Kevin's Ramblings…

Yippee !!!

Actually, it doesn’t really matter, not any more. I’m off on the weekends, but I’m also off during the week, so, really, who cares?

Everything is open the same on the weekend as it is during the week, perhaps with reduced hours.

I’m getting a Pit Boss smoker tomorrow, unsure if it’s being delivered in the morning or after the store closes, one or the other anyway.

I’m unsure what I’m going to smoke first. Ribs maybe? Chicken? Don’t know. I’m thinking maybe ribs.

I don’t think I have any plans tomorrow, or Sunday. Well, tomorrow I may go and catch some minor baseball as a buddy of mine is umpiring. I’ll heckle him a bit. In all honesty, he’s a pretty good umpire I miss umpiring with him, we had fun together.

No plans on Sunday at all, the weather is supposed to be crappy with colder temperatures and rain.  Oh well.

My friends from Idaho arrive Thursday afternoon. It’ll be a great visit for sure.

That’s it for today. It’s after 11pm, so, I’m off to bed. Good night, world.

So I called my manager regarding being denied severance pay, and indicated that I’m in touch with a lawyer, he finally responded as follows:

I have received your voice mail message and put in a complex case with HR to investigate. Canada HR Partner is investigating and determining what needs to be done to correct this. I will keep you up to date on their progress, we have requested this be expedited.

Sounds like he was a bit nervous in being named in a lawsuit. All I am asking for is the severance due to me.

Sounds like he folded like a deck of cards.

More to come I’m sure…

I missed my radiation treatment last night, I was sitting on the patio with my neighbour shooting the shit… At ten to eleven she said “oh, your appointment?” Well fuck.

So I texted and he said no worries I was wondering where you were. It was rescheduled for tonight.

At 3am my phone rings, my ring tone is the Imperial March, woke me up. They want me to come in now. At 3 fucking a fucking m. Sure.

So I drive the 70 some kilometers and have my session.

Afterwards an oncologist looks at the MRI and says your head is empty of tumors. Without missing a beat, he adds that it’s just empty. Ha. Ha. Ha. He actually laughed like that. LOL.

He said your oncologist will be back Thursday, if he doesn’t agree with me, he and I will be fighting in a steel cage match.

So, that’s great news. I’m finished.

So I was approved for Employment insurance just yesterday, Monday morning, and got my first deposit today, Tuesday late afternoon. That’s some pretty solid turnaround for a government department. I’m impressed.

I was able to buy groceries, 3 bags of groceries for $178. That’s insane really. I filed up the gas tank on the car. I bought a vape. I paid my MasterCard and my electricity bill. Tomorrow, both dogs need a Mani and Pedi.

I paid back a friend who was nice enough to lend me $100.

My IBM pension is making progress, finally. The person I spoke with last week was obviously an idiot, so now I’m transferring it to another investment company. Then they’ll release the funds so I can live.

My LIRA is still scheduled for early August.

All in all it’s not bad. Having money to survive is a nice thing. Good night, world.

I’m, yet again, updating my travel plans.

IBM has discontinued my benefits for whatever reason. They’ve also said that I’m not getting severance pay, I’m speaking with a lawyer about that at 7am this morning. I can’t say more about that.

So, without travel insurance and with a pre-existing medical condition, I can’t afford out of country coverage, never mind that, I’m not eligible. So, travel to the US would be risky, to say the least.

I’d still like to visit Alaska with the dogs. We’ll be camping which will keep costs down. Not going for sure, but still thinking about it.

I am not planning on returning to Ontario although I was offered accommodations with a friend that I met in grade 7. I’m not visiting in the immediate future anyway.

I’ve officially invited other friends to visit Calgary any time this summer. They are considering driving here from Ottawa. It would be great to see them. I was in their wedding party in 1999 and have known them since 94 or 95. If that happens, it’ll happen soon, in the next two months. That would be awesome.

