This is how it works

So I had to renew my vehicle registration the other week. I get a notice in the mail and they say I can renew online. Perfect, I won't have to leave my place and stand in line at the dreaded registry.
This is weeks ago and I get confirmation and the new pink registration card and think nothing of it. But then I realize I need the stickers for my plates. Where the hell are those? And when are they going to mail me the new ones for '09?
Today my plates expired so I got on the horn and asked someone where the stickers are. The lady told me to pop into a registry. Ahhhhhhhhhh, but this defeats the whole purpose of renewing online. The Internet is supposed to make our lives easier.
I was not too happy, but in the end there is a registry in my parking lot and there was NO LINE! Amazing in itself. So I got it all taken care of in a matter of minutes, but why is nothing ever easy? I'll give one more example. I want to buy something online already. I needed a case for my mp3 player. It's not an ipod so you simply can't find anything in a store. So I go to the Creative website and find the case on sale for $10. By the time I got to the "check-out" they inform me it will cost $40 to ship it here. Yeah, right! So I went to Future Shop and found one on a discount table for ten bucks without the shipping!
Maybe things will get easier, but every time I try to do something on the computer it takes me an extra four or five tries before it works. I've often thought it's the operator and not the machine. Now I am not so sure.

Easy Week

I've said before that I have the best job ever. This week I was on a Part-Time walk and finished early every day. I even had time for a haircut. I love going to get a haircut, but I don't really think it should cost me $29. I go to a nice salon to see a nice girl who seems to cut my hair nicely. Same place as my mom goes, but I can't go every time. Maybe go to Supercuts once and then to Vaso once.
Anyway, she wasn't shy with the clippers. I told her my hair was left a little too long last time, so she made sure I wouldn't leave saying the same thing. Oh well. She soaks my hair, shampoo's and conditions. Gives me a crazy head massage while conditioning and then cuts. After she rinses again and then "styles". I never look as silly as I do when I leave the barber. But we'll just call it my summer 'do.
Perhaps I will go do something today that gives me reason to take a picture. Then I will have something to blog about.
I should also share with my loyal readers that grandma made a wonderful batch of soup and homemade bread. Lucky I made it in time for supper - Thanks gran!

Jury Duty

The whole seniority thing at work makes me wonder sometimes, but I can see it's advantages too. I had to pick my holidays in two rounds. Everyone picks their days based on seniority, but everyone still gets a fair crack. So I was only a few months in and I picked my holidays. A two-week block from May 25th to June 7th. Perfect. For the last five months or so me and Devyn have been stuffing money into a peanut butter jar. We've done quite well, and I think we could pay for much of our camping trip through the mountains and down to Seattle.
Anyway, Dev was summoned to jury duty on the 29th of May. Ahhhh. I am sure we can get it sorted out, but what if? I know they'll be reasonable about it, but it gives you a little scare. I guess it's safe never to get too comfortable.

It's because of my mom!

I was looking back at the previous post and think there's something wrong with the title. Taken off life support...... Sounds like I just watched Bob and Doug McKenzie in Strange Brew. *Take off eh?* (Which is a film I think is quite hilarious) Taken off of life support, perhaps? I'll tell you it drives Devyn nuts if I accidentally correct her grammar. It pisses people off, but how can I possibly be any different? As they say, I come by it honestly. Thanks mom.

But there must be a point to this right? NOPE! None at all. Just thought I should get on here again because I was laughing at myself a few minutes ago. I made supper tonight. I had an assortment of treats including, 2 scrambled eggs, two hot dogs, and a pile of cucumber and green pepper. And a beer. Delicious. Thanks for taking the time to read this. I shall go find something else to do.

Taken off life support

Another one is gone down the pipes. From the original 8 fish, one of the Cardinal Tetra's had his/her tail eaten off and was thus sent to a better place. He/she was trying to hide behind the Egyptian head I have in the tank and it was just too sad. The area where the tail had been chewed had this cloudy little jelly-like thing around it so I decided he had to be put out of his/her misery.
It's looking pretty good for the tank being empty by the time I leave for holidays in late May! I don't know if I want to arrange for Kevin to come over every couple of days to feed two little fish. Like I said before though, the first tetra I ever had lasted four years. Maybe one of these is a fighter. I think the life expectancy is more like four days.
It's my last weekday off today, and I don't really know where the time went. I had a delicious day yesterday going out for lunch and getting my grocery shopping done. Checked out a new camping store which was rather disappointing, but I wasn't working. This weekend should be very nice so I will try to ram as much fun into it as possible, and get back to work on Monday. Should be interesting to see how out-of-shape I can become in one week.

