Day 15 - Friday Sept 30, 2016

I woke up late and was waiting at the bus stop at James Bay square only to notice the bus schedule that the bus would be by in another 29 minutes. I headed down to the bus stop on Superior and ended up running a half block to catch it. 

After arriving at work I headed over to McDs to pick up a McMuffin as a Friday treat. It was super busy and I was wondering if I would get my order in a timely manner. And I did. 

At work Roxy needed to update  only 45 folios of the AFP that were spread over 17 jurisdictions. We don't have a process to update by folio we do it by jur. Yesterday I had most the code written to extract the data that would be used to spatially reference the data. 

I worked over all my breaks and only had a 15 minute lunch break because I was really driven to get this done. 

J didn't get home until 7:30 so I was able to watch 3 episodes of Luke Cage. It was just released on Netflix today. While watching the Shark Tank I used pen and paper to map out the rest of the incremental update process. 

When I get working on something I really like to work on it until I am satisfied that I have accomplished a certain amount of progress. Especially when using python to automate a process that I've been thinking about for a while. 

Day 14 - Thursday Sept 29, 2016

Woke up very early today at 4:45 to banging of dishes and such. Couldn't get back to sleep. So I got ready and caught the bus to make it to work by 6:25, enough time to pick up a Chai Latte from Starbucks. 

Morning was busy with meetings again. The bulk of the time spent at the ITS quarterly meeting. I liked the presentation on how they showed what was planned and what got done. For a hour at the end we played carnival games in which I didn't have the fastest time in any of them but had fun. I was also happy that all the GIS people participated in the fun. Unlike the programmers. 

At lunch Rich, Tom, and I went to Subway for lunch. We talked about BC Assessment and how bleak it's looking.  He also mentioned that he will be applying for the manager job. Later I found out the Natahsa is also applying for the job. 

I ended up working late as I forgot about a meeting that was scheduled for 3:30 and ended around 5. I walked home but was a little cold for the first part with just a t-shirt on. On the way home I picked up corn chowder with extra focossia bread from Rebar. 

J got home late as usual, 7:45. She didn't eat the chowder I bought. She must have eaten somewhere else. I did all the dishes from 4 days and swept and mopped the floor. To bed at 8:40. What an exciting life I lead. 

Day 13 - Wednesday Sept 28, 2016

I Wednesday. Aka hump day. But really hump day is at the end of Wednesday as I only really work 4 days a week. Another work day and again my intent to walk to work didn't pan out as I stayed up too late last night. It's really hard to get and stay on a schedule. So bussed to work again. Again talked with David until Gorge St. 

Busy at work in the morning with most of it in meetings. At lunch I attended a lunch and learn about Applications Manager. It was well done and I wished I could have attended that session 10 years ago. 

In the afternoon nothing eventful. I am really liking the IDE I've been using called PyScriptor. Roxy has been developing some scripts and seems to have a real nack for it. 

I've been eating vegetarian lunches the last few days but get pretty hungry at the end of the day at work. I thing I need to prepare a midafternon snack of some sort. 

I might start adding at least three photos per day to this blog. Not necessarily meaningful but it will add some visual context in the future. My 70 year old self might read this and the visual aids might help my recall. 

 

Got home by bus by 6 or so. J home at 6:45. After she got home we went to the grocery store to pick up some food for lunches and dinners. Watched Survivor at 8 and bed after that. 

Day 12 - Tuesday Sept 27, 2016

First day of work after 10 days without work is always the longest day. I got up a little late so I ended up taking the 7:03 #30 bus. I saw and spoke with David on the bus. I often see him when I ride the bus. Before boarding the bus I stopped by Mac's to buy an orange juice and some bus tickets. 

On the bus I only used one ticket as I planned to walk home from work. The bus got me to work early enough for me to start work at 7:30. Steve was the only one in before me as usual. 

I always have a lot of emails to read through and respond to the first day back after holidays. I only had one meeting today which was a quick one. The rest of the time I was working on jobs that had failed, eValueBC update, and updating many small jurisdictions that haven't been done in a while. 

I worked later than I planned nd ended up working 9 hours, 1/2 hour more than is allowed. At the 5:15 I started the walk home on the Galloping Goose home. It took me roughly one hour to walk the 5.5 km home. 

While walking across the tressel I noticed the wispy clouds that were around the setting sun. The temperature was about perfect at 19 degrees. No wind. 

At around the Johnston Street bridge I called ReBar and asked them what the soup of the day was. It was bean something and I've had it before and it wasn't that good. I passed. 

One I got to James Bay I stopped by Subway to pickup a Meatball sub as Inwas too hungry and tired to make anything. 

At home I took the opportunity before J got home to download the latest episodes of Ballers, Ray Donovan, and Halt and Catch Fire. J got home and we watched the second episode of Ballers and a Ray Donovan episode. 

