Cam I Am

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..

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..

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!

On Sunday afternoon, most of North America (and part of the world) was watching the gold medal hockey game for the Olympics. After Canada’s nail-biter win, the world watched the closing ceremonies.  That’s it, right?

Well, not really..  While the rest of the world goes on with life, with athletes returning home, and regular TV programming resumes, Vancouver is very much in the Olympic spirit.  How does a city and country come down from the high?  How do we resume life after over two weeks of a big party?  There are still the Paralympics to come.  All the pavilions will be open again, but I imagine that the whole event will be a little more low-key.

On the radio today, there was a report saying that this is not uncommon in cities that have hosted the Olympics.  There are going to be counsellors available to VANOC employees to help them transition back to the real world of work.  Ever since July of 2003 when the world heard Jacques Rogge announce that Vancouver was awarded the 2010 Winter Olympics, things have been building towards it.  Major construction projects, such as the athletes village and the Canada Line, reports warning about road closures and the traffic mayhem to expect.  The general hype around it was building until February 12th when it was finally here.  Now that the Games are over, we all look around at each other and say, “Now what?”

Well, the sad reality is that after the Paralympics, it’s all done.  Vancouver will return to life as it was before, but with one last question.  What will happen to the economy here?  We’ve avoided a lot of the job losses here so far, but without the driving force that we’ve had here, no one knows what is going to happen….

It’s around 10pm of the first night of our camping trip to Alice Lake Provincial Park. It’s been two years since my family has been able to go camping, so this trip feels extra special for all of us. It’s a little bit different this time.. It’s raining today..

We haven’t done much today. We got here around 2pm, and by the time we were set up, it was 4pm.. After a quick trip into Squamish to pick up a few things we needed, we came back, cooked dinner, and then the kids (and my wife) were pretty much ready for bed. Of course, shortly after going to bed, Megan decided that she wanted up, and then Lizzy wanted to go to bed.

Hopefully, the weather improves a little for tomorrow and we’ll get a chance to do a little more exploring!

I’ve been fairly quiet here recently..  Not for lack of things to say..  More like I haven’t made/found the time to write anything..

Since my return to work, and then being “loaned out” to the Abbotsford office, I’ve been busy.  Long days, with lots of work..  It’s nice to be out of the house and working again..  I feel productive again..

Things here at home are going reasonably well..  I’ve started to fix a couple things around the house and hope to paint the stairs and upper hallway soon..  I’m also planning on getting more serious about my little home business that I started last October (camscrafts.eagleinbc.com).  I started making custom made growth charts around Christmas time last year, and then haven’t promoted it at all since then.  Now that I’m better and back to work, it’ll be nice to start promoting it again, and expanding the products I intend to offer.  

I’ve thought of a few rants to go on about, but they seem to have slipped my mind..

So, in short, things are good..

The last couple of weeks have been going well for me..

I’ve been feeling pretty good.  The physio sessions that I’ve been going to seem to be helping me improve on my flexibility.  I am very impressed with how much better I feel than before the surgery. With any luck, I’m hoping that I will return to work by the end of the month. 

My friends Mark and Christie and their two kids continued on with their RV trip, but not before having dinner at out place one evening.  It’s always nice to catch up with old friends, and this was no exception!  Mark and I went out for a little while so that I could show him around Maple Ridge, and we entertained the idea of checking out the campground that is directly across the river from our place (in Langley), but we didn’t like the wait for the Albion Ferry.  It seems that they may take another RV trip across the country again. 

Canada Day was low key..  All the kids got sick with the flu, but I did manage to go to a very small party at my friend Syd’s place.  BBQ salmon and “red and white” cake..  A very good dinner, and a really nice evening.  Since I am not working right now, getting out and having adult conversation is nice, and I’ll take it when I can get it!

That’s about it.   Just a bunch of little things to say; none of them worth a post of their own!  The kids are over their flu, but my wife has it now.  I haven’t caught it..  yet..

This past Friday I finally had the back surgery that I have been waiting for, for months.

The discectomy seems to have gone fairly well.  I was back home by Sunday morning, resting fairly comfortably.  For the first time in nearly three years, I have no more pain shooting down my leg!  I have to say that I’m surprised at how well I feel, considering that 72 hours ago, I was having the operation.

For the next few weeks, I’ll be at home resting, and taking it very easy.  No lifting, no sitting, short walks (5-10 minutes), but gradually increasing that every day.

So.. that’s about it.  I go to my doctor next Monday to have the 22 staples removed from my lower back (something that I’m not really looking forward too!). 

Overall, I feel relatively good!  I’m hoping that the recovery time is going to be shorter than what I was originally told..

Time will tell..

I got great news yesterday morning.   The kind of news that was so amazing, I didn’t need my morning coffee!

I now have a surgery date for my herniated disc..  May 30th!  (Yes…. it’s this year!)  As long as my date doesn’t get bumped, I will be finally getting my long-awaited back surgery in less than 4 weeks!  I have been waiting so long for a permanent solution, I simply am happy that a fix is on the way!  Yaay!

Aside from that..

My youngest brother, Andrew, is going to fly out from Winnipeg on Monday and visit for a week.  He came out less than a year ago to visit, but this time he is bringing his girlfriend, Martha.  We’ve heard all about Martha, so it will be nice to meet her.   Oh yeah..  it’ll be nice to see Andrew too! 

For the past 3-4 days, my wife and I have been on a quest.  Not a noble one, but a quest nonetheless..

We’ve been trying to find a roll of Lifesavers.  Actually, seventy of them.

An easy task you would think.  We spent days going to Safeway, Save-On-Foods and even Superstore.  We tried Zellers…and dollar stores.  We tried 7-11’s..

Nothing..

Well, not exactly nothing..  We found Lifesavers “individually wrapped” in bags, but not in rolls..  And then we tried looking for rolls of Certs, on any other rolled type of candy and wouldn’t be expensive..

Now, I’m sure at this point, you must be asking “Why the hell is he making a big deal to find a roll of Lifesavers?  Why not just take the bag?  And why does he need 70 of them?”

A good question.  My wife is working on a project at work.  To make this story as short as possible, she needs them to make a specific party favour for something at work. 

So, yesterday, we gave up looking.  We found something in a dollar store that was longer than what she wanted, but it would just have to do the job.  So she bought them.  Afterwards, we were talking with each other about how ridculous the whole thing was, especially about how easy it should have been to find a candy that we knew so well while going up.

Today, I went out on a couple errands.  I went to the bank, the grocery store, bought a coffee and then went to the gas station for same propane.  I went into the store to pay when I noticed a roll of Certs..  I thought to myself that it was too bad that we didn’t see them before when lurking on the right..

LIFESAVERS!   ROLLS OF LIFESAVERS!

We never thought about checking gas stations..  Of course, she was on a budget and probably wouldn’t have been able to buy 70 at a reasonable price, but why doesn’t anyone else have them?