We have decided to front load this vacation. In previous vacations, I would save activities for later and then run out of time to do them. Here we are doing many activities early.
Yesterday we went kayaking in the morning, although it was a bit windy for that.
In the afternoon we took a bicycle ride to a nearby beach and walked along that. The resort has daily bicycle tours, so we are getting those out of the way now.
This morning, we took another bicycle ride to a nearby limestone cave. We did a tour of it. It has a long history of hiding slaves and Spanish government. It was recently used as a nightclub until 1994. We saw snakes and bats.
Afterwards we went across the street for jerk chicken. The resort makes its jerk chicken for gringos, so it is not very good. No spice. The native ones are much more flavorful.
Unfortunately while I was in line to get the chicken, Catalina got hit by a cricket ball in the leg. We hunk a blood vessel burst so we are applying ice. Otherwise she is fine.
I need to catch up on sleep a bit, but otherwise we are having a great time.
2016-10-16 13:29

It is apparently inclement in Vancouver this weekend. Last night a storm moved through town; I slept through it and am not even sure it was real. I was inside the rest of the day and didn’t notice significant rain. The second storm should be more active and will happen overnight. That is more of a concern because my flight leaves in half an hour. The rest of the week looks like nothing but rain.
But as I remarked, I won’t be here to see it.
Off to Jamaica. Well, Toronto first. I plan to sleep as much as possible on this leg. Because I won’t sleep much when I’m in the Caribbean.
The airport was fairly easy to get to. There was a train two blocks from home that took us right here. Got through everything quickly and now we are just waiting to board. So far, I would recommend traveling from Vancouver.

I stopped going to the Running Room in Edmonton because I did not like their running club. It used to be good, but wasn’t anymore. On Wednesday evenings they were always doing hill training, and I just wanted to go for a run. On Sundays, they always had the same route and I was getting sick of it. So I joined United Cycle and had a much better time there.
However, there is no United Cycle in Vancouver. So I have to go back to the Running Room and progress from there. I was hoping it would be different, but it isn’t turning out that way. The Running Room near Stanley Park did not have a organized run today. Instead, they had people doing speed work, which involves doing a loop several times, quickly. That is not what I am looking for when I want to go out for an enjoyable run.
So I ran by myself, getting somewhat lost in Stanley Park. It was nice enough and I had a good time. But I worry that I am hurting myself. I should get off my high horse and run with other people, even if I don’t like the run itself. Otherwise, how am I going to meet new people and make friends?

I live almost exactly between two Running Room locations, so this evening I went to the other one. This one was located next to Stanley Park, so I figured there would be a good chance for trail runs. With that in mind I wore my Vibrams, which meant no cushioning.
Since I’m still avoiding driving, I ran the 2km there. Once there I discovered that the run would be along the Seawall in Stanley park. Actually, completely around the park. This is also known as a pavement heavy route. My shoe selection was not optimal.
But, it was still a pleasant run. I interrogated the other runners and learned about my options for trail running in the future. It was right beside the sea so there was interesting things to see. There were seals floating around like they were in a food coma. A large transport ship heading out to sea. A gorgeous sunset into the ocean.
I also discovered that I work for the same company as another of the runners.
On the run back, in the middle of a busy residential area, right next to downtown, I had to avoid a skunk that looked like it owned the street. In fairness, as far as everyone else was concerned, he did.

I went out to lunch with a friend today at work. Since she knew the area, she picked the place. The only caveat that we had agreed on was that it would be someplace healthy.
I was taken to Living Produce Aisle. My first though on entering was that this was a place for farm animals to have lunch. They had flats of grass all over the place. Although it was probably actually something else that was healthy, it still looked like they were doing a grow-op of grass.
Their website claims they “want to revitalize Yaletown”, but I am afraid that ship has sailed. Yaletown is already very affluent. Check you real estate prices if you are unsure. They are also working with the “Zero Mile Diet™” which has a trademark. That just sounds like they are trying to one-up someone else in the buzzword competition.
I have found where yuppies go to act like hippies.
All that said, the smoothie I got there tasted good. And it was low in sugar.
But after lunch I was still hungry enough that I had to go find some more stuff to eat.

