Cam I Am

This year has been yet another roller coaster year for me..

Where to start?  Well, after trying for 2-3 years, I finally transferred from the Vancouver Operations Centre to Abbotsford in late January.  The commute has been so much better!  The people out there are great and it certainly was the change that I needed.  I’ve applied for a couple of service technician positions out there, one of which is still pending.  I’m ready for a change.  I’ve been an installer for over 8 years.

It terms of travel, I’ve been very lucky.  I had the opportunity to go to Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon in April.  Going to Las Vegas was amazing just for the experience of the altered reality that it provides.  Arizona and the Grand Canyon had a different significance to me.  In the winter, my grandfather would go down to the Tucson area to wait out the cold to leave southern Ontario.  As a child, I remember him talking about Arizona and what it has to offer.  He should us pictures of the Grand Canyon and even then, I knew that I wanted to go see it for myself some day.  Well, mid-April was my chance, and I couldn’t pass it up.  Even though it is very much a tourist attraction, I managed to find some peace there.  I literally sat on the edge, looking over it and thought about my grandfather.  Meghan just let me have my time there, not saying a word.  It was what I needed.

Two months after that trip, it was time to take out highly anticipated cross-country trek from Maple Ridge to Winnipeg.  My youngest brother was getting married and I simply could not miss it.  on a nearly 2 week trip, we drove across, seeing many things along the way.  It was great to reconnect with my family again and spend some time with them.  This was also an opportunity to get to know my new sister-in-law a little more.  Andrew and Martha seem to be perfect for each other.

In the summer, Meghan, the girls and I went camping only once, but we made it worthwhile.  We went to Vancouver Island and stayed in Victoria for the first night (and a hotel there!).  The next morning we drove up the coast to the Courtney are and stayed at Miracle Beach.  It was nice and sandy, but we didn’t get a lot of opportunity to enjoy it due to rain.  We did manage to find a short window of time when the tide was out to go digging in the sand for sand dollars and clams.  (They bite, I discovered!).  We also managed to find Canada’s largest geocache.  Then again, it’s not that hard to miss as you go by.

Lastly, in terms of travel, Meghan and I didn’t have the kids over Thanksgiving, so we decided to take a quick two-day trip down the west coast to Oregon.  We managed to get all the way down to Florence, where there are a lot of sand dunes.  We would have gone on a dune buggy, but we got there too late.  So, we drove to a state recreation area with sand dunes, and played in the sand there (both myself and in my truck).

It has been a remarkable year for geocaching for me.  My personal goal for the year was to find 200, which was double the amount that I had found the previous year..  Well..  I blew that out of the water.  Unless I go out with the kids later today to find one (not very likely), I found 386 in four provinces and four states.  Not too shabby.  I think I’ll try and make my goal for next year to be somewhere between 400-450.

Towards the end of the year, my back injury has been getting worse again.  For the month of December, I’ve been restricted to light office duties until it improves.  I find out on January 4th what the next course of action will be.  It could be a bumpy year next year.

For 2012, I’ve set some goals for myself.  I plan on losing a fair bit of weight, and getting into yoga to help strengthen my core muscles.  In a general sense, I’m planning on getting rid of the crap in my life — both physically and mentally.  I’ve been letting too much drag me down and that has to change.

So..  That’s pretty much it.  I’m also hoping to start blogging some more.  The one thing I’ve noticed about myself is that when the shit hits the fan, that’s when I get quiet on here and Facebook.  I’ll try to keep the complaining to a minimum too..  :)

Happy New Year everyone!  I hope your 2012 treats you well!

It seems that I’ve been quiet again.. So I better fix that!

In the last month, I have been on my very first trip to Vegas and the Grand Canyon. Since my girlfriend was already going, I paid virtually nothing for the trip.

Now, Vegas was exciting. It was the first time in a long time that I could forget about reality in a long time. I stayed up late and got up early. Since I was there for a wedding, I met a few nice people and got to enjoy a bachelors night out. Not only that, I found 9 geocaches in Nevada and 4 in Arizona.

One of the biggest highlights of the trip (and perhaps my life) was going to the Grand Canyon. We went to the south rim and stayed the the Village. You may be wondering why seeing a large hole in the ground was exciting. I have my reasons…

My grandfather used to live in Ontario when I was growing up. Every year, right after Christmas, he would head down to his place in Tucson, AZ where he would stay until the spring. Over the years, he would show us pictures from Arizona, including the Grand Canyon. In the early 90’s, my grandfather made his annual trip down and passed away. My mother went down to take care of things she needed to, but I never got to go. So, this part of my trip was a way for me to quietly feel a connection with him.

Since that trip, I’ve been getting busier at work. It’s been a very lean winter at work, but it appears that the annual slump is slowly coming to an end.

