Blair's Blog

It’s difficult to believe that autumn began this week. It has been quite the roller coaster of a year. The economy generally has been difficult here and the job market has been abysmal – the worst employment market in 30 years, some say. Even this week, two individuals that I know were let go from their companies.

In some good news for us, though, both Brenda and I landed jobs in September, which was an incredible relief after months of scrambling for small contracts and juggling finances to keep the bills paid and food on the table. Brenda is going to be working in the information booths at the Calgary Airport that provide all manner of assistance to travelers going through the airport. This month and next are largely focused on training and getting oriented to the new international terminal building that will be opening for use at the end of October after about 6 years of construction. One of Brenda’s current responsibilities is to guide groups of airport staff on familiarization tours through the new terminal.

I was fortunate enough to bring my “unpaid vacation” to an end after 352 days off – I started on a contract with an oil company downtown just this past week. I will be reviewing the operational policies and procedures over the next 12 months and updating them where needed to improve the effectiveness of the processes and to help ensure that all of the requirements of the business and industry regulators are being met.

In the midst of all this change for Brenda and I, of course there is all the hectic back-to-school activity with the kids – it’s not to bad for the boys, as their situations and routines are very similar to last year. However, one of the sacrifices that had to be made with the lack of employment was that we had to withdraw Alyssa from her school – this year she is doing Grade 9 through a distance learning program – her classes are on-line each morning and she works independently on her assignments in the afternoons. So far, that has been working well for her.

All in all, September has been pretty eventful and, finally, in a good way.

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… for a day.

It’s not like I can even afford to ride my own bike this year with almost a year of unemployment. However, this bike, which belongs to my friend Mark, was needing a ride home. It had been in the shop for quite a few weeks getting some clutch work done and when it was ready, Mark asked if I would be willing to ride it up to Sundre for him.

I picked it up on Friday, then yesterday I rode up in the morning to drop it off. I took some back roads that I had never traveled on previously – some nice scenic secondaries up through Water Valley. In a slightly disappointing turn of events, almost all of the roads were paved, so I only managed to try out a little bit of gravel. On the other hand, I learned about some nice routes for next year’s riding.

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