Falling into place

Posted on October 30, 2013 by kdarcy21

I have been in Calgary for over 1.5 years now.  I have lived in the same place for that entire time.  I am finally getting things in order in my place.

Now, I have been unpacked since a few days after I moved in, I am not that bad.  But, little things weren’t done.

For example – I had connected my stereo receiver to the PVR/TV.  Why?  Not sure.  Just hadn’t.  I guess part of the reason is that Blondie must have gotten hungry and she ate the power cord for the sub.  She also ate a few of the speaker wires for the side speakers.

My ex-roomate got kicked out (and arrested, see http://kdarcy21.com/2012/07/08/calgarys-finest/ for details) and never came back for most of his crap.  I checked with CPS (Calgary Police Service) and after 4 months of not contacting me, his stuff became my stuff.  Anyway, I sorted through some of it and found a nice set of speakers – they are now connected to my receiver – great sound.  I also took a DVD player – low quality, but it’s ok.  Not sure what else I might have taken, most of it was junk.  Oh well.

So, anyway, my receiver is connected.  The DVD player is connected.  The living room is configured the way I like it.  I have increased to Telus Optik’s faster internet, works well.  I am getting the carpeting in the upstairs removed and laminate flooring installed – that will be WAY easier to keep clean than the carpeting is.

I got my washer serviced this morning, well, it was supposed to be this morning, was actually this afternoon.  That is now A-OK.

I still need to have my dining room chairs put together.  They were together when I left Ontario.  My brother in law disassembled them so that they would all fit into the trailer I rented.  Unfortunately, I did not see him disassemble them so I am not actually sure on putting them back together.  I am sure if I actually tried I could put them back together – I am not too handy, but, despite rumours to the contrary, I am not an idgit.

So, although this place isn’t perfect, it is pretty good.  I have a huge place, WAY more room than I need but it is good.  I am close to work.  Close to shopping and close to the main north-south highway.

I might, and I stress might, decide to rent one of my rooms out again.  If I do, I will have much more of a process before I rent it.  Rentals are in a pinch right now so I think I will have a lot of people looking at it.  We will see.  The additional money coming in would be nice.

 

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What happened to Fall?

Posted on October 27, 2013 by kdarcy21

Well, Calgary’s short Fall season appears to be pretty well over.  Today, the forecast was calling for up to 20cm of snow in the Calgary area.  Well, luckily it was off a bit – mind you, the day is not over as yet.

Thus far, we have a few centimeters of the white crap on the ground but the roads are too warm for it to stay around.  My vehicle is covered – guess I will bring out the brush tomorrow.  I doubt that we will get 20cm, but we will see.

I used to enjoy Fall.  Still do, but Fall is rather short around here.  It lasts for a month, maybe more.  We do have 4 seasons here.  Spring, for a couple of months, Summer – about a month long in total, maybe two and Fall, again, maybe two months.  That leaves us with at least 6 months of Winter.   Still love it though.

I received a call from the Big Brothers office on Friday afternoon wondering if I wanted tickets to go to the Saturday Stampeders game.  I said yes, for sure and headed to pick them up.  I did check with my little brother – his mom was out and he couldn’t get a hold of her.  Well, I figured it wouldn’t be an issue – it wasn’t.

So, off we went yesterday afternoon to McMahon Stadium.  We took the train, it was busy.  We arrived shortly after kick-off.  It was a good game.  Calgary ended up on top, 29-25 and secured home field advantage through the playoffs until the Grey Cup.  The train ride to the game was filled with Rider fans, telling us Stamps fans how their team was going to beat us up, etc.  The ride back was much quieter.  Guess the Rider fans had nothing to brag about.

I purchased two slices of pizza and two bottles of pop at the game.  Total?  Can you believe $19.50?  I couldn’t.  Sort of insane.  Oh well, what can you do?  If you want to eat at the game, I guess you have to pay the price.

It was a good afternoon.  Good game.  Good times all around.

I am glad that today’s weather held off – it wouldn’t have been as much fun.

 

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World Series

Posted on October 23, 2013 by kdarcy21

Tonight is game 1 of the World Series – in case you live in a cave or really don’t follow baseball, at all, it is the St. Louis Cardinals against the Boston Red Sox.

