Kevin's Ramblings…

I’ve been wanting to get a tattoo for ages, to honour the dogs I’ve had in my life. Well, today is the day.

I’m getting it on my forearm. It’ll be a set of dog tags, all connected via a chain and each dogs name on a different tag. It’ll be black and silver. Should be pretty cool I think, the artist has some great ideas.

So, my appointment is for 10am and it’ll take about two hours I’m told. I’m looking forward to it and I’ll post some pictures of it later today or tomorrow.

This’ll likely be the only tattoo I’ll ever get. My dogs have been a huge part of my life these last 20 years, I got Zeus almost 20 years ago now and I’ve had Apollo for over 6 months. It’ll be a great tribute to 5 great dogs (Zeus, Blondie, Hera, Twix and Apollo).

I’ve been sleeping better of late. I’m getting almost 6 hours at night which is nice, waking at around 430am instead of the normal 3am. I’m also napping though the day a few times.

I tried a week of not napping, thinking it might get me to sleep better at night. Nope, didn’t make a difference. I was just really tired during the day.

So, I’m back to napping a few times during the day when I’m tired and the overnight stuff seems to be working out for me.

The other night I was woken by a building wide fire alarm, not the way you want to get up, but at least the building wasn’t actually on fire. The alarm went off for about 45 minutes until the first department finally silenced it.

Today I slept in until 435am. I’ll have a shower shortly and then will get the day started. I’ll take Apollo to the dog park, feed him, feed myself. I think it’s a Kevin McMuffin morning, far better than McDonald’s egg McMuffins and far cheaper to make as well.

No plans for the day, maybe go to an offleash park with Apollo, maybe Sue Higgins Park in the SE part of the city, there will be a ton of dogs for him to play with.

Other than that, I might catch a ball game and a nap or two. BBQ for dinner I’m thinking. Enjoy your Sunday.

Twix passed peacefully last night just after 10pm at the emergency vet.

She was in declining health the last few months, since about April or so. She had been to our regular vet and an emergency vet in the last few months.

She had very laboured breathing of late. Last night, when they tested her breathing, typically a dog would score between 95-100, Twix was at 82.

In the last few days, Twix declined faster. She was losing her balance regularly, she hadn’t eaten in a few days and I knew that she was suffering.

I’m sure that she would have lived a few months, but the quality of hey life wasn’t the greatest, that’s for sure.

I made the difficult decision to put her down yesterday. The emergency vet agreed that it was the correct decision based on what she saw and what I described. It’s never an easy choice. Twix lived to nearly 13.5 years, she was with me for 9.5 of those years, I got her just before she turned 4.

I’ll miss my little one, as I often called her. Her little brother Apollo will miss her as well. She was the sweetest dog that anyone could ever hope to have. She was my Princess.

If there is a rainbow bridge, I hope she’s playing with Blondie and Hera and her brother (that she never met) Zeus.

Run free my girl, I’ll always remember you. Love you, Twix.

I leave for my cruise on Saturday August 15. I fly out at 6am and head to Denver Colorado. From there I take a second flight, this time headed to Houston Texas. My final leg is Houston to Orlando Florida and then to a hotel overnight.

I head out in the morning to the cruise itself, Port Canaveral Florida. I’ll probably take an Uber I’m guessing, unless the hotel has a shuttle which they might.

I’ll board the ship and we sail out early evening. We have a full day at sea before we arrive at our first of three islands. We are out for a total of 7 days, returning to Port Canaveral on August 23 in the morning. I fly out in the afternoon on United bound for Chicago Illinois and then Calgary Alberta for a 1030pm arrival.

I’m sure it’ll be an excellent trip. I’m looking forward to it. I think it’s now 24 days away. Should be a blast.

I’ll be blogging and posting pictures and what not on Facebook. Follow my journey.

I had originally planned on driving down to High River, picking up my sister in law and zooming about with her for a bit. Well, when I arrived at the dealership, my plans changed.

I was going to take a newbie salesman with me to break him in. Ok, that’s fine. I didn’t figure they’d have me go with someone.

So we headed to Stoney Trail, Calgary’s ring road and headed East along Stoney. We took the curve South and continued all the way to Deerfoot Trail and headed North.

We stopped for lunch at Thai Express and I treated. We then returned to the dealership.

In total, I drove about 110km. It was a good test ride for sure. The car keeps itself in the lane and the adaptive cruise control is quite something.

