Moved in (mostly)

So on Friday we moved the vast majority of our stuff from the old house to the new one and yeah it’s pretty sad.  I know Brandon is bummed out about it, but really that’s life and unfortunately for him, he doesn’t have much of a choice in the matter.  The new house was built in 1992 and huge compared to our digs in Toronto.

Hehe some fun drone shots of the house, it also has roof top solar and it’s almost twice the size of the installation on my old house…  Yes my pool is a bit green, I’m going to call the same company the previous owner used to maintain the pool and hopefully Brandon can do some swimming later in the week. 🙂

Graduation!

Today is Brandon’s elementary school graduation and it was very cute to see all the Grade 6 kids all excited.  It’s definitely a big step for them and there were a lot of proud parents and children.  The collage from when they were little was a nice touch and it’s amazing to see how much they’ve grown over the years.

LOL Maggie took the last photo as I had to go back home for a call, Brandon always stands like a robot haha.  I wish he would grow slower, I’m really not ready for him to be all grown up yet but I know the opposite will happen and he’ll turn into a man in no time.

Lexus NX part 2

So today I traded the 2015 Lexus IS 350 AWD for a 2016 Lexus NX 200t F-Sport 3.  The IS was super fun and I really enjoyed driving it, I never had a sporty car before and the power is definitely addictive however in my current stage of life, a SUV is just more useful.  I also traded the car in because they frankly gave me a pretty damn good deal and after driving the IS 15k km (lots of to and from the cottage I guess) I’m not losing much.

The Lexus NX is exactly the same as my previous model except this is a 2016 vs 2017 previously.  It only has 77k km on it though so it’s pretty low mileage and that’s why I bought it.  Unfortunately my garage is absolutely full of crap right now and it’s parked on the driveway with Maggie’s CT 200h in front pretty close to the bumper and to make myself feel better I ordered a boot from Amazon.  I don’t know if this thing actually works well but it certainly makes me feel better.  Looking at it now I think I’m going to put it on a different wheel, if they drive forward the arm will break off so I’ll do that after blogging.

Anyway yeah back to a SUV for me, I’m going to miss the IS, maybe I’ll get another in the future…

Back from Montreal

On Thursday I went to Montreal with Eddy to watch the Canadian F1 Grand Prix and it was absolutely amazing…  Got back around 5pm today, am pretty tired but it was so damn worth it.

A few photos from Saturday’s a qualifying (and an impact in the Ferrari Challenge race 1) I edited with the my Surface, will post more later.

So worth it, Eddy and I are already making arrangements (along with some more friends) to go in 2023.

Political interference

The federal government was interfering with what the local Nova Scotia RCMP could tell the public after the Nova Scotia mass shooting in April of 2020.

What information was revealed to the public in the days following Canada’s deadliest mass shooting wasn’t solely up to the RCMP, claims the director of strategic communications for the Nova Scotia RCMP.

In an interview this past February, Lia Scanlan told members of the Mass Casualty Commission the federal government was involved in what the police force told the public about a gunman’s 13-hour rampage that killed 22 people.

“Minister (Bill) Blair. All these people, the prime minister, they were weighing in on what we could and couldn’t say,” Scanlan said.

Source: Saltwire

This is pretty damning if you ask me, I don’t want the government to get the police to tell the public, the politically correct messaging, I want the truth.

Scanlan said Lucki was advised “by her people” not to, but ended up doing one-off interviews anyway, where she gave “inaccurate” facts or spoke about information that was “fluid,” such as the number of structures that had been burned.

“And she went out and did that and knew damn well — and it was all political pressure,” Scanlan said.

“That is 100 per cent minister Blair and the prime minister. And we have a commissioner that does not push back.”

I mean this is stuff authoritarian countries do and sure you might agree with the agenda that the federal Liberals are doing but they won’t be in power forever and if you support this type of action now, you’ll have no leg to stand on when a future Conservative government does the same thing.

This inquiry is going to be a massive coverup of police incompetence and failed government policies.

What a weekend

Well this weekend was certainly busy and on Saturday Brandon competed in the BJJ Kids competition out in Brampton.  He again got bumped up to the 132 lbs weight category as there were no other kids in that group though this time the competition wasn’t towering over him like last.  He went 1-2 the 2nd place match was so close, tied 2-2 but the other boy had 2 advantages so Brandon lost by the slimmest of margins.  He was pretty upset and cried a bit but congratulated the winner and got over it quickly.  It’s only his 3rd competition so nerves are bound to be an issue but I think he did great and I was so proud of his performance.

He was the only grey/white belt, there was one grey/black and two solid greys so all the kids had more experience than him too but that’s ok as he competes more, he’ll get better and better.  He rushed the second fight a bit and got submitted and yeah the 3rd fight was so damn close.  I felt bad for the boy who lost all the matches, not because he lost as he was very graceful in defeat but his coach and father represent what’s wrong with sporting, yelling at the ref and complaining to the officials about everything.  They delayed the trophy ceremony by 30 minutes because they were arguing about the last fight.  We saw them at the Ontario Open and I suspect we’ll see them again in the future…

In the last photo, Brandon didn’t have a belt because he lent it to another competitor that forgot his belt.

Today I bought tickets to watch the new Jurassic World movie with Brandon but mistakenly bought them for 10:20pm which is way past his bedtime (and on a Sunday too).  After realizing my mistake, we went to my mom’s place to install her new RING door bell which is pretty cool, I’ll get one or the NEST equivalent after I move then went for dim sum with the boy.  We ordered a lot to bring some back for Maggie and all went to see the movie at 1pm.