In the next 6 weeks, I need to get caught up on some bills, but also save enough money for a two week trip to Winnipeg. Why there? Well, my youngest brother is getting married there, so I’m packing the girls and I into the truck and we are booking it there! After the wedding, we are planning a slightly more leisure trip back, including to make a slight detour through Rouleau, SK (aka Corner Gas’s “Dog River”), and a visit to Drumheller and the Alberta Badlands.

The kids and I are very excited about this trip! We’ve been talking about it for months, so it’s nice to see the plans for it coming together!

Stay tuned for more!

Tonight, I found my 196th geocache.  Meghan and I went down to Washington for a couple hours to go to Bellis Fair, but along to way we decided to find the cache “Why Didn’t The Chicken Cross The Road?“.  I saw this cache listed on geocaching.com several months ago and quickly discovered that no one has ever put an answer to it.  So, I placed the answer to it on the Canadian Side, “Because A Border Was In The Way”  back in the summer..

Today was the perfect time.  We crossed over the border (yes, at a legal crossing!) and then proceeded to the B&B that the cache was located at.  We quickly found it and logged it..  As we got back in the car, the US Border Patrol pulled up and asked us “What did you guys pick up?”.  We explained that it was a geocache and they smiled and let us go on our way.  As we left, two other border patrol vehicles made there way to the cache location.

I have to say, I was quite impressed with the speed that they responded.  Yes, I did see the cameras all around the border area, but their response time was in less than 4 minutes of us arriving on site.

So, I finally got this cache that I’ve passed by several times and never could easily reach..

It was a good day..   Only four more caches to my 200th find!

At this moment, I’m watching the geocaching.com site. I’m waiting for the final approval and listing of a series of geocaches that I’ve started.. Actually, it isn’t really me behind them.

Very often, my daughters come with me when I go geocaching. They love looking for them and have even helped me hide a couple. Recently, they helped me pick out the location for “I Understand” when that gave me an idea. Why not devote a series of caches to them?

And so, the Three Daughters Series has begun. Each of the girls helped pick out the location and the cache contents, and even the kind of cache they wanted to place.

One of the caches (Cache “M”) is located by a restaurant that is a favourite of daughter “M”. The name of it is the Frog Stone Grill, but she always ends up calling it the Frogs Grill Stone. That cache has a frog theme to it and we even have a FTF prize that she is going to personally hand to the person that finds it first. This is why I’m watching the listing. People move quick on new caches in the area, especially easier, urban ones.

Cache “E” is located in a favourite park of the girls and Cache “A” needs to find a home. We found a couple spots that were possible, but due to the rules of geocaching, placing it where we wanted it would not be approved.

So, that is the plan for the weekend. We’ll probably go looking for a couple, but we are very excited about the new ones that we’ve hidden.

Have a great weekend!

Well, after a little more than a month of my site being down, I’ve got things taken care of with my webhost and I’m online again!

So, where to begin..

First, I’m transferring offices starting this Monday morning.  After over 7 years out of the Vancouver office, I’m going to the Abbotsford office.  While the distance to my new reporting station is the same, the commute will go from 75 minutes to 35.  It’s hard to argue with that.  I’ve been out there before to help out when they’ve needed it, but this will be a permanent change.

I had a blog that I started to write on Christmas Eve that I still need to post (and will be backdated to that date)..  It’s funny, even though the Christmas season is over.

Now onto the reason why my site was down.  Back in November, I received my semi-annual notice that I was going to be billed for the next six months, but I needed to update my credit card info with 1&1.  I didn’t do anything about it, and then I simply didn’t have the money.  But thanks to a certain someones generosity, I’m back up..  well..  until May anyways.  I had considered letting it lapse completely, but I came to the realization that I like this as a tool to vent..  or comment..  or whatever.  If no one reads it, I still find it a creative outlet.

I’ve been busy geocaching recently too.  Just today, I found “The Hunny Pot” out in Vancouver’s West Side.  Total found: 168.  Total hidden: 4 now!

Now, since I’m online again, I decided to continue my annual tradition of changing the picture on the home page.  This year, this is a shot of an eagle flying right by me when I took the kids up to Brackendale to see the eagles.  I find it ironic that EagleinBC was taking pictures of eagles in BC.  :)

Have a great weekend!  I plan on being a lot more active on my blog this year..

Around the end of July, I posted about two geocoins that I have released into the world for a race around the world. Here’s the latest update.

Eastbound Coin: This coin has done well! It’s currently moved east very nicely and is in Peggy’s Cove, Nova Scotia.

Westbound Coin: This coin has moved even further than the Eastbound coin! The problem is that someone took it east! Doh! It’s currently in the US Virgin Islands. Hopefully someone will pick it up soon and start moving it in the right direction!

