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!

In case you haven’t already heard, Canadian icon, Lloyd Robertson signed off for the last time as CTV’s National News anchor after being with the network for 35 years. His career started long before that, but I’m going to focus on his CTV years..

From a very young age, I’ve always associated late night news with Lloyd Robertson. I remember in the 80’s when I’d occasionally get to stay up late and watch the news with that blue background that has always reminded me of vertical blinds. I’d lie in bed at night and hear through the floor the all too familiar opening tune to his newscast and try and make out what he was saying.

As I got older, I still tuned in to watch the news with Lloyd. Events like the Challenger shuttle explosion, to the fall of the Berlin wall. Celebrations, wars, natural disasters, or any other local, national or world events. There are few things today that stay consistent, but watching the days events with Lloyd explaining what happened was one of those reliable things.

Even though most Canadians never met him, I believe that we all learned about our world and country from him. So many newscasters “tell” you the news, but few explained it like he did.

Lisa LaFlamme certainly has big shoes to fill. It will be interesting to see what happens with late night news ratings.

Lloyd, if you happen to read this, thank you for being a part of my life. You will be missed on the late night news by myself and all Canadians.

Good luck and enjoy your retirement!

Every now and then, my mind wanders..  okay..   frequently my mind wanders..   In the past week, I’ve come up with a couple questions for you all..

1.  What is the difference between a forest and orchard.  If I’m growing Christmas trees, would it be an orchard or forest?

2.  How many trees need to be grouped together to be considered a forest?

Yes..   I’ve had a lot of spare time recently..  :)

I’ve had this blog for over four years.  For those of you that have been reading it,  you’ve been right there with me through the good and the bad.   Mostly the good.  One thing that I’ve noticed during my blogging years is that when things get rough for me, I blog much less.   As an example, to date, I have only written a post about Day One of my trip to Winnipeg.. and that was a ten day trip..

Recently, I had to renew my subscription with the company that handles my webhosting.  I pondered whether I should just let the blog go..  Along with it would go my domain of eagleinbc.com, along with another site that I help run.  In the grand scheme of things, I doubt that very many people would notice the sites missing..

I could try and make an effort to blog a little more.  Usually, when I’m at work, I can come up with ideas of things to write about, but when it comes to the end of the day, I forget them or can’t be bothered..

Another idea I had was to change the format to a vlog.  I know someone who has been vlogging for years and it definitely seems like something that I’d like to start doing more of.  The thing is that I know that I would need to commit to myself the time to not only shoot the videos, but to edit them at least a little.

The third option is to sign off the blog and let it go.  A thought that has occurred several times to me over the last few months, but I do enjoy it as an outlet for me.

What to do…….

Today is the first day of our roadtrip to Winnipeg for my little brother, Andrew, and his fiancee’s wedding.  Meghan and I spent the better part of yesterday and today packing and making sure that we have everything.  We started really planning this trip after we got back from Las Vegas in April, but we’ve known about the trip for nearly a year.

The plan was to leave at 4:00pm today to do the 5 hour drive from Maple Ridge to Salmon Arm, BC.  We got a late start, but only by about 40 minutes.  We made it to Hope, BC for a not-so-nutritious dinner at McDonald’s.  It was about this point that I realized that my jacket was still sitting at home on the bed, right next to where I was packing my suitcase.  ”Oh well, we can’t turn back now!”

We finally made it to the Holiday Inn Express in Salmon Arm around 10:20pm..  Much later than I hoped for, but the kids got ready for bed and were asleep within minutes.  Actually, Megan is still awake, but Meghan and I have told her that she needs to go to sleep.

The plan for tomorrow is for another solid day of driving to Medicine Hat, AB.  If things go according to plan, it’ll be approximately 825km and if we leave the hotel by 8:30am, we should be rolling into Med Hat by 8pm.  We know that there will be stops along the way for food, bathrooms and geocaching.  :)

Night!

Next weekend, my youngest brother is getting married.  His fiancee and her family live in Winnipeg and they made the decision to have the wedding there because it is central to the country, and I believe the majority of people going to the wedding live in the general area.

I originally looked into airfare for myself and the girls.  It would have cost $2300 just for airfare.  I then did the math on driving out and discovered that it would cost about the same amount to drive out as it would be to fly.  The advantage to driving is that I will be able to take the girls halfway across the country.  We plan on making a couple stops on the way back, including to Drumheller and the Alberta Badlands.

It’s two days before I leave now and I’m in full packing/organizing mode.   I’ll post updates from our trip..  :)

With the NHL playoffs well underway and the Vancouver Canucks current success, it’s natural to see those little flags on people’s cars. People cheer for the local team. Businesses show their support for the team by putting “Go Canucks Go” signs in their windows. Even Translink has it on their busses..

So why was Kingsway Honda told to remove their signs from their windows that showed their support? Copyright infringement.

Seriously, Gary Bettman? Get a life! The Canucks slogan is “We are all Canucks”. I guess they left out “…unless you are a business.”

The ironic thing is that Translink can use it. Everywhere you look, it’s there! Are they going to tell me to remove the flag from my truck, just because it says Shaw on it?

Not likely…

And with that…

GO CANUCKS GO!!!

The past several days, I’ve had a nail in one of my tires in my truck. Yes, I know that it needs to be fixed, and it will tomorrow, but that’s not the point. In the meanwhile, I’ve been adding air to my tires on a daily basis to compensate for the slow leak.

This brings me to my point. What the hell is with all of these gas stations
(aka service stations) to charge 50 cents or even a dollar for air! Some claim that it goes towards a charity, but I highly doubt this. The petroleum companies make millions and millions of money off of us. Even gas station owners do well (I have recently spoken to a couple who have confirmed this). They can’t afford to run a compressor? They need to charge me for air?

So, have made a point of marking in my GPS in my truck the stations that still provide “free” air.

I don’t pay to breathe it.. I’m not going to pay to put it in my tires…

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!

I just finished disconnecting someone in an apartment building and was trying to get back out to the front of the building. Unfortunately, the only way I could find from the underground was through an emergency exit that lead to the back of the building. So, I start walking along the pathway that would eventually wrap around to the front. On his first floor balcony, there was this man holding a telephone conversation. Now, I wasn’t trying to listen to him as I walked by, but I could help but here him say: “You see, the problem is that my polar bear is being considered a captive alien species.”

I couldn’t help but look over at him with a confused look. He shot an angry look at me, but continued his conversation.

If he had said his dog, I wouldn’t have thought twice about it. But his POLAR BEAR???? WTF?

So, I continued along my way.. Confused about his statement.. I wasn’t trying to listen to his conversation, but you have to expect some reaction from a passerby if you make odd statements in a place that others can hear you..