Kevin's Ramblings…

Well, it is April 21 and there is no snow on the ground in Calgary.  Actually, I shouldn’t say something like that, it might tempt Mother Nature, the bitch that she can be.

The Rockies have our first outdoor workout tonight.  The diamonds are ready and the ground is dry.  Good news for this time of year for sure.  We split the players up last night into AA and AAA teams.  We will still practice together here and there but pretty much from here on out, we are separate entities.

The weather forecast for the weekend doesn’t look particularly good at the moment.  Mind you, it is only Tuesday so I don’t put too much trust into a 5 day forecast.  Right now, they are calling for cool and wet conditions for the weekend.  So, if all goes according to how it normally does, it will be warm and dry.

We have three games this weekend.  Two AA games and one AAA game.  Very short games, 5 innings or two hours, free movement of players.  We just need to get a feel for the upcoming season.

Speaking of the season, we open it with a game a week from tonight.  Nice to be able to play baseball in April, or at the very least, have it scheduled for April.

After Friday’s stinker, the Calgary Flames played a home game for the first time in years last evening.  With the series tied 1-1, it wasn’t a must win game but one that I am sure neither team wanted to drop.

Right from the puck drop, Calgary was on fire scoring a goal almost immediately.  The game was heated throughout, there is no love lost between these two teams, that is for sure.

Unless you live in a cave, you would know that Calgary won 4-1 and now lead the series 2-1.  The next game is tomorrow night.  For Vancouver, it is a must win.  Of course, I am hoping that Calgary takes it for a 3-1 series lead.

Indoor workouts with my baseball team are just about wrapped up.  We have a batting practice tonight, might be our last indoor batting practice.  I am not sure what the schedule shows.  Tomorrow is our first team practice outside, I am looking forward to it.

We are scheduled for three exhibition games this coming weekend but the weather forecast doesn’t look good at the moment.  I am not one to put too much faith in a forecast 5 days away though so I will hope for dry weather.  The season starts next week and I can’t remember ever looking forward to a season like I am this year.

After tonight, we split the team into AA and AAA squads.  The decisions are pretty well made already, just have to let the players know where they are.

Bring on the season !!!  Go Rockies !!!

As I have written and as most hockey fans would know, the Calgary Flames made the play-offs for the first time in a few years.  They opened the series against the Vancouver Canucks last evening, in Vancouver.  It was a great game, I watched from home.

I have been spending a bit too much on going out for food recently and need to cut back.  In saying that, I did order a pizza and cheesy bread from Dominos, but that was less than I would have paid for a drink or two and food in a pub.

Anyway, the Flames started a bit slow, were sent into the penalty box a little too often and fell behind 1-0.  It looked like it would stay that way for a while.  Calgary tied it up and went ahead late in the 3rd period – I cheered them on as an armchair goalie and made my dogs jump with the shouting at the TV.

I have been a Flames fan since the early years that they were in Calgary.  I was, I must admit, a Maple Leafs fan when I was a kid, what did I know?  My brother moved to Calgary and got me various Flames stuff and converted me.  Thanks CD.

They are at it again on Friday night and return to Calgary for a game on Sunday.  No way that I will be able to watch any games live.  The Flames only released under 2000 tickets to the public and they were put up for auction.  Tickets on various re-sell sites were selling for $1000 above face value.  I think I will just watch from home – or a pub.

I am a kilometer from the Red Mile, 17th Avenue SW.  Might make for some interesting nights.  Go Flames !!!

We had another indoor infield practice yesterday.  One of the players who we drafted who had a broken wrist was out which was good to see.  Looks like his wrist has healed and he is ready to go.  I am glad he will have a few weeks to get ready before the season actually starts.

We have a batting cage session on Thursday and another infield session on the weekend before we make the AA/AAA team splits.

Pretty well everything is set, only 1 player to decide upon for the AAA club.

We should be able to get outside sometime soon, the weather has been great.  No snow, no rain and fairly windy conditions have made it pretty dry.  I am really looking forward to getting outside.

Our opening tournament is April 25/26, three games between the two teams.  The season starts up in full speed right after that.  Looking forward to ball.

I watched the Flames defeat the Kings last night in a packed pub in SW Calgary.  I would have loved to go to the game, but that wasn’t in the cards.  Single tickets were going for huge sums of money.

So, for the first time in a number of years, Calgary finally returns to the play-offs.  I am sure the city will be a crazy place to be next week.

It is too bad that Calgary apparently will play Vancouver in the first round since a Canadian team (ie the Canucks) will be eliminated.

Anyway, go Flames go – they are looking good !!!

My three year contract with Telus home services (Internet and TV) ends at the end of the month.  I was worried that my bill was going to shoot through the roof.

I decided that I would zip to the same Telus store that I went to for setting up my services, almost three years ago. I could also pick up some groceries at the same time (surprisingly, not from Telus).

I was told that I needed to call into Telus to see what deals they had, the store didn’t handle that. I thought this was a bit odd, but whatever. 

So, after returning home, I called. No real good deals on at the moment, but my bill will remain the same and my PVR rental will continue to be free. Ok, I can live with that, thanks. 

They did offer a free month of crave TV so I figured I would try that. After a quick preview, I don’t think I will continue with it, even at only $4 per month.

Anyway, I’m happy. My bill won’t go up and I don’t have to switch to Shaw and get something else installed. I’ve been quite happy with Telus, they deserve to keep my business. 