I’m still planning on a road trip to Edmonton on August 17 to celebrate my eldest nieces birthday. My sister in law and I will go up for the day. That’ll be in my new Ford Bronco and my first official trip using that vehicle.

The trip to Denver would be 5 or 6 days, another road trip. It’s sorta of going to depend if a buddy will come with me to help with driving. I just asked my other buddy NOT to cancel the hotel reservations so hopefully he hasn’t as yet.

I was also planning on visiting Idaho at the beginning of October and if I go, it’ll have to be a week earlier as my sister in law leaves for her winter destination of Texas at the beginning of October. I’d need to change my hotel reservations a week or so earlier. Shouldn’t be an issue, I hope.

My friends from Idaho are still coming next week, they arrive Thursday. Here’s our newest itinerary.

Day 1 – Thursday July 2

Arrival mid-afternoon. Driving tour of Calgary after checking into their suite and reacquainting with Twix and meeting Apollo. We’ll have dinner, likely out and likely at Glitch Gaming Lounge in Airdrie.

Day 2 – Friday July 3

Trip to Waterton National Park and on the trip back to Calgary, stop in Twin Butte to the General Store which has the best Mexican food north of Mexico and a stop in Cowley Alberta to Backcountry Butchers for food for the BBQ.

Day 3 – Saturday July 4

Open day around Calgary – Happy Independence Day, we’ll have to watch Independence Day on TV.

Day 4 – Sunday July 5

Drumheller to visit the dinosaurs

Day 5 – Monday July 6

Trip to Banff Alberta, ride the gondola to the top of the mountain, lunch at the top.

Day 6 – Tuesday July 7

Calgary Stampede after having breakfast in High River Alberta

Day 7 – Departure after having an early breakfast

That’s not written in stone and this is the third revision. Not that I like to plan ahead.

LOL, it’ll be a good week anyway for sure and I’m looking forward to seeing my friends.

I applied for employment insurance on June 4. Last week, I called Service Canada to confirm that I didn’t make any errors on my application as it seemed to be taking a long time and my application was in the status of “under review”. Those two little words sound overly ominous.

I received a call yesterday morning from a very nice lady from Service Canada, she wanted to confirm some information. I answered her questions and my application was appt, thankfully.

Now, I didn’t have many doubts that it would be, but I’ve just never knows with the Canadian government, the level of truth just isn’t there. Also, I actually have less faith in IBM. I almost thought, actually, I didn’t think that they would lie and not indicate that I was terminated without cause. Well, they didn’t do that and I should have an EI payment this week.

I’m bringing home $652 per week which will allow me to pay my expenses. That’s an absolute relief. Once my IBM pension is released and that money hits my account, I’ll be ok, financially. I’m not sure what’s taking Sun Life so long to process my payment, it’s ridiculous. They also do not reply to emails. Sigh.

So, my EI payments should start flowing by the end of the week. I’m not sure what day they normally transfer the payment, but I’m guessing Thursday or Friday.

I followed up, yet again, with the Property Management company about the natural gas coming to my unit, or lack thereof and was told it would be fixed this past week. I wasn’t overly optimistic.

On Thursday, I emailed yet again and was assured that the service person would be here on Friday between 10am and Noon. Again, I wasn’t overly optimistic.

At 1130 or so, there was a knock at the door. OMG, they were here to look at the issue. I was crossing my fingers that he didn’t turn the gas on and the BBQ lights right up. Well, that didn’t happen so that’s good, at least I’m not a total idiot.

He checked my gas connection, no gas coming at all. He checked my neighbours gas connection, same thing. He made several trips to the parking garage and the gas line to the units was turned on. At one point, he picked up his tools and appeared to leave. I was thinking it was odd not to say anything before he left and figured I’d get an email from the property manager or I’d have to follow-up again.

About 3 hours after he arrived, he knocked on the door again to tell me the issue was resolved. We lit up the BBQ so, I’m good to go.

