Stepping out and random things

What's happening Hive!

Well there isn't to much new around here besides boring stuff I suppose. Travel and public outings are still a bit dodgy around these parts. We just got locked down again today for who knows how long. Two weeks we are all in this together they said...a year later yet here we are...still. Well at least there is toilet paper now. To be honest, I always have a year supply on a good day so my bum bum was never disrupted. (insert silly face here, my emojis are not working for some reason like the rest of my computer). Could be worse tho, I could still live in Quebec! They have gone full communist over there, unreal. They have curfews and restricted movements on top of lockdown-lite. The maritime provinces have been closed to everyone since the beginning, maybe that's why they never got too many cases over there. I don't really care much what goes on over there, I left all that behind long ago thankfully.

I will be stepping out of Hive for a while, at least the writing part, I'll still be here voting and stuff, maybe throw the odd comment here and there. Despite the lockdown, everyone still needs gas in their vehicle...Hurray! After a slow year last year I get to go back to work at least for a little while! Y'all know what that means! Quiet and than some epic hikes and mountains and whatever else.

I had some cool stuff planned the last few months but you know....covid threw a wrench in that for a little while. A few months back I got all excited about this expo coming to town. The minute I found out about it, I wanted to shout it from Hive's rooftop but figured, I better not just in case...you know covid...lol. I was right but maybe if I share it , it could come to fruition eventually. What is it? That virtual Vincent Van Gogh exhibition where they take over 200 of his works and bring them to life on giant tv screens and floor projection and create a maze of paintings come alive.

It's been postponed twice already but they seem pretty adamant on displaying here, thank goodness. Cross my fingers I still get to go, the rest of Canada has seen it already so we're a little late to the party. They sold like 50k tickets the first day it was originally announced, it will be popular! The new date is June 2nd, maybe I'll be done work by then either way I'm making my way there and if not because it gets cancelled altogether, I will kick covid in the nuts. I was actually pretty excited about this, actually as excited as I was about the light show from a few years back. In case you missed it, here is a link.

Before I move on to the next topic (mountain plans) How about that turkey eh! I'm not overly religious but was raised with a ubber religious background so I observe turkey at Easter. Don't get me wrong, I do believe there is a god, a higher power, a great creator, Allah... whatever you call it just not a fan of organized religion in general... Too much juginess over trivial things that shouldn't matter especially the fact that I was raised roman catholic and went to a public catholic school ( I loved challenging them on their archaic beliefs and get them mad, especially the nuns). This year, we decided to not bother cooking it but order a smoked bird, well half a bird from our local BBQ house.

We have become regulars at the local Memphis Blues BBQ House, all that smoked meat is to drool for. Actually, we like the service as much as the food. These guys are so nice! Their turkeys were 8lb birds strait from a local farm organically grown pre-ordered in full or half. Naturally I don't want to eat turkey for a week after each holiday, even half a bird at 4lbs of meat seemed excessive but after one of the workers offered to give us part of his just like that, we had to just get a half and eat turkey for a week. It was so sweet of them to offer in the first place. That's how awesome they are, they really value their regulars there, what keeps us coming back. Anyhow, it was $60 for half of a smoked bird so why not.

For the first time ever, I had smoked turkey, it was never on my bucket list for whatever reason but it certainly deserved to be there! The best turkey I ever had by far and that smoked tasting gravy, I could have just drank a glass of it, worth a heart attack! For those of you that never had smoked turkey, add it to your bucket list! That meat was so tender and juicy, it was melting in my mouth like butter, even the white meat! Unbelievable, naturally, they used the smoked drippings for the gravy. They slapped some goody Cajun type seasoning all over that thing, pretty sure the same they use on their smoked Brisket (still my favorite, nothing can knock that out of first place, I'm getting the meat sweats just thinking about it). I'm pretty sure they have a few locations across Canada, not just here in Alberta if you want to check them out. The turkey is he first picture I post taken with my new toy, I didn't really test it out too much yet but I can't wait to take that thing outdoor especially the mountains.

I originally wanted the Z7 but given the bad timing of my old camera breaking, it was a little out of my price range and I hate credit so I settled for something a bit cheaper. The specs are not half bad tho, it seems like a more versatile camera compared to the Z-7 that is more geared for professional use, I really wanted it for wildlife photography with it's mind blowing 45 megapixels vs and cropping abilities vs the z6's 24 megapixels but also realized, Hive probably can't handle such huge files either since I already fight to get pics from my 10 year old outdated camera to load. I left a link below in case anyone is curious of the specs of my new toy.

