Kevin's Ramblings…

As I’ve posted, I purchased a natural gas BBQ which was delivered 3 weeks ago now. I still haven’t been able to use it.

The building doesn’t allow propane BBQs, not exactly sure why, but, they do have a natural gas outlet for each apartment.

I connected the BBQ after buying an adapter to connect it to the gas source. Nope, no gas.

I let the building manager know about it. I’ve been given numerous excuses as to why the gas isn’t on, they don’t really add up. I have been promised it will be rectified this coming week, I’m not holding my breath.

At any rate, I really felt like trying the jalapeno cheese burgers I purchased so I tried pan frying them.

Believe it or not, I’ve never pan fried a hamburger before. They were excellent and I’ve discovered a new method to cook hamburgers. I also discovered that frozen hamburger buns (from Cobs) thaw perfectly in 45 seconds (for 2).

The burgers were amazing, so I’ll for sure buy them again (got them from Airdrie Lawn and Leisure).

I’m hoping that one of these days I’ll be able to use the BBQ, for now, I wait (patiently) and you all know how patient I am.

For those of you who’ve known me for any length of time know that I move often.

I think I have Gypsy blood running through my veins. I’ve never purchased a place because, mainly, if I get tired of living somewhere, I can give notice and in a month or two, I can move.

I do like where I’m currently living. The rent is reasonable, I’ve got underground, heated parking, I have ensuite laundry, air conditioning, everything I could want. There’s a small dog park in the complex that we go to a few times a day and a great large dog park about a kilometer away. We don’t have a back yard though which sort of sucks.

So, although I’m not planning on moving any time soon, I’m going to look at a townhouse this morning, quite close to where we live now.

It’s a 2 bedroom, one bath townhouse, 3 levels. I’m not actually sure if it’s got a backyard or not. It has an attached garage. It looks nice in the pictures.

So, we are going to take a look at it anyway. The rent is comparable to what I’m paying here. I’m not sure if it has AC and now that I have it, I quite love it. That could be a deal breaker. Don’t get me wrong, Calgary doesn’t get all that hot but I’m now used to a nice cool place.

I doubt I’m moving, but I suppose it doesn’t hurt to look at something. Perhaps I’m crazy, well, I know I’m crazy, but I’m going to look anyway.

Weekends really don’t matter to me at the moment, as I’m retired/not working.

Mondays are the same as Saturdays.

I don’t think I have anything planned today other than a trip to the dog park with Twix and Apollo. The weather is supposed to be decent, I think we’ll go to Shouldice Park, it’s got access to the river and the dogs like to splash about and there’s tons of room for Apollo to run off some energy.

I’m waiting for my IBM pension to be transferred to my account. I filed the paperwork on Thursday, so, it should be deposited next week.

I’ve applied for EI as well since I was terminated without cause, I didn’t have a client at IBM, so I didn’t have any billable hours. I called it retirement as that sounds better to me, but I doubt I’ll stay retired.

After some time I’m sure I will get bored and will do something. It won’t be in IT, I don’t think. I’ve been there and done that.

I’m thinking I would like to be a courtesy driver for one of the car dealerships. I’ve got a friend with some contacts so hopefully that’ll happen. Not full time, maybe 20ish hours a week. Being off work in the summer is fine, there’s plenty to do. Being off in the winter is a different creature, it’s cold and outside activities are curtailed.

So, for now I will enjoy my downtime, nap when I want and hang with the dogs.

Tomorrow? Who knows, it’ll still be the weekend.

I absolutely love homemade bread. My Mom used to make homemade bread at least weekly when I was a kid. I don’t recall that we ever brought bread from a grocery store.

It was amazing. The house would smell like a bakery and the bread was amazing.

Now, I have none of the baking skills that my Mom had, none of them. But, despite that I still love homemade bread and I’ve decided I’m going to buy a bread maker.

They’ve come down in price nicely and apparently make different sized loaves and different darkness levels as well.

Amazon seems to have pretty good prices on them, so, I’m ordering one and can’t wait to make my first loaf, perhaps have it for dipping into spaghetti sauce.

Yummy !!!

As I’ve written, friends from Idaho are visiting during Stampede. They are arriving July 2.

We are hitting up the Stampede on July 3, first day of the Stampede.

On Saturday, we are going white water rafting. Sunday we head to Drumheller. We are hoping to see live dinosaurs, but I think they all may be dead. The museum is excellent at any rate and the landscape are very cool.

On Monday, we are heading to Waterton National Park and hitting up the Twin Butte General Store for excellent Mexican food on the way home.

Tuesday we are going to Banff for the day.

We were going to take a two day trip to Jasper and we’re going to spend the night in a log cabin, but, a 10 hour round trip and $600 for the night in Jasper changed those plans.

It’ll be a great visit and we’ll see quite a bit of what Alberta has to offer.