On Friday I got a phone number local to Vancouver. This meant I had to give up my previous phone number that I had had for 21 years.
Today, I was told by some friends that I didn’t need to do that. A friend of a friend had moved from Edmonton to Vancouver and kept her number. Well, I really liked my old number, so I never wanted to give it up. I was upset that the cell phone person I was dealing with had never even mentioned this as an option.
I went back to the cell phone dealership. Everything is conveniently within walking distance, so it wasn’t hard. There I found out that my old phone number has already been claimed.
Yesterday I was fine with losing my cell phone number. It was something out of my control, and it made a sort of sense. Now I am angry that I didn’t need to. And yet nothing has changed. There is nothing I can do anymore about it, so I should move on.
But I am also suspecting I would have had to change it anyway. In a way, it is just a number, so I wouldn’t think that any number had to be tied to a particular location anymore. But there is such a thing as being able to tell the location of a number by looking at the first few digits.

I have now completed my first day of work at my new job. There was a lot of orientation in the morning. This place has a lot of benefits. Among them, food is heavily subsidized. The orientation people mentioned that people gain weight when they join the company. I can see that.
I got invited out to lunch to a Japanese restaurant. It seems that it is very common for people to go out for lunch here. (See that earlier remark about subsidized food.) The problem is that sit-down lunches are very long. I am not a fan of long lunches. And sit-down lunches invariably have too much calories that make me want to take an afternoon nap.
Coca-cola is subsidized too.
The afternoon had me filling out forms and attending meetings.
Hopefully I will be a productive member of society too.

Tomorrow I start my new job. It has been a whirlwind of activity to get to this point.
The apartment is starting to come together. The living room is almost looking livable. There are still a few boxes that need unpacking, and my clothes need to be sorted through and homes found for them. This place is small though. We have been managing, but we have to be watchful of everything we bring in.
We have found that the part of the city we are in is very walkable. And we are hip-deep in restaurants around here. They are more expensive than what I am used to, but we are downtown, so what was I expecting. We can also find numerous stores that we don’t need a car to get to. So we can make a run to Costco on foot, which nicely prevents us from buying too much. It is right next to a T&T superstore. Movie theatres are around here. We haven’t explored regular grocery stores that much; we’ve ended up driving a fair distance to a Superstore for some staples.
Generally, if there is something I need though, it is within walking distance.
I did a run with the Running Room this morning. Since I’ve made it a goal to avoid driving as much as possible, I ran 2km there. This was followed by a 24km run. Since the move has prevented me from doing any real training, I am not used to that kind of distance. My legs hurt now.

We got up early. Our Airbnb host said they would be up at 7, which meant we would be able to have half an hour for breakfast. But I guess she was partying too late last night, because we left at 7:30 and no one else in the house was awake. We got a breakfast at a Tim Hortons in Kamloops instead.
The rest of the trip went okay until the last kilometer. I had no trouble driving a big truck through downtown Vancouver. But the truck didn’t fit into the entrance to the building I was trying to take. I discovered this when I started banging on low hanging signs designed for this express purpose. And with the car attached behind, I could not reverse.
Thankfully, my new security guy came out and helped me. I “quickly” detached the car (it felt really slow with all that was going on) and parked in a very convenient spot. With that off, I could reverse better, with the spotter watching for traffic. Then around to the back alley I should have gone in, and had a better time backing up there.
The movers were thankfully late, so everything was handled in time for when they arrived.
This place is small. I knew that going in, but it is different actually looking at it in the face. The big furniture was mostly done correctly, but we should have made starker choices purging in the kitchen. There is not as much space for things there either.
But we returned the truck, had sushi for dinner, then got home and laundered the bed sheets (after we found them) and slept.
Today will be unpacking.
2016-9-22 8:57

