Another long weekend…

Posted on October 14, 2018 by

This was a long weekend for me, sort of broken up though.  I was off on Friday because I worked last Sunday.  I also worked yesterday and get Monday off for that.  It was slow yesterday, so I wouldn’t really consider it a normal workday.

I didn’t do much on Friday, it was a relaxing day.  I did watch the start of the NLCS and saw the Brewers take game one of that series.  Unfortunately, the Dodgers win game two yesterday to even the series out.

Yesterday, as I said, I worked.  After I finished, I went into town to get some groceries.  I was going to drive into Lethbridge to get the dogs some food, but the weather was not the best and I didn’t really want to drive all that way in a winter storm. We didn’t get a lot of snow, luckily, only a few inches and it will all be gone by tomorrow as temps are supposed to be in the low single digits.

The Astros and Red Sox series started, but I wasn’t feeling well and was really tired so I went to bed, just to lay down at about 6:40pm.  I woke up around 11:10 to let the dogs out and went back to bed and slept until nearly 6am.  So, in total, I slept for around 11 hours – I must have been tired but I feel great today.  Even after all that sleep, I still had a nap earlier today.  Must have needed it, for some reason.

Tomorrow I take the dogs for their yearly vet checkup.  When I moved to Crowsnest Pass, I was going to get a new vet but then figured since it is only a once a year thing, I’d stay with the vet I found and really liked in Calgary.  It’s a bit of a trip, but the weather is supposed to be great.  I think I will reschedule next years trip earlier in the Falls, September sounds good to me.  I have a few other things I can do in Calgary and area, including getting dog food at Costco, likely in Okotoks (it won’t be as busy as Calgary).  Should be a good day, at least the dogs like going for car rides.

So, a short week at work coming up, that’s welcome for sure.  Won’t be as short as last weeks 3-day workweek, but I can handle four.  Hope you have a good week as well.

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Posted in Baseball, My Dogs, Personal, Work | Leave a comment

The Story of Twix

Posted on October 12, 2018 by

I have written the Stories of my dogs, Zeus, Blondie, and Hera.  I have not written about my fourth dog, Twix.  It is time to tell her story.

In December of 2016, I joined a Facebook group for Calgary and Area Pets.  I was interested in the posts.  I had no real intention of getting another dog, I already had Blondie and Hera and only insane people had more than 2 dogs, right?

Anyway, I saw a post for a Golden Retriever puppy, the owners had adopted her and for some reason were not able to keep her.  I figured I would inquire, messaged them, they replied but then I never heard back from them, so I figured someone else took the dog.

A few weeks later, towards the middle of January, I saw a post for a beautiful Pitbull mix named Twix:

twix

I messaged the owner and we chatted back and forth a little bit.  The family had just had a new baby and their work schedules changed and they didn’t feel they had the time for Twix.  The lady I was talking to said her husband would text me later.

He did, we chatted for a bit, he asked me a bunch of questions, I asked him a bunch as well.  We agreed to meet the next day at a dog park near my place so that Twix could meet Blondie and Hera.

We arrived at the park a bit before our meeting time and I played one of the dogs favourite games, ChuckIt!.  The dogs were pretty tired before Twix and her owner showed up.

The dogs met and got along well, right from the get-go.  I got to know her owner and he got to know me.  We talked about dogs and I told him all about mine.

We decided to head to my house, he wanted to check out where I lived, he wanted to ensure that if I took Twix, that she was going to a good home.

The three dogs played in the backyard for a bit, continuing the fun from the park.  We also went inside and they raced around.  The three girls were getting along great.

Twix and her owner went home and he said he’d call me later.  We decided I should sleep on it before deciding if I wanted to get another dog.  He called me early the next morning and asked what I was thinking.  I decided that I’d add another dog, dog number three to my pack.  I had a baseball meeting that morning and I’d pick her up after the meeting.

So, around 1pm that day (it was a Sunday), I drove to the south-east of Calgary to pick up Twix and her belongings.  She went very willingly with me, her owner was sad to see her go.  I was surprised that their little boy who was about 6 years old wasn’t sad, or at least didn’t appear to be sad at all.  We agreed that we could meet every so often at a dog park so that they could see Twix.

On the way home, we stopped at Pet Smart to buy some dog stuff for Twix and headed home.  Blondie and Hera were happy to see their new friend again, not knowing that she’d be staying this time.

