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 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 foward 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.
