Blair's Blog

Happy St. Patrick’s Day – the traditional celebration by the Irish of the only Englishman who was ever nice to them…

Now to the update! As of yesterday, the last day of my 11th year of playing the CNPS game, I have seen 820 plates in order (that’s 000 to 819, because, as in software development, counting starts with zero). Once again, not the best progress with only 51 plates in the past year – that’s half of the rate of my best year with the average rate dropping to under 75 plates a year or just 6 a month. At one point it looked like I would be at the end of the game in a dozen years, but that doesn’t seem too likely now. Not unless I start trolling through parking garages on my lunch hour. Can’t imagine that causing any trouble in downtown Calgary…

I think that it’s down to sheer stubbornness that is keeping this game alive – as far as I know, of all the friends and family that started in on this back in 2003, only Scott and I are still grinding away. That probably says something about how special we are!

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As of today at noon, we are the owners of a new place in southwest Calgary! Yep, after 15 years in Chestermere, we are moving into the city. There are a host of reasons for the move, but the bottom line really comes down to three things: time, community and education.

Time: Between Brenda and I, on a good week we are spending at least 30 hours behind the wheel getting to school, to work, shopping, kids activities, visiting friends and so on. A bad week can be closer to 50 hours. The cost is substantial financially (with gas at $1.20/L) as well as with respect to how tired we are at the end of the day.

Community: Chestermere never really matured into the vibrant town that we hoped for when we moved here. Despite growing from about 2000 people in 1998 when we moved in to somewhere around 17000 today, there is still only a limited commercial sector and essentially no business that isn’t retail. Basically every activity whether social, shopping, school, dentist, doctor, work or anything else involves a drive into Calgary. Chestermere is a bedroom suburb of Calgary and the constant line of SUVs and minivans between Calgary and Chestermere makes us think that we are not the only family in this situation.

Education: The kids have always attended school in Calgary, and as they get older we are finding that they are needing something different – an environment that will challenge them to not just learn the 3 R’s but to grow in independent thought and maturity. The educational choices are better in Calgary and living in the southwest will mean that the kids will be able to walk to school, rather than depending on us to drive them.

Beyond this, it will be nice to be a lot closer to family and it is giving us the perfect excuse to purge a bunch of junk treasured possessions that it would be nice to not have to take care of any longer.

It is tough to move after so long in a house that we have really made our own and enjoy, especially for the kids who haven’t known any other home. Really, if we could just move the house into the city, that would be good – but that’s not how it works!

Pictures to follow – it’s tough to handle the camera while hauling boxes of junk treasured possessions into the new place!

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This is the first car that I ever owned. It’s a 1963 Valiant – the one with the 225 ci slant-six engine and push-button automatic transmission.

I was sorting through some of our older digital camera files and scans and stumbled across this picture, taken in front of my folks place in November 1984. The car had been in the family since my grandfather (on Dad’s side) bought it new. Continue Reading »

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Mornings are iguana time, here. I think the afternoons are too hot, but around breakfast there seems to be quite a few about.  Most of them are either looking for bugs (presumably) in the lawns or lying in the sunshine on the rock features.   Much of the rock around here is limestone – lots of eroded holes and pockets for lizard hiding spots.
Other lizards like smaller anoles or geckos come out later in the day. Lots of noisy & bright tropical birds around, too.   The resort is surrounded by mangrove swamps, so we hear more birds than we’ve seen.
Most interesting animal though has been some kind of anteater with a long furry tail. Haven’t managed to get a picture though.

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