The Briar Patch

I recently read that the average blog should be 300 - 3000 words. In fact 3000 is almost too long. On average that is a 12 minute read and people move on. Adding these words to an already too long blog. I am changing my strategy, my travel entries are going to be shorter than I wrote. Maybe more entries and a bit more frequently. I am babbling and already making it longer.... When I left off we were just in line at the Calgary airport to board our flight to Paris. Months before we flew, I was offered to upgrade our seats. We could put a bid on premium seats. I have never flown anything but economy; that is what we booked in. My wife convinced me to place a bid. I said OK but the very minimum, which was $750. Months passed, and honestly, I forgot all about it until one morning, I opened my credit card app to pay, and there was $1500 on it. We got our seats, but it was $750 / ea seat. I wasn't 100% prepared for that; this is a prime example of having extra cash when you travel! We bo...

 Another quick entry, a break from my other writing for a current issue. Well, it is an issue that will continue for four more years. donnie trump is president again, why for fuck sakes?! We had him and Joe B, then Kamala snuck in, and this is the best USA had to offer for president? I saw a meme saying this is great; it is like watching the Fall of Rome but with Wifi, and god damn if that doesn't feel correct.  First, to 93% of trump supporters, you have nothing in common with him. While he sure paints himself as though he has you in mind, he doesn't. He is a grifter and jumped on the angry middle-American demographic. A LOT of people felt unheard. As we can see, every minority group gets special "days," "weeks," or even "months," and it isn't hard to understand where the frustration came from. I am not about to dive too deep into it; that's a blog or two on its own, but I can say as an average white, middle-aged, middle-class male, I unde...

 I think I have always wanted to travel, but I was nervous for a very long time. When I was young, my uncle worked on offshore rigs outside Africa. He was also young at the time, in his twenties. No family, no responsibility, just good money. On his days off, they would provide him a ticket home or anywhere he wanted. If I could go back and have that same chance, I would take it in a heartbeat! Young, with a pocket full of cash and a ticket anywhere, is the dream, and I am sure it was for him, too. So he would work, travel, work, maybe come back for a couple weeks and repeat. So, to me, he was the coolest; he would bring home pictures and stories of all these places, and since I was a child, I am sure I did not hear nearly all the good stories. I thought I wanted to be that cool when I grew up. Looking back, I can say it would be way more interesting to say, "Man, you should see what it looks like when the sun rises over the Effiel Tower." Then to say, "Man, I was drunk ...

November and December are my busiest months by far. I assume December is for a lot of people with Xmas parties, real Xmas, shopping for Xmas. I get all that plus I travel for work for 4 weeks roughly plus have to see all my local customers. I am not complaining, I love my job and these trips are pretty good. Most guys aren't super into work, mostly talk about the holidays and have a nice meal as a thanks for the business! Plus my family lives 500KMS away so at some point make that drive and spend a couple days at home. Again not complaining it is all good but ya it does take it out of a guy! So I got that all done and came home and slept solid for 9 hours. Doesn't sound like a lot but my Fitbit told me 87% sleep score, usually hit a 75 and usually get lucky if it is 7 hours of sleep. So I guess I was tired, New Years next week but I am not doing anything crazy for that!!! I guess what I am saying is between all that I kind of fell behind on what I wanted to write. I did a blog ...