A TRIP DOWN MEMORY LANE

POST # 556 

For all of the people out there who look at my blog, because they like to read what's been happening with The Thoughtful Wanderer, you're going to be very disappointed with this particular post.  Since my last entry, I have travelled back to my old hometown of Calgary, aka Cowtown.  The story today will be explained mostly with the photos that I have collected this past week.  It's been quite a week, so let's get started.  The photo above was taken at the Vancouver airport, after I cleared security, and before settling in on a bench for the night, I decided to treat myself to a beer, as Dora-dog watched over me.

So let's get to the photo part of the blog, shall we?

Flair Airlines flight # F8800

After a sleepless night on a bench, the sun begins to rise.

Calgary Hostel

My bed in a six bed dorm room.  It's been many decades since I stayed at a hostel.

 

Hostel guests in the 21st Century.  Cell phone city. 

Breakfast at the hostel

The Calgary Tower which was the tallest building in Calgary in 1967.  It is now only the 7th tallest.

The Burns Building where dad had his first Goldsmith and watch repair shop.

Centre Street bridge over the Bow River

Nova Tower

C-Train

What would Calgary be without the occasional Buffalo?

Waiting for the # 6 bus to my old neighbourhood.

Here comes the #6

Passing Sacred Heart Church en route to my destination. We attended 10:15 am mass every Sunday and sat in the front pew.

The alleyway I walked down every day to go to my elementary school.

Formerly St. Charles Elementary

My grade 1 classroom

A view from the front of St. Charles.

Overlooking the playground behind our house where I used to play ice hockey.

Where our family house used to stand at 2432-28th Ave. S.W.

Looking up the hill, I rode down on my tricycle at the age of 6.

Looking down the same hill.

Formerly the Warehouse Supermarket where I worked as a stock boy.

The shop across from Sacred Heart church where mom and her two sisters worked at a thrift store.

Morning coffee at the Hostel I stayed at this past week.

Squirrel company while I have my coffee.

Overlooking the hostel(low building at centre of photo) from the top floor of the library.

St. Gregory School with friend Tim.  This is where we met, 12 and a half years after both of our mothers had us, two days apart, in the Holy Cross hospital in Calgary in 1955.

Front entrance at St. Greg's

The confluence of the Bow and Elbow Rivers.

Visiting my old high school.

Clouds reflected on downtown buildings.

Hanging out with mom and dad.

A local T-shirt.

Library interior

Heading up to the Calgary Tower

Defying gravity

Doing it again, to make sure that it wasn't a fluke the first time.

Calgary Tower opened exactly 55 years ago today.

Looking North

East

Southeast

South (St. Mary's High School at the end of the road (top)

West

The Holy Cross hospital where I was born (tan coloured building near the centre of the photo

Defying gravity again, this time on my back

8th Ave. Mall Architecture

Palace theatre on 8th Ave. mall where I used to go to a movie once a month with my elementary school friends

The only remaining wooden building in downtown Calgary

Calgary City Hall

A new tower downtown

It wouldn't be Calgary without a horse roaming the streets

Words of wisdom from Ernest Hemingway

It's now late in the day, and I want to get this posted, but I have one more photo (and maybe another one or two tomorrow) to share.

I was meant to have lunch with two of my nieces today, Laura and Melissa.  Melissa was planning to pick me up here at the hostel and she arrived at the appointed time.  I was pleasantly surprised, when she arrived with her mom, my sister Lynn.  I had no idea that Lynn was even in town, as she lives in the town of Sicamous B.C.   We drove to the restaurant, where we met Laura, and settled in for a long overdue visit.  Later on another surprise.  My nephew Nick arrived, and we all enjoyed our visit.  The journey continued with a trip out to Nick's home, and for the first time ever I got to meet his wife, and their three young girls.

Here is a photo from the lunch earlier today.

                             L-R The Thoughtful Wanderer, Laura, Nick, Melissa and Lynn

It has been a wonderful day and week, and I am very happy that I made the decision to return to my home town for a visit.  Tomorrow, I'll be returning to Vancouver for the night, before heading off on the road again.  More on that when I post again on July 7th.

Apologies for any spelling and grammatical errors, as I need to be heading out soon to my friend's house for my last night in Calgary.

I hope to add a couple more photos before I leave town, and I will tack them on to this entry, once I am settled in at the airport tomorrow evening.

grateful for every breath,

Paul

The Thoughtful Wanderer

So here are some extra photos to complete this adventure.  

My other High School, Bishop Carroll

Downpour while driving back to the hostel with my niece, Melissa

The "jungle" front yard at my friends Daryl and Chris's home

No trespassing?  No problem, just rip open the fence

Luna

Leela

Fun with dogs behind Daryl and Chris's home

Arriving at Calgary airport about 3 pm, June 29th

A sign of the times, and I was about to share a similar fate to these delayed flights

One final view of the downtown prior to the darkness of the night

My flight was meant to depart at 9:30 pm, and finally after four delays, we lifted off right at 5 am, June 30th.

Finally getting close to touching down in Vancouver

So that's all folks for this very lengthy post.  As I write these words, I am sitting at the ferry terminal in Nanaimo, getting ready to head back to Vancouver, and then down to Washington later this afternoon on the Amtrak train.  I was awake all night, so it has certainly been an interesting adventure to say the least.  I hope to get a bit of shut eye on the train ride, prior to meeting up with Mary and Dora-dog later this evening.

TALKING WITH JACKSON

 POST # 555

Jackson isn't impressed.  You can just tell by the look upon his face. What on earth is the house sitter doing reading a book with a title such as this?  Where's the respect?  And if he was going to read such a book, you'd think that he would at the very least, read it while I am napping.  It's hard to find good house sitters nowadays.