Well, I’m moving. I have the job offer and now I will be working in Vancouver.
It has been stressful, but it, annoyingly, hasn’t sunk in yet. There is so much to do, that I haven’t had time to reflect.
Packing has revealed that I own too much stuff. I need to purge more, but it is too late now. Steph has been good at helping with that, but there comes a time when you have to do it yourself. That time is not now.
Finding boxes was a challenge, but I eventually found that the liquor store at Superstore just lets people take lots of boxes. I made several trips, sometimes multiple times in a day, and grabbed lots.
It came to a head yesterday when the movers looked at my stuff and the truck I had rented and declared I didn’t have enough room. I had rented from U-Haul the truck they claim was good for a two bedroom apartment. Apparently I collect more than most people. However, the mover had great Tetris skills and was able to put a lot on. But not all. Some stuff is still in my condo. We have some plans as to what to do about it, but that is an issue for the future. Fortunately, I have all the the stuff I wanted in Vancouver.
He also didn’t use all the blankets. Which was good, because I was worried I hadn’t brought enough. On the morning of the move, I got up at the crack of dawn (that is relevant) to go to the U-Haul dealership to get some more. They only had one and a half dozen, and I thought I would need more. So I drove to another location to try and score some more. Unfortunately, the location was due east of the first. It is also around the fall equinox. So the dawn sun was making my drive to the other location very bright. The other location was closed by the way.
We left late, with my car attached to the back of the truck. My car is on a roll dolly, so that means I will not be able to reverse the truck. The truck sucks back a lot of gas. I think it is getting 25l per 100km. It is also a very American car. It has stickers all over it giving information in imperial units, while traffic signs in Canada continue to be metric.
We got to my parent’s late, and the next day we tried to unload some of the things we were leaving there. By this time it was raining, and we discovered that the roll dolly could not be unattached from the truck without taking the car off first. We were not willing to risk that, so we couldn’t move the truck close to the house. We proceeded to juggle the furniture out while driving it to the front door in another vehicle. We finally got off by eleven.
The drive through the mountains wasn’t too bad, but it did snow at times. I have to drive slow, because, well, I’m hauling a lot. We were stopped for 20 minutes for some construction project. However the most harrowing moment came on a dry sunny road. We were on “Deep Creek” road and going downhill, when it did far too sharp a turn to manage. We stopped and luckily no one was coming the other way.
We are now in Falkland. Tomorrow we try and get to Vancouver in time to meet the movers who will move me.
2016-9-20 22:17

As I have previously mentioned, I have been unemployed. I have been looking for jobs, and it hasn’t been going the best. I had a great company in Edmonton that I was really hyped about, but they did not accept me. That has left me depressed, but I persevered and kept looking.
Today I got offered a job for quite a bit more than I was making. Unfortunately it is not in Edmonton. It is in the most expensive city in Canada; but also the city every Canadian wants to live in. Vancouver.
There is very little question. I should take this job.
But it is scary. I have been in Edmonton for just over twenty years. I have lived in Winnipeg longer (barely), but I was not physically aware for a good chunk of that time. So Edmonton feels more like a home than any other place. The move from Winnipeg to here was scary then, so I know what to expect.
The fear is all the things I am leaving behind. I became an adult here. I have friends I have fought tooth and claw to earn. I know where things are. I know how to run the trails here. Now, I will probably be leaving it all behind.
Where will I get my hair cut now? Where is the best place to buy spices? How am I going to find a place to live? What is going to happen to my current condo? Will I be able to throw an American Thanksgiving dinner?
My life is going to change. A lot.

People in Vancouver do not know how to run in mountains. They don’t have to deal with altitude, and they don’t get good practice going downhill when they have a cablecar to take them back down.

I have some thoughts on the sharing economy. Now that I have used Airbnb, I actually have a shred of experience with the system.
While staying with hosts, I found myself trying to “game” the system. I wanted a good review, so I bent over backwards to be nice to the hosts, and even make friends with them. I don’t know if I did this more than I would have otherwise. I did get good reviews.
Airbnb will even link to my Facebook account. I don’t know to what extent that means the two providers are integrated. I suspect Uber does the same thing.
In the non-sharing economy, your credit rating is everything. The better it is, the more financial options you have available to you. You start out with none, and have to work to get a good rating. But it its an easy thing to grow if you do it carefully over time. It is why I got a credit card in university even though I didn’t really need one at the time.
Now I can see Facebook becoming the new social rating service. If you link everything to your Facebook account, all the other services can see if you are a trustworthy person or not. Different from your credit rating, this is more of a personality rating.
(This is actually something I’ve been wanting for some time, a way to rate people as human beings. If someone is a jerk, it would be cathartic to be able to let other people know that I believe he is a jerk and therefore consequences will happen. But that is a system that would be very open to abuse, so we shouldn’t go there.)
But, similar to how I got a credit card in university, it implies that everyone should get a Facebook profile to grow their social rating. You need to start developing a profile with history, or otherwise you will look like you just made a new fake person because the real you has a poor rating. And it is an easy thing to grow if you do it carefully over time.
This feels like an advertisement for Facebook: use it early and often so that you can participate in the new economy.
It is an end-run around the old economy. It is similar to how the world electrical grid may evolve in the future. Instead of all the competing electrical plugs you need in North America versus Europe versus Britain etc, you may instead just use USB outlets. A technology that didn’t have the intention to become the power standard of the world, does.