Tomorrow I might walk to work in the morning if I can get up early enough. 

Day 11 - Monday Sept 26, 2016

Day off today. I figured that I would need a day off to recover from my vacation. That is to do my laundry and get errands done that I hadn't had a chance to do before I left. 

Some of those are to pick up packages at the post office and Fed Ex, laundry, sweep and mop, and pick up my bike from the bike shop. Well I did most of that list by noon but still needed to pick up the package and my bike. 

I took the number 30 bus up past Uptown from James Bay thinking that Fed Ex was on Vanalman but it was actually on Tennyson Ave. so I jumped off and walked over. Finally picking the package up at 4. 

I headed back downtown to Bay Street to hop on the 10 over to the bike shop.   I got to the bike shop and saw a familiar face that was picking up a bike. We talked and he said that he recently got t-boned by a car. He broke the cross bar, seat tube, and die tube of his bike frame. He had no other injuries except a sore shoulder. Lucky guy. Or unlucky. 

I picked up my bike which cost me $180.   They did a tune up, replaced the front brake pads, and replaced a brake line. I see that they rewrapped my handlebar tape and replaced a plug in my handlebars. They mentioned that the creeking sound that I reported was caused by cracks in the rear rim. The cracks were around the spokes. This same issue had appeared twice before during my tour across Canada. They said that the wheel might be able to be replaced through the warranty. 

I walked the bike most the way home. I was trying to get 10k steps each day. With the walk home it out me over just 10k steps. I dropped the bike off at home and went to Thrifties to pick up some groceries for dinner. 

At the grocery store I picked up a couple of Jamie Oliver frozen meals. They are a good start. Then I picked up some zucchini, tomatoes, and tofu to jazz it up. 

What I cooked turned out pretty good. I used my spiralizer on the zucchini and pan fried it quickly. I made enough for lunch tomorrow. My first day of work in quite sometime. I finished off the night by watching the 7th episode of the Minority Report. 

Day 10 - Sunday Sept 25, 2016

Last day of vacation. Well at Whister. I have a day off tomorrow to recover from my vacation. J prepared a breakfast of eggs and toast. I cleaned up. We need to check out and by 10 and that made only two hours to get two high maintenance girls out the door. 

By 10 we had packed up the car and shortly after we were on the highway and headed for Squamish. It was raining/misting a little bit but not too bad. There was some low level cloud and a little bit of fog. 

When we got into Squamish we stopped at the Walmart so that J could pick up some shampoo that she discovered during a previous trip. We were going to have lunch at the Whotespot but it was really busy even at 11. In Whistler there was a Muderella race in which there must have been a quite a few of those racers in there. 

The leaving Squamish there was a noticeable increase in the amount of traffic. I got a ticket for speeding going 125 in a 80 or 90 zone. Not sure exactly. I was sure that it was going to be a huge ticket but it only cost me 197$ and 25$ less if I paid it by a certain time. 

There rest of the trip I took extreme care to make sure that I stayed at the speed limit or close to it. J put on the nav to help us navigate to a store in West Van that she wanted to visit. After that we went to Park Royal to go to White Spot to eat some lunch. J also wanted to do some shopping so I headed over to WS to get a table. I ate lunch without J as I was getting hangery. 

While I was waiting for J, I discovered some free courses put on by Harvard. I got through the first video lecture before we got to the ferry. You can pay 90$ US to get a certificate but it doesn't matter to me. I intend on going through the whole course. It is called CS50.

On the way to the ferry we were getting low on gas so we decided to pull off before the ferry causeway into Tswassen.  We filled up on gas and got to the ferry terminal shortly after 4 to discover that the 5 pm ferry was delayed because of engine problems until 6. We pulled up in lane 35 and waited. 

For a coupe of seconds until J decided to go into the terminal to check it out and go to the restroom. We walked the the southern most end of the terminal. J got a yogurt from Starbucks and a piece of banana bread.   We headed back to the car after that as the terminal was busy and there was way too many people milling around. 

I was able to watch 3 or 4 season three episodes of The Americans during our wait for the ferry. Finally at around 6 the lines of cars started to move to our right. Then another and another line of cars. Our line didn't move for a long time and we were wondering if we were going to make it on this one. We did. But not on the upper decks, we were in the bowls of the ferry with all the big trucks. 

We headed straight up to the cafeteria. J got in line. I wasn't that hungry so I found us a seat. Sometimes when it's busy the seats fill up and by the time you have your food they are all gone. Well there was plenty of seats and I ended up eating a salmon burger knowing it would be late by the time we got home. 

By 8:15 or so we had docked in Swartz Bay. The road was busy as usual with cars from the ferry. We went straight to Thrifties so that J could get some food for lunch. 

