Kevin's Ramblings…

Well, I guess I have been hibernating.  I have not posted in my blog since the end of January this year, that’s over 4.5 months now.

It’s not that nothing has happened.  Unless you are living under a rock, you’re well aware of what has been going on the last couple of months.

In February, I took a road trip to California.  I had a great time.  I went down to see a friend who was turning 60 and also went to Six Flags Magic Mountain with a friend that I had not seen in 14 years.  The only downside to the trip is that my cell phone got wrecked on the trip and I was not able to get any of the pictures off of it, they didn’t back up to the cloud before the phone was damaged.  That was also an expensive lesson, cost me $700 in total or so.  Oh well.  I can’t really complain, in all of the years that I have had a cell phone, this is the first once that has gotten anything more than a scratch.

I got back near the end of February, before the shit hit the fan, so to say.

Things here (in Coleman, Alberta) have been close to normal through the whole pandemic.  Other than restaurants being open only for take-out and arrows on the floors of stores requesting you walk one way, there hasn’t been much of a change.  Things are slowly getting back to full normal now.  I hope the economy gets some sort of kick-start, it’s needed.

So, we are mid-June now, almost summer time.  I hope that I will have more to say over the coming weeks and months.  Stay well.

It’s been a quiet couple of weeks, or 10 days since I last posted.  Winter is on a break, for now.  The daily highs have been in the low single digits so a lot of the snow has melted.  It drops below zero at night, so then everything freezes, what fun it is to go out hiking with the dogs.  I need to buy a set of those ice clips for my shoes – on the list.

I am looking forward to my upcoming trip, in a couple of weeks now.  Will be nice to get away for sure.  I have not been to California in a long time, I was 21 the last time I was there.  Should be a good time.

Not much else to report on.  Stay warm wherever you are.

This has been a pretty relaxed weekend. Yesterday it got up to -4C or so, the dogs and I went for a hike before the really cold weather moved in.

This morning, it was -20. That’s a bit chilly for any hiking, Hera would be ok and Blondie would likely as well, but that’s a bit cold for Twix, even if she has a sweater on.

So, I’ve been on the couch since 1 watching football. It looked like it was going to be a blowout in the early game with the Texans going up 24-0 but ended up a blowout with KC killing them. Lots of offence, the type of game I like.

Now the Seahawks visit the Packers. I don’t like Seattle at all, so I’m hoping for a Green Bay victory.

All in all, it’s better than anything that’s ever available in the CFL.

The next couple of days are going to be VERY cold, highs in the low -20 range. It warms to the negative teens by the end of the week. I’m thankful that I have natural gas for heat, that’s for sure.

Back to work tomorrow. Should be a busy week so it should zip by quickly. Enjoy your week.

I decided to re-open my Facebook account after the weekend.  I did however unsubscribe from a majority of the groups I was in and unliked most of the pages I had previously liked – I should have started with this.

I run a Labrador Retrievers group myself, so, if I was going to close my account I would also need to close the group.  I also think that I would miss the happenings of my friends daily posts and what was going on with them.

I am not using it anywhere near as much though, that’s a good thing for sure.  I also don’t have a readily available link on my phone and I have removed the shortcut from my computer.  All good things.

So, for now, I am back.  🙂

I cancelled my Facebook account today. I’m unsure how long I’ll keep it closed. I’ll see how much, if any, that I miss it after this coming weekend and if I don’t, I’ll see again at the end of the month.

I think the issue is that I’m in way too many groups and have too much exposure to the idiocy that is the general public.

If I decide to return, I will be leaving 95% of the groups I’m in. I don’t mind my friends feeds, they are, after all friends. I’ve trimmed my friends list down pretty well. There are only 3 or 4 who I’ve actually never met.

So, I guess it’s sort of an experiment. I’m interested to see where it ends up.

Well, we are creeping up on 2020, the last few hours of 2019 are ahead of us.

Looking back on 2019, it wasn’t a bad year, all in all.

January – I was living in Sentinel Alberta, in an awful house that was drafty and was on propane for heat.  I had a wood-stove which was awesome, too bad I had such a hard time sourcing wood.  January was damn cold as well.

February – Trying not to freeze in Sentinal.  I am using space heaters in the house, thinking this may be cheaper than using propane for heat – not sure if it was or not, my February electric bill was over $500.  One morning when it was -50C outside, it was 9C in the house.

March – The bitter cold left, thankfully and we survived.  At this point, I had decided I was not going to spend another winter in the rental.

April & May – Great spring.  Still paying abnormally high electricity bills but we made it through a rough winter.  I know know that I can live just about anywhere for a year.

June – Signed a lease for a great new place in Coleman Alberta.  I am only 8km or so East of where I was, but I will have gas heat and unlimited cable internet.  The lease starts in July, so I will be carrying it and the old place for one month.  I am very happy that I don’t have to move back to Calgary or somewhere else as I really do love living in the mountains.

July – Moved into the new place, I love it – still do.  Very sad middle of the month with losing my sister.  Made an unexpected trip back to Ontario for her funeral.  You will always be missed, Joan.

August – Met a great neighbour at the new place and we’ve become friends – she’s like a sister really.  Being in town is awesome, I still have amazing mountain views and am loving small-town life.

September – So nice being able to stream baseball games with MLB.tv.  I had gotten used to not using the internet (as I was paying per GB and it was pricy, another good reason to get out of that place in Sentinal).

October – Return trip to Ontario for our IT Conference at work.  Spent Thanksgiving with family and had a great time at the conference.

November – Short work-trip to Banff, was not quite what I expected.  Given a promotion at work and a nice raise – enjoying the new job (same company) for sure.

December – Hosted a friend for Christmas dinner.  Glad to be in a place with gas heat.

Well, there ya go.  A VERY brief overview of the year.  I am loving living in a small-town and in the mountains, it doesn’t get much better than this.  I still visit Calgary just about every month to see friends, go to Costco and what-not and the drive has become routine.

Wishing you the best for 2020.