Hehe even though Brandon is such a big boy, when the scary parts of the movie came, he still held his hands close to his face like he did when he was young (to get ready to cover his eyes).  I also asked him if he was scared at one point and after a long moment of silence he simply replied with an unconvincing “no” lol.

In the afternoon/evening we didn’t do much, I’m starting to pull crap from the storage area and my god there’s just so much stuff…  I’m this coming weekend starting Thursday as Eddy and I are going to the Montreal F1 race and well yeah time is starting to get tight, I definitely feel the pressure to get shit in order.  It’s going to be a frantic rush to the end but it’ll get done and I’m sure I’ll be cursing my procrastination the whole time.

More cowards

The more details that come from the Nova Scotia shooting inquiry sheds more light into the operations of the local RCMP and I think policing in general. This time it was revealed that the police director of strategic communications was glad there was no provincewide alert sent out because she was worried about her officers.

Lia Scanlan, director of strategic communications for the Nova Scotia RCMP, told investigators for the public inquiry into the mass shooting she was “glad” there was no provincewide alert warning about a gunman driving a replica police cruiser.

A transcript of her February interview was released Tuesday at public hearings into the April 2020 killings of 22 people, including RCMP Const. Heidi Stevenson.

If there had been an Alert Ready message broadcast on radio, television and smartphones, Scanlan speculated, “My gut? You would have more dead police officers, because this is rural policing.”

Scanlan said that in a small town like Portapique, where the killing started, people take things into their own hands. Had the public known the shooter was impersonating an RCMP officer, that information would have put RCMP members in harm’s way, she said.

Source: CTV News

And here is the crux of the problem, police officers are taught that their lives (and only their lives) are of the utmost importance…  Sorry, when you go into policing your life specifically is not above the public’s but below and if that’s not something you can accept, you should not be a police officer.  It’s like firefighters refusing to enter a burning building because they’re afraid of dying…

I’d go as far as saying that those who died in the morning are the RCMP’s fault, how many of those people would have stayed home had they known a killer was on the loose.  If the RCMP was afraid for their officers lives, in the communique they should have told residents to stay in their homes and not leave for any reason, I think most people would have heeded that advice.  Or double up your officers and say not to trust any lone officer that you see on the road.

Scanlan said in her interview that Twitter and Facebook are effective. “We’ve always communicated on social media. It’s been a best practice … and show me a better practice in policing? There isn’t one,” she told inquiry interviewers.

The gall of this woman, her and her whole department as well as local RCMP leaders should all be fired, social media effective in rural Nova Scotia, that’s really the best system to use?  It’s ok the federal Liberals are covering up for these guys by banning more and more guns because that’ll solve the problem…

WOO!!!

Next weekend, Eddy and I will be going to the Canadian Grand prix in Montreal at circuit Gille Villeneuve and I just got the tickets!!!

We’ll be sitting at turn 10 right where the arrowhead is and there’s a ton of passing opportunities at the hairpin so yeah I’m pretty damn excited.  Our seats are pretty close to the front so we may have to deal with the fence but that’s ok, my first F1 experience so I’ll take it.  I can’t wait it’s going to be great!!!

 

Tiring

Brandon had a PA day on Friday so things started off fun for him, he went for lunch with my mom and then in the afternoon we picked up his friend Kingston from BJJ to sleep over for the weekend.  Needless to say the kids had fun and I’m pretty darn tired from watching them during that time.  Friday the kids played at home then went to the park (I wasn’t allowed to come) for a bit before returning.  My boy typically goes to bed at 9:30pm on weekends but because Kingston was here, that got extended to 10:45.

Saturday it was nice weather so I took the boys to the zoo to walk around and it was fun, lol they were both playing a lot of Pokemon Go and I got to take some pictures of animals which I love. 🙂

When we were  at the polar bears, two of them picked on a lone bear and they were roaring at each other.  They didn’t quite come to blows but it looked pretty damn aggressive from my point of view.  LOL Brandon’s been climbing the log and cars since he was little and it’s funny that he still enjoys it now but whatever I’m ok with him being a kid. 🙂  The cheetah is probably my favorite animal at the zoo, it’s cute like a cat yet large and majestic still.  As we were leaving, Brandon saw a blue heron in the waters in front of the entrance and that was quite a sight to see.

While we were waiting for the zoo keeper to come by to feed the lions (they didn’t show up) I decided to take this picture of a dandelion with my Canon EOS R5 & RF 100-500mm lens.  At 500mm and at 1.2m distance, you can get a 0.33x magnification which is pretty good for a regular non macro lens.  The 45MP sensor definitely helps blows up the details too.

Saturday afternoon after coming back the kids went to the park again and I started to pull things out of the storage room to pack.  Sunday we didn’t do as much, I was still beat from the day before so the kids mainly kept themselves entertained.  Got BK for lunch (a lot of junk food this weekend) and by late afternoon I dropped Kingston off at home.

Brandon definitely had a good time and I’m pretty tired from having to babysit them but it’s worth it and I want Brandon to have a lot of fun with his friends before we move.  We’ll still do things but it’ll just be more difficult after…

Police are not your friends

As I’ve grown older I’ve become more disillusioned by policing and government authorities in general and this is super frustrating to read.

The Uvalde Police Department and the Uvalde Independent School District police force are no longer cooperating with the Texas Department of Public Safety’s investigation into the massacre at Robb Elementary School and the state’s review of the law enforcement response, multiple law enforcement sources tell ABC News.

The Uvalde police chief and a spokesperson for the Uvalde Independent School District did not immediately respond to requests for comment from ABC News.

Source: ABC News

Never talk to the police and cops know that rule best, man I hope the mayor or someone higher finds a reason to fire all these cowards.