Lots of fun

Had such a good time. I drove out on Monday and stayed two nights. Rode on Tuesday. There was NO ONE in Jasper. I had the whole hill to myself. When we walked around town we could've blown a cannon down main street and not hit anyone. What a treat compared to going in peak season. I just love days off in the middle of the week! And that pool was nice too!





Devyn sitting by the giant totem pole in the lobby. Swanky treatment at that place.

















Here are the grain theives caught in the act. The car must've been full of grain and there were about twenty elk sniffing around.

Jasper Trip

Here's the bear in Hinton I think. Can never remember whether I'm in Hinton or Edson. It's welcoming us to the mountains.

Found a good deal at the Jasper Park Lodge which was beautiful. Our room was 100 years old I am sure, but the grounds and pool were nice. The room was pretty tiny and simple. You're never really at the hotel for very long though. There's the outdoor heated pool.

This is the tiny patio. The whole thing was quite hilarious. When I tried to check in, the hotel staff threw down their jackets for me to walk on so I wouldn't get my shoes dirty. I needed ice and they brought it right over with a smile "Mr. Dukovac" And, "would we like a ride on a golf cart to the swimming pool?" made me a little uncomfortable.
Getting out on the hill for the first time in two full winters. It felt amazing. Certainly rusty, but it doesn't take long for the body to remember what it's supposed to be doing. I ran out of steam pretty quickly, but had a beautiful time ripping down the hill.


We saw a million elk and a few goats, but once again I seem to have a lot of trouble seeing any "cool" animals like Grizzlies or big sheep. It's neat to see these things walking around two feet from you though.

Another one bites the dust

Well my loyal readers are now subject to trivial updates on the state of my fish tank. And it's not looking good. Two more died overnight. And one got sucked into the filter and I can't find him. So we are down to three cardinal tetras and zero neon tetra's.
I'm glad three or four of you got to meet them over the short time they were with me.
Did I mention again how much I hate adding pictures to this stupid site? I've had tips from a few of you to make it easier but every time I add something or click anything the damn things get deleted and then I have to add them and reposition the photos. I'll have to figure it out by the time I return from my little jaunt to the mountains.
Look at the pathetic post from yesterday. It started with three pictures and all the writing was nice, now the words are cut off half way through and it just makes me furious. I'll leave it and play with the html code when I have stuff to add from my trip.
This free week off is going to be so nice. I got a free lift ticket, and a really sweet deal at the Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge so it will be nice. There are benefits to having days off during the week!
Who knows if I'll have any fish left once I return.

And then there were ......

Three of my neon tetra's have been flushed already. It's heartbreaking. The bigger Cardinal Tetra's seem to be feasting on the little one's tails. So I find them twitching in the filter intake unable to swim because they have no bums.

They're a little hard to see, but the tank is cool. I am glad it's up and running again. The fish really are kind of pointless, and I didn't even have a chance to name them, but it's nice to have them.

Otherwise my place has become the occasional venue for poker nights. It's fun, but I make far too many mistakes. It really is a fun game to get into, but don't worry, I haven't taken to watching it on tv.

Here's my best impersonation of Phil Ivey ...

But alas, it's usually Devyn chomping away on her winnings.

Tomorrow I am off to Jasper for my first day of snowboarding in two winters. Just in time as the hill will be closing in a couple of weeks. I have the surprise week of holidays and decided I better go while I have the time off. Even going to stay at the Jasper Park Lodge. High-rollin! I'll have more exciting things to post in a couple of days. Stay tuned.

Where does the time go?

