Where I am now...

Hey folks... if you follow or if you have somehow found me on here. I have moved my from blogger to WordPress. Please feel free to join me at

http://thisthatandwhateverelseicanthinkof.wordpress.com/

thanks and hope to see you there!

An update from previous posts!

Well it's been a few days since I last posted something on this blog... I am still wondering what it will take to get noticed on here. I mean I do have two followers but that's it... I know I have some interesting ramblings but really... are they only interesting to me?

If you have been following my blog of "this and that" then you will recall I spent some time the other day on a hike in Spencer's Gorge which is located in Dundas, Ontario, just a bit north of Hamilton. As I said then, this was a beautiful place and I had no idea that the water falls we came upon even existed. I had promised that I would post a few pictures once I had perfected them a little bit (yes that would mean making a few photoshop corrections). Well here they are: The first is known as Lower Tews Falls. This was a wonderful spot and although there were not that many people around the area some were swimming right under the falls.

The next picture is Upper Tews Falls. This again was a spectacular site and I have taken this picture from thge valley below the crest of the falls.

This again was a spectacular site and I have taken this picture from thge valley below the crest of the falls. These particular falls cascade approximately 43 metres as they tumble downward. The water amount was low on this day as the dry weather certainly played a role in the rivers flow.  I had a wondeful experience on this hike.

I will be heading for the cottage life over the next couple of days so my blog will be silent until I return. There is something to be said about the serenity one enjoy's when out in the middle of nowhere without a signal for the blackberry or any type of internet connection....

Saturday, Weather and $300 advice...

Saturday.... As I look out my window this morning the day is overcast but warm. I am sitting at the Kitchen table, I can see my deck, the grass starting to turn green again after some rain, however it was very dry for the longest time and the grass was pretty much brown and crunchy. I am amazed how one heavy rain for only a few hours can change the canvas on which mother nature paints... from brown to green just like that. I personally love the heat and warmth.  It's hard to believe that it is August already. One full week of this month complete, time sure does fly by.... I always get this feeling around the end of July that we are about to turn that corner towards the cold. I am not a winter person at all. Here in South Western Ontario, we get blasted with snow and cold weather probably for upwards of 8 months out of the year (OK maybe that's an exaggeration but it sure does seem that way come January). Why do I live in this climate I have to ask myself? I will blame my parents for now but that would be a whole other blog entry discussion to have ... I should wait till it's cold out for that one (he stares out the window dreading the coming cold). Here is a quick look at an example of the amount of snow we get at times.

Welcome aboard Jeannie and thanks for looking in on my blog.  Thank you also for some of the advice on how to make the blog that more intriguing. I shall post a picture today for you.

Yesterday, we had a bit of an incident when our 5 year old Golden Doodle started hobbling around on three paws instead of her normal four. We are not sure what happened really but according to the $300 dollar advice from our Veterinarian, she seems to have sprained her left front paw! They have put her on an anti-inflammatory drug and she does seem to be getting around a bit better today. Lucy is a great dog who is very smart and gentle. She shall be one of my first attempts at a picture in the blog. They  (our pets) truly are a part of the family.

This is Lucy with my wife as we walk along the river in this beautiful town of Stratford in which we live. Now this picture was taken about a year ago in the fall so for those reading from the south, Canada is not that cold in August that we need to wear sweaters....

So there you have my first attempt at adding pictures... I actually wanted to add the picture from photobucket but for some reason that would not work.... not sure why? If anyone knows please let me know... Have a great Saturday folks... I just saw the sun peek through the clouds so I shall head out to the great outdoors... After all, if you look at the snow picture above I have to take in every minute I can of the warm summer weather..

I have a follower... Welcome...now back to the nonsense

It's been an interesting week so far since my last post, interesting in that I finally have a follower... Thank you Tammy B for showing some interest in a guy who really has nothing to say. I hope I can keep you intrigued and that you will tell some of your followers and friends about this blog and see if we can get this party picked up a bit.

I have just completed a photography course on Adobe's Lightroom 3. A fascinating program that really can take the worst photograph and make into something of a wonder. I will get around to posting some of my photography on here but I am trying to decide what to showcase? I am sure I will figure this out soon. In fact, I plan to work on a few things today. For anyone interested, I do have some of my work on a great site called redbubble... just do a search for SayVan at redbubble.com and you should find me. As I indicated in my original post, I love this great hobby of photography. A photograph can say so much and have so many different meanings to each eye that views it. Where some see happiness, others will see sadness. Some may see a memory or perhaps want to create the same memory. What I love about it is it is subjective. What it means to the artist can be so different in what it means to the viewer. Art is really like that over all I guess... but look at me, I am digressing here... heading off in a direction that I have know idea where I will end up.

