The PolyBlog

A photography course rabbithole

December 10 2025

In yesterday’s post about “formal” learning in retirement, I mentioned that I am interested in photography. I confess that it is, in part, a holdover from a coworker, Alan, who retired a few years ago. He was taking a full-fledged photography program somewhere local, with tests, and portfolios, and credits, oh my. And the results were stunning. My nephew did a full program with the local college in Ontario, also with stunning results.

Most of the stuff I have seen out there is at a place like Henry’s or individual photographers offering courses. I didn’t even know there were local “full programs” related to photography. The idea of better approaches to photography is compelling, whether it be for landscapes, nightscapes, astrophotography, fauna or travel. I should at least see what is available, no?

Local programs

From what I can tell, the largest local program is offered through SPAO. Originally called the School of the Photographic Arts: Ottawa, SPAO followed the path of other acronym-based orgs that kept the acronym-like name and dropped the breakout of the actual words. So they’re just SPAO now.

They advertise as a college, regency and gallery all in one, although I guess I am mainly interested in the college component. They offer a 2-year college diploma in photographic arts and production, which they state is the only one of its kind in Canada. Which no doubt is true as almost everything else I see is photography only, and tends to run a single year or a year and a bit. If they are even standalone full programs instead of “minors”. But I digress.

The program (https://spao.ca/diploma) is split across the two years, with 7 “courses” in the first year (although some are more workshops than courses). Five of them are genres — landscape and architecture, still life, portraiture, documentary, contemporary + experimental — plus another two for community engagement (aka projects) and an “intro to creative outcomes” (aka portfolio presentation). Year 2 is more advanced planning and implementation of techniques.

Now, here’s the thing. I looked at the full program; I read all the course descriptions. And for the 13-15 courses? Almost none of them interested me more than about 20% of the content. Put differently, in each course, I was attracted to only about 20% of the description. Which helps me realize that is NOT what I’m interested in doing. Yes, I want to take better photos, but I’m more interested in going from random amateur to gifted amateur, not professional. So do I even need a diploma?

But wait, there’s more…SPAO also offers some “recreational” classes. For example, starting in the winter, there is a “Digital Photography I” class that runs 10w, but at a cost of $500 per course. 30 hours worth of class time, no indication if they do anything outside the lab itself.

There are also DP II to go beyond the basics, darkroom techniques, bookmaking, etc. I might like the first couple, not sure if my interest would sustain me to the more technical ones.

Other options

There is a ton of stuff online including a decent one through The Great Courses. Sticking with it is a bit of a challenge, a bit non-interactive of course, but the price and access are better. I really like the ones through TGC or master classes. Plus, there are a few others online that offer a course here or there for $100. Or even just really long and involved options through a hundred YouTubers. That is a rabbithole all on its own.

I do, however, need to separate out the three parts of the photography world.

The first is planning the shot, composition, etc. I know some basics, but it would be great to do hands-on with a photographer here in Ottawa. I followed a couple from MeetUp who regularly do outings with models, such as two or three models in five or six costumes or changes for a theme — wedding, cosplay, etc. — out at a location like ruins, forest, etc. While the online courses can teach the theory, it’s hard to apply it to a real-world scenario. Same concerns with lighting.

Then there is the actual shot-taking. I’m fine learning many of the technical elements from YouTube or online courses.

And, finally, there is the post-processing. Just about everyone defaults to assuming everything is done in Adobe, and well, I hate Adobe with a passion. I have a whole course that I bought some time ago for processing everything in GIMP. Not qutie Adobe-level, but it will get the job done. Oddly enough, I suspect that is the astrophotography work that will teach me the most.

As I said in the title, it can be a very deep rabbithole, even just on YouTube or Reddit. But starting with the formal big program, I realized that my interest is not deep enough to sustain a two-year program. I want something simpler. Which means I don’t need to figure out if I retire with an educational support package, photography will not be the study area.

Looking at formal learning options for retirement

December 10 2025

I follow Kristine Kathryn Rusch online as a “working author”. While I have read some of her books, as well as those by her husband, Dean Wesley Smith, I am far more interested in her nonfiction posts about a career in the writing business, emerging themes, etc. One thing I really enjoy about her blog and feeds is that, in her 60s, she is taking courses at the university for fun. Not because she needs a degree, but rather as a commitment to lifelong learning and a desire to learn about specific topics.