We did meet up with Twix’s former owners, but only once.  Twix was happy to see them but didn’t try to follow them when we left.  I think she’s pretty happy with Blondie, Hera and myself.

Twix has been with us for 21 months or so now, it will be 2 years this coming January.  She moved with us to Crowsnest Pass and is loving life.  She loves having two sister dogs to play with, going for car rides, having naps with her Dad.  She bonded to me quicker than any dog I’ve ever known.  Although she wasn’t abused (so many Pitbull type dogs are), I don’t think she ever got a lot of love and attention in her early life.  Now, since I work from home, she gets all the attention and love she wants and she eats it up.

She is a great addition to the D’Arcy pack and although I do not regret getting her and giving her a great life, I’ve decided that I won’t have three dogs at one time again.  I’m glad that she’s happy and healthy and happy with my pack of girls.

Bt the way, I’ve read on the internet, 3 dogs is the maximum that you can have, without becoming a crazy dog person, so I will go with that.  🙂

 

Posted in Blondie & Hera, Blondie, Hera & Twix, My Dogs, Personal, Twix | Leave a comment

Excellent baseball, sorry Yankees (not)…

Posted on October 10, 2018 by

Great baseball game last night, from my perspective anyway, being a hater of the Yankees.  CC Sabathia was on the mound for the Yankees, I don’t care for him, likely only because he plays for the Yankees.  I didn’t like Jeeter for that reason and that reason alone.  And, guess what?  That’s my opinion so you can’t say I am wrong, it’s also my BLOG, so there.  Anyway, where was I?  Right, CC was on the mound and was not his usual good pitching self, shame.  The Sox scored 4 runs pretty early and lead 4-1 heading into the 9th.  Boston put in their closer, who, by the way, has one of the (if not the MOST) ugliest beards in all of baseball.  He did not pitch particularly well and it looked like the Yankees were going to win the game.  One shot, with bases loaded was about 10 feet shy of being a home run.  He did eventually give up 2 runs before getting the final out, which was a close play at 1B.  The Red Sox celebrated their ALDS win with sad Yankee fans looking on.  Glad it happened that way, sorry that the Yankees got one win in the series.  At least now, we don’t have to listen to how great the Yankees are, until next Spring anyway.

So, the Red Sox now move on and play the Astros, starts Saturday evening.  In the NL, the Brewers and Dodgers start their series Friday night.  I hate the Dodgers so I guess I am rooting for the Brewers to knock them off.  I can say I’ve only seen them play a few games this year so I really don’t know any of them.  They handled my Rockies with ease, of course, with how the Rockies were hitting, I think any decent Peewee aged team could have done that.  The Sox/Astros series will be nothing short of epic, I am sure.  It’s sad, sort of, that one of them can’t continue to the World Series.  My guess, whoever represents the American League will win and will win pretty easily, as easy as playoff baseball can be, anyway.

I will predict that it will be the Astros vs. Milwaukee.  The Astros will likely take 6 of not 7 games to defeat the Red Sox.  I have no idea on the NL side how many games it may go.  Seeing as I hate the Dodgers, I hope for 4.  We’ll see.

So, a couple of days off of baseball, next action is Friday night.  I suppose I will see what else is on to watch right?  Too cold to do much outside.

Gotta love playoff baseball.

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That was a pasting…

Posted on October 9, 2018 by

The long weekend for Thanksgiving was pretty relaxing.  I did have to work on Sunday, it was not busy.  I did a couple of restore requests first thing and then didn’t have much to do until later in the day, I helped a user who was in complete panic mode.  It is nice to be able to resolve a simple issue for someone and make their day.  It is also nice that I have not forgotten ALL of my technical skills since I am no longer a tech.

I watched baseball.  The Rockies got knocked out of the playoffs, 3 games straight and the third and final game, at home, where Rockies fans were hoping their offense would come alive was the worst game of the series.  A 6-0 loss to the Brewers who now advance to the NLCS against the Dodgers.  All I can say is I hope the Brewers put the same beat-down on the Dodgers that they did to the Rockies.  The Astros also swept their series against the Indians, it wasn’t even a fair match-up.  I don’t particularly care for the Indians anyway so congrats to the Astros.  They now wait until the Red Sox – Yankees series wraps up to see who they play.