So what was it I wanted to blog about today anyway? I started off by saying its been an interesting week. As I start to write, I can't even think of what else (besides Tammy B following me) has been interesting. Let's see I get up each day, I head off to work, sometimes decide to simply work from home and usually meet up with some friends or meet my kids for dinner. Yes that right, did I mention previous that I am a divorced dad with two great kids. My oldest is 18 and about to embark on University in the fall, while my youngest is 14 and about to start high school. It's tough not seeing them everyday (we live about 2 hrs apart) but you do what you can and try to get there as often as life will allow. Sometimes you simply have to force life to allow it. I have a new partner in my life and she quite frankly, is a beautiful lady who is also a divorced mom of three that range in age from 18 -22. All in all, when everyone is together its a full house. I can talk about all of this another time though. Why bore you with these simplistic and common details.

I am intrigued by this whole idea of blogging. I have been thinking about getting into this for some time. It's interesting that others would really care what someone else had to say. It's apparent that people do, I mean look at the amount of people who blog. They blog about everything from politics to religion to sports to you know, this...that... and whatever else one can think of. You get it right... I don't really have anything to say today. Well I do, but I am not sure how to say it. In a way, I feel like Andy Rooney from 60 minutes.... he ends the show every week with some kind of far fetched comment. Sometimes it makes you smile and sometime it makes you think ...you know...hmmmm.... stuff like that. At the end of the day he really hasn't said anything...

Kinda like this entry in a blog about "this...that and whatever else I can think of..." So there you go... today's entry. Did it give you some more insight into the author of this blog?... I hope so... did it make you think? perhaps it made you think why am I reading this? Is it enough to make you return? Perhaps... I hope so...

Have a good day.... take care and until the next time .... oh.. before you go.... Happy Birthday Mr. President. Yep that's right... I am a Canadian but if I was an American I would be a Democrat. Now that should leave you thinking about possible topics to come...

My Weekend.. do you really care?

Well another weekend has passed and here I am on a Monday trying to recall what exactly happened this weekend. I have to say, it was a good one.

I am also fortunate that I did not have to work today as today is a holiday in Ontario for many, but not for all. Yes this is the August Civic Holiday long weekend. This is the day when most things remain open except banks, government offices and well those of us who are lucky enough and fortunate enough to belong to a unionized representated workplace, where we can negotiate days such as these off. You see its not really a stat holiday in Canada or more specifically Ontario like other holidays are... you know Good Friday, Christmas and New Years day etc. Civic Monday as its known is a day that is held on the first Monday of August and in Ontario it was once known as Simcoe Day. In many ways, this is a holiday for reflection on cultural or heritage history and in Ontario, frankly its a very low key holiday.

Enough about that, Saturday was an interesting day. The weather was beautiful and very warm (can I say that like that), I spent the entire day on my back deck. I like to call this Margarita Saturday's. Yep that's right, today was a day to celebrate the blender and the drinks that it is capable of producing. Its a simple recipe really, some ice, some limes, a little mix and oh yeah tequila! This lasted a good 3-4 hours... then disaster hit... we ran out of ice.... so what to do? I still had some tequila left and thus... I found some shot glasses... Now you can see why I didn't write this on Saturday. The evening was spent with some friends... again on my deck, only this time there was wine... white if memory serves me right... red usually hits my head and well we don't want that now do we! All in all, it was a great relaxing day... did I mention the music that filled the day was a combination of classic rock, Jimmy Buffett and some Johnny Reid.

After a restful night, it was time for Sunday. Now as I had mentioned in my previous post, I enjoy Photography and today we had decided to do a little hiking. So off we went to hike along the Bruce Trail. The Bruce Trail is a trail that runs along the Niagara Escarpment from Tobermory Ontario right along to Niagara Falls, Ontario. The total distance is approximately 885km. We did not do the entire route.... Camera in hand off we went.  

We ended up at a location in the Dundas, Ontario area known as Webster falls and Tews Falls. This is located in an area called Spencers Gorge. I was totally amazed at these natural beauties and I have have to admit I had no idea such beauty existed so close to my home (about and hour and half drive at the most). I will post a few of the pictures I took a little later (still fine tuning these).