So, with some possible WFA options for retirement, including up to $17K in tuition for formal education, I’ve been wondering whether to take some courses if that is the retirement/separation route I take from my current job.

Do I need a formal education option?

I have a mixed view of formal educational institutions ever since I finished my Master’s. As a quick recap, I did my four-year undergrad at Trent University in Administration and Policy Studies — the equivalent of a commerce degree, with political studies and economics thrown in. Then I went to the University of Victoria for a year of law school, followed by a law co-op and a semester of public administration courses, and then a public administration co-op in Ottawa that has never ended! I did 8m co-op, formally, and then I just…stayed.

I eventually took some courses at Carleton, then some more, and then finished my Master’s in the School of Public Policy and Administration in 2004.

If you’re doing the math, I took my first grad courses in ’91 and finished my actual and different degree in ’04. A thirteen-year program to get a Master’s. I regularly joked that it was the “tenure track” equivalent of being a professional student. I also told Ph.D. friends that if I ever talked about doing a doctorate, I was to be shot immediately.

Yet as I was finishing up my Master’s, I had a small niggly thought about law. I started my law degree in ’91, an LL.B. now J.D. in Canada, and while I promised myself I would finish my public administration degree, I did feel a bit of a twinge of something in not finishing my law degree. Not regret exactly, as I don’t regret not becoming a lawyer nor even of not finishing law school. More that I felt that I missed out on some learning related to law itself. I briefly considered maybe finishing my law degree part-time, if I could, or maybe a separate Master’s in legal studies or something equivalent. But I chose “no” relatively quickly. Primarily, I didn’t need the degree. And I was tired too.

But over the next ten years, that “itch” changed somewhat, evolved if you will. I realized that it was not just that I didn’t need the credential. I also didn’t need the full school infrastructure just to learn. I did two courses through Coursera, including a pretty interesting one about the nature of games. Another was about meta-literacy. I could have done either one or both as a formal course with tuition and credit, but it was just learning for me, and free curation of the material was readily available. There are 1000s of courses on Coursera and elsewhere, plus options like The Great Courses. I’m slowly doing a psych course, and have worked through parts of a photography course. It’s hard to stay committed to them when working full-time and other parts of life intervene, but that’s more about time management than a failure of the material/course.

Yet, even though I don’t NEED a formal degree program, if I were given free tuition for some courses, maybe I might do something formal?

Creative writing options

Obviously, from my posts, I intend to write a lot in my retirement. An obvious option might be an MFA program with a focus on creative writing. There are about 8 MFA programs and 6 MA programs that are decently ranked in Canada. The downside, however, for most MFAs is a residency requirement. Of the 14 programs I found, 11 assume that you’ll be on campus full-time, most are 1-2 years, and none are in Ottawa.

UBC lists their residency component as optional, 2 years long, with a cost of about $1900 per term/5700 per year. King’s College and Dalhousie University have an online option with a low-residency requirement, also 2 years, and a cost of about $9400 per year

The UBC distance education MFA is focused specifically on creative writing. It is 36 credits in total, with 24 credits for creative writing coursework, another 6 credits for electives or coursework, and a thesis worth 6 credits. Most of the courses are 3 credits each, so basically easier to view it as 10 courses (8 in program and up to 2 electives) plus a thesis counting as a double-course. The courses include poetry (I like it more when it is treated as lyrics, not poems per se); new media (might be okay); writing for children (not high on my list); creative non-fiction (yes and no); drama for screen (yes); fiction (yes!); television (yes); speculative fiction (sure); career support (meh, not really what I’m looking for from them); and teaching creative writing (?). It’s not bad, and online is attractive. For distance, they charge per credit, not per term, which means more expensive and I have up to 5 years (probably $2100 per course); unfortunately, if the $$ is from my education support measures upon leaving the government, I would have to do it in two years. The final thesis details are a bit scant in places, but it seems to be a full-length product (easy peasy).

