Saturday, November 29, 2008

Still raining here this morning although it has eased up from yesterday - not much planned for today - perhaps a little more Xmas shopping - yes I am one of those who likes to get it over a done with - got up the courage this morning to take a look at my pension portfolio and like I suspected it is not a pretty site - hopefully the worst is over and some of the value will return in the next month otherwise it will be either me stay in town and vegetate or draw down some of the reserve funds which are outside of the registered plans.

More later

D

Thursday, November 27, 2008

This really is a much to do about nothing day - can't decide what to do - more Xmas shopping, go for a bike ride, go for a drive in the country - with the cheaper gas prices I can afford - at least for the time being - to run the truck more.

I guess I could sit back and watch the three NFL games that are on TV and then tonight the Canucks are playing - perhaps drive up Seymour or Cypress and a walk in the snow.

One thing that I will have to do in the near future is rearrange the contents of my storage locker - our strata has been using some lockers in an adjoining building for free but that building has decided that it either wants our users out of there or to start paying for the ones that we are using - at a Special strata meeting last night the owners decided to go for option B which is to divide our full length lockers in half thereby giving each owner his or her own locker except some of us have two much junk and will need to either get rid of some of it or rent a second locker except that I have a large bookcase that will be too large under either scenario - so i just might bring it up to the apartment and replace it for a couple of my smaller ones.

Decisions - decisions - decisions

Cheers

D

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Sunny morning here - heading out shortly to have lunch with my brother and in one week he turns 60 - finally have all my digital stills and video transferred from my laptop to my desktop - next will be coming up with the "best of" files and then onto DVD for lasting memories.

Not much other to discuss so

Cheers

D

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Raining here today on the west coast of Canada so it will be a good day to do some indoor things - before I forget - the picture at the top is taken from St Lucia in the Caribbean - it's of the Pitons one of the most recognizable natural features on that island.

The other picture most of you should recognize as well -I had a seven hour layover between trains in Washington DC and the weather was sunny but cool so instead of taking the hop on hop off bus I starting walking down Pennsylvania Ave to the White House then over to the Washington Monument and down the National Mall to the Congressional building and then back to Union Station - that took at little over 2 hours and then I basically spend my time in the first class lounge at Union station or exploring the Station which is an attraction all by itself.

The Xmas decorations have been brought up from the storage locker and will be put up over the next few days - Dec 1, 2008 is the allowable date for us to have any outside lights up and on.

Later I am heading out for coffee with some of the other retired old farts from the Y at a coffee shop on the North Shore. Usually try and see them about once a month and since I have been away their will probably be lots of BS to spread around.

More later

D

Monday, November 24, 2008

Things are finally starting to get back to normal in my everyday life although I am still waking up early - like 3 to 4 AM as the body clock is just starting to readjust to Pacific time.

Got the last of the digital photos transferred over to the desk top - next up will be the video and then it will be a project to come up with a small 100 photos and less than 30 minutes of video.

Didn't find the Grey Cup game yesterday all that exciting - yes it was close and in doubt until the final minutes but there have been more more thrilling games in recent years.

On the agenda for today includes getting my flu shot and stopping into the dentist to update him about my loose tooth episode in NYC.

Yesterday I did bike around the Stanley Park seawall - lots of people out and about and will either bike or hike somewhere today.

One of the upsides to the current financial downside is that with gas much cheaper I will be able to afford to drive to some of my favorite biking and hiking destinations a little further out.

Also good to see some snow on the North Shore mountains - might even do some snowshoeing on Grouse since they have two or three groomed trails and it doesn't cost me anything other than the shoe rental as the use of the trails is included with my annual Grouse pass.

More later

D

Sunday, November 23, 2008

Well finally arrived home around 2:30PM on Thursday and have spent the last few days getting to know my bed, apartment, city etc.

Did 4 large loads of laundry and Friday and a little Xmas shopping as well.

Will need to work on putting over 1000 photos into a much smaller file and spend some time editing and joining the video files as well.

Weather today is clear and cool so I hope to make it out on the bike a little later - in checking the scales at my health club it looks like I only put on a couple of pounds and that might be from the train ride as there isn't much opportunity to move around on the train and the meals in the dining car are big.

Do hope to be back in time to catch the Grey Cup - with over 65,000 fans cheering on the hometown Montreal Als it should be noisy in the Big O today.

More later

D