January 17th 2014, currently was my last move. For anyone keeping score that is 14 moves in the 14 years I had lived in Edmonton. This time I moved to St. Albert. Also KTs was the single longest place I had lived anywhere in the last 14 years, so it was sad to go lotsa good memories there. On the bright side it was a crazy warm day for January. Like plus 10. The Frenchman, Bud and Diablo helped me move. Had a bit of a headache, the night before Tats had friends over that were in the living room until late. So even later Diablo came upstairs and we had a couple drinks and a last couple games of NHL hockey. But the day came and we were done early in the afternoon again. We did the normal thing and BBQd burgers and bought a flat of beer as she had some helpers too. However it wasn't like some of my moves. No one got super hammered, only Bud was actually there late.
It didn't take long for me to be replaced. Only a week or two something unexpected happened. Bud moved into KTs. He and his girlfriend broke up. Which was kind of shitty, she had been around forever it seemed like.Way back to when TCM and I were going to my parents lake lot. Of course over time she drifted away from the group as people tend to do after a break up. Which is too bad as she is actually very nice.
I think it was right after we moved in we went skiing with Bugalows parents. Now they ski way different than me. You're not gonna get a story about almost missing a ski bus buying Wisers. They actually ski all day, as to be tired at night. I still stopped for my Baileys and coffees and other such goodies, cause that's how I ski.
I am gonna say a bit about St. Albert. Edmonton urban myths are only part true. It isn't all rich and white. Yes out in some areas St. Albert is pretty dang well off. But for the most part it is a normal small city. I will admit it is predominately white. I have heard there is some nasty people in the city but I have quit carrying my knife. For years and likely sometimes I didn't always need to, but I carried a knife around. Walking home at 2 AM in Edmonton down 118th and 107 was a bit nervous. Here I am not worried much... Plus the city is actually very nice. When they say it is the green city or the garden city or whatever that is very true. In the summer when you look over the whole place you would never know a city was hidden in all those trees. I love the recycle and compost programs. Hell if I had kids might be a nice little place to raise a family.
First big thing was my pup. Bugalows family has always had shelties. I said I wanted a bigger dog. We went out to a Shepard breeder and as much as I loved them I realized a Shepard is too big to be in our house and unless you have a nice piece of land like my parents, maybe too big in town. One should go with a smaller breed. SO we ordered a pure breed sheltie from Calgary. He is SO annoying! He is without a doubt the reason I am up at 6 or before every morning. He barks at everything! Kids, cats, birds hell sometime big clumps of falling leaves. But I love my bud-bud. He is my fighting buddy, my jogging partner and a great little heater when he sleeps in our bed. Once randomly he got extremely sick. $1500 later after an overnight stay at the emergency vet he was better. That was super scary. He did crap in my truck once, on the way to get his picture with Santa for a charity that was nasty. But I can't imagine life without him.
Now I think it I should bring up my inlaws. They live literally a block away. I see them every weekend. The Frenchman bought a house here too, with an inlaws suite and moved his in. He likes to bug me he sees them less than I do mine. Here is the thing, they are polar opposite of me. Until that silly dog I slept until 10. But they are they 8/9 o'clock coffee people. I am okay with coffee but like 11 ish when I have had time to not be around people and get a cup in me first. Plus they have no downtime. With them it is always go and do something. Now that I don't have a problem with. It is the fact for the first couple years it was go and do some project. Build this repair that, argh! I like hey lets go shoot a round of golf or go fishing. Which they weren't into. But that has changed some what. We have got them out fishing and such, they still like to do things WAY too early for me but oh well. And the fact is I really shouldn't complain. I will do a very small list of the things we have done or have had done to the house. New driveway, new windows, new flowerbed, new roof, new deck, new siding, new shed, new fence.... This is just the outside stuff. They have helped with everything, hell we have done a bunch ourselves. SO I have learnt a shit ton. They only have 1 daughter and want to make sure her start in life is good. I can't really complain they have helped us out a bunch. They have helped me out with some other stuff. It turns out I like them, I will NEVER understand always wanting to do stuff or being up so early without chill. I doubt they will understand gaming in PJs until noon, so there we are!
Next came the final grad. Mine I went with my ex and even if we looked happy, it wasn't what it appeared. Middle brother Biggs, well I ranted on his in last blog as why it wasn't great but here was the third. Lil Beast had enough credits, him and his lady were happy together. Everything was too be okay. Now with his transplant he doesn't really drink that much. He is way more mature and responsible than both his older brothers, in an unfair way life made him like that. But for just 1 day I think he wanted to forget that. We arrived at the arena for the grand march and it stunk. I said to my Bugalow someone puked. Yes someone did. Lil Beasts girlfriend found us. He had, had too much and had started to puke in the entrance. They couldn't hide it and he was on the way home to get cleaned up. What ended up happening was he showered, laid in bed and missed everything until the next AM. So I guess we as brothers were not meant to have great grads.
Something happened, that well usually happens to married couples TCM and the Goalie had there first child. A little girl. Like with all children I was nervous to hold her. To me they seem very fragile but Goalie assured me they are not. This kid is funny, she is shy and like being around her family mostly. However in one on one situation she opens up. Like when I sat and decided to read with her while TCM gave Bugalow a treatment. Her parents will agree somehow at 3 she mastered RBF. Look it up if you don't know what it is.