King’s College in Halifax has a two-year program, much of it online with two annual “residencies” — online (January for six days) and in person (June for nine days). The MFA for KC is a more guided mentorship with one class in a semester on structure and fiction plus mentoring, then another class in the next term plus the mentoring, etc. Everybody follows the same curriculum with a goal to writing a book, as opposed to the UBC “multiple types of writing” approach.

Oh, wait, the Dalhousie one? It’s offered jointly with King’s College. Same program. Oops.

I was curious, though…are there any BFA programs? Well, yes, there are. But none are offered as online only, and most are offered more as adjuncts to other programs (as minors, for example).

Now, I **could** consider doing something purely online as an MFA from other universities in the US, but the tuition money from my retirement would not apply to those institutions, so that’s out.

What about courses just at Algonquin?

The college is only a few blocks from my house, so I went through their course catalogue to see what interests me. Whether online or in person, it would be relatively easy to do.

In their Advanced Technology faculty, they have a 1-year program in AI software development, but I suspect that I would find it too structured for me. That’s hard to describe, but I mean that the college’s curated approach would not likely match the parts of AI that interest me. Possible, but not a high-demand option. They have options for computer programming, with some stuff that is both mobile and web-linked, but honestly, I feel like I’d rather just learn on my own online. There are tons of materials available, and I could pick and choose what interests me. I have two apps that I want to build, and they’re on my to do list for “sometime”. But again, not sure I would want to do 1-2 years online learning programming (one of them includes COBOL????) or two years doing mobile application design and development. Their web development and internet app courses are a bit more flexible and offered online.

They have a Creative Media and Communications faculty too, which includes a very simple creative writing program. It’s offered online and part-time, but basically is a simple set of five to six courses in total. Could be fun, although I don’t know that I would get much out of it. They have a much more rigorous Film and Media Production program, 42 weeks on campus…I don’t know if I would enjoy all of it, but well, there ARE some interesting elements. They also have a Social Media program, online, part-time, and heavily focused on marketing. Not really my jam. But that could be the point.

I confess I was surprised to find anything of interest to me under the Culinary, Hospitality and Tourism faculty. But there it was…baking and pastry arts! A one-year hands-on program. I don’t care too much about the pastry learning, but a year of baking? Hmm…although, sure, I could do a lot of baking on my own with recipe books and YouTube channels.

I am really disappointed though with the Public Safety and Legal Studies faculty. I was sure that they had a “private investigators” option that I was interested in. I read about it a few years ago. If they did have it, it’s gone now. The only thing available is Police Foundations, which could help my writing career. But it’s full-time, online, and has a LOT of courses that do not interest me at all.

My feeling is that if I’m looking at various college courses, there are other ones in Ontario (and elsewhere), many are offered online, and my search might have been a bit narrow to start only with Algonquin.

The weird side of Algonquin, though, was that they also have their “general education electives”. A few years ago, they culled some public offerings that were pushed annually, sort of “Adult Learning” for fun. But there is still a long list that is offered on the website as courses you can take along with your regular program. Or all on their own. If I weed the list down, here are the ones that surprised me:

Theme 1: Arts in Society
- GED5005 Greek Mythology
- GEN1957 Science Fiction
Theme 2: Civic Life
- GED2200 Free Speech and the Challenge of Social Media
- GED5301 Death, Dying, and Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID)
Theme 3: Social and Cultural Understanding
- GED5006 World Religions
Theme 4: Personal Understanding
- FIN2300 Introduction to Personal Finance
Theme 5: Science and Technology
- GED5003 The Science of Play
- AST2000 Introduction to Astronomy
Degree Breadth electives
- PSY2100 Introductory Psychology
- ENL4016 World Literature
- ENL4100 Creative Writing
- ENL4200 New Worlds and Alternative Realities: Speculative Fiction
- PHY4000 Black Holes, Big Bangs, and the Cosmos

So where does that leave me?

I still need to pursue more info on the PI side of things, as I’d love to learn some of the skills to aid in my writing. Plus, I have done NO searching into photography programs. And maybe I should look into online legal studies or even physics. Hmm…I guess I’m not as far along as I thought. It’s good to have options.