What was the issue? Well, apparently, when the building was built, someone installed the regulator backwards. How the heck does that happen? Anyway, that’s been fixed and I have natural gas coming to my BBQ, that’s all I care about.

I’m guessing that service call cost them quite a bit, hopefully they pass the bill onto whoever built this place.

So, now I apparently need to season the grill. This involves “painting” the grills with oil and then firing up the grill on high for 30ish minutes. I’ve never done that with a grill before, that’s probably why food always sticks to my grill. That’ll teach me to read the owners manual.  I will take care of that today and plan on grilling up some food for dinner tonight.

It’s been a long time since I BBQ’d now, back to early February. I’m looking forward to some good food tonight.

I’ve written about all of my dogs, I’ve had Apollo for 5.5 months now, it’s time to tell his story.

Hera, my German Shepherd passed unexpectedly on October 27, 2025. Twix and I were devastated. There was no warning that anything was wrong with her. We miss her every day.

I knew that I would get another dog, I wasn’t sure when though. Twix came to my pack with two sisters, Blondie and Hera. Blondie passed almost 3 years ago now. Although I never regretted getting Twix, three dogs is too many but two is a perfect number.

Around Christmas 2025, I decided it was time to get another dog. I have almost always gotten rescues, Blondie being the lone exception so I looked at the Calgary Humane Society website and they had a number of dogs available.

After having two shepherds, I thought I’d get another shepherd and they had a few available. I went in to meet one, but the behaviourist at the Humane Society didn’t think he’d be a good match with Twix who was almost 13 years old, they suggested I meet a dog who was found as a stray just before Christmas.

I waited for Grover, as he was called at the time to arrive and he took to me immediately. He was full of energy and very affectionate, but also seemed to be laid back. We hung out a bit, went for a walk and got to know each other. I decided we’d take the next step and get Twix to meet him. I scheduled a meeting for later that afternoon.

Twix and I met “Grover” and the meeting went very well. The dogs wrestled a bit and he seemed to love Twix at first sight. I told them I’d take him and that his new name would be Apollo. He’s my third dog that I’ve named after a Greek God or Goddess.

Twix and I headed home, I was scheduled to pick up Apollo in 2 days. He had just been neutered and needed some recovery time at the Humane Society to ensure all was ok.

I received a call on January 9 and was told Apollo was good to go home. I left Twix at home as it was suggested that I bring Apollo home by himself. Twix warmly welcomed him when we got home and Apollo fit right in.

In the last 5.5 months, the three of us have moved into a new place and have gotten into a good routine. Apollo wakes up early with me and then a few minutes later, he makes Twix get up as well. He’s full of life, rambunctious and a bit naughty, but he’s a good boy. I had to learn to keep EVERYTHING out of reach.

It had been a long time since I had a puppy, 9+ years since Hera was that age and I had forgotten how much work they can be and how mischievous they can be as well. Apollo is getting better every day and absolutely loves Twix. He’s the most affectionate dog I’ve ever known, pretty needy as well, he wants attention all the time and gets jealous when Twix gets any.

I’m looking forward to a lifetime of adventures with Apollo. Welcome to the Pack !!!

Calgary’s rainy season is typically sometime towards the end of June through to the middle of July. This year, it started early in June and hasn’t really let us as yet.

We had thunderstorms yesterday throughout Southern Alberta. We didn’t get a ton of rain where I live, it was torrential for a bit then cleared up. It’s overcast now and supposed to rain on and off this afternoon.

I’m hoping this will mean that July will have some nicer, drier weather. I do have friends visiting and it would be nice if our outdoor activities weren’t curtailed due to rain.

Calgary Stampede is a lot more fun when it’s not pouring down as well. Most of our activities are planned for outside, so, we’ll see what happens.

Hey, at least it isn’t snowing, I’ve promised my visitors that it won’t snow while they are here, that should be a pretty safe bet.