Category Archives: Family & Friends

Back at it?

I stopped playing airsoft soon after Brandon was born and always told myself that when he’s old enough, that we’d try it and see if he likes it.  Well we played some CQB at Urban Ops Airsoft with some of his friends, his friend’s dad, some of their friends and yeah everyone loved it.  Also tagging along was Mike, Mario & Eddy, all in all there were 14 of us and I booked some private games so the newbs didn’t have to worry about getting slaughtered by random players.

The habit of me packing heavy in the past was true again lol…  I was running my Systema PTW & VFC HK VP9 while Brandon was using a CA MP5A3, the boy didn’t have a side arm as I didn’t want to blow a lot of money kitting him out if he didn’t like it but since he did I guess I have to.  I also carried 3 Airsoft Innovations Impact Tornado grenades while Brandon had 1.

We had a ref but I basically ran the games, not that the ref was bad but when I host games I actively load balance and like to change up scenarios.  I don’t have any in game photos but I did capture some video with my Contour camera, will edit and upload that later.  Brandon was much more aggressive than I thought he’d be (and way more aggressive than the other kids) often rushing the enemy and it was a lot of fun playing with and against him.

We all got shot up, I probably came out worse for the wear as there was a small gap between my eye and lower face protection and happen to get shot between that and another just outside my eye pro.  The boy had an Eagle vest that a friend gave me many years ago and that kept his torso safe but said he has lots of arm & leg wounds.

So I’m going to have an airsoft renaissance and have Brandon join me on the field.  I wonder if I can get Maggie to play again too, that might be asking too much but hopefully this marks some more quality time with the boy. 🙂

Fun weekend

On Saturday I took Brandon to have lunch at Gyi-Kaku, a Japanese BBQ restaurant close to my work.  On the odd occasion I have to go into the office, I almost always go there to grab a bite to eat because it’s just so damn good.  Should have known but the lunch special is not available on the weekends, no matter we ordered a bunch of food and it did not disappoint.

Brandon enjoyed cooking on the grill and yeah it was amazing, my favorite meat option are the angus beef cubes mmm…  Cooked well, they’re very juicy in the middle and absolutely delicious!

Brandon, his friend, friend’s brother and father are interested in playing airsoft which is great because I kind of wanted to get back into playing and would love to share the hobby with him.  Last year I bought Brandon a CA MP5 A3 but didn’t end up playing because some health issues and the accident but this year looks like it’s a go!  About 10 years ago when I stopped playing, I gave my friend Jason a VFC MK18 Mod 1 AEG airsoft rifle and he mentioned he still had it when I asked if he had any guns I could borrow to help Brandon’s friends out so it kind of came back home since he no longer plays now.

My Systema MK18 Mod 1 PTW is ready to go and now that I have the VFC I feel the urge to accessorize it lol…  I already bought a handgrip (which I use as a handstop), had an extra repro Surefire M300 flashlight and now I want to buy a set of backup iron sights (don’t know where the original went).  I don’t think I’ll put an optic on it, it’s a loaner and even if Brandon wanted to use something in the AR platform he’d use the other PTW but still it’s fun.

Sunday afternoon I went to Hero Army Surplus, a store in Oshawa to pick up a spring and when I was swapping it out, I couldn’t help but feel some nostalgia from working on guns in the past. It now shoots a solid 350 fps, up from 300 and all of us are scheduled to go play at Urban Ops in Etobicoke on June 7th.  Hoping to drag a few more friends out so we can get a private session but yeah this is going to be f un and I can’t wait to play airsoft again!

Long weekend

The May long weekend is always nice, weather is finally decent and everything is starting to bloom.  I was off on Friday so i went to get a trailer hitch installed on my Lexus RX, then went to pick up a trailer hitch cargo carrier.  We like road trips and previously we found the space in the car a bit tight (though we had smaller cars) so this can be useful.  I also needed a trailer hitch installed so I could use my bike carrier.

Saturday we did a bit of yard work but took the day light, Sunday we did a day trip up North.  I look on Google maps for fun roads to drive, so we went to Sundridge then drove West on highway 124.  From there we went to Parry Sound for lunch then took highway 518 East to highway 11 then back home.  All in all it was about 7 hours of driving, highway 124 is ok quite scenic and pretty but highway 518 is so much fun with its twists and turns.