What I really need is for the government to pay for me to learn how to kayak. 🙂

Confused AF about retirement

December 7 2025

I have been planning my retirement for just over 2 years, with the original plan to go in August 2027. I even put a countdown timer on my website that shows 628 days left (a little over 20 months). Back in August of this year, I noted that with two years to go, I did NOT have everything on track for my planning. I’ve been doing more work since then on my original plan of touring across North America, trying to wrap my head around the possibility of a single RV unit or a towable trailer behind a truck. Andrea and I even went to an RV place and checked out some RV options. It still seemed doable.

I also went to a writing conference in New Orleans in September, loved both the city and the conference, and came back jazzed about writing. I don’t have kayaking, astronomy, photography, the fitness side in general, or continued learning locked down yet. But with 20m to go, it seemed doable.

And then work decided to confuse me with potential incentives to retire earlier.

A positive incentive to go earlier

The first announcement was a positive incentive, the Early Retirement Initiative, unveiled in the fall budget.

For those not familiar with the public service pension, you basically can work until 30 years of service AND age 55 or over, and you’ll get what they call an unreduced pension at 60% of the average of your best five years of salary. If you DON’T make it to 30 years, every year under that is reduced by 2% not earned plus 2% penalty. In other words, for me, I’m at 29 years. If I go now, I would have “earned” 58%, but would pay a 2% penalty to drop it to 56%. If you want to see it in action, you would get:

30 years –> 60%
29 years –> 56%
28 years –> 52%
27 years –> 48%
26 years –> 46%

The ERI waives the penalty and makes it:

30 years –> 60%
29 years –> 58% (save 2%)
28 years –> 56% (save 4%)
27 years –> 54% (save 6%)
26 years –> 52% (save 8%)

On the face of things, I could go now and save 2% penalty. Or wait until August and have no penalty. But I also have some pension paperwork in the works that would transfer money from my RRSP into the public pension, and thus I don’t need the waiver. I’m nominally above 30 years already. I could work another 4-5 years and get a 70% option, but that isn’t in the cards. My “plan” above aka the original one that is now in doubt was that I would likely finish with about 31.5 years and get 63% for my pension.

On the finance side of the equation, the Reddit forum Canada Public Servant has a really good post by one of the moderators, u/HandcuffsOfGold. You can find it here:

Thinking of retiring soon? Considering the early retirement incentive? You may have more money than you think – here's why.
byu/HandcuffsOfGold inCanadaPublicServants

His first example is for a public servant earning $100K and considering the ERI, with 30 years of service. He shows that from the original $100K gross salary, you pay federal income tax, provincial income tax, public pension contributions, CPP/EI, union dues, disability insurance, and supplementary death benefit for a total of $34K in Ontario in the CAPE union leaving $66K in take-home pay. By contrast, the pension would be $60K gross, of which you would pay federal income tax, provincial income tax, health care plan, and dental care plan for a total of $9720, leaving $50,280 of pension. The difference is $16K a year which they could potentially make up through part-time work, gig work or RRSP/TSFA, or income+pension splitting (about $1300/m).

He also did the same calculation with 25 years of service. $66K in take-home pay from working remains the same, but pension would drop to $50K per year (instead of $60K). Total deductions would be $7522 (instead of $9720) leaving $42,478. As a result, they would need about $2K a month to top up.

The whole point of the calculation is not the exact amounts — it is showing that if you are close to 30y, and you have RRSPs, the difference might not be as huge as you think. In example one, while you lose $40K in income, your take-home pay only drops by $16K — because you also lose $24K in deductions. It’s a sobering set of numbers to see.

A negative incentive to go earlier

The new option, though, is normally a negative incentive. The Government announced that they are going with Workforce Adjustment (WFA) in the new year at my department, as well as lots of other departments. We received the formal heads-up email this week that letters will be sent to individuals in January. The WFA is basically a layoff notice, but with some big options to help you manage the possible transition. In effect, the notice says your position is being eliminated, and since you’re in it, you’re being laid off. While you can’t change the first part (the elimination of the position), there are ways to eliminate the layoff effect. Once you’re WFA’ed, you have 120 days to decide what to do. The official options are listed here: https://www.njc-cnm.gc.ca/directive/d12/v239/s669/en#s669-tc-tm_2.