So, since I’m not going to lose my driver’s license, I’ve decided that I am going to get the Ford Bronco, which I initially decided I wouldn’t get, you know, if one doesn’t have a driver’s license one doesn’t need a new car. I’ll take delivery of it on August 14. I can’t wait, it’s only two months but it feels like forever from now.

I’ve temporarily put a trip back to Ontario on hold. I do want to visit, I’m just not sure when.

I’m planning a trip to Hawaii for September. Not sure on dates as yet, but September is looking like a good time.

I’m thinking of a 10 day trip through BC to the Yukon and onto Alaska in August, with the dogs. I haven’t really looked too deeply into that as of yet, lots of time though.

That’ll make for an interesting summer of travel. Nothing planned for June. I have friends visiting from Idaho in early July and we’ll be busy.

So, there’s an update on what’s going on.

Friends from Idaho are visiting during the Calgary Stampede. I’m looking forward to their visit, it’s about time they come to Canada.

We have a full week scheduled. They arrive July 2, which is a Thursday. I’m sure we’ll go for a late dinner on the Thursday evening, maybe a driving tour of Calgary.

I think we’ll go to the Stampede on Friday, July 3. That’ll be an afternoon/evening event. White water rafting is on the schedule for the Saturday afternoon. We’ll go with the company that I used a few weeks ago, it was a good day on the water and in July, the water should be warm enough so that we don’t have to wear wet suits.

Sunday, we are heading to Drumheller and the Dinosaur museum which will be good. Lots to do in Drumheller for sure, the landscapes are amazing.

Monday we head to Jasper and are spending the night in a cabin just outside of town. We’ll take the gondola to the top of the mountain and do some hiking and take amazing pictures, I’m sure. I’ve been to Jasper once, three years ago now. Tuesday we can tour the town and do some shopping.  We’ll get back to Calgary Tuesday evening.

They head back to the US on Wednesday. I’m sure it’ll be a great visit and I’m looking forward to it, they’ve never been to Alberta, so it’ll be a fun touring weekend.

I had my follow-up this morning, the tumor that was targeted on Wednesday is gone, 100% so that was great news.

They want to do additional radiation over the next up to 8 weeks, twice a week (Fridays and Tuesdays). They want to eliminate all the tumors in my brain, so that’s a good plan.

Nothing can be done for the lung cancer, they are hoping it doesn’t spread further, such as my heart and liver. I’m not doing chemotherapy at all, they agree with me.

So, it’ll be at least 3 weeks or 6 treatments, up to 8 weeks. Hopefully it’ll be successful.

I’m feeling good, just get tired very quickly, but that’s to be expected. I rest when I have to.

I’m taking it day by day. I’m living every day.

I’ve had insomnia on and off for 30+ years now. The current round started earlier this year, in January, I think. Typically, I don’t sleep well, 4-5 hours a night, for 6 months or so, and then I start sleeping properly again. I’m still sleeping oddly.

Now that I’m not working, I am having an afternoon nap every day and I don’t think this is helping at all. I’m sleeping about 5 hours a night, regardless of what time I go to bed, then I’m so tired by afternoon (after doing nothing, really) that I have to have a nap and I nap from 1-3 hours and then the cycle repeats itself.

I think, and I very well may be wrong, that if I didn’t nap in the afternoon and went to bed at 10 that I might be able to break the cycle. I suppose it really doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things, I’m still getting around 8 hours sleep in a 24 hour day, the sleep is just broken into chunks.

Do other retired people do this? Is it normal to nap every afternoon? Being awake at 2 or 3 am seems normal to me now. I don’t tend to do a lot, watch some TV or a movie or play some old school video games. I often go back to bed at 5 and sleep another hour or two, sometimes not. Perhaps, for now, this is the new normal.

If you’re retired, let me know how you sleep? I’m curious as to whether or not this is “normal”. Probably not, what else do I do that’s normal? Likely not a lot…

So I’ve decided that I’m cancelling my epic road trip. After driving to Waterton National Park and around the park and back to Calgary last week, I realized that there’s no way I could drive an average of 10 hours a day for 3+ weeks, it’s not going to happen.

So, I won’t be driving around the US and Canada in August and September.

I still plan on going to Denver, Colorado in August to catch a Colorado Rockies baseball game, I’ll be driving with someone though and driving shorter days.

I’m going to book a flight to Ontario for sometime in September to visit for a week or so and I’m also heading to Idaho the first week of October.

I’m thinking of going to Hawaii as well, maybe late August or early September. I’m not going to Bora Bora, I couldn’t wrap my head around the expense.

I’m also thinking of driving to Alaska, perhaps in late July, if I do, I’ll rent a vehicle though, not use mine. I’d go through BC to the Yukon and onto Alaska. Maybe 10 days in total, I’d bring the dogs as well.

It sucks that I won’t be able to visit all the places and see all the people I wanted to, it’s not meant to be I guess. But, I’ll have a good summer regardless.