Updated 2018-10-13
About me eh? Do you really want to know? Well, I guess you do, you clicked the link, didn’t you?
Well, I am just a guy. A sort of normal guy I guess – well, maybe not “normal”, but what does that mean anyway?
I was born and raised in St. Catharines, Ontario (near Niagara Falls) and lived there until April of 2012. I moved to Calgary, Alberta for work in April 2012 and lived there until July 2018 when I decided I would try mountain life. I have also lived in Fonthill, Ontario and in Orillia, Ontario. For some odd reason, the 8 months that I lived in Fonthill I had insomnia. Not sure why. Actually, I have had insomnia off and on since then, very annoying. I loved Orillia – worked at a summer camp there for 2 six month stints. Until I moved to Alberta, I was convinced that I would retire in Orillia – now, I am not so sure.
I grew up on Lakeport Road in St. Catharines and lived there until I was 24. I went to Sheridan Park from K through 8 and then Lakeport Secondary for my high school years – Lakeport closed in 2014 unfortunately and has now been taken over by a public religious school – don’t even get me going on that… Sheridan Park is there, I am told it has a new name now.
I attended both Niagara College and Brock University for Computer Programming / Computer Science. After finishing, I decided that programming was not for me but the IT field was.
I started working at a local internet provider and stayed there for a little over 5 years. I then moved onto a job with the Regional Government and worked there for over 10 years. I knew that it wasn’t for me fairly quickly into my tenure – the waste of taxpayer money was too much to handle. I had been told that once you’ve been with the government for more than 2 or 3 years, you are there for life. Thankfully, I was able to break out of that and I moved on. I have been with my present employer since April (2012), and it is, by far, the best job that one could hope for. I have now been in my “new” job for a little over 4 years and still love it. I now work from home as well which is very nice. My commute is the time to walk from the living room to the office, 3 seconds. Not bad.
So, I’ve been in Calgary for 3 months now (as of July 20, 2012) and I LOVE it. It is now over 3 years (July, 2015) and still love it. It total, I was in Calgary for 6.5 years and did enjoy my time there. I had to move out of the house I was renting and am now in the mountains of South-West Alberta in a place known as Crowsnest Pass. I have an acreage that the dogs and I love, right on Crowsnest River. Mountain life is amazing. I moved out of the acreage in July 2019 and have been in the small town of Coleman, Alberta, just 10km East of the acreage since. Small town mountain life agrees with me for sure.
I came here for a job and I love my job. I left Niagara because there were no jobs around, or, more precisely, no jobs that I was interviewed for or were offered. I didn’t necessarily want to leave the area, but after I expanded my search outside of my local area, I figured I would be moving West.
I was offered my new job before the Easter Weekend and I left a week later. I drove, pulling a trailer behind me and it was an interesting trip. I have now been coast to coast by car, I’ve driven at least 1/2 of that distance. When I was in grade 3, we drove to the east coast and when I was 14, we drove from Calgary to Vancouver. We have a huge country, that’s for sure.
My private life is pretty simple.
I coached baseball (and softball before that) for 25 years and I loved it. I retired from coaching as of August of 2016. I decided that 25 years was enough and I needed a break. I have never reached my goal of a provincial championship, so that is still on my bucket list. I have umpired for years as well – it’s fun and I can set my own schedule. This past summer, I umpired in the Cal Ripken Major/70 World Series in Branson Missouri. It was the experience of a lifetime. After the tournament, and seeing as I had left Calgary, I decided to retire as an umpire. The baseball won’t get any better than the World Series and I want to try some other outdoor “summer” activities. I am sure I will get bored at some point and will return to it, but we will see.
I have been on various baseball board of directors for years and have done everything from convening to being president. I did not realize that there were so many politics involved but believe me, there are. I was the Club Manager for the Babe Ruth Calgary Rockies club between 2014 and 2016, 3 seasons in total. We have two teams, AA (15-16 year old) and AAA (17-19 year old) and it keeps me busy from mid-January until the end of July. After my 3rd year with Babe Ruth and my 25th year coaching, I decided to retire from coaching. I did stay involved with Babe Ruth though, on the Board of directors until August of 2018 when I stepped down due to my move.
Speaking of politics, I was involved with the Federal Conservatives and in Ontario, the Provincial PCs. It was great being able to help and meeting like-minded people. I was not as involved in Alberta as I was in Ontario. When I first moved to Calgary, I got involved with a great local association. When I moved to a new riding, I didn’t get any response from them but connected with a new President and was elected to the Board of Directors so I was involved with Federal Politics until the last Federal election when the MP from the Calgary Centre riding lost her bid for re-election. I have since decided that although I am interested in politics, I am not going to sit on any boards moving forward and will just cast my vote, like the rest of you.
I am a single guy and I like it that way and can’t see that changing any time soon. I have three dogs, Blondie, a Yellow Lab, Hera, a German Shepherd and Twix, a Pitbull/Border Collie mix. Zeus, my first dog, who was a Sheppard / American Eskimo cross passed away in May of 2015 – losing him was one of the hardest things I’ve ever been through. I take them a lot of the places that I go and they seem to like it – they are good dogs and I am glad they are part of my life. The dogs are a big part of my life and we all get along very well.
I am sure that there is a LOT more I can say, but hey, if you really want to learn all about me, read my BLOG. You’re here, it’s easy.
Have fun.