Option A, as it is referred to, is basically that you have a year to find another job within the public service. You keep working, theoretically doing assigned work AND looking for a job. Still, the assigned work varies by group… some people do NOTHING but look for a job, others are given non-urgent work, others are worked hard. The priority is clearly on finding a new job. There are options if you change your mind halfway through the year or don’t find anything, but it mainly revolves around being paid at your current salary for a year to find another job. So basically PAYx1Y.

Option B is the “severance plus TSM” option. Basically, there is a transition support measure that will pay you approximately one year’s pay (52w if you are between 16y and 29y of service, and then 3w less for every year over 52w i.e., 31y = 49w of pay). Plus you get severance, which is about 4w for the first 20y and 1w for every year after 20. If you’re close to 29/30y, that would mean 13w of severance. And they code you as laid off, so you’re eligible for EI. While it isn’t completely linear, and you have options to play with WHEN the pay and severance are given to you (up to 2 payments over 2 years), assume you wipe out 13w of EI, leaving you with .75 of a year of EI remaining. PAYx1.25Y+EIx.75Y.

Option C is the “education” option, and it splits into two sub-options depending on whether you want to return after the educational period. If you do wish to return, you basically get up to $17K in education, go on leave without pay for 2 years, and, at the end of 2 years, go on a priority list to return to the government. A coworker did this back in DRAP, and it worked out PERFECTLY for her. An amazing option for her, and she returned to full-time work after taking two years to go to school.

Or you can just leave immediately, with no plan to come back, and it is basically the same as Option B, with some potential hiccups related to EI but a tuition bonus. (For EI eligibility, you are supposed to be both actively looking for and available for work, which would normally exclude full-time university attendance. However, there are some options for referrals through the province which might allow it to happen). As such, you can potentially get the TSM (PAYx1y + .25x1Y + EIx.75Y + $17K in tuition.

That’s not chickenfeed

If I get a WFA letter, and opt for Option B or Option C, I could potentially get as much as $200K in salary and EI, not including the education allowance. I would be giving up 1.5y of service and thus losing some on my monthly pension, but at the same time, I’m also not working for the next 20 months.

Which is a long way ’round to say that the government is messing with my verb tenses. Original plans, current plans, and future plans are all in a state of flux. And some people might look at it as either a #FirstWorldProblem (to which I agree) or a “wait and see” situation, i.e., wait to see if I get a WFA letter. Except there is a flexible component in there that if I know there are going to be SOME letters handed out in my area, I could volunteer in advance informally to WFA me. It saves someone else from being whammied. Or even if I’m not whammied myself, I could look at potential alternation options (where people who were whammied change jobs with people who weren’t but were hoping to be). And if I do get whammied, I would still have 120d to figure it all out.

I have to say…I have thought of little else for the last week. And don’t get me started on whether Andrea could retire too, and what that would look like for our finances. Likely workable, even if it wasn’t the plan, and I’m happy to have options; it would be great if they were a bit clearer.

#MessedUpHead

PACE, goal-setting…and burning through letters

December 4 2025

I am somewhat obsessed with methodologies for goal-setting, performance measurement, tracking, and motivation.

When I kept seeing an interesting clip from the movie, Rebel Ridge, starring Aaron Pierre and Don Johnson, I had to watch the whole movie. In the film, Pierre is trying to get his cousin out on bail, not realizing that the system is rigged and nothing he does will work. When he does realize it, he goes to the police station to talk to the Chief. In the clip (attached below), we learn that he is a military instructor who has to deal with a lot of acronyms. The one he’s most interested in is PACE, which he explains was originally designed for Comms systems — priority, alternate, contingency, and emergency.

And it is relatively easy to understand for Comms, even without a military angle. Say, for example, that you are looking after your aging parents and need to stay in regular contact with them. Your primary communication method might be a cellphone if you’re in a city. Your alternate method might be a landline, your contingency might be email or text, and your emergency option might be in-person. Easy-peasy.