Speaking of that series, the Red Sox ground the Yankees into some sort of paste yesterday, 16-1 was the final.  I am hoping that the Red Sox can eliminate the Yankees tonight, as is, likely, 90% of baseball fans.  There’s a lot of hate for both teams but the Yankees are much easier (for me, anyway) to hate.  Either way, it will set up an exciting ALCS, I am sure.  The Astros are ready and waiting and eager to repeat as World Series champions.

I did not have turkey for Thanksgiving, I didn’t make it into town to buy a turkey breast or anything.  That’s OK, I guess I didn’t feel like going out.

It’s a short 3-day work week this week as I am off on Friday.  I am covering for a co-worker on Saturday though, so that puts a damper on the long weekend, but I am off again Monday.  I don’t normally work any weekend shifts, but I am covering since there were no other volunteers.  I am ok with that.

Well, it’s the beginning of another week, for us Canadians anyway.  Enjoy yours.

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Happy Thanksgiving

Posted on October 7, 2018 by

Yesterday was a relaxing day.  I watched parts of Episodes 1-3 of the Star Wars Saga.  I say parts because I had two naps as well.  I got up just in time to watch the Indians vs Astros game which was a pretty good game, the Astros coming from behind to win and take a 2 games to none lead.  I think the Indians are all but done.  They (the Indians) might win a game at home, but I sort of think it will be a sweep.

Speaking of sweeps, it looks like the Braves and my Rockies may get swept today.  The Braves have yet to score a run against the Dodgers and the Rockies, although they have scored, it appears that they have forgotten how to hit in general.  Guess we will see today.

I am working today, until 2pm.  I am covering for one of the techs.  He owes me.  I am sure it will be a dead day.  Tomorrow is Thanksgiving in Canada and I am pretty sure that people will not be working today.  People are spending time with their families this weekend.  Well, everyone that is, except for me, I am working.  🙂  It is a change though so I don’t mind and I get this coming Friday off, so I really don’t mind.

Nothing else planned for today.  I will watch the Brewers @ Rockies game, even though I have to stream it and, if you read my last post, streaming is expensive.

Enjoy your long weekend, if you’re Canadian, that is – Happy Thanksgiving.

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That was a bit of a shocker…

Posted on October 5, 2018 by

I called Rogers yesterday.  I have my phone through a business account since my employer arranged for discounted plans with Rogers.  I wanted to move my Rogers Hub over to my business plan.  In doing so, I’d save 30%.

So, I was on hold for a bit, got the wrong department and was quickly transferred to the correct department.  The woman I was speaking to was helpful, had to check on some stuff.  It took 20 minutes or so for her to do her checks, unsure exactly what she was doing.  Anyway, right before she was going to transfer me to another department, she told me there would be a $35 fee to move my personal account over to my business account.  I didn’t want to pay a $35 fee, so I said, no thanks and come to think of it, could you not have mentioned this when I first called in, it would have saved us both 20 minutes of our lives…

Anyway, I also asked if there was a better business plan available for my Hub.  The short answer was no, there isn’t, but I can transfer you to see if they will do anything.  Do anything eh?  Rogers largest Hub plan is currently $60 per month for a 5GB plan, that’s the base rate.  At Telus, where I will shortly be moving to, their $60 plan allows for 100GB of data.  In my quick calculation, that is 20 times the data for the same price.  Their upper tier plan allows 500GB of data for $110.

I just got my Rogers Hub bill for the month of September.  I was a bit shocked by it.  For 360GB, I was charged $590.  Yes, $590 for a month of internet.  I might say that’s a bit insane.

Anyway, I will be purchasing a Telus Hub shortly and canceling my Rogers Hub service.  I wonder if they’ll be surprised that I am canceling?  I doubt it…  I also wonder how many departments I will need to be transferred to in order to cancel?

PS – I have a Rogers Hub for sale.  Warning, if you plan on using it for actually using the internet, it might result in rather large invoices.  🙂

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50cm of snow? That’s nothing…

Posted on October 4, 2018 by

We ended up with about 50cm of snow on October 2.  Calgary got somewhere near 40cm, other places in Southern Alberta were hit just as hard.  Records were broken.  We typically do not see this amount of snow any time, never mind at the beginning of Fall.

