Monday, August 31, 2009

Alberta Bound pt.1


Good day everyone, this is my first alberta blog, and will deal with my last Vancouver daze, aswell as the begining of my epic journy to the Edmonton area. Lets start on tueday afternoon, my friend Jay gets back into town and calls to set up an early wensday pitch-n-putt, followed by an afternoon bar-b-que. So up at 5:15 am, golf till about 10:00am, I played quite well, several pars and a birdie. Then back home to find a u-haul trailer. At about 5:30pm, have trailer hooked up and am on my way to Jay's bar-b-que in Surrey, about a hour+away. Very nice spread at Jay's, big assed burgars, hotdogs, salad, shishki-bobs, etc. Got to say good bye to my friends, who where there to say good bye to Jay, and had no idea I was even leaving! After a few hours of relaxing, and eating, I head home. I get home and start packing about 10pm. Moving down stairs is easier the moving up, but being tired, and having the stairs of death to deal with, was not reasuring, imagine a three story cheese grater. After seaveral hours of packing I got the Blaze filled, so could start on the trailer,(had to also wait for the fridge to defrost its freezer, of course left it plugged in till the last minute, so to keep my beer cold untill I could find my cooler.) So here I am, tired and sweaty, and only about half done. Now its time to move the fridge, I was using one of those big dollies with the strap, and wheels on the back to help with stairs, so should have been easy. I started down, and if you get it on the right angle, it kind of just free wheels down the stairs, at terrifying speeds, with me white eyed, flying along behind! the only way to stop is to lean the fridge foward, at whitch time the back wheels lose contact with the stair surface, and everything come grinding(rappidly)to a hault!(with me,still white eyed, trying despretely to keep from flying over the top of the fridge.) This I had to do three times, once for each floor! Now my golfing buddy Chris, had set up a tee time for 7:22am on thrusday, at a course on my way out of town, and called me at 7am. I was running behind, and had a few hours of loading/tying/tarping, to go. At around 10am I arrive at Newlands golf and country club, a fairly ritzy type place, and I show up, not having slept in 30hours, sweaty, dirty, loud shirt, and no hat! After a so-so half round,(I only got there in time for the last 8 holes)I said my good byes, and headed out. I stopped near Hope B.C. for a 2 hour nap, witch was had on a hill in the shade near a rest stop picnic area. Then headed out to Kamloops. The trip over the pass was slow, the Blaze with all the weight of my crap, was even slower then the cruiser had been two weeks earlier. Heres a couple of shots of the mountian sunset! Pretty! So after refueling, eating, and restocking on monster energy drinks in Kamloops,(the 5 I bought before the trip, were carefully packed in Vancouver, and safely made the trip here,) I decided to stop for the night some where before Valemont. The bachelors tip for the day is all about moving, road side, all stuff packed, camping! I pulled into a rest stop, and stoped next to a picnic table,(that I assumed was wood, but turned out to be granite topped!) I layed down a reflective windshield sunblocker,(to keep the cold down and the warm up!) then a mexician blanket, then a big thick comforter,(witch came in a nice plastic bag, that I put my shoes in to keep dry from morning dew!) then my two bed blankets. This looked like a bed, and I slepted a soild 7 hours!(even set a alarm, and felt so good I hit snooze!) The sun reflector below, reflected the body heat back up, and made a oven like envirment, that was cozy and hard to leave. It was a clear, stary night, and I havent been camping for years, so quite enjoyed it,(although right before drifting off, I thought,"gee a big truck jake brake sounds just like a wolf growl!" then giggled to myself and went to sleep! This was my "bums bed" and this is the end of the first installment of the Alberta trek blogs, so have a great week! Latter DufferKev.