However, Pierre’s character notes that it can be used as a planning methodology for various purposes, including his specific goals. In the movie, the Marine’s primary means of retrieving his cousin was to take cash to the courthouse and pay his cousin’s bail. Except the cops intervened and confiscated his cash, at least temporarily. His alternate was a special deal with the Chief, who basically reneged on the deal and f***ed him over. Contingency was an alternate way to replace his cash through other means, but the Chief messed that up, too. Which has the Marine “burning through letters” and they don’t want to see what happens when he gets to E (emergency). As an aside, I keep seeing references to how Rebel Ridge is an homage to First Blood with Pierre as Stallone’s Rambo character, and Johnson in the role of Gault; while the movie’s okay, it’s no First Blood.

Here’s the clip of the scene:

Understanding the elements for planning

While the acronym is a plot device for the film, it is actually a real planning methodology. In the example I used above, there are four methods for communicating with the person’s aging parents on a daily basis:

P: Primary — Cellphone
A: Alternate — Landline
C: Contingency — Maybe email or text
E: Emergency — In-person

For the movie, it was:

P: Primary — Cash in backpack
A: Alternate — Deal with chief
C: Contingency — Alternate cash being wired
E: Emergency — The second half of the movie

You can easily see how that would/could also apply to a military or rescue system for communications. Essentially, sliding down a scale of expected utility and effectiveness to what may be a last-ditch method:

P: Primary — Top of the line encrypted comms
A: Alternate — Cellphone
C: Contingency — Public systems
E: Emergency — Short-wave radio

In different scenarios, the order might change or there might be totally different options including walkie talkies, flags, etc.

It seemed awesome and fairly robust as a tool. When I searched online for other examples where it was being used, I found a bunch of suggestions, with probably the most likely one being fitness. One example of this use is shown below.

P: Primary — Full gym workout + fully controlled diet for all meals and snacks
A: Alternate — Home workout with hand weights + pre-prepared meals
C: Contingency — Rest day + healthy meal choices for take-out
E: Emergency — Minimal activity + multi-vitamins

Again, it looks good. And with its focus on “other options”, it would work well where goals might have multiple paths to achieve them on any given day. Scalability seems baked in, hierachy/priority preference, etc. And if the military is using it, that’s an added plus — not because it’s the military, but simply because they can test it with people of different mental attitudes and approaches, and see if it works.

But can I use PACE for other types of goals? Let’s start by recasting previous examples into an easier-to-compare tool.

(example)	P Primary	A Alternate	C Contingency	E Emergency	(comment)
Comms	Encrypted state-of-the-art system	Cellphone	Public system	Short-wave radio	Can vary by circumstance
Bailing out cousin (movie)	Cash in a backpack	Deal with chief	Money being wired	The rest of the movie
Popular exercise example online	Full gym workout + fully controlled diet	Home workout + Prepared meals	Rest day + Healthy takeout	Minimal activity + Multivitamins

It starts to look like you CAN, indeed, use it for other goals. Except when you start looking at rows 1 and 2 against 3, you notice some differences.

First and foremost, the goal is changing from something concrete and discrete — communicate with someone, bail out cousin — to something more general like “exercise”.

Second, while all three have hierarchical levels between P, A, C and E, the exercise ones are not quite replaceable choices. With Comms, it doesn’t matter whether you use a full in-house solution for Comms or a cellphone or even short wave radio. While encryption and privacy were nice to have, they weren’t critical to the goal — the goal is communications. Any of the four options meet that goal. Similarly, for the movie example…any of the four options can get the cousin out of jail. While P is easier than A, C or E, they all accomplish the goal.

When it comes to the exercise goal, though, the solutions are not equal. A full gym workout is great, and is the primary method **if you can do it that day**. If you can’t, for whatever reason, you move to alternate which is a home workout with hand weights. It’s not as good, but sure, if your goal is exercise in general, it meets the criteria. But then you come to C being perhaps a rest day or D minimal activity when your body needs to heal. Neither of those are meeting the original goal. They are hierachical, definitely, but they are NOT equal alternatives. Similarly for the food, the first option is to do full diet control for proteins and minerals, and carbs for fuel. And moving to A or C could arguably be listed as “fuel without ingesting crappy food” that might work against your health goals. But by the time you get to E, and you’re down to just multi-vitamins, that is not an equivalent method to achieve the same thing. Or, more pointedly, you could take MVs on ANY of the four options too.

