It’s been 2.5 years since we moved out of Calgary, and down to my old home town of Lethbridge. So far, we have really enjoyed the experience of living in Lethbridge. I moved away in 1982, so it’s been quite some time since I called Lethbridge “home”. Lots has changed. And lots has stayed the same.
When I moved to Calgary, there were about 450,000 people there. And Lethbridge had about 45,000. That was a big change. Calgary’s rate of growth has been accelerating, and now has 1.2 million people. Lethbridge is at 93,000. So, big changes all around. And yet… Lethbridge has always felt like a small town. The people are friendlier (some might say nosier). And far more likely to offer to help. And I do like that.
We did buy a bit of a money-pit of a house. But the location and size of the property are pretty much ideal. So far, we have installed A/C (because it does get pretty warm in the summer). And then we also replaced the furnace, because the A/C installers discovered a big hole in the heat exchanger. Sigh. We thought the shingles would last another couple/five years. Nope, the hail this spring put paid to that idea, so new roof. Took most of that first summer to find a contractor, but we built a garage. And while we were at it, replaced the back fence. Then the water heater started to go, and we replaced that with a tankless model. So, yup, it’s been busy. But we also managed to sell our old house in Calgary at the top of the market, purchase this house that had been languishing on the market for over a year here in Lethbridge, and end up mortgage-free. We knew we’d have to spend money on this house, but the money that we used throw at the bank for our mortgage is now being used to improve this house.
I also love that from our first year back we went from one brand spanking new food truck, to a total of about EIGHT new and relocated food trucks this past summer. Trever got me an electric scooter for my birthday (and one for him, so I don’t have to go alone), so we’ve been bombing around town, going out for lunch and finding food trucks. That’s been pretty fun.
Our two dogs simply love our new back yard. The property is 75 ft wide, and 118 ft deep, so that is a lot of yard. Finnegan will go out and sit in the middle, where he can look at the whole thing. I’m pretty sure that he is just marvelling that it’s all his to run & play in. And we love our yard, too. When you work from home, you can do stuff like take your video meetings outside (at least in the summer). I’ve enjoyed finding new views for my coworkers to exclaim about for our weekly meetings.
And the trees. Did I mention those? This house was built 60 years ago, so those trees have had a lot of decades to grow in. There are so many trees. And they are all huge. We even had a honeysuckle “tree”. I know, those are shrubs, but that thing was so old, and so big, you couldn’t really call it anything but a tree. Alas, it was finally dying, so we had to have it removed. While we were planning the garage, we had lots of advice about where to put it, but there was really only one place it could go, because there was just no way we were going to sacrifice any of those lovely trees for a garage.
Location… we are a mere 6 blocks away from my parents. We walk the dogs over in that direction regularly and drop by for a visit. The first time, I’m sure the dogs were puzzled, because we had always driven a long ways to get to my parents’ house, but now they recognize that walk, and are anxious to get to “Grandma & Grandpa’s” house, so they can play in a different yard. Also, now that my aging parents (both in their 80’s) are starting to need a little more help, I am very happy to be close at hand to make sure they get that help.
You might be wondering why I’m rambling on about all this. I’ve been reading more and more articles, like DHH’s Microsoft reboots war on sleep and I think it behooves those of us who have found a way beyond the rat race of startups and disruptive technologies to tell our stories. So I un-earthed this blog draft that I wrote and abandoned last year during NaNoWriMo, and updated it a little.
I love what I do for a living, but I have never lived for my work. I work to support my life. And life here in Lethbridge has been very very good.