Thursday, August 20, 2009

Bleary Eyed Weekend Times 2


Well hello again everyone, I hope youv'e all had a good weekend. My weekend has been full! First off, I sold the WeasleMoblie,(and yes as it was driving away, I was a little sad, its been good to me!)I even got what I wanted for it! So it's gone on thursday afterwork, friday, I quite the crap factory,(I think both they and I will be happier this way,) put temperary insurance on my freshly DIY repaired LandCruiser, and went to play Delta golf course for super twilight.(only $18, best golfing bargin in the mainland!) I had a much better game, and took $5 from Chris, who unfortanetly, with no pars, was the donor this week. On my way home, I put $20 fuel in, enough to get me to Hope, where the cheaper fuel lives, and topped up my tire pressure,(some where dangerously low, like -35lbs below normal, what can I say, its been parked for 2 1/2 years!) for you see, my weekend was just begining, saturday morning, I was off, Edmonton bound! Some people have told me the Cruiser wouldn't make it, but it's only like 1240km.(I had a trip odometer on the way back, more on that cushy ride latter!) So it ends up the only cheap diesel I found, was in Edmonton,(after getting lost for almost an hour, and running almost empty, and almost losing my mind, I found a station, that I would have almost drove right past, if I had not gone looking for a station, almost funny!) The trip was very uneventful, overcast, and rainy all the way till I past Jasper, the the sun broke out, just in time to set. Unfortunatly, some where over the years, my taillights have shorted out, so after an 45 min. side of the road DIY fix it, I felt safe enough to finish the oddessy.(oddessy=epic journey, right?)

So sunday afternoon, my Mom falls under my bad infulence, and like me, wastes the nice sunny day, napping on the couch(possibly haunted, might have to check,) and watching golf, sorry Mom, welcome to my world. On to monday morning, Kev hops into his sweet new ride! Ok, only new to me, it's my Mom's cast off, a 98 Blazer! so by far the coolest I've ever called mine. Every thing is opposite to the Cruiser, gas, automatic, sealed windows/doors/roof, cruise control, smooth ride!(its almost too good, like some how it's not me!) So my Mom traded one piece of drive way art, for another.(I think we both traded up, the Blaze is cushier to drive, and the Cruiser is more intresting to look at!) Now I head back to Vancouver, what a differnt trip. The way back was more like a movie. The weather was much nicer, and with the cruise control set, I could just sit back in the comfy seats, and watch the view change. It was about 4 hours quicker on the way back, not only did I not have to look for diesel, but while the Cruiser was sometimes grunting it's way up a steep hill at a stately 70kmh, the Blaze just ignored the hill altogether!


So here are some shots I took on the way back,this first one is for all you bunny lovers out there, see I blind other animals aswell, most of these shots were taken out the drivers window, as I was going about 100kmh! somthing I would not have tried in the Cruiser! This next shot is of shale, I got stopped along with everyone else, for about 5min. while blasting was going on up ahead, so took a shot of the Blaze aswell. These are just random shots of lucky breaks in the trees/traffic, with some nice mt. scenary in the background. Remember earlier, when I told you I quite my job at the crap factory? Well I'm moving to Alberta, some time soon, going to uproot my self from my comfortable excitence, and start over, to try and make a better life for myself. Iv'e come to understand how expencive my life is here, and my ex-job was not covering all, so if I'm going to change jobs again,(at my age!)then I may as well change the expencive life aswell. This could be a mid-life crisis, or man-o-pause, if you will,(although I think me living till past 80 might be overly optomistic,)I think its for the best, and I'll be much better off in a few years then if I stay here. So that said, now my life is kaos! like I'm in two worlds, and have things to do to leave here, and thing to do to live there, so no Bacholer tips this week, sorry but have things to do. Will let you all know how its going, and the trip out again, plus I plan to golf a few more times before I go. Any way's, have a great week, latter, DufferKev.

Monday, August 10, 2009

Donor loses five bucks, finds blind bunny!




Well hello again, it's the end of another weekend, and I just clued in, I havent wrote last weeks blog yet! Have been busy, decided to sell the weasle moblie, still runs well, but things are starting to fall apart, and I don't want to spend any more money on it. My Mom has offered me the use of one of her extra vehices, so after the rabbit is gone, I'll likely take a quick trip to Alberta to up grade to a fully functional ride! She said I could just have it, but if I think I'm giving it back, then I might keep it nicer. I think she just wants it gone, But I'm looking forward to a quick visit,(her fridge is sooo full...well there is no room for a mostly empty Mcdonalds bag any ways,) so that will be nice, little vacation for me,(and maybe a sandwitch!)and red neck lawn art removal for her.(not that shes a red neck, but spare car in the frount yard, ie lawn art, me taken it away, red neck removal, free sandwitch, ie. yummy!) So have been spending the last couple of days cleaning up the rabbit, and rehooking up wiring, you know little stuff, that you know you'll never miss, so just disconect, but maybe someone else might think, "hummm...why dosent that work, it works on my car, what else is broken?" so I fix. And I clean,(a little, I could clean that car for a day, and most people would still think I should start, besides if its too clean, they'll think I'm hiding somthing!) It remindes me of a cave dig, or somthing, each layer was another year of my life. I found a energy drink can, that they don't even make any more, and golf score cards from 3 years ago, but still I should have gotten on this before now.