We when arrived home I unloaded the car. I managed to get all of my stuff unpacked and suitcases out away before I headed to bed. J has a clinic on Salt Spring tomorrow so she goes to be as soon as she gets in.

Day 9 - Saturday Sept 24, 2016

Today again last full day of vacation in Whistler. Late up again to J asking me to go to the grocery store the pick up some food for breakfast. 

I arrived at the IGA to discover it opened at 9. Twenty minutes to wait. I was hungry then so I walked over to McDs and had a McMuffin that I thought was supposed to be bacon but it was ham. Yuck. Not the same as bacon. After that I headed over to Starbucks but the line was too long. This weekend their is a Mudderella race going on and the Mudderella's are in line. 

I don't eat the breakfast that J and N cooked because I was still full. 

J and N headed out to go shopping in the village at 11. We planned to meet at the theatre at 12:45 to watch the Magnificent 7. At 12 J sent me a selfie of her on the gondola going up to ride in the peak to peak. 

I planned on going to the Magnificent 7 but needed up seeing Skully as it started later and I was a little later than planned. 

The movie was good. If it is true the captain has nerves of stone. No panic at all. And the last one to leave the plane. Unlike some Italian ship captains. 

A stop at Starbucks after the movie. It was small and packed but I managed to get a spot to do some surfing on the Wifi. 

Back to the condo at 4ish.  J and N were back by 4:30. I repeated a dinner of shrimp, pesto linguini, mushrooms, zucchini, and garlic bread. A pretty good feed. J and N cleaned up. 

After we were all pretty tired and watched movie on tv that everyone had seen before. I can't remember what it was. 

Day 8 - Friday Sept 23, 2016

Got up late again on one of the last days I can until back to the grind. Regular breakfast and waiting again for J to get her work done. At noonish she took a break to go to lunch at Portabello. We had soup and sandwich for lunch. The sandwiches were huge and neither of us could finish them completely. 

Back to the condo after lunch. For working for J until N came around 5:30. At 7 we walked over to Milestones for dinner. We were all getting tired by the end of dinner. After we headed back to watch Identity Thief on tv. 

Day 7 - Thursday Sept 22, 2016

The first day of fall. Up at 7:30 today. It was a nice sunny day today. J is still doing work stuff so I watched J Edgar. I didn't know that he was gay or a cross dresser.

At 1 or so we walked over to get some more skin care stuff for J in the village and then went to Milestones for lunch. After we headed back to the condo to get the car to drive to Squamish. 

We headed into downtown Squamish to try to rekindle some of J's childhood memories. After driving around for a while we stopped at Starbucks for some refreshments. 

Next we headed over to J's childhood elementary school that was just south of the downtown off the highway. After that we try to locate the blue house that she lived in with no success. 

We continued down the highway and stopped to take in Shannon Falls. It is quite a spectacular sight. The water in the creek below was crystal clear. There was a 2.5 km path that led to the gondola that we decided not to take as it was getting too late. We did however drive to the base of the gondola to check it out and look at the pricing. 

The last ride up the gondola was at 5 and it was 5:20 so going up today was out. We did take some time to check out the souvieneers and some of the art at the base. 

We headed back towards Whistler but stopped at Walmart to pick up some more oatmeal and maybe something to eat for dinner. We did find the oatmeal I like and did pick up a frozen pizza. 

When we got home we preheated the oven to 450 and put the pizza in. In 12 minutes it was ready and it was pretty good. At 9 I watched the pilot from Pitch and the season 4 premiere of The Blacklist. 

Day 6 - Wednesday Sept 21, 2016

The last day of summer. At 7 I felt that I had enough sleep. I had noticed J's light on at 4 and she was still in her room doing work related tasks. I made the regular oatmeal and tea and settled into an all day marathon of storage wars. 

At 1 we went to lunch at Portabello again. I had the brisket sandwich this time. We went to the lounge after to consume some tea with the cheesecake again. 

Back to the condo as J had more work to do. I continued on with the storage wars marathon. I watched most of the World Cup in hockey between team Europe and Canada. 

At 7 I headed over to Milestones to pick up diner of yam fries, butternut squash ravioli, veg burger, and surf side salad. It was good but I little too much food. 

Survivor was on at 8. It was the 33rd season. 

Day 5 - Tuesday Sept 20, 2016

Today I woke up shortly after 7:30. J was up and drinking her morning coffee. At 11:00 we headed over to Portabello in the Chateau Whistler for lunch. I had a turkey sandwich. The turkey was cooked very nicely. Normally the turkey is dried out in most restaurants but not this one. Maybe that's why the charge 17$ for a sandwich. Even though the sandwich didn't look too big it was filling. 

We walked back to the condo through the Four Seasons hotel complex. We went in and looked at the art they had inside their lobby. After that went back to have a midafternon nap. 