Mountains ladybug...Mountains...ok ok. Where do I plan on going? I'm hoping to actually make it to Moraine Lake this summer. It's hard to access and it's always full. It's one of those places where you have to go at 6 am to get in! The road is closed for winter and it was closed for construction last year. I have bad luck trying to get there! It used to be on the back of our $20 bills back when I was a kid, it's that beautiful. The one time I actually got in, we were just driving by taking a large detour just because we could. Coming back from Kananaskis via Jasper...that is just ridiculous but so worth it. Turns a 5 hour drive into 8 + but that Parkway is just something else, worth the detour every time(it actually feels wrong not to).

I actually want to go there with intent this time, not just a quick drive-by and go. I wouldn't mind doing some hiking especially the Consolation Lake trail, I hear it's pretty nice and not too long to get to yet another hidden lake. If I'm lucky, we will still be tourist free and much easier to get up there with less traffic and ample parking, I don't care, I'm going there at 6 am regardless....maybe 8am by the time we get there from Canmore. Anywhere to stay near-by is soooo overpriced it's not even funny. Off season, a room will still run up past $400 a night. I do plan on still staying in one of them overpriced fancy hotels just one night to experience it. We have on picked out, pretty nice actually. Since covid and the lack of international tourist has inspired them to lower their prices from time to time, sometimes even half price.

I also wanted to hike to one (or both) of the 2 teahouses in the Lake Louise area, not sure which one yet but there is some pretty nice looking lakes hiding back there and are quite popular. There is so many trails I want to discover, I probably wont be alive long enough to hike them all but I can sure try! Not in the same area at all but still in Banff, I want to go back to Lake Minewanka as well for the boat tour. Supposedly you can still see old abandoned buildings at the bottom of the lake from the old tourism outpost that was there once upon a time. In case you missed it, I left a link below the picture of our last visit and hiking...the time the lake tried to claim me...and it was close...my dang feet were over the edge of a cliff...dodged one there, the universe said "not today evil lake". Maybe next time. The Rockies are dangerous, they will probably claim me one day no matter what. So many people die in the Parks! I bet they died happy tho, at least I know I would.

If I can, I would like to take 2 trips in succession with just a couple weeks apart. I haven't figured out where I want to explore next. I want to see more in British-Columbia like Yoho National Park and the Kootenay region, that's all covid dependent. B-C folks aren't too keen of us crossing that border with the covid going around so we'll see what happens from now till then. Maybe with vaccines they wont be so quick to vandalize vehicles with Alberta plates. They are a bit funny over there, we like them anyway...sorta...at least when they are nice and not keying or torching our vehicles! If not, well we can explore Kananaskis some more, plenty of trails to explore to keep us busy for a week. Obviously, if there is a fair amount of work than work will come first just like last summer.

Well, that's enough rambles for now. I don't know for sure when I start, just waiting from my drug and alcohol test results to get site access. I went there all excited like which one do we test first but turns out it wasn't one of those types of testing...lol

In the meantime, I was supposed to start today but they are busy this time of year and my appointment was later than I wanted and results take longer too when they are busy so now it's a waiting game. Fuckers are costing me $500 a day, they better get them results soon! My company knows now, they will probably give em shit and they will move their behinds. Can you believe they charge like $300 to my employer to dip and read a $20 test strip! I'm in the wrong business but I ain't touching nobody else's business...ewww...I would rather climb into infinity like I do now. I have no idea how long this job is, I could tell you I'll try to work on a post a little bit each night but we all know that's not going to happen since I work 7 days a week until the refinery is producing again.

Hive account@silvergingerman posted a memory of a concert on FB he had gotten me for my birthday, I never posted the pics because it was before my blogging days, so here is a few. This was Iron Maiden...I'm like a groupie or something, I go see them every time they come to town. Like I said, this was a hodge-podge of randomness, I was supposed to be at work tonight and couldn't so I got bored and I miss concerts! We made it to the front of the moshpit half way thru the concert that time...it was kinda stinky, some people need an introduction to anti-perspirant.