So I am terrible with vehicles. I rolled my first car, blew an engine on number two, bought a lemon was number 3, destroyed my truck which was 4 but then I bought the Beast #5. It was only 2 years old. Pretty loaded and was supposed to last me years. I got a small rear end ding, which was fine, not at fault insurance cleaned it up for me. Then June 2014 early in the morning as I went for coffee the beast was written off. I was pushed across 2 lanes of traffic into the front of a St. Albert city bus. I got out and started stumbling around a busy intersection. Some kid ran over and was all 1950s addressing me as "Hey Mr. Hey Mr. your arm don't look right" I said don't worry about it, I am fine. And I kept trying to take pics for police and insurance. Of course then some dude in military fatigues ran over and said sit down now! I sat right down. Th bus driver said he didn't see what happened. Which to me means he was lying or is stupid. Buses have that giant window how would you not noticed a truck being slammed into you. I got to ride in an ambulance to the hospital, was angry cause they wouldn't let me go get my Tim's before the trip and refused to get a pain killer in a needle form. Bugalow brought me a coffee and the doc told me I had a broken collar bone. Here was the nerve of the roid rager who hit me. We go to the cop shop to fill out a report and he his there. First off I think his tricked out jeep was fine my truck was written off. Second he has a cut on his leg. Lets call it a scrap more like road rash than a deep gash. I am sure I could insert some knee and rug burn joke here... I am now in a sling with a broken bone. And he gets in my face, wake up what the fuck. I just ignored him. 1) He was huge, which a few times have made me snap and start yelling back but 2) I had a broken arm and 3) we were in a cop shop. Anyways he left and I filled out my report. It took over a year to get settled BUT in the end I was proven right. There is no way my truck could be pushed through 2 lanes of traffic without him being at a stupid speed. Which he was, our flow of traffic had the right a way or the bus would have been moving and I would have been sandwiched and likely hurt much worse. The other part to that was I got paid out by insurance for my truck. BUT less than was still owed so that was fucking great. I went and bought #6 a well used little truck for the next few years. I do plan on a new one, but when I can afford it better and hopefully last longer. Funny side note another year later a woman drives into the side of me. Very low speed collision but $2000 in damage so it had to go through insurance. She did offer me $750 which had it covered I would have taken but I wasn't about to foot the bill when it wasn't my fault. So this was 3 claims in 3 years roughly. Insurance looked into me. Not sure why, like they didn't pay anything out but wondered how I could have such shit luck......
So to be honest that summer sucked. 2 months I think I was to wear the sling so all of July and 90% of August. However another cool thing did happen that August. Amazing called me on my cell one day at work. It was baby time for her and the Frenchman. But she couldn't get a hold of him. So I went and found him. He was on his way, but it was false birth or whatever. Not that it mattered I think their little one popped out a day later. Another pretty little blonde girl. Now this one was opposite of TCM and Goalies kid. She is super friendly, go to anyone not scream or cry to often. They are now growing up together. Anytime we are all out they ask when the other is arriving. I assume they are best friends as far as that can go at 3 years old.
I meant to write more about the programmer, blogs back..... Shit I don't even remember when I mentioned him maybe the 2001 blog. We worked in the kitchen YEARS ago. One night maybe 2012 / 2013 I had been drinking in SGS's place before it closed when a cook came out of the kitchen. Long hair, scruffy, but familiar looking. I asked the waitress his name. It was the Programmer!! But not as I remembered him. See he had just finished high school when we worked together. A bigger kid but clean shaven and super nice. One day he came in said he quit and was going to do animation stuff in Mexico. We all laughed until he did. This might have been early 2000s. Then randomly mid 2000s TCM and I were out at Christmas time and saw him. So we went back to his mothers house and had a drink and a visit. He was loving life down there. On top of that, he was still a bigger guy but looked like he worked out everyday. Was still clean shaven back then..... Anyways I asked the waitress to bring him out again. He came out and we started bullshitting. He had a pregnant wife now and they had come to Canada. His life had totally changed. He looked like a scruffy version of High school him. I know it isn't much more but I knew our warehouse started people at a better $, so drunkenly I said hey come down tomorrow and I will get you work. Like Army had for me all those years ago. Thank god we were hiring cause he came in bright and early the next day and got a job on the spot. That was 2012/2013 ish. Anyways back to 2014, Diablo quit. So a job opened up on the desk with me. Well the Programmer is one hard worker so they gave him the job. To this day he still works with me. We scheme get rich quick schemes that never happen. That guy needs a blog though. I would say his time in Mexico would be a great read.....
2015 started same ole same ole. I guess I don't have a ton to say about the start of this year. It was the last time I went skiing. Again we went with Bugalows family. They are all much better than me, for some reason her mom skis with me while they go to the top. I mean I would be fine doing my couple runs and a drink but I guess company is nice. The biggest thing was booking another airmiles trip for June. To the House of Mouse. Disneyland! I have blogs already up about each day their so I am not going to spend a ton of time on it BUT I will say this. First Airmiles is great and second, everyone should do Disney. We went in early June that time, Cali is hot in June just an FYI. We stayed at the Double Tree Anaheim. I like that hotel. Nice, clean, close to Disneyland. Just sucked when the kid puked in the hot tub we were going to relax in. In my foolishness I thought 4 days would be way too much. In fact I thought we would get bored and MAYBE get a chance to see some of L.A again. Boy was I wrong. I pictured a bigger K days. Now that really is stupid of me cause why would people travel from all over to see a shitty carnival. The place is amazing. I understand how it is the happiest place on earth. Plus Cali adventure and downtown Disney have a bit more grown up air about them. Where you can have a couple drinks and chill. We went to the house of blues one night and capped it all with a romantic dinner at the Blue Bayou. Inside the Pirates ride where it is always Twilight on the Bayou. I get it Walt wanted no booze in that park BUT a nice glass of wine there would have been perfect! 4 Days was not enough.
Politics of 2015 part 1 ...... So I have and likely always will vote Conservative. Now the problem was the PC's here in Alberta had gotten terrible. 44 years had gone to their heads. I wanted them taken down a peg. Maybe a minority government or something. Not decimated. But I guess a lot of Alberta felt the same way. Honestly I was crushed, and my entire family was worried cause they are in oil. But I sat back and said I will see if I like them, hell go read old blogs I did say it lol! Anyways my thoughts remain the same. Social issues (Don't hate me mom) I would rather the NDP. Everything else I want to see the PCs again. I get a kick out of NDP supporters and the NDP themselves saying don't blame us for a bad economy it is the oil. Back in 2015 / 2016 and now as we recover they are taking credit as oil bounces back. So what is it?? You cannot deny one thing and then claim the opposite when it is in your favour. The thing is NDP has a heart in the right place, I will never say otherwise however I maybe got old and bitter but when it comes to running a province it isn't really about heart but more reality. The worst of this though isn't even the NDP. It was the destruction of the PC. What has replaced them is awful. Jason Kenney and the UCP might be the worst thing to ever happen. I freely admit our province is a bit redneck. Kenney brings out the worst. As of this time I have no party to vote for..... I did but Kenney killed it....