Traditionally, I always pull for the American League, unless the Yankees are playing in which case I would go for the National, this year, for some reason (not exactly sure why) I am going for St. Louis.

So, who ya got?

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Easing back into it…

Posted on October 22, 2013 by kdarcy21

Today was my first day back in the office since October 4.  It was a nice couple of weeks starting with the conference in Ontario then a visit to Niagara for the Thanksgiving weekend followed by a few days off while back in Calgary.  I ended my vacation by heading to Banff overnight to support a work conference.

Today, I worked from 9-noon.  Not a bad morning to ease back into the routine.  Tomorrow, being Wednesday, I work from home.  After that, I am out of vacation time, other than about 6 hours I think.  So, it’ll be a lot of full days.  Oh well.  We do get Remembrance Day off in Alberta so that is an extra day.  The cold weather is sure to hit soon – thus far, we have not had any snow.  They are calling for some on Sunday perhaps with highs just above freezing, BUT, the 14 day forecast looks pretty good.

I am glad to be back to work.  Having too much time off can be a little boring.  I enjoy going in, I also enjoy working from home on Wednesday’s.  With my job, working from home is easily done – there is another guy in the office to handle any office support issues, I jump on the “queue” and handle issues from all over the country.

As I have likely noted previously, I am now working 9-5:30, until the end of busy season anyway – that would be the end of April.  For the summer, I will switch back to 8-4:30 and next summer, I might participate in the flex program which allows you to take every other Friday off by working extra time each day.  A pretty good deal having additional long weekends.  The only thing that screws it up is if you take vacation while doing that – your vacation is deducted as hours as opposed to days so you still get the same number of hours off, just not the same number of days off.

Right now, I am sort of considering heading back to Ontario in August for a friends wedding.  Guess I will see how that plays out.  That would bring me back during possibly hot, humid weather which I do not enjoy.  I can likely survive a week of it though.  Will have to see how much a flight is and also factor in putting Zeus and Blondie into their “pet resort” at $62 per day for the pair.  Lots of time to figure it all out.

We will be having another conference next September or October – not sure where it will be though.  I have heard rumours of either Ottawa or Montreal.  Ottawa would be great – would give me an opportunity to visit some friends there, but more difficult to visit friends and family back in Niagara and Toronto.  I hope to be on that planning committee at work, so perhaps I will have some influence.  I am sure we will have it in Niagara again sometime as well so that will be VERY convenient.

For now, I am back in what I now consider home and looking forward to the winter, believe it or not.  I have a new 4×4 vehicle which I think will handle the snow and what not well.  I will have to, of course, be on the lookout for the other crazy drivers though.  Gotta love them.

Tomorrow also marks the arrival of the 2013 World Series.  I have watched quite a lot of the playoffs.  I don’t watch a lot of ball during the summer.  I am umpiring, so I see plenty of ball there and the 162 regular season games in the majors tend to be a little boring.

It is the St. Louis Cardinals versus the Boston Red Sox.  Typically, I would go for Boston, being an AL team, but this year, for the first time ever, I am pulling for St. Louis.  I hope it will be a good series regardless of who wins.

So, if you have a chance, catch some action and enjoy.  If you miss it, baseball will return in 5 short months.

Out.

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Banff, Alberta

Posted on October 21, 2013 by kdarcy21

I am currently in Banff, Alberta to provide technical support for a conference for work.

Zeus and Blondie are again at Country Club Pet Resort.  They seemed excited when we pulled in.  That’s a good sign.  I would have been concerned if I had to pull them into the place, instead, they were pulling me.  They will be there for 2 days since I doubt very much that I will be back in Calgary before 1PM.  In fact, I know I won’t be – I don’t plan on leaving until after 1PM.  Gotta stay for lunch, the food is amazing.

Left for Banff after a quick stop at the office yesterday around 2PM.  Got here about 3:20 or so, not a bad drive at all.

photo 1

This is the view from the front of the Banff Centre.  Just awesome.

photo 3 photo 2

The Banff Centre is nestled in the middle of a few mountain ranges.  Wouldn’t it be awesome to live here?  I am guessing that properties are not cheap.  Rent likely isn’t either.  At least I am only an hour or so away.

photo 4 photo 5

This is the view from the restaurant where the group gets fed like Kings and Queens.  The sunset over the mountains was pretty cool.