Today Brandon and I took the cover off the pool and performed a bunch of pool maintenance.  We’ll need a new cover in the fall as ours tore in multiple spots which allowed pollen and other plant materials to get into the pool unfortunately.  Frankly the water looks like diarrhea right now but that’s how it goes and in about a week and a half, it’ll look great.  I need to call a few places tomorrow to get quotes on replacing the sand in my sand filter so I’ll do that in the morning.

Sad my weekend is over but I mean I WFH and enjoy my job so I’m lucky there. 🙂

Enjoying the sun!

Brandon, a friend of mine and I went to Silverdale and what an absolutely beautiful day it was, I love sunny light jacket weather!  My friend Andrew got his license last year and I helped him zero the optic on his Ruger 10/22 at 10 then 25 yards.  Even with bulk ammo, it was shooting very well and he was happy with everything.  Brandon enjoyed shooting the handguns and our Ruger 10/22, sigh I wish I could shoot my AR15s but that doesn’t look like it’ll happen anytime soon. 🙁

Love capturing the brass eject out of the handgun!  Brandon prefers the Glock 19 over the HK SFP9, bah what do kids know lol…  If handguns are ever unbanned (not looking good with the Liberals leading in the polls but we find out tonight) I’ll get a full size Glock 17 again in the future as well as bunch of other guns.

Quality time with the boy is always  good. 🙂

End of year trip

I should have posted this update last week but was lazy, anyway Maggie and I went to Cancun Mexico for xmas, it was the first time we’ve been away from Brandon for such a long time, in forever and it was really nice.  Our hotel, despite having beach club in its name was not near the beach but the location still wasn’t bad next to a lot of small businesses and restaurants.  We mainly relaxed but we did also do two full day excursions which was fun.

We saw some of the Mayan ruins, did some snorkeling, spent time at beautiful Mexico beaches and got to enjoy 28C+ humidity everyday lol.  I really do hate that sticky feeling, good thing our hotel room’s AC had a dehumidify option, not just cooling.

Only eventful thing that occurred was when we were snorkelling, there were a few other boats doing the same thing and well I happened to swim to the wrong boat lol.  Didn’t help all the guides wore the same coloured clothing and that our group had the same colour life jackets, it can be very disorienting in the water especially with people telling you to follow them.  I was lucky I had flippers on, if I didn’t I don’t know if I would have made it back to my boat as I was exhausted already lol.

Man I really love Mexican food, lol nothing was too spicey for me and while tasteful a lot of stuff is super cheap too!  A really great trip with Maggie, hehe we went away this year somewhere nicer to celebrate our wedding anniversary a bit early, on the 3rd we’ll be married for 20 years!  Wow how time flies, I really am lucky and have the best partner in her.

Here’s to 2024 and I can’t wait to see what 2025 has in store for us. 🙂

Thank you everyone!

It was my 45th birthday yesterday and I certainly felt a lot of love from family & friends. 🙂  Life is never smooth but I definitely feel that I’ve had a great one so far and the future is really bright.  I have the best partner one could ask for with Maggie, an amazing son, family & friends.  Despite being grumpy all the time, I’m a very happy man and want to give my thanks to everyone that’s been in my life!

Too old now :(

Last night Brandon stayed home and didn’t go out trick or treating because he feels he’s too old for it. 🙁  Halloween was always one of my favorite times to spend with him, making a costume, doing pumpkins and walking around the neighborhood…  I guess at least I still have the memories of years before.

I’m so not ready for my boy to be all grown up, wish time could slow down!

Next one is a bit of a wait…

On Friday Brandon and I drove up to Beaverton Ontario to stand on their beach to try and spot Comet A3, we were successful!

It was super faint to the naked eye, barely perceptible but the cameras and our nods allowed us to see it very clearly.  Comet A3 won’t be back for another 80k years so it’ll be a bit of a wait for it’s return. 😉  Saturday night we went out for a night walk as a family and while we could see the comet with the aid of our night vision devices, it was pretty hard to see with all the light pollution coming from Toronto.