So later that I started to hear my little brother was wanting to move to Edmonton to go to school. He was making the same mistakes I did. One night he messages me with some addresses he is wondering about. I didn't even need to go look, I could tell from the price range he was only looking at the cheapest. Which meant the nastiest areas. I did get bored one night and drive to some of them. I did message both him and my mom that at one there was a hooker looking for johns out front. So then she sends me on a mission to look for decent ones. The funny thing is where he ended up. Same place I had first lived when I came here. I mean big time difference to. Mom and Dad bought his place and were renting it to him and his friends. Many of the nicer old houses had been replaced by new shiny condos. The neighbourhood was changing but he landed right where I had been.
Time marched on, winter came and in December I did something. I proposed to my Bugalow. Like 99% of things I do something went fucky. She worked on a Saturday. So I was all romantic. Went and bought flower petals. Tried to make a playlist on youtube..... So it actually went well except for mastercard commercials. See I get all started a nice song is playing then YouTube goes and pops in a do you want better credit ads! It is actually funny but at that moment I was just like of for fuck sakes. But ya, it was done. I was engaged.
The fact is for a bit that became Bugalow obsession. As I am sure it is for most women. She was all about the planning. Pintrest for stuff, trying to look into venues and so on. For my part I just said whatever makes you happy. Nothing really was though. So one night it came out. Likely a few $$ less and get a holiday out of it. Lets go to Mexico. So that is where that stands. In less than a year now we will be married on a beach.
So the second part of politics 2015 is Liberal. You all failed, everyone who voted them in. I do not understand what the hell people where thinking. He is not a leader, he lacks back bone, hell he is welcoming our enemies into our country. He is more concerned with selfies than running Canada. He was voted in as a name, not on merit. He is a pseudo celeb who has embarrassed us world wide. But ya great hair.....
2016 rolled in.Same as the last 2 years. It was a clear sign to me things were changing. People were "growing up" See Mandy and Candy were engaged last year and they had there wedding on Leap Day. Down in Mexico. Sadly as we had to start saving for our own, we couldn't make it. Not as many could go as had gone for the Frenchmans a few years back. Cowboy sent me an invite too. He was getting married early 2019 in Jamaica. Plus at some point Sister (remember her TCMs sister) met a man and had gotten married. Soon enough she was preggo and hell Ditch even had a kid on the way. I hadn't talked much with Cook for awhile. We didn't see each other at hockey anymore. He didn't come out and to be fair I didn't pop into his place either but he tells me one day he has a daughter now! Roughly within say 2 - 3 years everything was changing. Hell I haven't mentioned Sporty in a few entries. Well her and Kat got hitched out East and recently they had their first baby. I mean this is much more recent but might as well clump it all together. It was one night we all had a nice dinner together but it dragged because there was sooo many of us it went from 6 - 9 in this place. Anyways the Frenchman says to me as we are all getting ready to go home. 930 eh? This used to be the time we were trying to figure where to go drinking next. Not heading home to bed. But that's a bit of jumping around lets say we are still roughly in spring 2016.
I will admit all those years ago before Cuba I didn't want to travel. After that though I have been in love with it. I will admit it has been limited to the USA, Mexico and Cuba but I have enjoyed going places. I was bummed we weren't going anywhere until our wedding when Bugalow looked into airmiles again. We had more than enough for Disney again. So we booked. It would cover, flights, accommodations, passes so that was great. It was booked for Halloween that year. I admit something else airmiles are great. I have had them since my teenage work at Safeway in the 90s but never really saved them. Bugalows family is a wee bit insane about them. But I started collecting with them too and now we have been on three trips paid for mostly by miles. I mean I am gonna shop for groceries and gas anyways. Might as well get a kick back on it.
That was the first Play On we played. Look back at old blogs for it if you want. It was super fun and we actually did well. It did show me I was out of shape though. Going forward I think we will put a team in, when we can. That team was different than I thought. Even though I put it together it was really just Cook and the Goalie that I knew the rest were friends of friends and such. But again all in all it was a great weekend.
Bugalows dad had a summer off. After getting a hip replaced he wanted to take some time off and for once they weren't dreaming up projects to do. We went fishing! A few times! Again they like getting started much earlier than I do, but for fishing I guess it is alright. I learnt I need more tackle, I guess over the years I have lost a lot of hooks. Wanna know my deepest darkest secret? I suck at tying leaders on to fishing line. Oh and I should buy new line.....
For years my grandmother has shown the early signs of Alzheimer's. IN the last few years it has gotten bad. And it makes me so very sad. That wasn't supposed to rhyme but it is very true. I have always looked up to her. I think it was her having a book store which got me into loving reading sooo much. Which I guess kinda leads to wanting to write. It is terrible to see someones mind go. I personally vow when I win the lotto or make the millions I will donate to getting cured. I actually thought I wanted to rant on this but I can't, maybe someday I will do a separate blog on it.
We went back to the House of House that October. Again it is Disney so it is done up right. They had the Halloween party. Yes that was a few extra bucks but worth it as they kick people out and do the parade. Plus it is cool to see the villains come out. The fact was we tried to get tickets to the next party too cause the rides would be empty BUT they were sold out. We tried a couple rides we didn't before and I am glad we did. I was a pussy and didn't do Thunder Mountain or Maderhorn first time but very glad we did that and Grizzly River. Walking back to the hotel one night was kinda creepy. I didn't mind the hobo sleeping in the bus stop but the three guys sitting on a bench staring us down. I was glad we were by our hotel at that point.