Tuesday was our last day of vacation. We just had to drive to Edmonton and we would be done.
But, we didn’t think we were in that big a rush, so we checked out the Wells Gray park nearby. Our Airbnb host was a good champion of the park and even had brochures ready, and recommended trails and stops. We decided to pass on some of the hikes, because we didn’t have too much time, but we did drive to all the highlights.
It was a very beautiful park. There were waterfalls everywhere. It has a history of glaciation and volcanic activity that makes those waterfalls so prevalent. I would have liked to have spent longer there and seen more. Maybe another time.
But we must have spent too long there, because in the end, we didn’t get back home until after eleven o’clock.
We had a lunch at the “Clearwater Stop” restaurant, because a friend had recommended it for good German food. And the Jager Schnitzel was good. I think we were in a very German area, because a LOT of the other tourists in the park were speaking German.
In Jasper, we ate at the “D’ed Dog Diner”. Last year it has a great “Big Game Burger”. This year, that burger was overcooked. My travelling companion was over-tired at that point and was taking it very personally afterwards. If I had let her continue her rant, it would have ended with the Diner being burnt down and the ashes sown with salt. I was in a more forgiving mood and would give them another shot.

Today, Monday, we got up late.
We tried to get in a little bit more of Vancouver before we had to go, so we walked to Granville Island. However, neither of us were big shoppers, so the idea of wandering through a bunch of eclectic shops didn’t appeal to us that much. Instead, we stayed on the bridge leading to the island, took some pictures of the scenery, and then headed back.
I wanted to try out some of the food trucks as a lunch option. It seemed like a good idea. Unfortunately, just because they are a truck, doesn’t make it fast food. It took as long as a sit-down meal to get the food. It WAS good, just not worth the wait when you have a long drive ahead of you.
Then we started driving home. We only had to make it to the town of Clearwater in British Columbia. We have a Airbnb there, so that we don’t have to try and do the whole trip at once. Since we had time, we thought we would take the scenic Trans-Canada Highway back again instead of the faster Coquihalla Highway. We even stopped for more fruit from the roadside vendors. (So good!) We planned to not take lots of pictures. Why should we, we had already taken them on the way down. Then we hit the golden hour, and that plan went to pot.
We kept stopping for pictures because it was overwhelmingly beautiful. We got to Kamloops at around 8:30PM and picked up a very quick meal. We didn’t get to Clearwater until after ten o’clock. That was a long day.
Unfortunately, Clearwater is in the middle of nowhere, so there was no cell service. I had been overly dependent on my iPhone to map my way everywhere, and the mountains were indicating that was a bad idea. Fortunately, I had printed out a faded copy of the map. I just wish these Airbnb people would have better lit numbers for their houses.

Today, Sunday, we didn’t plan things that well.
For some reason, we thought it would be a good idea to go to the aquarium. On a beautiful Sunday, the park was packed. We REALLY lucked out and got parking after a very rough time driving there.
The aquarium was really cool. But we had arrived too late in the day to spend more than two hours there. And we lingered too long in the not-cool part. So we had to rush through the parts featuring mammals, like belugas and seals. We did end it off with touching sea flap-flaps.
Then we went for coffee with an old work friend. While there, we had two sightings of Neil Patrick Harris. I didn’t recognize him, but my friend had read his biography and was able to recognize his children enough to confirm it was him, and not just someone who looked like him.
Then off to dinner with another former coworker. We had Indian. I seem to be doing a lot of networking here.
The friends we had been seeing had done an evening cruise, so when we went to the club it wasn’t as many people. And frankly the club was disappointing. So we didn’t spend too late there.
We got a late check out, so we shouldn’t need to rush on Monday.

