Author: gfox (old content)

Inspiring Moments

Every once in a while I am struck by the fact that I am a dad. I will be minding my own business and I get a warm fuzzy feeling when I think of Sprout.

Today has been full of those feelings.

This morning was a milestone (in my mind) for me. Sprout has been experimenting with walking for a few days now. He has taken a few steps between furniture, and he walked to his mum yesterday. That is pretty cute and inspiring to see him learn so quickly.

Movies and TV portray kids learning to walk quite a bit, and the typical scene is the parent with the arms out, and the child hesitantly letting go of the furniture and taking their first steps to the outstretched arms of the parent.

Sprout did this with me this morning, and this is what is causing me to smile and get warm fuzzies. He was standing holding on to the crib in his room with his blanket hanging from his mouth, while I was sitting in the chair in his room. I held out my hands not really expecting much, but he let go of the crib, stretched out his arms towards me, and walked over to me. 🙂

I was pretty proud of him, and it was such an accomplishment in my mind. He was pleased with himself too. Those are the kinds of moments I live for, those are the kinds of moments I love, and those are the kinds of moments I cherish and want to remember forever.

Dinner Workout

The weekend was pretty good. My mom and sister were down and we went for dinner for my birthday. Nothing fancy, but a good place to go with Sprout. Earlier in the day I had tackled the garage and cleaned it up pretty good. I have a few things that need to get transported out to the dump. I’m hoping I can find someone who is already going out there, and tack on our few items.

Sunday was an odd day. I had to work, so I rode to work, did what I needed to, then went for a long ride as a workout. Then it was dinner with K and JJ.

Today is Monday again, and the week has begun anew. Except that I woke up with a sore throat and am feeling gross right now.

Popular Ducks

I completely forgot to post about the last Photoclub meet on Mar 18. I couldn’t think of anything more original, so we met at Beacon Hill Park. The weather was decent enough, and there were a lot of people out. The petting zoo was quite popular.

The cherry blossoms were still out, but not much else for flowers.

The ducks were having a great time though.

The rest of my pics are here.

Detoured Breezy

I finally got a good ride in today.  I had a bunch of things to do today, I wanted to ride, and I needed to work.  I combined those two by riding to work, then taking the long route.  Well, I actually detoured form this route a bit, and went up Kind George Terrace, which is quite a steep climb.

I got to work in 20 minutes, and that was still the 7 km straight shot.  The ride home was about 45 minutes, but a much harder ride.  It was pretty breezy out today, so the gusts were blowing me around quite a bit.  Also, it was mainly a headwind, but off of my centre a little. 

It was tough, but rewarding

Locked Action

Telus Mobility has been my cell provider for several years. Their Island coverage is pretty good and I don’t subscribe for too many features.

They have a self service website which allows me to see my bill.

Last week I wanted to add voicemail to my phone. I thought I remembered seeing something somewhere that said I could do that online. I fired up my browser and used my stored password to open my account. I couldn’t find this ability anywhere so I switched to IE to login and try with that browser.

IE doesn’t store my password so I typed it in. It was incorrect, and after trying a couple more times I locked my account.

Their site says to call them to unlock my account, and it also sends an email with the exact same information.

Eventually I get around to calling them and get put on hold for a very long time. I waited and waited and waited. At least 15 minutes later I got through to someone. I was able to get my transactions done, and then I asked the CSR to unlock my account.

She tells me she can’t tell my my password since they are stored in their DB in an encrypted form.

I didn’t ask about getting my password, I wanted them to unlock my account. She repeats her statements a couple times, but she just doesn’t get it.

Her suggested course of action is to create a new account. ?? WTF. That is a lame workaround. Why can’t the CSR uncheck the box on their screen that says this account is locked? That makes sense to me.

Finally she suggests to me to reset my password by clicking the “forgot your password?” link. I am not sure why I didn’t think of that, but when I tried it, I was prompted with my secret question. A couple clicks later and I was back into my account.

So, here is the procedure. If you lock your Telus Mobility web account, and want to unlock it, forget what their site tells you to do, and pretend you have forgotten your password. Hopefully you will be able to remember the answer to your secret question.

Forward Weeds

Yesterday was such a nice day, and I was so looking forward to getting out for a ride. Unfortunately I woke up feeling run down, and I had a sore throat. I think I picked up this cold from Sprout, but I am not 100% sure.

Instead I took it easy at home. The longer I was home the nicer the weather got, and the warmer it became. Damn.

As I was taking it easy I could hear some of the neighbours out mowing their lawns. I knew that our lawn needed to be done too since the dandelions were beginning to flower. I also knew that if I didn’t get out there and do it, that sox would when she got home and then I would just feel too guilty.

So I got out and mowed the lawn. It looked way better once I was finished, but this just pointed out to me how beaten up our yard has become over the last year of neglect. I can forsee many, many hours spent toiling to work back the weeds and repair the damage.

I also managed to get a little work done on our composter to (hopefully) stop the critters from invading it. I screened off one side of the composter where the critters had dug under the edge, and tunneled into the compost.

No progress on the deck this weekend either. What a waste of perfect work weather. I know the guy needs a weekend too, but our landlord has promised this deck will be done by the end of March. That is next weekend, and there is a bit more construction to do, then the entire deck needs to be stained. It is kind of out of my control, but that doesn’t mean I can’t hope it will be done. I just want my BBQ back up next to the kitchen and not in the carport any more.

Next weekend sox and I hope to tackle the dumping ground that our garage has become.

Samaritan Lights

Here is a good samaritan story that has happened to me a few times.

I was in a parking lot and someone has left their car. They left the lights on.  I tell the person, wondering if their car is the kind that automatically turns the lights off.  They inform me that the lights will go off in a couple minutes.

Who invented that lame feature anyway?  Why is it useful?  Every time this happens to me I feel like such a shmuck, and I wonder how many times those people get warned that their lights are on.

Identity Scanning

Identity management.  I wish I had more control over my identity information, and who can use, store, and distribute it.

In the past couple months I have been notified that my personal information may have been obtained when some files went missing from a mutual fund office, and I have my credit card re-issued by the bank due to the loss of some data from somewhere.

This frustrates me, and infuriates me.  I take precautions to prevent ID theft, and someone else can lose a laptop/harddrive/back up file containing the critical information for thousands of people.

Coreman has a bunch of links to info about identity management.

What is making me post about is a return I made to Office Depot today.  The receipt has a barcode that the clerk scanned.  After scanning the returned items, he hands me a slip to sign that is my credit card credit.  I realized quickly that I never handed over my credit card.

Somewhere Office Depot may be storing my credit card number.  Great.  How secure is their datacentre?  Some day maybe there will be the control I desire, but for now why should I be expected to live with always being concerned that some company I shop at stores my personal info and has the potential to lose it?