Of course we had to come back to reality. Sadly. Winter came and for a couple months before Xmas my middle brother came down to do a course at NAIT. He moved in with my little brother. They make me laugh. We would go to the gym all three of us, three very different guys. The youngest one has the most discipline and worked the hardest. The middle wanted like I think lots of guys at the gym do, a big upper body and me I didn't care. Just wanted to spend time with them. It does make me a bit sad I missed sooo much of them growing up. I mean they were only 4ish when I left and now are in their early 20s.
Plus we got a roommate for a few months. A friend decided she needed to leave her husband. At first we said they should try to work it out but she said no. In the end she needed a place to live so we moved her in. Soon as he found out, he deleted us on social media. Which is too bad. I mean I liked the guy he was smart and funny. Into shit I am like comics but I guess he was mad we would give his wife a place to live. I mean I don't get it, you would think if he cared about her like he claimed he would be happy someone was willing to take her in. Maybe my brain works wrong or something but that's my logic.
Then came 2017. So we are almost wrapped up. I did not get any travelling to anywhere tropical in 2017. However for work Bugalow has to always be upgrading, schooling whatever you wanna call it. So over the course of 2015 & 2016 she did a course and the fact was she came in top in Alberta and second in Canada. So she won an award. It was supposed to be a day thing but with AIRMILES we made it a 3 night thing......
So off we went to Banff. Airmiles paid for the hotel, I have a blog on that trip to if you want to go read. The gist of it though is I really like Banff. For skiing I would probably go to Jasper, little more rustic and quiet. But if you wanna get out for good food and doing things other than skiing or hiking head to Banff but bring money.
We played in our second Play On. This time we didn't do so well. I have to laugh. We had the Goalie, Cook, Bud, Candy, the Frenchman, me and a couple others. I thought we were a better team for sure but nope we did much worse. I mean the other teams were worse to, less fun to play against. Plus we got out golfing for the first time in a few years. Once with Mandy and Candy and once by ourselves. That is something I hope to do more of. I am going to post my Yelp link again so if you are reading this and want my reviews on stuff have a look.
I have and have not been much more productive at writing. My dear pup gets me up at 530 everyday. So I have been trying to get an hour in each morning. BUT then I started this series of blogs and my god it has eaten up time. I think, I know soon as this one is posted I am going to work on real writing and just do a few small entries for a bit. I guess though this is the preamble to a wrap up. You might need to look back on all the prior biography blogs for this to make sense.
I grew up in Grande Prairie, I still love it there. I don't even recognize it though, so is it really love or just fond memories? My oldest friend Ditch well he lives here. With his baby mom and daughter. We work together again. As a fun side note I should have put vicious in here more. He works with me and has for years now. He has always been around lol. Evil and DB are still happily married with a daughter I barely know. While I talk to him on twitter and shit, it might be nice to see them again. The German, well he is same ole same ole in GP. Randomly ran into him in West Ed one afternoon and went for drinks that was a good day. I randomly ran into the Artist months back. We chatted some online but never went out for drinks. I think she did become a "hippy" like she always was which is cool. My family is still up there. Mom and Dad are doing well for themselves. My middle brother Biggs well he has done well for himself. Worked for the family for awhile but went to a trade. Personally I think he should go back to family business but maybe one day he will. I guess that is just a wait and see thing. As for my little brother, well he lives here now. Goes to school and seems to be doing really well. Hits the gym too much, makes me look bad lol. Like I said it is sad to see how grandparents are. I still like to call can chat though. FG is still there. I have talked to her more recently. Hers is another life that could be blogged. But she is doing good started her own company and seems happy most days on Facebook. Shwa well she stayed out East when her and Ditch split. She now has a few kids, all the things she wanted way back in high school seem to have come true for her so that's good.
SO then we have the first people I met when I moved down here. Party Girl well she seems to have gotten her life together. It amazes me that her son just finished high school. I remember seeing pics of his first day of school. Shy Guy is doing good two. Him and his girl got married and had two little girls. I do wish I saw them more. But I do see pics on facebook that they look pretty happy in. Red Seal, well he still works for the same place. I think he runs it now. Heartbreak well she is married, popped out a couple kids. I assume still going to strange pyramid scheme meetings and church. But I do wish her well. I think when I knew she was just confused and hurting, now maybe became the woman she was meant to be. Booty Call I have never heard from again. Which is probably good. Some days when I play what if in my mind had she been a real relationship I think I might live in the gutter now. Black got his life on track, which is good. Not sure if I said it but he tried to be a dealer. But the fact was he was more into doing drugs. He hit a nasty patch but has pulled out and is getting a trade ticket. Cowboy well we still work together. Some days I can admit I am a bit jealous as he has done good for himself. Maybe I should have listened to him years ago......
Cook he is still around. Saw him for dinner a couple weeks ago. I wait to see Chad come walking around the corner into my backyard like I did years ago. But I think he might be out East for good now. Patty D and the Dutchman live out in B.C. on the island. They are both happily married out there. Pop Culture is in BC still. He hasn't changed. I like seeing his shit on Facebook. Good to bounce pop culture thoughts off, but he does block me sometimes as a spoiler alert. Like I said TCM got married to the Goalie and they have a little girl. She has gotten into TCM fulltime. I still get worked on by her. Her Sister also had a kid and got married. KT is still KT, loves her travel and has Tats living with her. Sporty and Kat have a kid and are married too. That baby is fairly new to them and they are super pumped for it. Bud well he also has done well for himself. Seems like a business man now. But since I don't actually know what he does in his office I assume he is a spy. Amazing married the Frenchman they had one girl and have another child on the way. It seems like we are all growing up. Mandy and Candy are married, Mandy had a son and well Candy is actually a pretty good father figure.
I dunno what else I can add so I guess this is a wrap. I mean this is how I ended up where I am. There is probably a million more stupid stories I could add but for now it is done. And for awhile I need to get back to some real writing!
