Hello my friends:
Geez, I have so much to tell since my last blog, oh where to begin!!
I guess the first big event was me travelling to Calgary to visit my old military friends. This all started with a little push from Cathy V. who was travelling out west to visit her son. She persuaded me to get out there now and she would be my travel companion to make sure it all went smoothly. A few days after we discussed this, Cathy then informed me that herself and her boyfriend Jim wanted to take care of the ticket for me. This pretty much blew me away. Not only was I going to be able to get to Calgary safely, I was also going gratis on behalf of these two fine people. Thank you Cathy and Jim for everything, its appreciated more than you know.
While I was in Calgary, I stayed with an ex-military friend of mine, Brad Norman, who now works for the Calgary Police Services. From the day I got there, Brad and his wonderful wife Jen, made me feel very much at home and put up with my "analness" regarding certain things. lol Brad and Jen also have two fine children, Jacob and Cassidy who were fantastic throughout the whole time I was there. These two kids are the ones you wish you could clone. Well done Brad and Jen;)
During my stay, I was able to spend a day with Brad and some of his fellow coppers on duty. We busted someone, did a funeral procession, accompanied by the Police Service's Motorcycle section and spent time in a class championed by Brad dealing with drug impairment. Of course I stayed awake and was fully alert for he whole class right Brad!! Of course after that, there was the mandatory coffee break at the nearby Tim Horton's. I decided to pay for coffee for the folks that put their life on the line every day for us with a $100 bill. The cashier decided to give me back $170 for my change!! God love Alberta!! I thought ....just my luck, I could make a quick hundred bucks and here I am with 7 or 8 city cops!! lol Needless to say, I informed the "smart as a whip" cashier that he just MIGHT want that $100 bill for his closing balance. Truthfully, I couldn't have kept it anyways, cops or no cops...I don't have it in me.
During the middle of the week, Cathy (who had rented a car in her son's city) drove to Calgary, picked me up and we spent the day driving through Banff and Lake Louise, ending up in a place called "Copper, British Columbia" I think. The sights were absolutely amazing. When I was in the Army, I never bothered to take the time to truly enjoy the mountains and overall scenery that we have been blessed with in our country. I'm sure I was too busy drinking and tearing it up in downtown Calgary with the rest of my Army buds. I think I had a broken nose to prove that! I'll post a few pictures on here of the trip but will post ALL of the pictures on my Facebook page as soon as possible.
For those of you who remember Rick Demaray from J-side at Cami...Rick and his lovely wife are now living in Cochrane Alberta and Rick is working for LaFarge. Rick was able to graciously get me 4 tickets for the final pre-season hockey game between Calgary and Edmonton (The battle of Alberta) at the Saddledome. The game was fantastic and I thought it would be a nice gesture to take Brad, his son Jake and one of Jake's friends. Jake was over the moon about it, which made it all worthwhile to me.
Thursday evening, I met up with quite a few of my ex-military friends at a local drinking hole where I pulled out some 18 year old pictures and we all laughed and talked about the "good ole days". I can't thank Brad enough for arranging all of this during my stay there. It was amazing seeing the guys after being apart for 18 years. I still grin ear to ear when I think of the good times we had in Calgary and over in Cyprus.
Brad and I also toured around Calgary one day, visited the Military Museum and Brad showed me how much the city had grown since I was there. (1990 pop=350000+ 2008=1.3 million!!)
When we returned on Sunday evening, I was surprised to see that the outside of my home had been decorated with Fall flowers and such by Lori and my sister Shirley. After getting in the house, yet more surprises.....the inside had been outfitted with Fall flowers etc too and my "project=junk room" had been cleaned up for me) I don't know what I'd do without such fantastic people in my life. Thanks ladies ;)
Ok, now for the DISNEY UPDATE!!!!
One of the reasons I have 160+ unread e-mails is because I (along with Lori) have been feverishly trying to organize Disney. We are almost complete and here and the plans so far: We are leaving on October 21st (2 days early due to flight availability) and will hopefully stay on the resort for those 2 days before we begin our "Disney Experience". That way we can relax and enjoy the resort before the fun begins. Spending 3 days at Disney and then 4 days on-board the Disney Cruise ship stopping in the Bahamas and the privately owned Disney island (Castaway Cay). We will be returning on October 30th with tons of pictures to share with you all!!! Believe it or not, even I am excited now!! :)
This past Wednesday, I went for lunch with most of my Material Handling Supervisors. It was great to see them and we had some good laughs. Thank you Peggy for providing this "team-building exercise" and to Joanne for organizing it.
Ok, now that my fingers are ALL the same size as my stubbie, I'd better close off. I'm sure I've forgotten more details of my trip etc and if I have forgotten to thank anyone for making so many of these things a reality, please accept my apologies.
I will discuss the details of my latest MRI in my next blog. I want this to be a happy blog full of good news!! :)
Love and thanks to all
Ed
