday, I was browsing Facebook Marketplace and found a truck tent up in Calgary for sale. I contacted the seller and said if she hadn’t sold it by Thursday, I would come up after work and buy it. I messaged her yesterday morning and it wasn’t sold so I said I would leave at 3pm and head to Calgary.

Sometime after lunch, I saw that the ad was marked as sold. I messaged her to see if she marked it as sold as in sold to me, or did she sell it to someone else. No reply, not a good sign. I didn’t want to drive all that way and then not get it. She replied a little later and said yes she was selling to me and that she marked it as sold as she was getting too many queries.

So, around 3pm I left the house, destined for Calgary. I had arranged for Crowsnest Pet Care to let the dogs out and feed them, so Blondie, Hera and Twix were taken care of.

I stopped at the first Crowsnest Market of the season on my way. Picked up some veggies and also some banana bread and butter tarts. I have tried the butter tarts, absolutely amazing.

I got to Calgary in great time, picked up the tent and then met a friend to go for a walk with his dog at Sue Higgins Park. Guess I could have brought my dogs as they love it there – next time. I stopped at Domino’s Pizza on the way home and had dinner and an extra pizza for today. Made another stop at Costco for gas, $80 later the truck was filled.

The power was out in Coleman when I got home. Wow, was it dark with only a sliver of the moon visible. I plan on setting the tent up today. I guess I should have done it back in Calgary, but the seller says everything is there and if I have any issues with missing parts to contact her and she’ll refund my money. I hope everything is there.

I am planning on umpiring in Calgary again this summer the occasional weekend, I think I will do a double-header on Saturday and one on Sunday and I will sleep in the back of the truck, will save me hotel fees and will pay for itself pretty quickly.

I also plan on going in the back-woods a some point with one of my dogs at a time, the other two can go to boarding. I am now looking for a portable grill to bring on these excursions. It’s shaping up to be a cool summer.

I figured that with my long day of driving yesterday, I would sleep like the dead last night. Well, no such luck. I bet I slept less than 3 hours total.

It might have been the super spicy General Tao chicken I had too close to when I went to bed, not sure.

At around 4am, I told Alex to wake me at 6 since I didn’t want to sleep in. Well, she woke me at 6 and I didn’t know how to shut her up. LOL

Work was very busy but it was a good day to come back, I just wish I had been rested. Now is it almost 8pm and I am heading to bed soon, I can barely keep my eyes open. I was watching the Tigers vs Astros game, but Greinke was not having one of his best games and the Astros were down by 6 or 7, so enough of that.

I have scheduled my next trip to Calgary. I will spend a few days over the May 24 weekend, or just before the May 24 weekend I guess. I am having a spray in liner sprayed in my truck. The bed is scratched from normal use and I don’t want it to rust so I will take care of that right away.

That will give me time off in April, May, July (3 days plus a weekend) and 2 weeks in August. I think I will take a 4 day weekend sometime in June and that will leave me with about 2 weeks left, I think. I have 7 weeks to use this year which is awesome.

Well, here’s to a better sleep tonight. Good night.

That’s a wrap on my two weeks off. It was a very enjoyable two weeks which absolutely flew by. I got a lot done which is great, but I also was able to relax and recharge. I definitely need the break from work.

I’m off to Calgary today, stopping in Okotoks on my way. Should be a good drive, it doesn’t look like we got a lot of snow overnight, I don’t think that mother nature realizes it’s the middle of April.

Back to work tomorrow and I’m looking forward to getting back into my normal routine.

Enjoy your Sunday.

So, yesterday was the last day for indoor dining, again. It was a little odd, the time cutoff wasn’t the end of day, but rather noon. Sure, that makes sense. I was planning on going to Limber Pine but they decided they weren’t opening for breakfast. I called Chris’ and they were able to squeeze me in.

I believe these newest restrictions are here for a month but I wouldn’t rely on my information. It’s ridiculous anyway. Are we seeing all kinds of cases that have come from restaurant exposure? I highly doubt it.

I’m happy that places are still open for takeout, I enjoy not making my own food. I hope this doesn’t put too much additional strain on these places.

We are better off, for now at least, than what’s happening in Ontario. They have a full blown province wide lockdown and stay at home order. Ford needs to be removed as Leader of the PCs, much in the same way that Kenney needs to be removed here.

In my opinion, and by no means an I a doctor, but we need to protect the vulnerable and the rest of us need to be able to get on with our lives, this has gone on long enough.

Businesses need to start standing up to the continuous lockdowns and restrictions and people need to say enough is enough. It’s not going to end until we make it end.

We are living in interesting times and the next few months, years, perhaps, will be interesting. Looking back on this in 10 or 20 years will be interesting as well, hindsight always being 20/20.

Good luck to all.

Mt two weeks of vacation are just about wrapped up.

It started pretty good. I had dinner with a co-worker that I had not seen in a year and a half. I work from home and am 3 hours away from where he lives, plus, 2020 was sort of a write-off.

My trip to Saskatchewan was cut rather short, well, it didn’t happen, in fact, I didn’t even make it to Saskatchewan, close, but not quite.

Last week was fairly relaxing but I did get some stuff done around the house. I made a trip to Okotoks to pick up a Bowflex gym to add to my home fitness setup. On that same day, I watched and listened to 3 different baseball games, the Jays defeated the Yankees, the Rockies beat the Dodgers and the Astros crushed the A’s. SiriusXM does a great job with the games so I will remember when I am on a road trip in the future.

This week I made a 3 day trip to Calgary. I spent a ton of money, my tax return and helped out the economy. Got some stuff that I needed, other stuff that I wanted. The dogs spent the early part of the week in boarding and were exhausted. I think they’ve finally recovered today.

Sunday, I make a return trip to Calgary, hoping for good weather for the trip. Nothing really planned for today (other than laundry?) or tomorrow. I will get out with the dogs for a couple of hikes though, now that they are recovered from boarding. Don’t get me wrong, they love it, but it tires them right out with all those dog butts to sniff.

Back to work on Monday. I am relaxed and refreshed. Wow, did I ever need these two weeks off.

So today I will be doing stuff around the house. I have a new shower head to install. It can’t be much easier. They actually made it simple for idiots like me who can’t do anything. I just have to unscrew the current Waterpik (which I installed all by myself) and then apply new plumbers tape (is that what they call it?) and screw the new one on – can’t get much easier than that.

I also have a new curtain rod and panels to put up. This will be more challenging. I will remove what’s currently there which will be easy and then screw in the new rods and hang the panels. Doesn’t sound complicated, does it? No, but I am sure I will run into issues… LOL

I also have to clear out the spare bedroom and move my gym and elliptical into the bedroom which will now be my gym. Not complicated, although I will need assistance with moving the elliptical as I have to disconnect the front from the back and then put it back together.

Now, for those that know me, they know I can be a bit lazy and unmotivated at times. I feel good about getting this done however so I think it will happen.

Nothing else much planned for the last few days of my time off. I am back to work Monday and I will be nicely relaxed by the time that rolls around. It is amazing how quickly two weeks flies by – why don’t work-weeks go this quickly?

Enjoy your weekend, it’s almost here.