I’m glad I picked this vehicle out of the 20+ that I test drove a few months ago. It’ll be less than 3 weeks before I take delivery. I’m excited.

Tomorrow, Tuesday at noon, I’m taking my 2026 Ford Bronco Sport for an extended test drive. I have driven other Broncos when I was originally looking for the vehicle I wanted, but I have not driven the one that will be mine in a few weeks.

I mean I drove it in the parking lot of the dealership to move it, but that was about 200m or so.

I plan on doing some running around with it tomorrow and take it down to High River Alberta and back (about 200 km round trip). That’ll give me an idea of how it is.

I didn’t really need to, I mean I’ve already committed to the vehicle, but there’s no harm. It’ll be on the dealers insurance with a dealer plate.

I actually get possession of it sometime around August 12 and then I leave for my cruise on August 15. I’m sure I’m going to love it, I already love the colour for sure. I received an order from Amazon today for it, a light for the hitch receiver that lights up when you break. It was inexpensive.

So, that’ll be tomorrow’s activity.

So, I’ve gone ahead and booked a 7-day Caribbean cruise for mid August.

We visit 3 islands, unsure which three at the moment. We leave out of Orlando Florida and return to Orlando Florida.

I fly Calgary to Orlando (not direct) and return 7 days later.

Dates are August 16-23. I think I’m looking forward to it, but I’ve never cruised, so, who knows. I’m sure it’ll be a good time.

I was heading home from a massage session yesterday, at around 11am and I received a text from my buddy at Northside Ford, my 2026 Ford Bronco Sport Sasquatch Edition had arrived on Friday evening.

I headed to the dealership to take a look at what will soonly be my new vehicle.

I was excited, to say the least. I got to the dealership and we went outside to take a look.

I drove it to where they keep the new cars that have been purchased, connected my phone, played some music, sent and received my first text message. All very cool.

I’m getting this by August 14 at the latest, just depends on exactly when my money arrives from my LIRA.

Happy trails to me.

I finally received the update I was looking for today.

IBM agreed that indeed, I’m entitled to severance pay. Well, really? Seeing as it is mandated by Alberta law, yes, I am due.

They gave me way more than I thought I’d get, so that’s good. I should have the $$$ in my account early next week.

That made the day a good day.

My new 2026 Ford Bronco Sport Sasquatch Edition is also going to be at the dealership by Monday or Tuesday and I can take it for an extensive test drive. It will be insured by the dealer so that’s good.

Twix went to the emergency vet this morning, she’s fine, I’m out $199.50. Oh well, hearing she’s good is great news.

Nothing else happening. Enjoy your weekend.

Well, my friends from Idaho visited, it was a great and very tiring week. We toured around Alberta and saw some of the sites, the best that Southern Alberta has to offer.

I’ve been enjoying zipping around on my ebike. I’m going out shortly again. Since we are in the middle of our short summer, it’s too hot in the afternoon to ride, mornings or evenings are best. I don’t know when I lost my ability to handle the heat, but I did. If it’s above about 25°C it’s just too hot. I’m definitely used to Alberta weather, that’s for sure. I’m already ready for fall-like weather now, it’s probably less than 2 weeks off.

My health is the same. The cancer isn’t spreading so that’s good. I feel ok, but definitely not normal, whatever normal is. I suppose I’m getting used to always being tired and out of breath. If I carry anything any distance I’m out of breath and exhausted. It’s annoying to say the least. I think I’m going to buy one of those foldable wagons to bring groceries and other stuff into the apartment. That’ll help for sure.

I’m still waiting for IBM to decide on my severance. I’m getting impatient, I have a feeling they are just hoping I’ll drop it. Shitty company for sure. I’ll follow-up again this week and I’m sure I’ll get more “we are looking into it”… Sigh.

Stampede ended yesterday, Calgary will return to normal now. That means fewer cowboy boots and hats and the crowds will be gone. My sister in law and I split on 50/50 tickets at the Stampede so, we might be rich this morning. Crossing my fingers 🤞

Nothing else much planned now until mid August or so. I’m hoping to do a road trip to Denver and catch a Rockies game. Gotta find someone to look after the dogs for a few days. I also need to confirm that a friend is coming along, I’m not sure I can handle the long driving days by myself.

For now, I’ll enjoy (and complain) our short summer and will welcome Fall when it arrives. Winter will be right on Falls heels…