That makes 3 astronomical events that I shared with Brandon this year and man, it was a good one.  Our weekend was really good and I hope you had a great one too.

Really busy!

Well this was certainly a very busy long weekend.  We listed our property in Belleville for sale (haven’t used it much frankly) but since it wasn’t getting any traction we decided to rent it out a few weeks ago.  Well we’ve selected a tenant and needed to clear the house out of our stuff so Saturday Brandon and I went over to move a car load of the fragile stuff in my Lexus RX, then in the afternoon we went to chase Comet A3 and drove up north but it was cloudy unfortunately.  That’s alright it’ll be around for the rest of the month and with night vision, we can see it after it becomes too dark for us to see with our eyes.

Sunday I rented a 15′ U-Haul truck and packed up the rest of the house to lug back to our home.  I was initially worried it would be small but we were able to pack up everything into the truck and to tie things down I brought 10 strands of 10′ paracord which worked really well!  The drive back was an experience, the truck is super floaty and drove poorly even though it’s pretty new but I guess it’s a work truck not a luxury vehicle after all.

A funny note, the U-Haul truck was equipped with manual crank windows and on the way home I asked Brandon to open his window a bit, he didn’t really know how to operate the crank, I could see him push it down and he made an audible “OH!” after he figured it out lol.  I guess kids these days are all use to power windows and most probably haven’t seen manual cranks.

It took us about 2 hours to pack up the house which was pretty good and only an hour to unpack, I dropped the truck off then relaxed the rest of the day.

Today we moved some of the furniture out of our garage and into our house (replacing the TV & sofa in the basement) and will slowly clean up the rest of the house as the days pass.  My back hurts, moving heavy items is definitely not good for me but it was necessary and I’ll be meeting my new tenants next Saturday to give them the keys.  The cottage was nice but with a pool in our current house, we rarely feel the need to go away.

I’m still around

As I mentioned earlier I don’t have much motivation to post on my blog these days, not sure why but I will try to keep it more up to date (I’ve said that before).  My back still hurts and I’m going to physio, there’s one central point just off to the right of my mid back that’s very painful but the physiotherapist, after doing her thing seems to show me where other aches and pains are.  It’s not the end of the world but annoying, she was saying it may take 4-6 months to recover!  Pretty crazy but then again I’ve never been in an accident so this is uncharted territory for me.

This weekend, Brandon went to the Cub Scout camp to assist and he had a lot of fun!  My little niece Georgia went as well and from what I’m told she said it was one of the best experiences in her life which makes me so happy to hear.

With Brandon away on Saturday Maggie went to play badminton while I played Pokemon with my local group here in Oshawa, came home at 1pm then we went up north to chase the auroras.  There was a large solar flare and accompanying CME earlier in the week but it ended up being nothing unfortunately.  Still I got to show Maggie the stars and they were absolutely beautiful.  We went to a new spot which I think I’ll make my default astro photography location moving forward as it’s much quieter than being on highway 60.

The first photo is looking North, top 3rd of the photo just off to the right you can see the Andromeda galaxy and it’s amazing that the light that we’re seeing started its journey 4 billion years ago!  When you see stars like this, it really makes you feel insignificant…  On the second photo I screwed up and missed focus, not sure how that happened but if you don’t zoom in to pixel peep, the photo still looks pretty good.  I believe the galactic core has set and won’t be around again till the spring but it’s still fun and it’s nice to check out how the new location is.

The Lexus RX 350 is great it’s a super comfortable car to drive in, not very exciting but that’s not what I’m looking for right now.  As something to soak up the KMs, it’s absolutely perfect.  Pretty dirty from the dirt roads I had to drive on (especially Friday when it was wet dropping Brandon off at camp) but I think I pissed someone off because there’s a large scratch on the right side running from the front fender over the two doors and onto the rear fender.  Sigh that’s why we can’t have nice things…  It’s not too deep and I’ll try some wax to see if I can buff it out.

Overall a good weekend, had a lot of fun but pretty tired so I’m going to bed early tonight. 🙂