The road out front leading to the highway was not in good shape, to say the least, but it was plowed twice by mid-morning.  This amazes me, seeing as any of the streets I lived on, other than 14 Avenue which is a main north-south street in Calgary, never would have been plowed within 12 hours of the storm ending.  I called my contractor in the morning and my driveway was cleared by 4pm.

I have a huge driveway.  It is a semi-circle and about 300′ long in total.  He used a Bobcat to clear it.  The ground was still quite soft so he has to be careful not to dig up the ground but he did a great job.  It would have taken all day to clear with a snowblower, never mind trying to use a shovel.

So, this was my first taste of a nasty storm in the mountains.  As long as it doesn’t happen on a weekly basis, I think I will be OK with it.  Take note though, in future years, you can wait until after the first week of October to come.  Winter is still 2.5 months away after all.

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Snow and Baseball…

Posted on October 2, 2018 by

Although today isn’t the first snow of the season, that would have been Saturday night into Sunday morning, this is the first major snowfall of the season.  We’ve had snow in the upper mountains for nearly a month, on and off.  Today, we are supposed to see around 30cm or so.  For any Americans reading, that would be a foot of snow.  If I check the calendar, it’s October 2.  I am thinking that October 2 is too early for a foot of snow.

Now, some of you might be saying, or thinking, well, you moved to the mountains so there.  Well, Calgary is also getting a dumping of snow.  So there.  Wouldn’t have mattered if I didn’t move to the mountains.

The “weather people” said that October was supposed to be above normal temperatures.  That was a lie.  Although we are only a few days into October, it is nowhere near above normal temperatures and the long-term forecast doesn’t show any above normal temperatures either.  For that matter, the last 2 weeks (or so) of September were also not above normal.

I am glad I am not umpiring Fall Ball this year.  By the looks of it, more than half of the games have been canceled due to cold weather.  Sucks if you want to play baseball, that’s for sure.

Speaking of baseball, yesterday there were two game 163 to determine the winners of the NL Central and the NL West.  The Brewers beat the Cubs in Chicago to win the Central, it was a pretty good game.  In the later game, the Rockies didn’t hit the ball, at all, and lost 5-2 against the Dodgers to let the Dodgers win their 6th NL West title in a row.  Not that the Dodgers have much to show for their 6 titles in a row, not one World Series.  I guess we can call you the Atlanta Braves of the 2010’s.  Oh wait, Atlanta did win one World Series, as I recall, so, I guess you’re worst than the Braves.  I hope you’re disposed of quickly.

So, the Rockies go to Chicago today and play the Cubs in the Wildcard game, the winner moves on, the loser is done.  I am hoping the Rockies can pull it off.  The Cubs are sending John Lester to the mound, I’d suggest bunting everything back to him, he can’t throw to first base if this life depended on it.  They’d likely have to put the second basemen right beside him to field the ball.  Should be a good game.

Anyway, it’s October and I will be watching ball now until the end of the World Series.  Although I hope the Rockies do well, I will be fairly happy as long as it doesn’t end up being a Yankees – Dodgers final.  If that happens, all I can hope for is a career-ending injury or something.

Enjoy.

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Great weekend, lousy weather…

Posted on October 1, 2018 by

The past weekend was a good one.  I headed to Calgary, well, actually Olds, Alberta first to pick up a friend, then back to Calgary for dinner at Red Lobster, endless shrimp and then the Crash Test Dummies concert at Deerfoot Inn & Casino.

Red Lobster was good, although not as good as it has been in previous years for their endless shrimp event.  They no longer include a salad with dinner, that is now $2.79 more.  I guess as opposed to raising prices, again, they figured they’d cut out the salad.  I opted for the salad and was disappointed.  Not enough dressing on it and not enough parmesan either.  I am thinking when I return later this month with some co-workers I may pass on the salad.  Of course, if I do that, the salads will be amazing.  The breaded shrimp seemed to easily lose their breading, not sure what was up with that.  The garlic shrimp was amazing, always has been.  I tried their shrimp with cheese sauce and “salsa” for lack of a better term, it was pretty good.  The grilled shrimp were very blah, no flavour at all – but I think they were supposed to be just grilled.  All in all, it was still good and filling.  I had a brownie sundae for dessert, couldn’t finish it all, the brownies were insanely chocolatey.