Oh if you want my opinions on other stuff I do have a Yelp up. Not really sure how you find it but it is Tavis P. Plus I have vivino app, if you like wine down load it. It is super helpful plus you can save the ones you like and share your thoughts.
I assume if you read this it is from a twitter link if not my Twitter is @Tavis_p
Lastly KT. She is a world travller. Europe, South America, America, Africa. Here is a link to her site. Check it out......
http://www.klutzytraveler.com/
It didn't take long for me to be replaced. Only a week or two something unexpected happened. Bud moved into KTs. He and his girlfriend broke up. Which was kind of shitty, she had been around forever it seemed like.Way back to when TCM and I were going to my parents lake lot. Of course over time she drifted away from the group as people tend to do after a break up. Which is too bad as she is actually very nice.
I think it was right after we moved in we went skiing with Bugalows parents. Now they ski way different than me. You're not gonna get a story about almost missing a ski bus buying Wisers. They actually ski all day, as to be tired at night. I still stopped for my Baileys and coffees and other such goodies, cause that's how I ski.
I am gonna say a bit about St. Albert. Edmonton urban myths are only part true. It isn't all rich and white. Yes out in some areas St. Albert is pretty dang well off. But for the most part it is a normal small city. I will admit it is predominately white. I have heard there is some nasty people in the city but I have quit carrying my knife. For years and likely sometimes I didn't always need to, but I carried a knife around. Walking home at 2 AM in Edmonton down 118th and 107 was a bit nervous. Here I am not worried much... Plus the city is actually very nice. When they say it is the green city or the garden city or whatever that is very true. In the summer when you look over the whole place you would never know a city was hidden in all those trees. I love the recycle and compost programs. Hell if I had kids might be a nice little place to raise a family.
First big thing was my pup. Bugalows family has always had shelties. I said I wanted a bigger dog. We went out to a Shepard breeder and as much as I loved them I realized a Shepard is too big to be in our house and unless you have a nice piece of land like my parents, maybe too big in town. One should go with a smaller breed. SO we ordered a pure breed sheltie from Calgary. He is SO annoying! He is without a doubt the reason I am up at 6 or before every morning. He barks at everything! Kids, cats, birds hell sometime big clumps of falling leaves. But I love my bud-bud. He is my fighting buddy, my jogging partner and a great little heater when he sleeps in our bed. Once randomly he got extremely sick. $1500 later after an overnight stay at the emergency vet he was better. That was super scary. He did crap in my truck once, on the way to get his picture with Santa for a charity that was nasty. But I can't imagine life without him.
Now I think it I should bring up my inlaws. They live literally a block away. I see them every weekend. The Frenchman bought a house here too, with an inlaws suite and moved his in. He likes to bug me he sees them less than I do mine. Here is the thing, they are polar opposite of me. Until that silly dog I slept until 10. But they are they 8/9 o'clock coffee people. I am okay with coffee but like 11 ish when I have had time to not be around people and get a cup in me first. Plus they have no downtime. With them it is always go and do something. Now that I don't have a problem with. It is the fact for the first couple years it was go and do some project. Build this repair that, argh! I like hey lets go shoot a round of golf or go fishing. Which they weren't into. But that has changed some what. We have got them out fishing and such, they still like to do things WAY too early for me but oh well. And the fact is I really shouldn't complain. I will do a very small list of the things we have done or have had done to the house. New driveway, new windows, new flowerbed, new roof, new deck, new siding, new shed, new fence.... This is just the outside stuff. They have helped with everything, hell we have done a bunch ourselves. SO I have learnt a shit ton. They only have 1 daughter and want to make sure her start in life is good. I can't really complain they have helped us out a bunch. They have helped me out with some other stuff. It turns out I like them, I will NEVER understand always wanting to do stuff or being up so early without chill. I doubt they will understand gaming in PJs until noon, so there we are!
Next came the final grad. Mine I went with my ex and even if we looked happy, it wasn't what it appeared. Middle brother Biggs, well I ranted on his in last blog as why it wasn't great but here was the third. Lil Beast had enough credits, him and his lady were happy together. Everything was too be okay. Now with his transplant he doesn't really drink that much. He is way more mature and responsible than both his older brothers, in an unfair way life made him like that. But for just 1 day I think he wanted to forget that. We arrived at the arena for the grand march and it stunk. I said to my Bugalow someone puked. Yes someone did. Lil Beasts girlfriend found us. He had, had too much and had started to puke in the entrance. They couldn't hide it and he was on the way home to get cleaned up. What ended up happening was he showered, laid in bed and missed everything until the next AM. So I guess we as brothers were not meant to have great grads.
Something happened, that well usually happens to married couples TCM and the Goalie had there first child. A little girl. Like with all children I was nervous to hold her. To me they seem very fragile but Goalie assured me they are not. This kid is funny, she is shy and like being around her family mostly. However in one on one situation she opens up. Like when I sat and decided to read with her while TCM gave Bugalow a treatment. Her parents will agree somehow at 3 she mastered RBF. Look it up if you don't know what it is.