So, back to the conference.  I am only here to ensure that there are no technical glitches.  Not a bad gig really.

I will stick around until lunch time, unless there are issues that I didn’t expect.  Hopefully all will go well.

I will head back to the office after returning to Calgary – I have not been there, other than briefly yesterday since October 4.  Not a bad time away from the office at all.

Tonight is the election in Calgary.  New Mayor (hopefully) and Councillors.  Will be interesting to see the outcome.

Breakfast is calling.  Gotta go.  🙂

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Internet News, News in General

Posted on October 20, 2013 by kdarcy21

I think I like to punish myself or something.

I have often said that I should NOT read internet news, the newspaper, news in general.

For those of you who don’t know me, I can be fairly opinionated.  Now, I know that my comment feed on this post will be flooded with comments telling me that I am not, BUT, it is true.

If I don’t agree with something that I am reading, I tend to yell at whatever source I am getting it from.  For instance, if I am reading a news article on Facebook using my laptop, and the news doesn’t agree with me, I logically yell at the computer and indirectly Facebook because they were the presenters of the news.  Logical, right?

My sister used to LOVE it when I would read the newspaper at her house from time to time.  She’d especially love it when I was reading letters to the editor – that was her favourite.  On my recent visit, I discovered that she had cancelled her subscription to the St. Catharines Standard.  Coincidence?  Perhaps.  More likely that the St. Catharines Standard has recently become something like a tabloid newspaper.   The articles that they post on Facebook REALLY make it appear so.  I also cancelled my subscription, for that very reason.  I am also 3000 some kilometers away so I really no longer care about local news to the Niagara Region.

I also do things to apparently torture myself.

For instance, I am “subscribed” to the Huffington Post’s feed in Facebook.  For those of you who do not know what the Huff Post is, well, it is a left-wing Internet rag news service.  It would appear that their intention is to post articles to get their lefty readers all up in arms with comments, feeding off one another.  My job, so it would seem, is to comment online, irritating the masses.  There are a few of us who do this.  It is quite fun actually.  I often consider unsubscribing from the feed, but I can’t seem to pull the trigger.

I am also subscribed to some right-wing publications.  Their articles are designed the exact same way, however, they are designed to get the right-wingers, such as myself all up in arms too.  I rarely comment on those articles since in general, I agree with what is being written and with what people are commenting.  Occasionally, a left-wing nut will comment and if I happen to read the comment, and can think of something witty, I will reply.  I suppose I do it to get a reaction.  It often works.  It is fun.  It is also cheap entertainment,

So, I will say it again.  I should stop reading news.  I know I won’t – who’d want to miss out on all the fun.

OK.  Now it is your job.  Comment, like I suggested you will.  Thank you.

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COPA Event

Posted on October 19, 2013 by kdarcy21

COPA stands for Canadian Owners & Pilots Association.  Big Brothers & Big Sisters of Calgary hosted an event at the Springbank airport.  We headed out early, hit Denny’s for breakfast and got to the airport shortly after 8:30am.

We learned about flying and how planes do it – would you believe that it is magic?  News to me.

They had a games room while we were waiting so we shot a couple of games of pool.  They also had foosball, air hockey and darts.  Yes, darts is a great activity for kids.  No one got hurt, that’s a good thing.

NM and I were in the last group to take to the air.  It was a Cessna from the early 60’s.  The pilot apparently had over 50 years of flight experience.  The winds were a little high but within tolerance levels I guess since we did take off.

Hit some minor turbulence while climbing to 6500′.  Springbank airport is just west of Calgary.  We turned south and headed to Bragg Creek and then turned again and returned.

Mountains

 

There is a nice shot of the rockies.

The Crew

There is the crew that took to the air.  

All in all, it was an excellent morning.  Flying in a small 4-seater is so different than a big jet.  You feel all of the bumps – I guess if you were prone to getting airsick, this might be a problem.

We had a good time – no airsickness with us – luckily…  🙂

 

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Wow, a lot of posts…

Posted on October 17, 2013 by kdarcy21

As I have mentioned, I am on vacation.  Not the type of vacation where I am sitting by a pool drinking (although, that might not be too bad) but rather, I am on a staycation.  Just sticking around the house pretty well.  Not too bad.