It's now been another month since I've been on here. The thing is, I am finding so many things to do that sometimes I feel I don't have the time to sit down at the computer.
What's the news? Well, I am officially under the 200 lb milestone. After hitting an absurd 229 the week before I started walking for a living. Now I am down to 197 or something. Pretty amazing that I get paid to do it too. I think I have the best job in the world. Seriously, now the snow is gone and it's warmer. Should be a fun summer.
Now that the vanities are out of the way, I can talk about the new additions to my place. I finally bought fish for the tank I've had running for about a month now. I bought 5 neon tetra's and 3 cardinal tetras. They're three days old now. They are supposed to be the most durable ones. Last time I did this when Sarah first bought me the tank the very first tetra lasted 4 years. Should be interesting to move the tank when I decide I have to live somewhere else.... (I just finished hanging my first picture up in this place though) Seems to me the blog is in need of some pictures. I have a week off next week, so that should make lots of time available. I will make it one of my "projects".
And the final order of business is the Oilers. Final game of the year tonight, and what a great year it was. I know they missed the playoffs and all that, but it really was a lot of fun. Certainly a better finish than last year. The best part is I must've been to ten games this year. I am looking forward to next year. I'll have to watch the playoffs until June to keep my fix filled.

What a day!

Sometimes things just feel right in my world. The weather is beautiful, I'm well rested after a two-nap Friday afternoon. And things couldn't be much better.
I dropped Devo at work this morning, took a right out of the parking lot. I found myself face-to-face with a Saturday morning Canadian ritual. Tim Horton's. Trouble was I hadn't had a coffee this morning. So I went in and found out it was Roll-Up-the-Rim time again. Double trouble. I waited in line anyway, only about 5 or ten minutes at the most. Got a coffee and hit the road back toward my place. I remembered my cousin giving me a Rim-Roller last time the contest was on. It's a wonderful little device they made to cut the coffee cup and "roll the rim" to see if you've won. An amazing little tool. Really. It's impressive. But I hadn't used it since the last Roll-Up-the-Rim. Where in the hell would I find it? It's got to be in the car somewhere. Where else do I ever take a Timmies coffee? After a few minutes, because there aren't many places to look in my little Ford, I found it. Second place I looked, in the ash-tray. YES!!!! I was elated, even though my cup said please play again. I will, I promise. I will.

Spring Break?

Last time I was compelled to write on here was because of the weather. Well, today felt like it was spring. It smelled so wonderful outside, and I even saw a fly. I have no idea how that can possibly be, but I saw it alright. Next there will be mosquitos in February. Oh joy!
Today was a brilliant 10 degrees above zero and one hell of a nice day to be a postman. But it's Friday and I don't work for two days, so enough "shop" talk.

There was a moment earlier this week on the way out to help mom and dad move furniture where I NEEDED my camera with me. We were moving new furniture into the other room now that the pool room is definiately NO MORE. It's gorgeous in the front room. (I guess we have to call it that now.) Or living room, but we kind of already have one of those.... I think I'll continue to call it the pool room - it was just that for a long time. Yeah, yeah, yeah, back to the original thought Tom.....
I was driving down the trail to help my folks and I saw some guys hanging a new billboard on the side of the road. I huge one. And they were still there kind of peering over the top of the thing smoothing out the sheet ......... and the sign was upside down!!! I think that is what a blog is ultimately for - capturing something at the right time and putting up there immediately. It was hilarious.
Well, now the fun has worn off because it's still upside down. A radio station trying to generate some conversation. I am no longer being a sucker for the marketing. Enough said. But I plan on taking a picture anyway so you can imagine why I was laughing.
Another moment where I wished I had my camera was when me and Dev went to the casino for some (harmless) fun and I put $5 in the loonie slot machine and spun it about three times before hitting three lovely 7's. Paid me a $100. Thanks for the free bottle of Pilsner and unlimited sports select losses for at least a month! Woo hoo!

It's SOOOO COLD!!!!

Welcome Winter!!!! What a blast of cold we are in the midst of right now..... Dad says his truck read 31 below zero and the radio tells us the wind made it feel like minus 46. All over the west is getting pounded too. We were hardest hit by the wind I'd say. Work was a wee bit harder than usual.
I wanted my camera to take a picture of myself. Toque and my Ed Hervey mask, scarf, all caked in frost. A parka, several layers underneath, pants, thermals, two pair socks, and my pants tight around the ankle to keep out the snow. I was trudging through snow drifts that were easily up to my knees. It was strangely exhilarating.
I had a route where I spent half of the day driving to businesses and the afternoon portion delivering to houses. I guess I was walking for almost two hours in the afternoon. On a normal day I am out walking for roughly4 hours so perhaps I got off light.
The beauty is that they told me I'll be on it for two whole days..... very rare for me. That means I'll be off in plenty of time to join dad at the Oiler game tomorrow. So mom decides to stay home because it's too cold. Hmmm, maybe the cold isn't so bad after all.