So I am terrible with vehicles. I rolled my first car, blew an engine on number two, bought a lemon was number 3, destroyed my truck which was 4 but then I bought the Beast #5. It was only 2 years old. Pretty loaded and was supposed to last me years. I got a small rear end ding, which was fine, not at fault insurance cleaned it up for me. Then June 2014 early in the morning as I went for coffee the beast was written off. I was pushed across 2 lanes of traffic into the front of a St. Albert city bus. I got out and started stumbling around a busy intersection. Some kid ran over and was all 1950s addressing me as "Hey Mr. Hey Mr. your arm don't look right" I said don't worry about it, I am fine. And I kept trying to take pics for police and insurance. Of course then some dude in military fatigues ran over and said sit down now! I sat right down. Th bus driver said he didn't see what happened. Which to me means he was lying or is stupid. Buses have that giant window how would you not noticed a truck being slammed into you. I got to ride in an ambulance to the hospital, was angry cause they wouldn't let me go get my Tim's before the trip and refused to get a pain killer in a needle form. Bugalow brought me a coffee and the doc told me I had a broken collar bone. Here was the nerve of the roid rager who hit me. We go to the cop shop to fill out a report and he his there. First off I think his tricked out jeep was fine my truck was written off. Second he has a cut on his leg. Lets call it a scrap more like road rash than a deep gash. I am sure I could insert some knee and rug burn joke here... I am now in a sling with a broken bone. And he gets in my face, wake up what the fuck. I just ignored him. 1) He was huge, which a few times have made me snap and start yelling back but 2) I had a broken arm and 3) we were in a cop shop. Anyways he left and I filled out my report. It took over a year to get settled BUT in the end I was proven right. There is no way my truck could be pushed through 2 lanes of traffic without him being at a stupid speed. Which he was, our flow of traffic had the right a way or the bus would have been moving and I would have been sandwiched and likely hurt much worse. The other part to that was I got paid out by insurance for my truck. BUT less than was still owed so that was fucking great. I went and bought #6 a well used little truck for the next few years. I do plan on a new one, but when I can afford it better and hopefully last longer. Funny side note another year later a woman drives into the side of me. Very low speed collision but $2000 in damage so it had to go through insurance. She did offer me $750 which had it covered I would have taken but I wasn't about to foot the bill when it wasn't my fault. So this was 3 claims in 3 years roughly. Insurance looked into me. Not sure why, like they didn't pay anything out but wondered how I could have such shit luck......
So to be honest that summer sucked. 2 months I think I was to wear the sling so all of July and 90% of August. However another cool thing did happen that August. Amazing called me on my cell one day at work. It was baby time for her and the Frenchman. But she couldn't get a hold of him. So I went and found him. He was on his way, but it was false birth or whatever. Not that it mattered I think their little one popped out a day later. Another pretty little blonde girl. Now this one was opposite of TCM and Goalies kid. She is super friendly, go to anyone not scream or cry to often. They are now growing up together. Anytime we are all out they ask when the other is arriving. I assume they are best friends as far as that can go at 3 years old.
I meant to write more about the programmer, blogs back..... Shit I don't even remember when I mentioned him maybe the 2001 blog. We worked in the kitchen YEARS ago. One night maybe 2012 / 2013 I had been drinking in SGS's place before it closed when a cook came out of the kitchen. Long hair, scruffy, but familiar looking. I asked the waitress his name. It was the Programmer!! But not as I remembered him. See he had just finished high school when we worked together. A bigger kid but clean shaven and super nice. One day he came in said he quit and was going to do animation stuff in Mexico. We all laughed until he did. This might have been early 2000s. Then randomly mid 2000s TCM and I were out at Christmas time and saw him. So we went back to his mothers house and had a drink and a visit. He was loving life down there. On top of that, he was still a bigger guy but looked like he worked out everyday. Was still clean shaven back then..... Anyways I asked the waitress to bring him out again. He came out and we started bullshitting. He had a pregnant wife now and they had come to Canada. His life had totally changed. He looked like a scruffy version of High school him. I know it isn't much more but I knew our warehouse started people at a better $, so drunkenly I said hey come down tomorrow and I will get you work. Like Army had for me all those years ago. Thank god we were hiring cause he came in bright and early the next day and got a job on the spot. That was 2012/2013 ish. Anyways back to 2014, Diablo quit. So a job opened up on the desk with me. Well the Programmer is one hard worker so they gave him the job. To this day he still works with me. We scheme get rich quick schemes that never happen. That guy needs a blog though. I would say his time in Mexico would be a great read.....
2015 started same ole same ole. I guess I don't have a ton to say about the start of this year. It was the last time I went skiing. Again we went with Bugalows family. They are all much better than me, for some reason her mom skis with me while they go to the top. I mean I would be fine doing my couple runs and a drink but I guess company is nice. The biggest thing was booking another airmiles trip for June. To the House of Mouse. Disneyland! I have blogs already up about each day their so I am not going to spend a ton of time on it BUT I will say this. First Airmiles is great and second, everyone should do Disney. We went in early June that time, Cali is hot in June just an FYI. We stayed at the Double Tree Anaheim. I like that hotel. Nice, clean, close to Disneyland. Just sucked when the kid puked in the hot tub we were going to relax in. In my foolishness I thought 4 days would be way too much. In fact I thought we would get bored and MAYBE get a chance to see some of L.A again. Boy was I wrong. I pictured a bigger K days. Now that really is stupid of me cause why would people travel from all over to see a shitty carnival. The place is amazing. I understand how it is the happiest place on earth. Plus Cali adventure and downtown Disney have a bit more grown up air about them. Where you can have a couple drinks and chill. We went to the house of blues one night and capped it all with a romantic dinner at the Blue Bayou. Inside the Pirates ride where it is always Twilight on the Bayou. I get it Walt wanted no booze in that park BUT a nice glass of wine there would have been perfect! 4 Days was not enough.
Politics of 2015 part 1 ...... So I have and likely always will vote Conservative. Now the problem was the PC's here in Alberta had gotten terrible. 44 years had gone to their heads. I wanted them taken down a peg. Maybe a minority government or something. Not decimated. But I guess a lot of Alberta felt the same way. Honestly I was crushed, and my entire family was worried cause they are in oil. But I sat back and said I will see if I like them, hell go read old blogs I did say it lol! Anyways my thoughts remain the same. Social issues (Don't hate me mom) I would rather the NDP. Everything else I want to see the PCs again. I get a kick out of NDP supporters and the NDP themselves saying don't blame us for a bad economy it is the oil. Back in 2015 / 2016 and now as we recover they are taking credit as oil bounces back. So what is it?? You cannot deny one thing and then claim the opposite when it is in your favour. The thing is NDP has a heart in the right place, I will never say otherwise however I maybe got old and bitter but when it comes to running a province it isn't really about heart but more reality. The worst of this though isn't even the NDP. It was the destruction of the PC. What has replaced them is awful. Jason Kenney and the UCP might be the worst thing to ever happen. I freely admit our province is a bit redneck. Kenney brings out the worst. As of this time I have no party to vote for..... I did but Kenney killed it....