So, I am just watching some baseball at the moment and ready past blog entries here.  Wow, I have made a LOT of entries.

I remember when I first started blogging, I was planning on going back and reading what I had done with myself.  Not a lot of excitement I guess.  All in all, what I read was snippets of something called “life”.  Sort of cool really.  Obviously, I remember everything that I did after I have read it, but while reading it, in a few cases I am thinking to myself, wow, I didn’t remember that at first.

Perhaps if I am ever really bored, I will go back to the start and read all 540+ entries.  Maybe someday, I will print them all and make a book.  I am sure that would be a best seller and would make me millions.  I could finally retire.

 

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Vacation at home

Posted on October 17, 2013 by kdarcy21

My flight arrived into Calgary a little earlier than scheduled on Tuesday night, about 9:50pm (mountain time) as opposed to 10:15.  Was home by 10:45.  Asleep by 11.

Not a bad flight at all.  Fairly uneventful.  The airline (Air Canada) allowed me to take two pieces of carry on luggage on the plane.  I was expecting to have to check the second one and pay an additional $20 so that was good.  The bad news, with all of the additional “stuff” that I had packed, my suitcase was over weight by a few kilograms.  Now, I could have left it and paid an additional $75, but, I don’t want to have to do that now, do I?

So, everything that was in the two front pockets of the suitcase was stuffed, jammed and crammed into the various compartments of the backpack that I was using.  It then resembled more of a small suitcase as opposed to a backpack.  It also likely weighed 20 pounds.  Anyway, since they let you bring the same amount on the plane, why did they really care if the suitcase was over weight?  I mean, I didn’t leave anything at the airport, it all made it to Calgary so I can only presume it flew with me.  Oh well.  At any rate, the person who checked me in at the Air Canada counter was very polite and helpful – thank you.

I watched the new Star Trek movie, Into Darkness on the flight.  It was a great way to kill more than half of the flying time.  It was also a pretty good movie.  It took a bit to get used to the new cast but they are pretty good.  I am looking forward to the next movie which I am sure is already in the planning stages at least.

So, now I have a few days in Calgary with little to do.

I retrieved my dogs from their “resort”, they were happy to see me.  Blondie was jumping all over – I think she may have thought that I abandoned her there.  This was their first visit to this particular resort and I think they enjoyed it.  I hope so, they are going back on Sunday for a couple of nights.  I had an upgrade to my Telus internet services (up to 25mbps down, 2.5mbps up) and had my washing machine looked at – something is wrong with the door lock (it is a front load) and if it can’t lock, it can’t wash.  They need a part so hopefully he’ll be able to come back next week.  I can still use it, it is difficult to lock though.

The rest of yesterday was relaxing, for both myself and the dogs.  They are tired from their 10 days in the kennel.  I am tired from long days at the conference and then visiting with friends.

Nothing planned for either today or tomorrow really.  I have done a bunch of house cleaning and re-organized my living room – I flipped it 180 degrees, the way I have always wanted it actually.  Still have some stuff to do today with it, I am just taking a break now.  Yeah, that’s it.

Saturday I am hanging with my little brother.  We are doing that event at the airport and then a tour over the city – should be cool.  The weather is supposed to cooperate, this time.  We will see.  Sunday, Zeus and Blondie return to Country Club Pet Resort and I head for Banff. I am planning on playing the tourist role Sunday afternoon.  Should be fun and a good way to end my week off.

Summer is definitely over and Fall is turning quickly to winter.  I am sure that the snow will fly in the next couple of weeks.  Oh well, I still love it.

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Zeus and Blondie

Posted on October 14, 2013 by kdarcy21

Zeus and Blondie are staying at the Country Club Pet Resort, south-east of Calgary while I visit Ontario for 10 days.  Thanks to a co-worker for suggesting this place.  It is WAY bigger than where I was putting them when I was away plus, I am saving a bunch of money.

I paid an extra $15 to have this video taken of them.  Not bad I think.  It looks like they are enjoying themselves.  I am looking forward to picking them up on Wednesday morning.

 

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