A Bachelors Blog

Death -     It's a part of life that we all hate and ignore and fear and avoid. Sometimes though, you aren't given those options and it bangs loudly on your door, not going away like solicitor or religious fanatic eventually do.     I got word that a good friends dad passed away and my heart went out to him. I know loss, too well I know the pain. Family is always different, whether you are close or not, it's part of the tree of your life that has gone on. A portion of you is now reduced, whether you want it or not.    I was told that a friend I had made two years ago was given seven days to live. She passed this morning and it sucks.  She is my age, she's a strong and funny and kind hearted woman and I really wish I had more time to get to know her. I don't. I won't and that's just how it is.  No more dreams and hopes and laughs and conversations and memories.  It just... Stops.  My heart is heavy for my friends impacted b...

Happy New Year!! However that looks to you and from whatever position you happen to be reading this from, truly, I hope it finds you well and happy, or at least working towards that end.  Tonight I sit here with the dog snoring (and occasionally farting) beside me, the house quiet except for a punk version of Like A Prayer playing in the background. New year, no judging! 2016 was a tough year for a lot of people and there seems to be a pretty heavy sentiment that it just sucked! Well, yes and no. I can only speak for myself but 2015 was much harder, but don't get me wrong, last year had challenges as well but also some pretty great victories.  I failed in work and in relationships and I also succeeded in friendships and travels and experiencing new things. Ebb and flow, up and down, yin and yang.  I'm choosing to put 2016 to bed on an upswing because I feel like things are moving the way they should, and I'm happy to announce a promotion that was confirmed on Frida...

Learning about happiness has been a harder road than one might expect.  Most people would think that, naturally, happiness would be easy and good and that t would just come to you, but most people would be wrong hah! We ll have moments of happiness and joy that sneak up on us or overwhelm us in those excellent moments of celebration; birth of a child, good news for a family member or friend, a shared victory, an underdog win for your favourite hockey team.  However it looks to you, those moments are really great and welcome and warm us when the dark times come.  Life is cyclical and it will always have ups and downs, its nature in all of its patterns just doing what it does.  How we respond and process those ups and downs is really key, and Im finding, harder than I thought. I have been dealing with a concept for awhile now (Over a decade, maybe?) regarding people in my life.  Its a simple equation; do the pros outweigh the cons of this person in my life?...

  So, this week has been pretty rough in a few areas.  Work and relational stuff just kept heaping the joy onto my head relentlessly.   The relational stuff is what it is and we worked it out but that on top of getting talked to by the owner and the boss and then a crew chief meeting that could have been better... Just a shit week.   ... So here we are on Friday, and to start the day off, Moxie refused to go out for a bathroom break. I know what that means.  It's always the same end result, but I tried to get her out anyway.. Didn't happen.  Try moving 95 lbs of unmoving dog while late for work.    So I left her with a warning about pooping or peeing while I was at work. Doggy Jail (the kennel beside her bed, for a time out).    Sure enough I get home to 'the smell'. That awful stink of dog shit.     I HAD been happy to have this tough week behind me.  I WAAAAS excited for the weekend and the plans an...

  I've had a pretty rough year and a half. The new year has held promise but out of the blue my life has gone from secure and stable to a giant question mark on pretty much all levels of my life.    I'm not a 'live in the moment' kind of guy. I'm happiest with routines and a sense of safety and security.  I plan, weeks and months and years into the future and I love when the plans work out, it's comforting. I often think too much about a situation that I'm constantly reminding myself that I have exactly zero power to influence or control. I spend a lot of time with the internal monologue 'just relax, man. Whatever happens, happens.'    ... And then I spend another half an hour trying to see all the angles, plan and prepare for every possible outcome, girding myself for the worst, yet hoping for the best.    It's exhausting.    These past couple of weeks have been weird for me but I'm really focused on the simple moments. When my brain de...

You ever have one of those nights where you have a bad dream and it wakes you up only to keep you awake?  Yeaaaah well it's after 4 am and 3 hours of sleep/trying to sleep have left my brain thinking too much.    It's time to write!  I haven't really said much about my Dog. Ahhhhh, where to begin?  This is Moxie! I rescued her just over a year ago at Christmas time. She had had a bit of a rough life prior to my adopting her. A lot of neglect and abuse left her roaming free in the country side for weeks in the cold, eventually ending with her capture as well as amputating the toes on her front paw, it's the paw I adroitly refer to as her communicating paw.  I call it that because she uses it to smack my phone out of my hands when she wants my attention. We communicate a lot.    This picture is a recent decent. 90 lbs and 4 years old, still thinks and acts like a lap puppy.    I had been looking around for a dog online and I had seen the p...

  This last year has been probably the second hardest year of my life and I can honestly tell you, gentle reader, that I'm happy to put it behind me.    Before I do that though, I'm writing this post to sort of help me organize this chapter somewhat in my mind because as difficult as it actually was, there were victories and positives all along the way.    This has been a year of losses.  From the yo yo girlfriend situation all year to the cancer losses to the two murders and a suicide. I've buried too many people lately and have put up with a lot of idiotic childishness from 'adults' that I no longer associate with.    Let's call this the learning and growing curve. More and more I am realizing what I do and don't want in my life and will actively seek out the good and cull the herd of the bad/infirm/negative. Just not good for growth or any sort of positive hope for a future. In short, shitty people will weigh you down.    The deaths.....