Today, we walked back to the waterfront and rented some bicycles. Then off to Stanley Park.
Bikes are a great way to see the park. It makes it easy to get around, you feel more connected, you see things you wouldn’t from a car, parking is easy, and you get exercise. I’m sure I have a friend who would approve; as long as we were wearing helmets.
I liked Prospect Point because of the view of Lions Gate Bridge. We were lucky to be there just as a cruise ship was going through; it makes the pictures better. Probably adds scale or something. There was a Chinese man playing Pachabel’s Canon on some instrument I didn’t recognize. It is a lovely song.
We also had lunch now a rocky beach that was only accessible because of low tide. It was near Siwash Rock, so there was a nice view too.
After four hours, we returned the bikes, and walked back to the same restaurant as yesterday. We liked it, and we had found other dishes we had wanted to try.
Then another night of meeting friends at clubs. Staying out too late too. This time we scored a cab ride there with an acquaintance, and walked back afterwards. We had planned to walk there, but the person offered to let us join her.

Please excuse the lateness of the next few posts. I’ve been busy and I’m trying to catch up.
On Friday, we evacuated the Airbnb and moved to a hotel. I’m trying to make that sound simpler than it was. The hotel wasn’t ready until later, but we could park our car there. We did that and then walked half an hour to Gastown. It is a trendy part of town. Well it pretends to be that, but at times it felt touristy with lots of souvenir shops. And occasional over-priced yuppie stores. (The fur rug at $3500 felt fabulous until I realized it wasn’t fake.)
We actually started at a restaurant I had been to before, Save On Meats. It is a diner with its own butcher attached to it. The meat is fantastic and the prices are good. If you are in the area, go check it out.
We then did the wander through Gastown, stopping to see the steam clock. I am annoyed by it because it was four minutes off. And a friend told me it wasn’t run by steam. Still the moving metal balls inside that roll around on tracks to help run it are cool to look at.
Eventually, we proceeded to the waterfront. The scenery was beautiful and we took lots of pictures. I liked watching all the water planes come in and take off. You don’t see that in Edmonton. I wonder if you could? Could we use the North Saskatchewan as a landing strip? Certainly not in winter.
For dinner we went to a cheap Japanese restaurant that is on the same block as the hotel. We wanted to have sushi here because, well, it is Vancouver. You are practically required by law.
Afterwards we went out to a club with a bunch of friends. We are being surprisingly sober here, so it makes getting around easy when you don’t have to worry about driving under the influence. Although parking feels awkward when you do it next to a homeless person and a prostitute.
Stayed up way too late.

Today we did a lot of hiking.
It started with a trip to the Capilano suspension bridge. It is an expensive park, $40 per person. It is beautiful, but the bridge itself isn’t that exciting. At the time of day we went, it was crowded, and certain kinds of people will get cranky if you take too long taking a picture. There are park attractions on either side, but the far side is better. Bonus: there are less people on the far side due to the bridge bottleneck.
They have something called a “Treetop Adventure”, but they really should have bitten the bullet and called it the “Ewok village”.
I liked seeing the owl up close, and the remains of the tree that tried to take out the bridge.
Afterwards, we continued up the road to Grouse Mountain. They have a great trail called the “Grouse Grind”. It is about 2.4km, and goes up 850 meters. You have to be strong to handle it. I was with someone, so I had to go their pace, so I spent most of the time being cheerful and encouraging to other people who may have been cranky. It was nice to be on a busy trail because I could pass people.
I don’t like being passed on a trail, and it is usually because of the slow people I’m with. (Do I sound bitter?)
Interestingly, someone died on the trail yesterday. Heart attack. I know I should feel sorry for him, but it does make me feel more accomplished.
We didn’t do much at the top because some of us were tired, so we took the gondola down.
I wish we had remembered to check out the Capilano dam. I don’t know if it an attraction, but it would have been nice to see.
2016-7-22 1:18

We drove down the Thompson river on the Trans-Canada highway. We stopped for some fruit, and got a complimentary habanero plant too. We will see if we can keep it alive for the trip. We have a huge amount of fresh produce on us now, that we need to eat before it goes bad.
We went south, stopping to take pictures every so often.
When we passed “Hell’s Gate” (not the only time I’ve seen that name. People keep naming things the same thing ) we stopped off at what we thought was a scenic point. However it required walking down a steep road. Eventually we figured it was just to the other end of the cable car that lets you view the Gate. We decided to give up after we had gone halfway. We would only have seen the view from a bridge a bit above the water, and it may not have been that good. We also weren’t wearing good hiking shoes.
The rest of the trip was uneventful, and now we are in Vancouver.
2016-7-20 23:33