So later that I started to hear my little brother was wanting to move to Edmonton to go to school. He was making the same mistakes I did. One night he messages me with some addresses he is wondering about. I didn't even need to go look, I could tell from the price range he was only looking at the cheapest. Which meant the nastiest areas. I did get bored one night and drive to some of them. I did message both him and my mom that at one there was a hooker looking for johns out front. So then she sends me on a mission to look for decent ones. The funny thing is where he ended up. Same place I had first lived when I came here. I mean big time difference to. Mom and Dad bought his place and were renting it to him and his friends. Many of the nicer old houses had been replaced by new shiny condos. The neighbourhood was changing but he landed right where I had been.
Time marched on, winter came and in December I did something. I proposed to my Bugalow. Like 99% of things I do something went fucky. She worked on a Saturday. So I was all romantic. Went and bought flower petals. Tried to make a playlist on youtube..... So it actually went well except for mastercard commercials. See I get all started a nice song is playing then YouTube goes and pops in a do you want better credit ads! It is actually funny but at that moment I was just like of for fuck sakes. But ya, it was done. I was engaged.
The fact is for a bit that became Bugalow obsession. As I am sure it is for most women. She was all about the planning. Pintrest for stuff, trying to look into venues and so on. For my part I just said whatever makes you happy. Nothing really was though. So one night it came out. Likely a few $$ less and get a holiday out of it. Lets go to Mexico. So that is where that stands. In less than a year now we will be married on a beach.
So the second part of politics 2015 is Liberal. You all failed, everyone who voted them in. I do not understand what the hell people where thinking. He is not a leader, he lacks back bone, hell he is welcoming our enemies into our country. He is more concerned with selfies than running Canada. He was voted in as a name, not on merit. He is a pseudo celeb who has embarrassed us world wide. But ya great hair.....
2016 rolled in.Same as the last 2 years. It was a clear sign to me things were changing. People were "growing up" See Mandy and Candy were engaged last year and they had there wedding on Leap Day. Down in Mexico. Sadly as we had to start saving for our own, we couldn't make it. Not as many could go as had gone for the Frenchmans a few years back. Cowboy sent me an invite too. He was getting married early 2019 in Jamaica. Plus at some point Sister (remember her TCMs sister) met a man and had gotten married. Soon enough she was preggo and hell Ditch even had a kid on the way. I hadn't talked much with Cook for awhile. We didn't see each other at hockey anymore. He didn't come out and to be fair I didn't pop into his place either but he tells me one day he has a daughter now! Roughly within say 2 - 3 years everything was changing. Hell I haven't mentioned Sporty in a few entries. Well her and Kat got hitched out East and recently they had their first baby. I mean this is much more recent but might as well clump it all together. It was one night we all had a nice dinner together but it dragged because there was sooo many of us it went from 6 - 9 in this place. Anyways the Frenchman says to me as we are all getting ready to go home. 930 eh? This used to be the time we were trying to figure where to go drinking next. Not heading home to bed. But that's a bit of jumping around lets say we are still roughly in spring 2016.
I will admit all those years ago before Cuba I didn't want to travel. After that though I have been in love with it. I will admit it has been limited to the USA, Mexico and Cuba but I have enjoyed going places. I was bummed we weren't going anywhere until our wedding when Bugalow looked into airmiles again. We had more than enough for Disney again. So we booked. It would cover, flights, accommodations, passes so that was great. It was booked for Halloween that year. I admit something else airmiles are great. I have had them since my teenage work at Safeway in the 90s but never really saved them. Bugalows family is a wee bit insane about them. But I started collecting with them too and now we have been on three trips paid for mostly by miles. I mean I am gonna shop for groceries and gas anyways. Might as well get a kick back on it.
That was the first Play On we played. Look back at old blogs for it if you want. It was super fun and we actually did well. It did show me I was out of shape though. Going forward I think we will put a team in, when we can. That team was different than I thought. Even though I put it together it was really just Cook and the Goalie that I knew the rest were friends of friends and such. But again all in all it was a great weekend.
Bugalows dad had a summer off. After getting a hip replaced he wanted to take some time off and for once they weren't dreaming up projects to do. We went fishing! A few times! Again they like getting started much earlier than I do, but for fishing I guess it is alright. I learnt I need more tackle, I guess over the years I have lost a lot of hooks. Wanna know my deepest darkest secret? I suck at tying leaders on to fishing line. Oh and I should buy new line.....
For years my grandmother has shown the early signs of Alzheimer's. IN the last few years it has gotten bad. And it makes me so very sad. That wasn't supposed to rhyme but it is very true. I have always looked up to her. I think it was her having a book store which got me into loving reading sooo much. Which I guess kinda leads to wanting to write. It is terrible to see someones mind go. I personally vow when I win the lotto or make the millions I will donate to getting cured. I actually thought I wanted to rant on this but I can't, maybe someday I will do a separate blog on it.
We went back to the House of House that October. Again it is Disney so it is done up right. They had the Halloween party. Yes that was a few extra bucks but worth it as they kick people out and do the parade. Plus it is cool to see the villains come out. The fact was we tried to get tickets to the next party too cause the rides would be empty BUT they were sold out. We tried a couple rides we didn't before and I am glad we did. I was a pussy and didn't do Thunder Mountain or Maderhorn first time but very glad we did that and Grizzly River. Walking back to the hotel one night was kinda creepy. I didn't mind the hobo sleeping in the bus stop but the three guys sitting on a bench staring us down. I was glad we were by our hotel at that point.
Of course we had to come back to reality. Sadly. Winter came and for a couple months before Xmas my middle brother came down to do a course at NAIT. He moved in with my little brother. They make me laugh. We would go to the gym all three of us, three very different guys. The youngest one has the most discipline and worked the hardest. The middle wanted like I think lots of guys at the gym do, a big upper body and me I didn't care. Just wanted to spend time with them. It does make me a bit sad I missed sooo much of them growing up. I mean they were only 4ish when I left and now are in their early 20s.