For the food, it might be more like Primary being fully self-prepared meals from healthy ingredients + portion control + healthy recipe; Alternate might be pre-prepared healthy meals that use organic ingredients + portion control, more steaming / less frying, etc.; Contigency might be that it may not be completely “healthy” eating, but it was all prepared at home, less processed foods, etc.; and the emergency food fuel might be takeout, but at least healthier takeout choices. They are NOT all the same, but at least they are meeting the goal of portion-controlled healthier fuel. If you want to add MVs to all four options, great, although that is no longer really a “goal” that is suitable for PACE as you are in a binary world — you either take your MVs or not.

So, while it looks like you CAN use PACE for multiple options, you may have to alter your goal or your alignment of options to the goal so they are all equivalent. Which is not often the way personal goals tend to work.

Now I have to figure out if it will work for MY personal goals. Wish me luck.

Can I have a do-over for Friday?

November 22 2025

Andrea had physio at 8:30 a.m., and I set my alarm Thursday night for one to go off at 7:30, and my “backup” to go off at 7:40 or so. Instead, I woke up at 5:00, tossed and turned until 6:30, finally fell back asleep, and then blew through both alarms somehow. Andrea came back into the bedroom at 8:05 and said, “Hey, we’re leaving in 10 minutes, right?”.

Crap. Yes, we did leave in that relative timeframe with the plan for me to wait for her while she had her appointment and then drive us both to a co-working space in our ward.

As we were leaving the physio clinic, I’m driving through a parking lot that comes to a T intersection where I have to go left. There’s a stop sign and everything. As I go to turn, I realize there’s someone coming up on the inside of the driver’s side, and I thought they were just being an a**hole, so I blew the horn and hit the brakes hard to avoid turning in front of them. She had her passenger window down and was waving at me. I’m not in the mood, still feeling half-asleep really, and not ready to engage. But wtf, someone wants to FAFO, sure, why not. Nope, she was letting me know my right front tire was flat. Oh. Oops.

Sure enough, when I pulled over, it was pretty low. Not 100% flat, not riding on rims yet, but definitely in need of serious air.

Which was a bit interesting. I replaced all my winter tires a week ago. And I don’t mean just swapping them over from summers, I mean I bought all new tires. It was a lovely service for the car. Major service. Air filters. Plus tire swap. Annnnd, they recommended new tires as they were pretty low, which back in the Spring they said might get another season, but they wanted to flag for me anyway. Screw it, put new ones on. I need them, was just hoping to push another season, but I know the way my brain works. If I had a problem, and somebody got hurt, I would always blame myself for trying to save a few bucks until later. Oh, and my brakes were down last time and time for servicing, could wait, but blah blah blah, same deal. Did them too. A couple of other minor things that were “due”, I was just hoping to ignore until Spring. Nope, I did them all, get it done, move on. $2100 later, I had my car back.

Yet 10 days later, I now have a flat on the new tire? Hmmm…

I called CAA, that’s why I have the membership, right? A few minutes in a chatbot to get them to dispatch, but less than 30 minutes later, closer to 20, a guy showed up with a flatbed towing truck. He said he could do air only, but if I drove too far and it was a continuing problem, I could find myself stuck in traffic somewhere. Or he could put on the spare. Which I didn’t seem to have the keys for the lug nuts for (although it turned out I did, natch). But one other tire was low, too, not a problem YET, but down. And another could have used air. One was fine.

Last week, I felt like I was having trouble with that tire already. Not “flat” but “something”. I decided it was my imagination, just from switching over from summers to winters, and new winters at that. Just a rougher ride. I tested it, it wasn’t pulling when driving, all good. I don’t think I actually looked it when I was in the garage at home or out anywhere. I rarely go to the passenger side of the car; maybe it was like that the whole time.

Screw it, let’s just take the whole thing to the dealership and let them sort it out. No difference in cost for me, covered by CAA. Up on flatbed, the car went, and I had a nice conversation with the tow truck operator all the way to the dealership. In the meantime, Andrea took a cab to work, abandoning me (sob!) in my hour of need (sob!).