Thursday after work, I took a trip to the north-west of Calgary to look at a new place.  From the outside, it looked a little worn.  It looked old, it needed new paint.  OK, I can live with that.

The inside was pretty good, they were clean.  The carpets looked good, everything seemed to be in place.  There was a fireplace, wood burning at that.  I was sort of surprised that a rental would have a wood burning fireplace.  I wonder how often they clean the chimneys.

So, I made no commitments there.  I decided that I would get back to them.

I went online to read some reviews.  Out of 16 reviews that I could find, none were positive, none were rated higher than 2 stars (out of 5) and most were 1 and 0 star ratings.

The main issue was bad management, cutting corners and cutting costs wherever they could.  Front line management changed regularly and maintenance people were apparently few and far between.  The complex was built in the late 60’s and apparently, the furnaces have not been replaced in that time.  That is over 45 years.  That is a bit nuts if it is true.

One of the reviews said that the monthly gas bill for heating was almost $300, which, considering the size, it should have been less than half of that.  Now, they didn’t say if they kept the heat at 85F, that might explain a rather large gas bill.

I realize that people won’t specifically go online to post a positive review but sometimes, if you read a negative one and have something nice to say, you might respond.  Nope, none of those.

So, I think I will just stay where I am, thank you.  Zeus is having trouble with the 6 or 7 steps to get outside (I live in a basement suite), so, if I have to, I will carry him to the top.  That isn’t a problem.  Moving somewhere that might be a nightmare is a problem.

By the way, happy chocolate bunny day.  🙂

So, I am going to look at a new place to live on Thursday after work. If it doesn’t meet my requirements, I won’t move. Nothing really wrong with this place. The landlady is, ummm, interesting? Yeah, I’ll go with that. The rent is ok, $1400 per month, inclusive. She isn’t too responsive to issues and three have been some issues since I’ve moved in. Now, they weren’t her fault, however.

So, the place I am looking at has no stairs. That would be good for Zeus, he’s starting to struggle on stairs. It has a place for my washer and dryer. It has a fireplace and AC, not that you need AC a lot in Calgary.  It is in the NW, I am not overly familiar with the NW as yet. I don’t really care about how close I am to the office any longer, that was my primary reason for moving where I currently am. Since I work from home, that’s no longer a concern. It also has an energized parking spot. I haven’t had to plug in my vehicle since I’ve lived in Calgary but now that I do work from home, I might need to since the truck may not make it out of the driveway for a few days in a row.

It is two bedrooms and the rooms are around the same size as what I have now. No dishwasher, but really, I am one person, I can handle washing dishes.  Guess I will wait and see.

My friend and co-coach bought himself a house in Calgary, moves in sometime in June. Congrats SS. I guess if I get him to help me move, I will have to return the favour.  No issues there, moving isn’t the worst thing to do in the world. Wait, yes it is…

I am not sure when the last time I was in a bank dealing with a teller.  It has been a long time.  Never mind the fact that I deal with PC Financial which doesn’t have branches.  They do have kiosks in Superstores and what not, but you can’t do your day to day banking there.

I rarely use a bank machine even.  We are moving closer and closer to being a cashless society.  I rarely carry cash.  There are very few places that you can’t use your debit card to make a purchase.  I can make as many debit transactions as I want and don’t pay any service fees.

I recently placed an order for t-shirts and hoodies for my baseball team, for those who wanted to order them.  I paid for the order and parents are paying me.  A few have chosen to pay me via email money transfer.  The banks must love this.  Each transaction, regardless of how much the transaction is, costs $1.50.  I pay my rent this way.  The money is immediately taken from my account and as soon as the landlady opens her email and logs into online banking, it is deposited.  It does cost me $1.50 each month, not much really, although it is $13 per year that I pay for that convenience.  I am sure that this fee will have to go down in time as more and more people start using it.  For larger transactions, the $1.50 fee isn’t bad, I am not sure I would want to use email money transfer for a $10 purchase.

I also received a cheque from one of the parents.  The banking app on my phone allows me to take a picture of the cheque and deposit it without ever having to go to a bank machine.  That is relatively new.  I am supposed to hang onto the cheque for a week and then destroy it within 4 months.  Very cool.  I was sort of surprised to get a cheque in the first place, I didn’t know people still used cheques.

Hopefully, with all this electronic money floating about our money is safe.  I’ve yet to have any issues, maybe I should knock on wood.

Picked up another coach for my AAA baseball team. A former player who coached in the single A league last year wanted to coach with his former club. Good news there, we were a little low on coaches. 

There is a coaches meeting this afternoon. No baseball workouts for me today. I threw batting practice yesterday and if I threw again today, it would not end well. So, instead, I am going to try, what I am told is the best pizza place in Calgary. 

I have had a tough time finding good pizza since I’ve moved here. Dominos is not the same, not quite anyway, from what it is in Ontario.  So, I am trying Atlas Pizza. It is way in the east end of the city so hopefully it is worth the 30 minute drive from my place.

On the coaching front, we only have a few more weeks to decide on the AA/AAA split for the teams. Most of the positions are decided, we still have a few spots to iron out. One of the new recruits might be able to fight his way to the AAA club in favour of one of the guys who played AA last year. I don’t necessarily like to do that, but we are trying to field the best teams possible. With so many players graduating or going elsewhere for baseball or other sports, we have a lot to replace on the AAA club. Tough decisions for sure.

I guess that’s another weekend, almost in the books. Next weekend will be 4 days with the Easter holiday. I took the Monday for good measure and plan on enjoying it.