Websters Falls is a curtain falls that is 22 metres high. Its source is Spencer Creek. It has been known as the most frequently visited falls in the area for over a century. I simply never knew. Now the flow was not as strong as it should have been because we have had a very dry sumnmer thus far, however, the sight was still quite amazing.

We spent over three hours hiking the trails along the top and the bottom of the valley. We cam across numerous smaller falls and also the Tews Falls. Tews Falls is a ribbon type fall that is 44 metres high and its source is Hogies Creek. This was an area covered in colour and was absolutley stunning. If you are ever in the area I would recommend taking some time to stop and see the this fabulous area. In the Lower Valley you will also find Lower Tews Falls. This is a double curtain water fall that is abour 22 metres wide and I would say approx. 5 metres high. Very beautiful and great spots to work on my waterfall photography.

Monday was a day of recovery. Nothing much really happened. Then again... what would it matter, is anyone really reading this anyway?

Ok.. So where is everyone... I have built my "Field of Dreams"..

Well.. I started this blog just the other day and I am still trying to figure out the who, what and where of the whole thing.

My first blog spoke a little bit about the who.... who I am... it also gave a slight glimpse into the what.... what the blog will be about... you know this, that and whatever else I can think of. Well today, I am thinking of something different then simply this and that..... or is this just another example of this or that?

What I am thinking about is how do I get people to actually read this blog. you know the "where" are they? If a take a phrase from Hollywood, 'if you build it, they will come', Well, where are they? I don't seem to see them coming despite the fact that I have built it... or rather I am in the process of building it... or is it already built? you tell me. Perhaps this phrase from the ever popular "Field of Dreams', really doesn't hold true for the web.

I have a few other questions as well... now that I have built this "Field of Dreams", how do I start to follow others who have blogs? Will they, in turn, start to follow me? I can utilize twitter as well I suppose and also facebook but of course those people already know all about my this, that and whatever else I have to say.

So consider this blog (my second writing albeit very brief) an appeal.... an appeal for fellow bloggers to reach out and follow my comments and thoughts. Kinda like,  you show me yours and I will show you mine. I mean really we all have something to say. We live our everyday lives with pretty much the same ambitions... making it through the day in a positive and hopefully productive way. We each have many of the same fears... you know things like how will the government screw me up some more? Why do they seem to like those multi national corporations and keep giving them a tax cut but not me, kind of thing.  So come on people lets interact.

So in the end, if your at all interested in the ramblings of a witty, occasionally scattered, often forgetful and relatively interesting guy with something to say ... often and not unlike the old Seinfeld episodes, a blog about nothing but something that hits close to home then I have got to get this figured out and fast... because if I don't you will really be missing out! I am going to try and add a little something each and everyday... well maybe not on Sunday's, after all even the creator needs a day of rest!

The Beginning...

Well here I go... I have been looking to start a blog for sometime now. Not really sure how all of this works so please have some patience with me as I work my way through all the in's and outs of this and that.

Well if your still with me then maybe I have caught your curiosity or perhaps you just want to see what this and me are all about. I have no real plan for the blog, it will be a work in progress. Whatever strikes me, I shall write about. This could be the simple mundane things that each of us do each and everyday or this could be something that really catches are thoughts, something that may or could impact us all. Just remember you don't have to agree, the thoughts are mine. Will i be controversial? Maybe. Will I create some debate? I hope so.

I may have some opinion on politics, both at home and abroad. I lean to the left for sure. I may have some thoughts on religion or faith, I most likely won't but you just never know. Will I be blogging everyday? Time will tell. My guess is not likely, but I will attempt to be here as often as possible.  Of course, if I can really catch the interests of anyone I will be encouraged to be talking to the world more often.

So after all this who am I? I am a middle aged guy, I have a beautiful wife and wonderful family. I am employed in a professional occupation (which I will delve into in greater depth in later blogs) and I have been blessed in many ways. I care about my neighbors and love my community. I believe that all people deserve an equal opportunity and what you do with that opportunity is up to you.  No one should be held back because of their social status or the money they earn. I also love photography and this is how I like to spend my free time. Once i figure out all the tools of this I will share some of my creations with you.  I love music of all types but I am drawn to the classic rock era. I am a Jimmy Buffett fan (yes I am a proud parrothead) and enough said about that.

I live in a great community, where the city is well known for its tourism and Shakespearean Festival. Yes that's right, Stratford (Ontario) upon the Avon.  I play golf, enjoy a drink with friends and love to have a good time. So you see, I am just an average guy with hopefully something to say that interests you.

Thanks for tuning in and I look forward to having you creep my blog on a regular basis.