Happy New Year!!!

Ok ok, I must make this a more common occurrence this year. It seems that I have so much on the go,and nobody ever hears from me. I am having a blast I can tell you that. This post is simply to update some of you on my place. I still call it my new place but I guess I have been here for 2 months already.

Kind of like Stephen Harper still calling his government the "New Conservative Government". It's almost as bad as listening to an interview with a hockey player.

This is "Betty" in all her holiday glory.

And there has been some baking going on at my place. That's Dev and her friend Kristen. They had a few holiday coctails, or by the time I got home from work they were called fauktails. Festive cocktails I think.

Then there was Christmas. I have a few new additions to my kitchen. Look at my square plates. And look at the leftover ribs. Thanks mom. They were yummy the second time, and the third. They are on the left side. World famous I'd say.

And then there is MY first Christmas tree Sush. This one belongs to Devyn, and her mom won't let her set it up at their place because the decorations are too tacky. And there is a few of the ones my mom bought for me over the years.

Of course I can't igure out how to rotate it, and the picture is out of focus, but my patience is running thin. I am beginning to think I should upgrade from my "Lite Speed" internet. The stupid thing is so terribly slow. But this is better than nothing.

I have a million other things to say, but they seem to escpape me right now. As a result I will have to go take a shower and get on with cleaning or something. Maybe a nap......

Nice

Check this out...... Merry Christmas Tom!

We (me and Dev) decided the little tv was simply not going to do in the new place. It's a 32" Sharp Aquos.......ohh la la.

One of our friends helped us out by using his Best Buy employee discount. Thanks!

And you'll notice the Rider's are hoisting the chalice in the shot....... Yay!

The New Pad

Here are a few shots of my new place and what seems to go on in this new place. Huge pantry to the right of the fridge.

Kevin has the swiffer out cleaning the floors. It really didn't need it yet.

I'm going to buy a TV "this" big.

As you can see, that tv I have up there looks a little bit silly.

I can't seem to arrange the pics in the manner that I would like to, but you get the point. And anyone who is reading this also knows what a pig this site can be for posting pics.

Nice location right downtown where I have always thought I would like to live.

It is also nice to see Kev more often. Later that same evening he ended up climbing into the fridge.... because he could.

I had to go out and get tenants insurance. She asked if I had 20, 30, 40 thousand dollars worth of stuff. As you can see, I told her $20K. And that's being generous.

The job is going very well. I am somewhat surprised that I love it so much, but the weather is still incredible. Last week I went out in short sleeves one day. More from me later.

One October Post

Well, this was a dismal month for blogging, but I have been busy. Not that busy that I can't even go on the computer, but I am finally working full time hours. I got a letter in the mail saying I was given an automatic appointment to Full Time letter carrier. So I have two weeks under my belt as the freindly neighbourhood mailman.
It takes me a while to sort the mail, but the walk is fabulous. I plug in my mp3 player and go for a 3.5 to 4 hour walk every day. Now I know I have been lucky with the weather and I know it's almost November, but I think it is going to be awesome.
I am also just on my way out the door to pick up my car which is now sporting some brand new tires. I think the timing was right, and if the car will last another 100,000 KMS I will be laughing.
Thirdly, I will be moving into my new apartment next weekend so no more pile of stuff in my moms computer room, and her basement, and her two spare bedrooms. Everyone will be very much relieved that it is all finally falling into place. Things just happened to take about 3 months longer than I thought they would.