My first Airbnb was very good. I was exhausted yesterday evening, so my blog post may have been rambling. In the harsh light of day I realize how nice it was.
The host was very welcoming. I had planned to go out for breakfast, but she started offering her own food. Since she had chickens, we had incredibly fresh, fertilized eggs. They were the best eggs I’ve ever had. Fresh bread from the bakery for toast. She was also a great conversationalist.
After breakfast, we got a tour. We held chickens and rotated them. (You have to try it to see.) Then a tour of her garden.
We bought a few of her eggs (hard-boiled) and then left later than we had planned.
She gave us directions to Vancouver that would be better than the default. So now we are in Cache Creek having a lunch before continuing on. I’m sort of looking to see if there are any fresh fruit vendors along the way. But we have a lot of fruit in the car already.
2016-7-20 14:15

The day started in Priddis. But we got up early and drove to Mount Temple, to climb it. We had decided to go today, because the weather would be better. And the weather was nice, in Priddis. Around Lake Louise the weather was decidedly more inclement. It was okay when we started out, at around nine. But it soon started raining. We persevered and we seemed to get a new form of weather every half hour. Although my other half looked rather cranky for the first part. I was too, but that was until I ate some trail mix; I hadn’t eaten for too long.

When we reach Ministemma lakes, we stopped for lunch. It was sunnier, and everything felt better. Then up to Sentinel Pass. Lots of pictures were taken. The we kept climbing up. We had no intention of getting to the top, but we got to the cool ledge, made for taking exciting pictures. There we had another lunch and then headed back.

We took too long, and we’re running behind schedule. So we ate a lot of snacks in the car instead of stopping in Lake Louise for dinner. Probably for the best, because the town was very busy and had a traffic jam. We wouldn’t have been able to get a dinner in a reasonable time. So, we had a long drive to our next stop in Falkland, B.C., where we had an Airbnb to go to. Don’t be surprised if you have never heard of Falkland. But it was a good stopover to let us arrive in Vancouver over two days.

The planning could have gone better. I figured it would be easy to find the way to the really small town (hamlet?) Except I was thinking like an urban prairie dweller. There was no cell access in the mountains. So my map plan was not reliable for a long stretch. The only other map in the car was twenty years old. But a combination of the two got us here.

It is now very late, and I need to sleep.

2016-7-19 23:55

This had been planned long before my unemployment, so it would be hard to justify doing these things now. Yesterday, I went whitewater rafting on the Kananaskis river. That was loads of fun. The weather was slightly overcast, so I worried about being cold; especially with glacier water. But when you are paddling you keep warm enough.
Immediately afterwards there was the drive home. On the way we stopped off at Big Hill Springs Provincial Park. I had always been interested in it, because it has a beautiful valley entrance that entices me when I drive past. This time, since we had the time, we stopped off. It was gorgeous. The lower parts looked like a fairly tale. In a movie I would expect little woodland creatures to be frolicking about. If you have the time, stop off there for at least half an hour. Do the small hike and take lots of pictures.
We got back late on Friday evening, which made getting up on Saturday hard. We couldn’t linger in bed, because we had to go do the Color-Me-Rad run. I’m of mixed feeling about it. I saw a lot of opportunities where the event was trying to milk me for money (especially with their convoluted parking scheme, in collusion with the Northlands) but the event itself was fun. I got sprayed with all sorts of color. At one time in the face, by request, which caused me to lose sight in one eye, until I could get my sunglasses cleaned.
At the end we were a rainbow of spectrum.
Instead of getting cleaned up, we went to the Whyte Avenue artwalk. We fit in well, and got lots of compliments. There were a few other post-racers there. Solidarity!