Last weekend I went golfing with my freind Chris to Delta golf course, it's the first time I've been back since the blinded bunny incident,(and the first time I'd played a bigger course since then aswell,) so was full of excitement, and wonderment,(like I wonder if the little blind bunny still alive, I imagined him trying to escape the eagals, but only been able to run left, cause he's half blind, remember? then the eagals, circleling endlessly, getting dizzier and dizzier, trying to get a bead on him, till they puke thier field mouse lunch all over, so I was looking for strange round wore out spots, with half digested mice pieces in them, whats the plural of mice, mices?mise?mises??hey mister how much for your mises?) Saw the rabbit in the banner, right about the same spot I blinded the other, but could not get close enough to see it's eyes, so thought I may never know. The shot on the left is the tee area of hole #5, between the white, and blue tees.(blues are farther back then the whites.) I guess I played alright, but I could sure tell I hadn't been on a bigger course in a long time, I've gotten too used to the pich-n-putt tee matts, small greens, and no/very short 2nd shots. For as cheap as Delta is at supertwilight, I really should make the trip more often, if only my car wasn't falling apart...oh yeah...he he he.
This next shot is the same hole, but shows more hole, less flowers. Right about center, so small you can't even see it from here, is the green, elevated, with swamp on the right, a creek on the left, and trees all along the fair(unfair)way! This is the longest par 4 on the course.(the ladies get to play this hole as a par 5, it's cheaper for the course to do it this way, instead of putting in another tee box, but its strange for scoring.) To me, Delta is one of my favorite mid sized courses, in the summer it's dry, pretty, and dosen't smell like the swamp it is!(really it's a bog, not a swamp, so there!) I had my chances at par, the only two 3 putts I had, were on the only two hole I had a green in regulation.(a green in regulation, is when you get on the green with 2 putts left for par, so on a par 3, if you get on in one, you hit a green in regulation, or G.I.R. I also had a 4 putt, but lets just keep that between us, O.K.?) So at the in between of green #14 and the tee box of hole #15, beneath the trees, and behind a safty net, I fianally spotted a bunny with a shinny left eye, old half blind bunny was alive! Smarty hidden behind the net, safe from the dizzy eagles, he has thrived!(or at leased survived!) So enbouyed by this uplifting news, I thought forsure I could get a par, but even though I did hit severel wonderful shots, alas the par eluded me. Chris got his par, so I became what is known as the donor, with no cards, I lost. But I won the game, no one cares. Kind of looks like I caught the bunny with a net, no peta, I have not enough survival skills, or talent/coordenation to catch even one of these semi tame course bunnys, and what the hell would I do with it? On to the bachelor tip for the week, only one this week.


Tip: Smuggling stuff, or the art of making something look like some thing else. The most important part of making somthing look like something else, is to make sure you know what it really is! Take this nice piece of cake for example, its soap, I got it from Allie the soap maker, now I don't know of any reason for smuggling soap as cake, but now I know who to talk to if it ever comes up.(I'm getting mixed messages here, first the very good smelling soap, witch I wasn't supposed to eat, now this good smelling and good looking cake of soap, witch, I'm not supposed to eat! Now if I was like Homer, ummmm, sented soap...) This reminds me of a time when I was 16, and my Mom lent me her car,(I sence a theme here somewhere,)to go to a hockey tournement, about a hour away. So I desided to smuggle a bottle of Jack Daniels along for the trip. In my mind the best way to do this was a big bottle of shampoo. It was 750ml. the J.D. was 750ml. So, after empting, and cleaning the shampoo bottle, I dumped in the Jack, and popped on the squirter cap. Off we go, after checking in to the hotel, I thought it was time we all had a drink, so instead of taking off the top, I squirted a frothy, sudzy, brown soapy goo, in to the cups. I had washed out the bottle, probably good enough, but not the lid, so it was all soapy. I'd like to say we through it out...but we drank it all, and if I remember,(gee, wonder why I can't remember,)we lost all of our games, let the team down, etc. etc. Must be a message in there somewhere,(or else I'm just babbling) ummm, don't eat the soap? umm, clean your smuggling lids? um, don't write last weeks blog, this week at 3 am on a work night? Bingo! Latter, SleepyKev.