Tag: Chilliwack Posts

Heading Home

 Journal

Tomorrow I’ll be packing up and making the long journey back home. Truthfully, I’d probably rather leave tonight if that were at all possible — not because I’m not having fun here, but mostly because tomorrow is just going to involve sitting around and killing time before our flight. I fly out of San Francisco in the early evening, and will land in Seattle sometime around 9pm. From there, we have to find my car and drive back to downtown Vancouver so I can drop Rebecca and John off at home. While they’ve offered me up their couch for the night, I’m looking forward to hitting my own bed, and will most likely just carry on straight to Chilliwack. With any luck I’ll be in my own bed sometime around 2am tomorrow. I’ve been really fortunate in my life that I’ve had many opportunities to travel. I’m finding though that […]

Home Garden

 Journal

I’m interrupting my photo entries for a quick post about my home garden. As I mentioned in a previous post, I decided the other day that I wanted to try growing a few things on my patio. I used to help my grandma with her garden when I was a kid, and I have fond memories out in the back of her house playing in the dirt. My patio in Chilliwack is about twice the size as my patio was in Vancouver, so I’m definitely sure I have the room now to grow a few vegetables. I swung by the garden center the other day and picked up a few things. First, I picked up some soil, since I don’t really have a lot at home. Then I picked up a few containers that are meant to be hung off your patio. I grabbed a pile of seeds, and some […]

In The Wack

 Journal

The other day I had the crazy idea of starting a community driven site here in Chilliwack. I pinged a few people online about a possible name, and eventually settled on InTheWack.com. In the back of my mind, parts of the site would be similar to Urban Vancouver, while others would resemble a more traditional newspaper. I whipped something together real quick on Friday night after I got back home from Vancouver, and have been sort of passively playing with it. I’ve spoken to the odd person on Twitter that has offered to write the odd article. First, is Alexander Patton, a local 20-year old Chilliwack resident who did some freelance photography for the Chilliwack Times in 2006, and also addresses issues on his local blog. Another writer is Tia Everitt, who has freelanced before, and will be writing the odd Chilliwack entry as well. So, I’m happy these two […]

Carbon Offsets – A Quick Calculation

 Journal

I was doing a little research on carbon offsets this morning, and just for yucks, wanted to price out what it would cost to be a supplier of carbon offsets in Canada. There are various ways to offset carbon, but a fairly standard one is to plant trees in exchange for money. How many trees can you plant on an acre of land? Well, turns out this guy has it all figured out, at least for poplar trees. If you space them 10′ x 10′, you can get around 436 trees on an acre. The average tree consumes about 1 ton of CO2 over it’s lifetime, which according to this website is around 80 years. So over the course of 80 years, 436 trees will offset 436 tonnes of CO2. The going rate for carbon offsets are around $5 – $15 per metric ton of CO2 reduced. Let’s pick $10 […]

Chilliwack Wi-Fi Spots

 Journal

Well, given that Rebecca has Surrey covered in terms of blogging, I might as well take the reins here with Chilliwack. I’ve spent most of my time here at home since I moved back, but I’m going to start venturing out more and more. I’ve been keeping my eye out for Wi-Fi spots in town, and wanted to present a list for anyone ever looking for where they are. I’ll keep updating this post over time as Chilliwack slowly emerges from the dark ages. Starbucks out in Vedder Crossing – (paid hotspot) | map Java Hut (near Future Shop) – (free hotspot) | web | map Major Leagues 2 Sports Pub – (free hotspot apparently) | map Decades Coffee | web | map I have a hard time going to a Chilliwack pub and pulling out my laptop, which is why I have yet to test the Wi-Fi at Major […]

First Day Back At The Gym

 Journal

One of the reasons I ultimately moved back to Chilliwack is because I wanted to sort of take a well deserved rest from the last ten years of my life. Basically since leaving high school, my life has been one non-stop rollercoaster ride. My time in Ottawa was spent doing 60 hour weeks mostly at work, and I don’t even really remember that period of my life. During my master’s degree I was doing lots of research at school, and I also did a part time job on the side to help pay some bills. My first few years at CounterPath were crazy hectic as well, and most of us spent the first few years of our employment there working six day work weeks (all of us worked through that entire summer when we started too). Couple ten years of fatigue with two rounds of surgery, some hospital time, and […]

Back At Home

 Journal

Well, after nearly 13 years, I’m finally back home. It’s been quite the rollercoaster ride really, looking back over that period of time. I left Chilliwack back when I was 18 years old to attend university. When I graduated, I moved myself across the country and spent a few years in Ottawa working in the high-tech sector out there. Then I moved back home and did a bit more school, and finally ended up at CounterPath, where I have spent the last five years working away. The move was pretty uneventful thankfully. My dad came out in the morning to help, which was totally appreciated as it turns out we didn’t have enough room for everything. After the truck was loaded on the Vancouver side, I was pretty beat. Thankfully I had a nice drive out into the Fraser Valley which sort of reinvigorated me. By around 5pm I had […]

18 Hour Whirlwind

 Journal

I left Vancouver yesterday afternoon to head into Chilliwack and pick up the keys to my new apartment. On the way, I stopped and met a really old friend of mine from high-school, and we had a few beers and a plate of nachos. I have to say, it was a rather strange feeling being in my apartment all alone after the landlord left. I sort of just stared around at the empty apartment, trying to digest just how I felt. Without a doubt, I am excited. I am definitely looking forward to what the next year or two will bring, and to enjoying life at a slower pace for a while. I spent the night at my dad’s house, then returned to my apartment this morning to coordinate furniture deliveries as well as TV and internet installation. My apartment actually has a patch-panel on the wall, so I can […]

Four More Days

 Journal

In just four days, I get to swing out to Chilliwack and grab the keys for my new place. First thing I’m looking forward to is turning the heat on in the new apartment, as it was pretty cold there when I swung by for a visit in December. My furniture is supposed to be delivered on January 20th, but I think I’m going to put the call in to deliver it on the morning on the 15th or something. I have to leave work a bit early on the 14th to make it to Chilliwack in time to do the walk-through on my place, but I’d like to do that part myself and meet my landlord as well. I’m planning on leaving my car in Chilliwack from that point on, so I’ll probably take a bus or catch a ride with my dad to the skytrain on the Thursday […]

14 More Days…

 Journal

My mom reminded me tonight that at this time in exactly two weeks, I’ll no longer be in Vancouver. The time sure has gone quickly. I actually get the keys to my new apartment on the 15th, so I might head out on the night of the 14th and grab them in person. I’ve been slowly organizing things in my current apartment, and strangely enough, I really don’t have that much stuff here. I’ll probably load up my car on the 14th with all my valuables and drive those out to Chilliwack myself. I also need to find my Shaw cable modem, which apparently I’m to bring back to Chilliwack for them to reactivate. On the 18th I’ll grab the truck and do the final deed. The only thing I still haven’t quite figured out is what to do about a phone. I’m going to keep my current Vancouver number […]