That’s all!

So.. This year has been an exciting and tumultuous year so far.

The year started off with promise. I got to go on a trip back home to Ontario — something that hasn’t happened for 9 nine years. I visited my family and a few friends on my quick trip back.. It started off well!

Then the 2010 Winter Games were here! An exciting event that I brought the kids to see the sights downtown. We even took the kids to see a Sledge Hockey game for the Paralympics..

Sadly, this was also a turning point. The same day as the hockey game was the same day that my wife and I let our children know that we were separating. It wasn’t an easy decision, but after being together for over 12 years, it wasn’t working for us..

Shortly after I moved out. And since then, things have been a very different. I left nearly everything in the house, so I had to quickly furnish a place as inexpensively as possible. (Well.. the inexpensively part didn’t work out so well). I’ve also had to learn how to operate a household on my own. This is the first time in my life that I’ve had to be on my own. And yes.. I do suck at housekeeping! My ex and I are also still working on how to schedule the kids around our needs, and parent as a cohesive unit that live separate lives now. A challenge indeed..

I’ve met someone as well. This happened much quicker than I thought and she’s had to put up with me. I’ve been all over the map in terms of how I feel about where I am in life, dating and family. It’s been over four months since I’ve moved out and this new lady in my life has been supportive (she’s clearly a sucker for punishment!). I’ve made mistakes and I still keep trying to improve myself.

I’ve had a lot more time for myself. When I don’t have the kids and when I’m not working, I spend time with this new woman in my life (Meghan). I go geocaching, have gone camping a couple times (with another trip planned in a couple weeks), and still am full of good intentions..

So, here it is on a beautiful, sunny holiday Monday. I’m planning to take the kids to the beach today, play in the water and find seashells and some crabs.. I have no idea where life is taking me at the moment, but I’m still moving forward. Who knows where this journey will take me.

Hopefully, I’ll be blogging a lot more regularly now..

Recently, I have bought a couple beautiful British Columbia 2010 Geocoins.

I thought that I’d try something with them.. But first, here is what they look like!

Now, I really like geocoins. I’ve bought a few over the last year and have released them all into the universe to travel. I usually assign a mission to each one. I know lots of people like to have them “travel where the world” without having a set goal. Not me.. I want mine to achieve something!

So, I have these two identical coins. I placed them in the same cache at the same time. They are in a race around the world. One is to travel EASTBOUND and one is to go WESTBOUND only. Will they make it around the world? Who knows! How long will it take? I don’t know! But since I placed them only 2-3 days ago, they are already doing better than I had anticipated they would at this point.

The eastbound coin was picked up within hours of me placing it in the cache. The person that picked it up said that they were heading to the Maritimes in mid-September and would place it in a cache there. I was amazed! I figured that it would take many, many short hops to cross North America, but clearly one person is handling that for me!

The westbound one also seems to be poised for a big jump. I assumed that it would travel to Victoria relatively soon and then sit there for a while.. BUt that isn’t the case! Someone picked it up yesterday and placed it in a Travel Bug Hotel right by the Vancouver Int’l Airport.. It stands to good reason that it may move across the Pacific Ocean much sooner than I thought..

So.. The race is on! Which one will make it back to Maple Ridge first? Will either of them make it? I’ll keep you updated here..

So.. As it stands as of tonight…

Both were placed in my cache, “Building Blocks” (GC232PR) on the evening of July 25, 2010. Westbound has currently traveled about 40km and is near the airport. The eastbound one is in a player’s hands that will deliver it to the Maritimes in about 6 weeks..

It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything..  for good reason..

My life the last few months has gone through some radical changes..  I won’t go into the details, but those of you who know me…  well..   you already know..

That being said, this past weekend, I went to Victoria to get away and do some sightseeing..  I had a great time!  One of the things I got to do was go on a whale watching tour.  I have never done this before and was not disappointed!   Here is a clip of the whale watching!

Other than that, I went on a ghost walk, went to the museum, went into the BC Provincial Legislature buildings, and found 7 geocaches in the two days that I was there..

All in all, it wasn’t a bad trip!

In a few days, I’ll be going back to Ontario to visit my family and friends. It’s been over nine years since I’ve been back to Oshawa, and I’ve heard that it’s changed a lot… Some for the better, some for the worse.

I’m looking forward to seeing my brothers and parents. I last saw my youngest brother, Andrew, about 18 months ago. But I haven’t seen my other brother and mother for over 5 years, and my father since 2001.

There are a couple of friends I’m looking forward to catching up with too. Also, it’ll be nice to do a little geocaching on my trip.

I’m ready for a short break from work, the kids, and life… Even for only a few days. Hopefully, I’ll feel a little refreshed and able to focus on my goals for 2010…

Happy New Year, everyone…