Plus we got a roommate for a few months. A friend decided she needed to leave her husband. At first we said they should try to work it out but she said no. In the end she needed a place to live so we moved her in. Soon as he found out, he deleted us on social media. Which is too bad. I mean I liked the guy he was smart and funny. Into shit I am like comics but I guess he was mad we would give his wife a place to live. I mean I don't get it, you would think if he cared about her like he claimed he would be happy someone was willing to take her in. Maybe my brain works wrong or something but that's my logic.
Then came 2017. So we are almost wrapped up. I did not get any travelling to anywhere tropical in 2017. However for work Bugalow has to always be upgrading, schooling whatever you wanna call it. So over the course of 2015 & 2016 she did a course and the fact was she came in top in Alberta and second in Canada. So she won an award. It was supposed to be a day thing but with AIRMILES we made it a 3 night thing......
So off we went to Banff. Airmiles paid for the hotel, I have a blog on that trip to if you want to go read. The gist of it though is I really like Banff. For skiing I would probably go to Jasper, little more rustic and quiet. But if you wanna get out for good food and doing things other than skiing or hiking head to Banff but bring money.
We played in our second Play On. This time we didn't do so well. I have to laugh. We had the Goalie, Cook, Bud, Candy, the Frenchman, me and a couple others. I thought we were a better team for sure but nope we did much worse. I mean the other teams were worse to, less fun to play against. Plus we got out golfing for the first time in a few years. Once with Mandy and Candy and once by ourselves. That is something I hope to do more of. I am going to post my Yelp link again so if you are reading this and want my reviews on stuff have a look.
I have and have not been much more productive at writing. My dear pup gets me up at 530 everyday. So I have been trying to get an hour in each morning. BUT then I started this series of blogs and my god it has eaten up time. I think, I know soon as this one is posted I am going to work on real writing and just do a few small entries for a bit. I guess though this is the preamble to a wrap up. You might need to look back on all the prior biography blogs for this to make sense.
I grew up in Grande Prairie, I still love it there. I don't even recognize it though, so is it really love or just fond memories? My oldest friend Ditch well he lives here. With his baby mom and daughter. We work together again. As a fun side note I should have put vicious in here more. He works with me and has for years now. He has always been around lol. Evil and DB are still happily married with a daughter I barely know. While I talk to him on twitter and shit, it might be nice to see them again. The German, well he is same ole same ole in GP. Randomly ran into him in West Ed one afternoon and went for drinks that was a good day. I randomly ran into the Artist months back. We chatted some online but never went out for drinks. I think she did become a "hippy" like she always was which is cool. My family is still up there. Mom and Dad are doing well for themselves. My middle brother Biggs well he has done well for himself. Worked for the family for awhile but went to a trade. Personally I think he should go back to family business but maybe one day he will. I guess that is just a wait and see thing. As for my little brother, well he lives here now. Goes to school and seems to be doing really well. Hits the gym too much, makes me look bad lol. Like I said it is sad to see how grandparents are. I still like to call can chat though. FG is still there. I have talked to her more recently. Hers is another life that could be blogged. But she is doing good started her own company and seems happy most days on Facebook. Shwa well she stayed out East when her and Ditch split. She now has a few kids, all the things she wanted way back in high school seem to have come true for her so that's good.
SO then we have the first people I met when I moved down here. Party Girl well she seems to have gotten her life together. It amazes me that her son just finished high school. I remember seeing pics of his first day of school. Shy Guy is doing good two. Him and his girl got married and had two little girls. I do wish I saw them more. But I do see pics on facebook that they look pretty happy in. Red Seal, well he still works for the same place. I think he runs it now. Heartbreak well she is married, popped out a couple kids. I assume still going to strange pyramid scheme meetings and church. But I do wish her well. I think when I knew she was just confused and hurting, now maybe became the woman she was meant to be. Booty Call I have never heard from again. Which is probably good. Some days when I play what if in my mind had she been a real relationship I think I might live in the gutter now. Black got his life on track, which is good. Not sure if I said it but he tried to be a dealer. But the fact was he was more into doing drugs. He hit a nasty patch but has pulled out and is getting a trade ticket. Cowboy well we still work together. Some days I can admit I am a bit jealous as he has done good for himself. Maybe I should have listened to him years ago......
Cook he is still around. Saw him for dinner a couple weeks ago. I wait to see Chad come walking around the corner into my backyard like I did years ago. But I think he might be out East for good now. Patty D and the Dutchman live out in B.C. on the island. They are both happily married out there. Pop Culture is in BC still. He hasn't changed. I like seeing his shit on Facebook. Good to bounce pop culture thoughts off, but he does block me sometimes as a spoiler alert. Like I said TCM got married to the Goalie and they have a little girl. She has gotten into TCM fulltime. I still get worked on by her. Her Sister also had a kid and got married. KT is still KT, loves her travel and has Tats living with her. Sporty and Kat have a kid and are married too. That baby is fairly new to them and they are super pumped for it. Bud well he also has done well for himself. Seems like a business man now. But since I don't actually know what he does in his office I assume he is a spy. Amazing married the Frenchman they had one girl and have another child on the way. It seems like we are all growing up. Mandy and Candy are married, Mandy had a son and well Candy is actually a pretty good father figure.
I dunno what else I can add so I guess this is a wrap. I mean this is how I ended up where I am. There is probably a million more stupid stories I could add but for now it is done. And for awhile I need to get back to some real writing!
Oh if you want my opinions on other stuff I do have a Yelp up. Not really sure how you find it but it is Tavis P. Plus I have vivino app, if you like wine down load it. It is super helpful plus you can save the ones you like and share your thoughts.
I assume if you read this it is from a twitter link if not my Twitter is @Tavis_p
Lastly KT. She is a world travller. Europe, South America, America, Africa. Here is a link to her site. Check it out......
http://www.klutzytraveler.com/
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