Kevin's Ramblings…

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.

My radiation got moved up to Wednesday night at 11pm, I was just just before 3am. It was an interesting experience, no pain or anything which is good. I felt normal afterwards, whatever normal is.

I have a follow-up on Monday and they were optimistic that I wouldn’t need another round. I haven’t had any seizures at all.

Today I slept in, sort of. Woke up just after 5am.

My house cleaner came over at 730 and did a great job, the place looks fantastic.

I headed to High River for lunch with my sister in law. We went to the train restaurant, good food. We then went to Okotoks Costco and it was pretty quiet. I picked up the essentials and got out of there at only $200 spent.

We had a twist ice cream cone then I headed for home. The dogs and I had a great afternoon nap. I slept almost 3 hours, so apparently whatever sleep I had last night just wasn’t enough.

I’ve gotten myself a head cold, I’m stuffed up pretty badly but Tylenol Cold and Sinus is helping. Hopefully the cold will be gone by the beginning of the week.

My brother is coming for a quick visit on Tuesday, we are heading out for Indian food for lunch. I hope he had time to drop to my place for a quick tour and to meet the dogs. We don’t see each other often at all, I haven’t seen him since last year at my aunt’s funeral.

It should be a good visit. I have no weekend plans, and frankly, don’t really care that it’s the weekend anymore. Days of the week really don’t matter.

I’m meeting with someone from Sun Life on Monday regarding my IBM pension plan. I plan on just taking it out as cash, I’ll pay 30% tax on it. Maybe I’ll take it monthly, unsure, I’ll see what they recommend.

Enjoy your weekend.

I’m cancelling my road trip. I’m disappointed, to say the least. I canceled my Ford Bronco order this morning. The Sales Manager will speak with the owner about my deposit. I might get it back, we’ll see.

I think I’ll fly to Toronto for a few days though. I won’t be renting a vehicle so I’ll stick to downtown Toronto I guess. Again, we’ll see.

I’ll save myself $60,000 on not getting the new car. I’ve got a car and it works perfectly well. If I lose my license, I’ll probably just get them to repossess it, no sense in paying for it if I can’t drive. Sure, it’ll hit my credit report but who cares…

Anyway, on Friday morning I am getting radiation to see if my seizures can be fixed. I’m hopeful. If they are, I won’t lose my license but I’m not getting the Bronco, and that’s too bad.

Otherwise, things are good. I had a great day of white water rafting and an excellent visit with JB. There might be a hiccup with my friends visiting from Idaho, DH may be getting a different job and then might not be able to get the time off. I hope they can visit. Again, we’ll see.

My doctor is worried about seizures. It’s putting my trip in jeopardy, that’s for sure.

I doubt, I highly doubt, that I’ll be driving across the country. I don’t think I’ll be following through with the Ford Bronco either. There’s absolutely no sense in buying a car that I won’t be able to drive. I hope I’ll get my deposit back. I’m going to look into it today.

I may do a trip to Ontario in September but I’ll fly. I guess if I visit Niagara, I’ll take the bus. I need to see how much flights are seeing as I canceled my previous booking. I know I won’t get the deal that I had but that’s ok.

I won’t be able to see everyone I wanted to, that’s a shame. I also won’t be able to drive to Idaho nor will I be able to drive to California.

It is what it is though. Nothing I can do about it.