At around 4 J had to use a scanner and printer so we headed down to the UPS store. After printing a couple of documents we went to a nearby coffee shop so that she could fill out some documents. We drink ice tea. 

After that we went to Creekbread to eat some wood oven cooked pizza. We had a thin crust pizza with very few ingredients that was pretty good. It could have used onion though.  The waiter recommended that we try the house made lemon aide. It was ok but I've had better. 

After diner we took a drive to Pemberton. We enjoyed the mountain views during the trip. While in Pemberton I wanted to show J the valley that runs west from Pemberton. It is very open and has amazing mountains views. 

One the way back when we were nearing the village we spotted a black bear that was trying to cross the highway. There are bears everywhere here. 

We stopped by the grocery store to pick up some watermelon and rainbow shurbert. We always fight over who gets the orange because we both like it. But we won't get the orange. 

Back to the condo to eat watermelon and shurbert. 

Day 4 - Monday Sept 19, 2016

First full day of vacation in Whistler. I took the opportunity to sleep in until 8:30. When up I prepared tea for me and oatmeal for the both of us. We walked into the village around 10:30 to look around. We walked into the Olympic plaza but on the way stopped at every out door store along the way to find women's gloves. Which we never did. J was luered into a store that sold face cream. She ended up spending $500 on a couple of tubes of face cream. Later she tried it out and was amazed on how good it was. Fora late lunch we stopped at Milestones which is at located right at the base of the mountains where all the lifts are. Lunch was good and we both had fish tacos with a beet salad to share for an appetizer. After lunch we walked through the Chateau Whistler to check out what it had to offer. We stopped off at the lounge their to share the best piece of  cheesecake I've ever eaten. It was Rhubarb flavoured. After that we headed back to the condo to watch some tv. 

Day 3 - Sunday Sept 18, 2016

This morning I woke to sounds in the kitchen as J was preparing her morning coffee that she can't go without. I got up at 6 to pack and have a shower. By 7 I was ready and loaded the car. We left at 7:05 and got to the ferry to get the 8 instead of the planned 9. While on he ferry we headed up to the cafeteria to grab some breakfast. I always find the food to be sub par and this time it was too. We got a good spot to sit by the window and watched the sun rise over the gulf islands. The sun was so intense the J had to move many times during the voyage to avoid being blinded by the sun. 

When we arrived in Tswassen we headed towards North Vancouver. We are attending the open house of Seaspan where J's daughter N works. At 11:30 we picked up N and headed to Starbucks for a drink before the open house. 

At Seaspan we had to stand in a line for a while before we got to go in. Once in N showed us sections of tug boat that she had worked on. She also described some of the jobs people did to build the ship. We toured on a tug boat that was docked adjacent to where they were building the new one. 

At around 4 we dropped N off and headed to Whistler. It's about a 1.5 hour drive on a fairly curvey road. The scenery along the sea to sky highway is beautiful. Mountains and ocean views are the best. 

We got to the condo and entered the underground parking easily using the code provided by the owner in an email. We went to the unit and punched the code into to the touch pad to find out that it didn't work. I got on he phone to the owner and she provided us with a new one. 

Once inside we found that the housekeepers thing we're still in the unit by the door. The owner thought that we were checking in the next day. She she to go have dinner on her so we went out while the condo housekeeper finished up. 

We drove down to the village and had diner at Mongolie Grill. At the restaurant you pick your veg and meat and sauce and the cooks cook it for you. Mine was good but J said hers was a little boring. The sauce she had picked wasn't so good. 

After that we went to shoppers drug mart to get snacks because we didn't bring too much food with us from Victoria. Then we went back to the condo watched tv and slept. 

Day 2 - Saturday Sept 17, 2016

Today J must do some work so I will go to work for a little bit and then go over to see a movie. 

I wanted to see Sully and Snowden. I ended up seeing Snowden. I fell a sleep as usual while in the theatre more than a couple of times. When I was awake the movie was alright. Before I went into the movie I picked up chicken and shrimp from Edo Japan. 

I took the bus back to the office for a little bit after. Before heading home I we t to Wallmart to pick up some oatmeal. 

Day 1 - Friday Sept 16, 2016

I will attempt to keep a blog for my 46th year.  My other blog (cahinringtattoo.blogspot.com) documents my amazing journey across Canada in the summer of 2015.  This blog will be significantly less exciting.

Last Friday on my way to work I broke my hand by running into the back of a flat bed while navigating through traffic on my bike.  Since then I have been taking the bus to work.

Today is a Friday and a work day.  Nobody else in GIS is here.  All are except Roxy (recovering from surgery) and Dave (working from home) have a day off.  Friday's are normally quiet around the office as a lot of people have it as a day off.