The guy at the dealership said immediately, “It’s not the tires. They’re ALL low.” Which was now more apparent in a brightly lit bay. You see, dear readers, I have had those rusty old winter rims for 16 years and they are plennnnnty rusty. So much so that the tires were not sealing properly on the rims. Now, you can clean them up, try to refurbish them a bit so to speak, and keep using them, but eventually they’ll still leak. I don’t have time for that sh**.

I ordered new rims, $500. I didn’t feel like grousing that they should have figured that out the week before and mentioned it when they installed. Although I probably would have ignored them, thinking it was simple upselling. But no, they were done. I know that there are aftermarket options for this, even some scrap metal $$ if you recycle them, but I don’t have time for that sh** either. I asked them to dispose of them for me, which they were happy to do. I wonder if any employee at the dealership took them home for some TLC and resale. They’re practically indestructible.

Okay, one Uber later, I was back home. My day was already in the toilets, and I didn’t have a car to get around in. So I worked from home. The system for booking spaces let me cancel my booking, but normally we post availability in another channel which didn’t like me anymore. Whatever. Moving on. The day was mostly okay, although I’m acting right now with my boss away.

Just after lunch, I had a meeting with one of the provincial partners. Just as we were about to start the meeting, Windows decided that I absolutely 100% needed to reboot immediately. Stuff was crashing, blah blah blah. Okay, reboot. It finished the reboot and hey, look, I need to reboot and install something. Immediately, again. No other options presented. Great, reboot again. Only for it to finish and force a third reboot to have everything set up special and nice and tidy, or something. I know I missed the meeting, with the partner and my boss’ boss. Who I was supposed to support in the meeting. She said, no worries.

I had hoped to have the car back by 2:00 to get J at school, but no dice, he took a cab.

A great day so far, but at least getting closer to being over.

Around 3:30, I got the call to get the car back. Yay, done in time for the weekend, they didn’t need it overnight. I took their Uber offer, got there, it looked a bit like a ghost town for techs, but there were about 8 clients waiting in various chairs. Ah end of day pickups.

But my car was indeed done, all good.

Except I suddenly realized that I didn’t have my wallet with me. I normally carry it in my bag, in an interior pocket. Nope. Not there. I remembered I had it in the morning, cuz I had to get my CAA card out of it. Then I had it getting out of the car to get into the tow truck cab. No memory of anything after that, just my phone and the loose card. So, let’s do the math for possible options:

I left it in the car although I was sure I put it in my bag (possible);
I dropped it on the ground outside the car at the pickup point (possible, but not probable);
I somehow left it in the tow truck (unknown but probably unlikely);
I had left it on a counter at the dealership in the morning, while checking in (unlikely);
I left it in the Uber, although I never had to pay for anything (unlikely);
I left it at home on the shelf by the front door (possible);
I had taken it out of my bag when doing some online financial stuff, even though I didn’t need it (unlikely);
I left it at home on my desk downstairs where I had taken stuff out of my bag (phones, notebook) (my best guess); or,
I left it in the Uber on the way to the dealership (very unlikely).

Nine options that came to be in about 2s when I realized I didn’t have my wallet. Checked the car immediately, wasn’t there, but well, if it wasn’t there then, it didn’t mean it hadn’t been there before. Nevermind, don’t go there. The dealership let me do multiple taps with my phone to pay for everything, and I headed over to pick up Andrea.

In the meantime, I called Jacob and he looked at the two places in the house where it might have been.

It was on my work desk, my best guess, where I had taken stuff out of my bag to set myself up to work at home instead of the office for the day. Whew.

Everyone knows that feeling of thinking they’ve lost their purse or wallet, and it is never fun. For me, it was mostly the administrative headache of cancelling stuff if it was gone. Not the risk, just the bandwidth.

The rest of the day went fine. Not least of which was because I napped before dinner for 2+ hours. We played some board games after dinner and I even won a game (a rare occurrence). Then Andrea and I watched two episodes of The Diplomat before bed.

“All’s well that ends well”, or maybe it is just “All’s well that ends”.

But I still went to bed thinking I would have liked a do-over. Or just slept through the whole day.