Street vendors

Now I just finished a book Sarah gave me by some dude from Calgary, Alberta (Marcello Di Cinto) called Harmattan. It's a guy who went a volunteered in Ghana I think and he travelled West Africa for ten or eleven months. It was interesting, but a little bit too much for me. I think it was a little bit pompous. I am not sure why, he is a fascinating writer who had some amazing experiences.
It got me thinking about things you can buy for a quick snack in any given place. I think it is different in every different city you go to, and certainly there are national links.
In the book, the guy said everywhere you turned you could buy oranges. They were green, and the vendor would grate the peel off, and you were to bite off the top, and suck the seeds and juice out of the orange. Squeezing it, and spitting out the seeds afterward. He said the ground was littered with the corpses of oranges. It made me laugh.
In Toronto normally people bought hot dogs from carts along the road. In Moonbeam, ON I got poutine. In Kenora, ON it was the chip truck for french fries soaked in vinegar. In Paris it was pain au chocolat (croissant with chocolate), and in London sausage rolls. Ottawa you think of beaver tails. In Prague I had some kind of pig-in-a-blanket thing and cheap thin crust pizzas. There was a sausage wrapped in some pastry type thing, but not like London's. I guess the fish and chip places in England were more common than the sausage rolls. I was just broke so I had to go for the cheapest thing.
In Germany I was getting kebabs, or Turkish type donairs. What do you get in Edmonton? Fat Frank's? I guess so, or late night pizza. Saskatoon was an ice cream town for me I would say. In Roma it was some pizza and Tetra-packs of wine. I wonder if anyone has anything else.....?
Totally random, but something I was pondering for a couple of days. I guess that's half the reason people travel.

Random goings on...

First off I'd like to proclaim that I have been a Rider's fan since before '89. Whenever I was old enough to be influenced by my parents and realize I had a small interest in football. So I am not sure when that was, but it's been a long time. Being a Rider fan in Edmonton is pretty cool though. Although the Riders can never escape with a win in Edmonton. They say the last time was 1999 or something silly. I can say I went to the game in July when my Uncle Emil was in town and the Rider's were up 20-1 at half and lost 21-20. Fitting, really. And to make matter worse (better) is they have gone on to win 5 straight. They haven't lost a game since they blew that one here.
Otherwise, I am back to work this evening after my first long weekend as an employee at Canada Post. I imagine it will be busy tonight, but I just hope things go smoothly. I had an earlier post about my first little "incident" on the first day, but a girl who started with me got into a real accident on Friday. I hope everything is okay with her, I feel sorry for her, and the fact that everyone will be talking. It's going to be hard for her to show up this evening.
And finally yesterday I was able to get out to the lake with my pops to do some fishing. I proudly proclaim that I caught three to my dad's one. So we will leave it to you to imagine that mine were also wayyyyy bigger. It was just brilliant to be out there though, and get a line in the water for the first time in at least a month. Here's hoping we have some nice days yet this fall so we can go molest some more walleye's.
For now though, time to go stand around and earn some money.

What a first shift!

Well, I finally had my first shift at the Post Office and it was quite a time. I walked in an saw a familiar face right off the bat. That was nice, and then some of the guys I trained with were also starting that same time. There were four of us in all. The bosses were great, told us where we needed to go, what we needed to do and showed us the routine we will follow every evening.
I get out to my truck and do the pre-trip inspection. Going through the thing from top to bottom. But we have to sign our names to it, so I might as well do it right? There is apparently 28 minutes written into our agreement for that inspection alone.
So I wait around for about 1.5 hours before my turn to load up. I show grace and elegance as I back into dock #2 and jump out of my truck and into the warehouse. A lady drives 5 cages onto my truck and off I go to St. Albert.
I had no trouble getting there, and only a little bit of trouble backing it into a tight dock there. I will say at least it was NOT graceful and elegant.
I made it though, and turned around and went back to the plant. Things are quite busy there at about 11:15 in the evening. So there's some more waiting.
When it my turn to back in there is a big semi truck with a 53' trailer in Dock #2. So I attempt to squeeze in to dock #1. Well, you can now imagine where this story is going....
I nudged his mirror. Honestly, it was nothing more than a nudge, but we have to fill an incident report. The new guy crashes his truck on the first day. This is just great.
Anyway, the familiar face a recognize at the start of my shift is the guy who comes to deal with this, and he makes me feel fine. Tells me safety is first, and no matter how much is going on around me, if I am unsure to just stop and look. Be sure.
I know I will get used to the big truck, but I thought this was a funny little story after the first day.
So I finished that, loaded two more cages and hit the road to finish my job. An uneventful trip anyway.
I will only point out there was a crazy full moon as we walked out to our trucks for the first time. And I noticed a dead crow on the side the grass where I parked my car. Omens, perhaps.
We'll see how tonight goes.