So, after dinner, off to Deerfoot Inn & Casino.  I had never been to that part of town before.  Nice casino, smallish though, too many slots.  I didn’t gamble at all, not really my thing.  There was a poker room, but I didn’t want to get caught in a long game.  My friend and I waited in line to get our wrist bands and had about 1.5 hours before we could get into the show.  We sat at the bar and being the rebels we are, had pops.  We got into the show around 8:45 with it starting right at 9pm.

It was a good show.  I must not have one of the Crash Test Dummies albums because I didn’t recognize about 1/3 of the songs they did.  It was a pretty quick show, ended just before 10:30.

I had a long trek home, dropped my buddy off in Olds, we were there by 11:30 or so.  I was planning on taking Deerfoot Highway all the way south to Ft. Mcleod, avoiding Highway 22 which can be bad at night.  It was a great decision on my part.  The drive down was excellent until I turned onto Highway 3 to head into Crowsnest Pass.  Snow started light and ended up being near whiteout conditions as I approached home.  I could not see the center or shoulder lines at points, so it was slow going.  I got home around 3:10 which is WAY past my bedtime.  I crashed out immediately and yesterday was a relaxing day.

I caught the Rockies vs. Nationals game, the Rockies last home game of the regular season and a must win for them if they wanted to attempt to win the National League West division.  Unfortunately, although they won, the Dodgers did as well forcing a 163rd game of the regular season to determine the division winner.  This happened as well in the NL Central with Chicago and Milwaukee also playing off today to determine a winner.  What are the odds of 4 teams being tied after 162 games?  Gotta love baseball.

So, today will be work and baseball with baseball starting at 11am my time.  Should be a good day.  All 4 teams are in, win or lose, but I am hoping the Rockies can wrap up the NL West today, will be their first division win in their 25-year history.  As for the Dodgers, I hope someone has a career-ending injury.

Enjoy your day and week.

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Cheaper internet, I found it… :)

Posted on September 28, 2018 by

I have canceled some streaming services that I was using in order to cut down on my data usage.  Netflix, unfortunately, is gone.  I didn’t use it a lot, maybe 2-3 times a month, but at 3-4GB per hour for streaming, it would just cost too much.  DACN is also gone, after my free trial.  It uses about the same data, maybe a bit more, than Netflix.  I still have MLB.tv and will use it when I need to for the playoffs but renewing it for next year, at this point anyway, is doubtful.

I decided to check the other major mobile providers in Canada to see if they had a better deal than Rogers.  With Rogers Hub, I pay $60 per month for 5GB and each additional 10GB is $20.  It adds up, and quickly.

When I looked at Telus, the same $60 plan provides 50GB of data and it goes up to 500GB of data for $110.  I thought it was some sort of mistake or at a slow speed.  No mistake, and it’s LTE speed.  Holy crap.

So I called Rogers to ensure I was on their best plan.  Yes, indeed I am.  I asked if they could match the Telus plan.  No, they cannot.

So, can you guess where I am going to go to for my internet access?  If you guessed Telus, you’re right.  I will buy the hub outright ($279) so that I am not trapped in a contract because who knows what other options might become available in the near future, or within 2 years for that matter.

Xplornet sent someone to collect their equipment yesterday afternoon.  The took the modem and router and the receiver part of the satellite, but they left the dish itself.  I was sort of surprised by that, it’s got to be worth something but apparently, because it’s secured to the roof and they don’t want to fill holes (I suppose), they leave it.  The tech was the same one who installed everything.  This time though, he didn’t charge me $100 for mileage, a good thing, as he would not have gotten it.  He was surprised that it didn’t work when it was cloudy, he says he’s only collected 4 systems in the past year.  Based on what I’ve read online, I find that hard to believe.  If the satellite internet didn’t work here when it was cloudy, I am sure it wouldn’t work for anyone else either.  Oh well, the latency was sort of irritating as well and it was limited to 100GB of data a month.

Now, I am just waiting for my refund from Xplornet.  According to my bill, it’s been processed, it shows a credit on the account, I am just not sure when it will be credited to me.  Guess I will wait and see.

So, I guess I am moving to Telus for internet.  That will mean I am using all three of the major providers for something.  Bell for satellite TV, Rogers for cell phone and Telus for internet.  One would think I could bundle all of these together with one provider and same some extra money, but nope, doesn’t look like it.  Oh well.

It’s the weekend – have a good one.  Enjoy.

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