It’s time for a huge change

I’m staying with my current employer until March 31, 2023.  After that I’m done.  Moving to Calgary.  I just have to.  Everything in my being is telling me I have to move.  For my own sanity, I have to move.  I’ve been in Ottawa for 39 years.  That’s way too long.  I was in Calgary for 4 months back in 2017.  I fell in love with the nature, the ability to be outdoors, in the mountains within 45 minutes.  I just can’t be in the Ottawa valley anymore. There’s nothing more that I can photograph here in Ottawa.  I have the parliament, some of the museum buildings, some other architecture but that’s about it.  I just miss the mountains, the fresh mountain air, the silence, just being alone in the wilderness.  I really miss it.

July 2, 2019

I spent this morning at Parc Omega.  I left the park at about 1:15pm.  It was so hot out today.  About 27 degrees Celsius.  I paid $35 to get into the park.  I remember paying $26 a day to get into the park just a few years ago.  It was a lot cheaper and a lot better back then.  They’ve increased the prices and pretty much made the park unphotographable with fences everywhere.  The other people coming into the park drive like they never took a driving lesson.  The park is located on the Quebec side so that’s one reason why it’s harder and harder for me to go there.  Summer is really not a good time to go to the park because it’s so damn hot out.

I have basically decided that for the remainder of this year I want to pay off my credit card debt so I can do some travel next year.  I want to actually move out west in April of next year.  I am so sick of Ottawa and Ontario.  There is nothing to do here and it’s so damn expensive to do anything.  I have also decided not to sell my Sony a7ii and my Canon Vixia HF G40.  Next year I want to upgrade my drone to something better than the DJI Spark.  It’s an ok drone but it only shoots at 1080p/30fps and photos are only shot in JPEG.  So no Raw photos and no 1080p/60fps or 4K on the drone just because the sensor on the drone is so small.  I think the drone I want is about $2030 before tax.

I have everything I want as far as vehicle goes.  I have the 2018 Hyundai Santa Fe Sport AWD which I can sleep in and have enough room for all my equipment.  I am saving some money as well.  I’m putting $50 a paycheque into my TFSA.  All my photography money is staying in my Paypal account.  With the new job I’m starting tomorrow, I’ll be making some good coinage to pay off my debt.  We just have to stop going out to restaurants every second day.  I want to also start eating healthy.  I want to lose at least 50 pounds by April 2020.  I also want to restart reading my Affinity Photo book and learn Affinity Photo.  For my Apple iPad Pro to say the least.

Out west

I really, really want to move out west.  Not to Bring Cash British Columbia but somewhere near Calgary, Alberta.  I was there for four month last year on a contract and I fell in love with the ruggedness of the province.  From Calgary, you are about 45 minutes from the mountains.  I absolutely love the Rockies and the lakes within the mountains.  Calgary is also much closer to the American southwest where I was in 2016.  I totally love the wilderness of the western U.S and Canada.  Being in Ottawa is crap.  I've been here for 35 years.  I am so bored here.  There is absolutely nothing to do here.

 

The girlfriend and I will be looking for a place to live and of course jobs out there.  I would love to get a full time photography gig out there.