The default category in my journal. Stuff goes here if there isn’t an obvious other place for it.
Philosophy: the beliefs you have about how you should behave in particular situations in life. I’ve tried to live with a few simple guidelines for some time now. I’m not really one for manifestos or rigid creeds, but recently I’ve been trying to think of my values in terms of a simply stated philosophy. A few words that can encompass many values that makes it easy to understand what I stand for. As I’ve played … Read →
I’ve written about my desire to do more of this or less of that many times. I tend to get a little melancholy about the change I don’t make but strongly desire. My formula for doing so usually follows a pattern. Develop a goal, somewhat broad or vague in nature (get to bed earlier, read more, etc.), try to do things to make it happen, then get frustrated when it doesn’t or progress abates. After … Read →
Tomorrow will be April 20th, and that can mean only one thing. Weed. Or, more accurately, the celebration of weed known around the world as 4/20. In Vancouver, the 2019 version takes on greater significance than in the past. It’s the first year that marijuana is legal in Canada, it’s the 25th anniversary of the event, and Cypress Hill is playing a concert as part of the festivities. As such, from what I’ve read attendance … Read →
In my last post about moving to Victoria, I outlined the process of getting a new job and renting a place in James Bay. I’m happy to now report, we’ve concluded things. In truth, the Victoria relocation went about as well as it could have. After finding a pet-friendly rental on the first trip over, selling our condo and moving our possessions has been a relative breeze. I say relative, because it went well, but … Read →
I didn’t bother doing a year-end wrap up blog post for 2018. I haven’t been journalling much at all, and it was a pretty quiet year for the most part. Plus, those kinds of posts have always felt forced, as if I should have something profound to say as the calendar flips, but often really don’t. Particularly in 2018, I didn’t read, write or train as much as I’d have liked, and I didn’t race … Read →
It’s between a little over eight months since we finished substantial kitchen and bath renovations. I waited this long to post my thoughts on the contractor, to remove (most of) the emotional component. We hired Aero Kitchen and Bath in spring 2015 to do the work, plus some additional tile on two small landings and a basement bath (which also included some new drywall and paint). We were assured they could work with both our … Read →
This post is long overdue. In fact, other than a couple small things being taken care of presently, our renovations have been finished for over a month and a half. We waited for ages for the final invoice and are now working through some final billing issues with the contractor, so it really hasn’t felt complete, yet. However, since it is finished and we’ve been living with our updated spaces for a while, I thought … Read →
In my first post about our renovations on May 24th, I wrote about the scope of the job and included a few pics of the areas to be renovated, the weekend before they were to begin. Generally, things have progressed quite well so far. There have been a few small glitches along the way, as with virtually all of these kinds of things, but so far we’ve found the contractors to be conscientious, unfailingly polite … Read →
I’m really doing this series of posts for my own benefit, so anyone else reading these may not get much out of them. It was a bit of a long road finding a contractor, so I’m not going to bother documenting that process here, as I have a different type of update in which to cover that. I will say, though, that compared with the kitchen and bath renovations we did at our previous place … Read →
I’ve been a Pink Floyd fan since I was 16. At one point in my teens, I owned 17 albums and probably listened to Floyd more than any other band for a few years. It might have had something to do with my hobbies at the time, through the late ’70s and early ’80s. I never saw the band live with both David Gilmour and Roger Waters together. In fact, the first time I saw … Read →