Well, be that as it may, Jackson, you must understand that I spend as much time or more with dogs as I do with cats.  I thought that you of all cats would understand this.  After all, when I arrived at your place I brought Blanca along with me for one night.  Take a look at these photos, Jackson.

How on earth could you have that offended look on your face, when you can see with your own eyes just how cute Blanca is?

But I get it.  Cats think that they rule the world, so I guess it's difficult for you to understand why humans would want to spend anytime at all with dogs.  Get used to it Jackson.  It's time to share the love.

And don't worry, with any luck I will once again be able to spend time with you at some point in the future.  And if I do, I'll be sure to not bring this book along with me, and I won't mention the word dog the entire time that I am with you.  I'll give you my full and undivided attention.

And speaking of full and undivided attention, you can be sure of it next time around.  Why?  Because you pulled one over on me while I was there.  What was that you ask?  Well, when I picked up your owner yesterday, the first question she asked me was where did you choose to sleep?  I told her that you preferred the couch in the living room which I did think was a little odd, seeing as there was a blue wool blanket draped over the other couch, that was absolutely covered in your cat hair, and yet I never saw you sleep on it.  After talking with your owner, it turns out that the blue blanket is where you are supposed to sleep.

Well you won't be able to pull that off, the next time around, so keep that in mind.

On a more positive note.  It was a pleasure to take care of you.  You're a real sweet furball.  I hope to see you again sometime in the future.  In the meanwhile, SLEEP ON YOUR BLUE BLANKET!!!

grateful for every breath,

Paul

The Thoughtful Wanderer

FURBALL AND BONEHEAD DOUBLE-HEADER

 POST # 554

                                                            JACKSON

Meet Jackson.  This is my very first encounter with him, and I have to say right off the bat, that he is the furball version of Blanca, when it comes to being instantly friendly and loveable.   I arrived here last night, with Blanca coming along for the ride.  Her owners don't get back to Victoria until this evening, hence the furball and bonehead double header.

These two already know each other, which makes my life as a pet sitter very easy indeed.  But when I see the photo below, Blanca has this look on her face which seems to suggest, "What is he doing here?"

Be that as it may, Blanca has decided to go with the flow, and she basically ignores Jackson.  She'll be back with her owners in a few hours, and once that happens, I'm sure she'll forget all about Jackson, and the house sitter for that matter.

Once Blanca departs, it's just me and Jackson for a week.  I'm quite looking forward to spending time with this new furball, and no doubt, he'll teach me a few things as the days pass by.  

This is my third visit to Abbey Road, and in spite of that, I have yet to track down Paul or Ringo.  But stranger coincidences have happened in my wandering life, so who knows?  Perhaps I'll see one or the other of them strolling down the road, because they like its name.  You can be sure that if that happens, it will make the news in next week's post.  And if not,  I'll find something else to write about.

grateful for every breath,

Paul

The Thoughtful Wanderer

ANOTHER DAY IN PARADISE

 POST # 553

BLANCA

Today, I had planned to write about a topic that came to mind a little while ago, but it has been put on the back burner for now.  The photo above might give you some indication of why.  I've been pleasantly distracted by Blanca.  Let me tell you the story of how this house/pet sit came about.

A while ago, my friend Ann Marie whom I have been house sitting for, for more than a decade referred me to Lynn in Victoria.  I had house sat for Lynn way back in 2017, and here is a link to a post I did at that time.

https://wherespaulnow.blogspot.com/2017/05/teenie-tiny-tabby-tina-and-sadie.html

I followed up that house sit with another in February 2018, the details of which can be viewed here.

https://wherespaulnow.blogspot.com/2018/02/abbey-road-her-majesty.html

Anyhow, Lynn was planning a vacation this month, and seeing as I was available, I agreed to help out.  She has a new furball now that goes by the name of Jackson, and I will meet him next week.  No sooner had I accepted Lynn's offer and she sent me an email to see if I could help out some friends of hers here in Victoria, who had planned a trip to Saskatchewan, and at the last minute, their house sitter had to cancel due to medical reasons.  While I was still in Nanaimo,  I arranged to have a Skype call with Jeanette and Robert, (and Blanca) and that is how I ended up here in paradise.

I arrived on May 31st, and they left the next morning.  So it's just the two of us now, and Blanca is wonderful company to be around.  From her behaviour, my guess is that she is enjoying the house sitter as well.

We are living in the suburb of Cadboro Bay, and it's literally a five minute walk to the beach.  We go there twice a day, morning and noon time, and then finish out our walks for the day, by taking a stroll to Telegraph Cove, which is only about a ten minute walk from here.  Every day has been sunny, so Blanca and I spend as much time as possible outside, enjoying the garden.

By this time next week, I will have already moved on to Lynn's house, which is just up the road from here, in order to begin my week long sit with Jackson.  I'm looking forward to meeting him, but I'll certainly miss hanging out with Blanca.  But who knows, perhaps one day in the future I will have another opportunity to be here.  That would be wonderful.

I'll finish this entry with a selection of photos taken in the past week.  Enjoy.

Home sweet home

Sunset from the back deck

The beautiful garden

Fun at the beach at Cadboro Bay

Blanca the mountain climber this morning at the beach

                              Blanca makes a new friend last night on the walk to Telegraph Cove

                                                   A better version of the Canadian flag

                                                               Blanca trying to look cute

                                                              Evening at Telegraph Cove

So it's now time to get off of this computer, and head outside for another walk with Blanca.  Just another day in paradise.

grateful for every breath,

Paul

The Thoughtful Wanderer

PS.  Happy birthday to my old friend Louie from Dawson City.  He turns 65 today, so he's now officially a part of the old fart's club.  Congratulations Louie.