After hard work, I now have an app in the Apple app store. I’m very proud of this. It was a team effort, but I was the one making the actual code that went into the store; everyone else was in the back end and the web pages being displayed. (Which is probably the more important part.) It was actually approved in less than a day, but that is probably because it is of no interest outside of our existing customers. If it was something everyone was using, like a game, they would have looked at it harder. That, and the approver probably had a long weekend they wanted to get to.
We had planned to try and get everything done by June 1st, but no plan survives contact with the enemy. Still, we just got it into the store under the wire for the same month as planned.
It was a nice way to finish my last day at work.
I have not been looking for a new job very hard. I’ve updated my resume, but I feel a little burned out now. I gave a good chunk of my life to the company; I guess I feel like a spurned spouse. So I’m going to probably spend a lot of July “finding myself”. This will involve self-development. Now that I have someone in the same living place as me, I’m hoping it will help me concentrate on doing work. Last time I was unemployed, with no one able to comment on my actions, I wasn’t as accountable.
But I have an app in the app store, and no one can take that away.

Last Friday I got my two weeks notice. I’ve been laid off.
I’ve been stressed for the last few weeks, thinking I had been doing a bad job at work. This was because my boss was under a lot of pressure, assumed someone else’s mistake was mine, and took his frustration out on me. He apologized later, but the damage was done, and my confidence in my job has been shot. So this lay off was not entirely unexpected.
However, it was not for anything I’ve done. The company’s finances haven’t been that good lately and they have to let people go. Several other people are going too. But they are trying not to be mean, and want us to keep working for the last two weeks; as opposed to kicking us out and forcing us to use our vacation time. They’ve given me a very good reference letter, and said that if things picked up, they would hire me back.
I long ago decided that there is no point to getting angry or vindictive at employers. Don’t burn bridges.
Today was exhausting though. I am doing some training of a junior employee on the code I’ve worked on. I am trying to be in a positive mood, but it is a bit of a lie. If I can keep myself distracted, it isn’t too bad. But I constantly question myself and try to determine if I am working on something important. If I get stuck on something, can I waste someone else’s time to try and get out of it? Tired.
Part of me is looking forward to being laid off. I can finally catch up on some personal programming projects that have been left behind. But every so often I think about some of the stuff I want to do, and I have to realize that money isn’t always going to be there now.
My life has changed and I need to accept that.

Then there are other times we it is good that I am not emotional. But I still need the opportunity to vent. Oh look, a blog!
On Sunday I went for a run in Terwillegar park. It had rained previously so it was muddy. Thankfully I had planned ahead and brought along some plastic shopping bags with me. So I took my shoes off and put them in the bags and drove off in my socks.
Except that I didn’t go directly home. I had to go to Costco for some supplies. So I parked, opened the door, put my shoes outside, slipped my feet in and off I went. Nothing exciting there.
When I was done, I had to reverse the process. I opened the door, sat down and started taking off my shoes. This was when things got interesting…
I was parked next to a red Mustang. It looked fairly old, and was in rough shape. The side had caved in from some accident. I had to open my door enough so that it was touching this car, but I had made sure to do it gently.
And while I was sitting, getting my shoes off, a man from down the parking lot yells at me. “Get your f*%&ing door off my car!” This man was the very picture of trailer park trash. In my non-emotional state I just said “I wasn’t hitting your car, but okay.” I was done with my shoes, I closed the door, and drove off.
It was not worth it to get into an argument with this man.
But ten minutes later I really wanted to point out all his problems. We had both gone our separate ways, nothing would be accomplished, but in my delusion it would have felt good to. I think I get angry when people swear at me.
“Even if I had banged your car no one would have noticed. But I guess it is your baby. So you feel justified in using that kind of language in front of your wife and actual baby.”
Yeah, ten minutes later Erik has all the answers.

I wish I could be more immediate with my emotions
When I am with people, my brain has a tendency to turn off. I don’t overthink what I am doing. It is only when I have had time to reflect on my thoughts do I realize that something may have happened that upset me.
Which made today bad. Something happened yesterday that only after sleeping on it, did I realize the betrayal that had happened. If I had been in the moment, I may have been able to do something about it and talked it out. Instead it simmered all of today. Put me into a bit of depression too.
I don’t like this.
Hopefully sleeping on it tonight will make tomorrow better.
But, if I was a more passionate person, I would get into arguments more.

