Summer is killing the blog

I've been home almost a week and am only now getting around to updating the blog. Summer just wasn't meant for blogging.

My shift was very busy with budget time upon us at work. It was likely the busiest shift I've had in the last year (which is a good thing). The best part about it is that it always comes to an end. After spending a day with my rotational partner to hand over all of the work that I had completed, I boarded a plane to begin the mammoth journey home. I decided to extend my travels somewhat by catching an immediate flight from Calgary to Saskatoon to spend a few days with my friend Jeff. It's been over a year since I've been in Saskatoon so it was time.

After Jeff picked me up on Friday evening, we went straight to the nearest Vern's Pizza to pick up a pizza pie to eat while watching Friday night football. We discovered Vern's back in our university days and have never found anything to rival it. Put a Vern's Pizza on your "Things to do before you die" list.

 

Saturday, we loaded up the truck and headed for Mosaic Stadium at Taylor Field in Regina to see the Roughriders play the Eskimos. The Riders dominated from the get go and ended up winning 54-14. It was one of the most entertaining games I've seen at the stadium. This is what summers are for.

 

The other highlight of the weekend was hanging out with Jeff and listening to some new music. Jeff is a tuned in type of guy when it comes to music. I always enjoy visiting him as I come away with some new music for my ipod. This time the big find was the album Ashtray Rock by the Joel Plaskett Emergency. I have some of their stuff already, but I hadn't heard the new album. I was more than impressed and bought the album off itunes immediately after getting home.

With my quick trip complete (less than 48 hrs in Saskatoon), Jeff dropped me off at the airport. My flight ended up delayed for an hour and a half as there was some sort of security breach at the Calgary airport that involved having to unload the entire plane and reboard it prior to it heading to Saskatoon to pick me up. I didn't end up in Calgary until after 10pm. Melissa picked me up and we spent the night at Dean and Melanie's. The next morning, we visited with a prospective financial planning firm as we are in the market for someone new to handle our finances. Up to now, we'd been using a guy I met through work several years back. However, his service has been less than inconsistent and it is time to move on.

Once home, we spent the first day doing nothing but hanging around the back yard like horses in a pasture. Melissa has done an unreal job on the back yard. Between adding the brick deck, laying sod and planting a cute little garden, the area has been transformed to a great hang out space from the parking lot that it was when we bought the place. After getting over our quick bout of laziness, we embarked on the one chore that we've been dreading since last year; cleaning out the garage and the shed.

We built a massive garage (16 ft by 32 ft) last spring and have done our best to load it up with everything. We also have a sizeable garden shed that came with the house that has also accumulated enough crap to prevent it from being useful. One of the main reasons for this accumulation is that I married into a merry band of scavengers (and not in a bad way). Every year, the towns of the Crowsnest Pass put on a spring clean up whereby everyone digs out all the junk from their basements/garages/backyards/granaries and piles it in the alleys for the town to haul away. The intent is to help keep the Pass clean. As a related benefit, it creates the biggest junk swap in southern Alberta and the scavengers come out to pilfer through the piles to re-use whatever may be useful (one man's junk is another man's treasure). There truly is some stuff out there that is worth keeping, but the scavengers I know may be a bit overly idealistic about the usefulness of certain pieces of garbage. As such, our garage has become the staging area for a lot of this junk which we are now struggling to keep organized.

The above is by no means a complaint, just an explanation of how a 16 ft by 32 ft garage can be filled in a year however comical it may be. In honesty, the scavenging has saved us hundreds of dollars when it comes to the home renovations we've been undertaking and has taught me to be a bit more creative in coming up with solutions to practical problems. As well, we are aiming to be less consumeristic (is that a word?) than we've been in the past to do a small part for the environmental woes that our planet is facing. Recycling items that would otherwise end up in a landfill helps to accomplish this.

Back to the story. We are now 3 days into the cleaning with the entire contents of our garage and shed strewn across our backyard. It is finally starting to come to an end as items are actually heading back inside in a much more organized manner. This will be a huge relief and will give us so much more space with which organize all of out ongoing projects.

Aside from this,my first few days back included a couple of the usual appointments that I always have once I return home. I got a haircut (I hate getting haircuts) and went to the dentist (I actually don't mind going to the dentist). My no filling streak is still intact (must be going on 5 years). Although, I do need to go back for some minor work. We had a very brief visit from my niece and nephew (and brother in law) as they were heading through to the US to visit another uncle. I haven't seen them in over a year and they have grown up amazingly fast in that year. Dylan seemed pretty excited about our place and the opportunities for adventure in the area and already suggested spending next summer at our place. No problem, just bring work clothes.

Last night was spent watching the Riders beat the number 1 team in the CFL in their own stadium. Things are looking promising for the green and white, although I've been a fan of this team far too long to get overly excited about a bit of early season success.

That's it for now. We may be heading to Calgary on the weekend if anyone calls about our townhouse to rent. After that, we may think about heading to the US for vacation. I guess I should think about getting my taxes done as well.