I have figured out what my sleep problem is.
I have been trying to have a healthier diet. Due to some GI issues, a doctor suggested I have more probiotics. I’ve been doing this by consuming large amounts of yogurt, mostly Greek yogurt. (More protein.) At the same time, I’ve been cutting down on sugar. I started by reducing, a lot, the amount of Coke I drink. I used to drink one or two cans a week. Now I seem to be drinking that amount in a season. Or financial quarter.
To continue on with this, I’ve been reading nutrition labels to get an idea of how much sugar is in things I drink. I usually compare the drinks to a can of Coke which has a lot. And it is depressing how much sugar is in everything. Two mugs of hot chocolate have as much sugar as one can of Coke. So I’ve stopped having an afternoon hot chocolate at work.
I need something to drink that doesn’t have sugar. I don’t like coffee.
Then I hear about Kombucha. Miracle drink all the hippies like. It has probiotics. It doesn’t have sugar. I got a six pack on sale at Costco to try it out. I tried drinking it at dinner instead of something that would have had too much sugar. It doesn’t have the greatest taste, but it isn’t terrible.
And when I had some on Tuesday evening, I had trouble sleeping. The same as on Sunday night, when I also had a Kombucha.
A quick check of the internet. Yup. Kombucha is made from tea and has caffeine.
Did I mention I’m also trying to cut caffeine out of my diet?

The biggest problem I have when I wake up too early is to try and do what my body wants to do.
I can see I have a good hour and a half before I need to actually get up. I am sleepy. I want to sleep. I have no reason not to sleep.
Except I have to work at trying to sleep. And that is tiring. I have to force my brain to concentrate on sleeping. It is not easy to do, because you almost have to do the opposite of concentration. Probably some Zen hippy could describe it better than me. I usually give myself a mental problem to work on that will hopefully distract my thought process; My current favourite is to list the countries of the world, in order, by where they are on the coastline.
In any case, trying to stay in that mode of trying to sleep becomes too much after awhile. It is easier to just wake up and spend some time reading.
This does not solve the fundamental problem that everything wants to go to sleep.

This evening I did my last training run on the Hotel MacDonald staircase before they are destroyed tomorrow to make way for a funicular in seventeen months. 202 wooden steps that I have loved and hated with equal passion. An appropriate blanket of fog descended over them as I pushed my way up, a fitting end for this monument. They were convenient for me to get to, and they were hard to do. And that is the key thing about them that I think the city is missing.
The Edmonton Journal had an article where Councillor Ben Henderson was saying this will be “a win for the city”. And I can see the advantage; to allow people with disabilities to use the river valley. Plus free money from the federal government will help create jobs. But I think they have the wrong attitude.

“All of the entryways from downtown to get into the river valley right now are extremely steep. I have tried, literally, every single one from downtown and they are somewhat scary to get down at the grade that they are at right now.”
– Erin Jackson, Committee Member, Accessibility Advisory Committee.

We need those stairs because they are hard. There are certain things that shouldn’t be made easy. The accomplishment comes from adversity. There should not be an escalator to the top of a mountain. And Edmonton is thick with runners who like to push themselves. If you have ever looked at the Glenora staircase, it is usually filled with runners after work. These are my people and we are being marginalized.
Now, all that said, I am being selfish here. I want to keep this staircase because it works for me. I just wish they could have picked a different location, maybe east of the Shaw conference centre. And in seventeen months, there will be a new staircase for me to use, but it probably won’t be as steep as I like. The delay will disrupt my training and I will have to find a different way to do my anaerobic training.
Goodbye Hotel MacDonald Staircase.

I like to think I’m reasonably healthy. This lets me do things that I may take for granted. For example, I can, without doing any planning, go for a 32km run. Which I did today.

We parked in the north part of “George Bush Park” (They don’t specify which president they named the park for.) From there, I ran east while Catalina rode a bicycle. Eventually we got to Terry Hershey Hike and Bike park which gave a ten kilometer path besides a creek. I suppose it is the local equivalent of the Edmonton River valley. Then we turned around and headed back.

Of course I took an opportunity to take a slightly different route on the return which caused us to get somewhat lost. Which wasn’t too bad, because it meant we were near a highway after the sun had set instead of a pitch dark wilderness area.

I kept a good pace, but it did take a bit out of me. So when we got home, I chugged some literally freshly squeezed grapefruit juice. It had come off the tree this morning. I added some grenadine to soften the blow, but I still dumped a large amount of acid into my stomach. I didn’t eat much at dinner.

Thankfully, Catalina has an unheated pool. So I stood in that for ten minutes to calm my muscles. Cold helps sore muscles. 

2016-3-2 21:58