I'm back (again...)!

So many things have changed since my last post in 2012. It seems like a lifetime ago now. 

             We are all much older now

This was taking a few weeks ago on vacation. Those tiny kids in my last post are now in high school. One even drives now...

So why am I firing the blog back up after a 12 year hiatus? That's a good question, and not an easy one to answer. Short answer is I am shutting down all my social media accounts, but I still enjoy sharing content. I think a blog is more intimate and more of a long form way to communicate. 

Since the last post, we have moved out of Saskatoon to a small acreage about 30mins north of Saskatoon. I started hunting, so there will be posts about that. We got a dog, a little shih tzu named Gizmo. I have had several different bikes. My current recumbent is an old Rotator Tiger. And I have an old Specialized Rockhopper that I ride as well sometimes. 

So much more, but that is enough for today.

Ride safe and have fun!

Happy New Year!!

Haven't posted much on here lately, been busy finishing up work for the year and visiting family for the holidays. I have one more day off work then I'm back at it again. Some people don't do the resolutions for New Years and usually I am among those. This year I figure I should put some down in print, then maybe I will follow them. So here are mine:

1. Lose weight (probably common for most people). I'm sitting around 260lbs right now and want to be around 200lbs next New Years.

2. Try to be less negative about work and life in general.

3. Try to explore my artistic side. I used to draw constantly. Plus I want to take more pictures this year.

4. Try to learn how to handwrite again. My writing is atrocious, it looks like a child was printing it.

That's about it I guess, feel free to comment and let me know what yours are (if anyone still reads this.) :)

Here are some pics from over the Holidays:

Turned out not to bad, for a phone anyway.

So this is my first post done entirely off my phone, so my apologies if it is not setup the same as my other posts are. I included two pictures with this post, one is a HDR picture I took of the main floor of the Rumley Building in downtown. It used to be a warehouse and showroom for the M. Rumley Co. who manufactured farm machinery in the early 1900s. Quite a distinctive building, it is in the processof being converted into offices and condos.

While we are enjoying warmer than normal weather right now, in the past couple of weeks we have had some snow storms. Last Thursday we had a decent snow storm, I had to push snow out of the way getting the door open. So the second picture is of myself shoveling our walkway off.

My bike is away for the season now, no more winter cycling anymore. I may have to drag the xc skis out of the garage however. Anyway until next time try to stay warm and have fun.

Hello again!!

Look at those sexy socks!! :)


Old Grandora highway, the road washed away here in the spring, they finally fixed it enough to drive one. Pretty windy out today, some nice waves on the water.

My baby girl Kelsey. She was 10 months old this day.

Austin hamming it up, sure is bigger then in the previous post (three years back). They grow up so fast, blink and you will miss it.

Best picture I think so far with the new phone

Well it's been over three years since I last posted in here. I feel bad about that, but jobs, school and kids have a way of taking up a lot of time. I recently got an Iphone and it has a pretty decent camera, it's rekindled a little of my love for snapping pictures and made me think about this blog enough to remember my old passwords and login. I quit posting here for several reasons, one was just a lack of time. Another one was having Austin we didn't want a lot of personal pictures and details on here for security issues. Now that I have resurrected this I will be staying away from more private details and pictures as much as possible. Anyway with that out of the way, here is a short synopsis of what has happened in the last three years.

-I quit my job working for the vac truck company and went to school for a machinist, I did very well at that in school, really learned a lot and morphed from someone who had very little math skills to someone with above average math skills. (can you tell that is what I am most proud of?)

-I got a job working at a machine shop, it was horrible, I realized I hate working inside and the pay was pitiful.

-Tina and I had our second child, a sweet little girl named Kelsey in December last year.

- Just before we had Kelsey I quit at the machine shop and got a job as an operator on a hydrovac truck, I did this for about 6 months.

-While doing the previously mentioned job I was being called by my old vac truck company who was looking for workers. I quit at the hydrovac company and went back there as a supervisor, been doing that ever since.

-Around when Kelsey was born we bought our first house, it's a 1100 sq foot townhouse, close to everything including a really nice city leisure facility.

-I've began taking adult swimming lessons because I figured that by age 30 I should really learn how to swim finally.

I honestly haven't been riding a whole lot lately, About once a week in the summer. Last season I put on around 1600kms all year, this year has been a lot less, maybe 500-600kms. I'm a little out of shape for sure, but I still like to get out and next year when Kelsey is older I hope to be able to ride some more, or at least put her in the trailer and take her out (Austin has never been a huge fan of the trailer) I went riding today actually, the kids sleep in forever is seems and I wake up early, so I went out riding. It was cold (about 2C) and it started to rain/sleet about half way along. We live very close to two highways and I can cycle out my door and be outside the city in under 5 mins, it's very nice, lots of options for places to go. I did take some pics and video with the Iphone, hopefully they look okay.

As far as the blog here goes, I'd like to keep it up, but obviously I won't be updating it constantly like I used to, probably once a week at the most, but I promise some nice pics every time. :)

Please ride safe and have fun,

Sean

It's been a while......

A few weeks ago I thought I would make my daily shaving routine a little more exciting/dangerous, and took up shaving with a straight razor. I got this razor off http://www.straightrazorplace.com/. It was made sometime between 1912 and 1921

I got this J.A. Henckels stainless razor off ebay, it was made around 1928.

My bike ready for the commute to work.

Austin being really happy.

The other day we got Austin a Jolly Jumper. Tina took this picture of him while I was at work, I haven't seen him in it yet, but apparently he likes it.

One of the jobs I go to often is in a field, the other day I came home and found this little critter on me, it's the second tick I've found on me lately, got to be careful.

Some breaking news, we were in a car accident on June 20th, this is the result of it. Tina's car was written off, Tina and Austin were taken to the hospital. Austin was fine and Tina had a some bruises and burns from the airbag.

Inside of the car.

One of our Wednesday night rides.

A big summer storm rolling in.

I got a handlebar mount for my GPS, here is the data from my ride to work one night. There seems to be a glitch though because there is no way I did 106km/hr top speed. :)

Austins first trip to Alberta, this is the river just upstream from Crescent Falls.

I just liked this picture. :)

What is my Mom trying to do to me??

Austin sleeping in his car seat.

Nice hair!!

The first and probably only video you will see on here, since after borrowing Tina's camera to take this video I ended up dropping it and it is no longer working.

Wow, it's been over two months now since I updated this, I feel bad about that. It just seems like there isn't much time or ambition lately. More then likely it's ambition holding me back. We were in a pretty bad car accident with Tina's car. A woman did a left turn right in front of us and we hit her going around 50km/hr. Tina was pretty bruised up, Austin (or Rubberman as I've been calling him) wound up being just fine. SGI settled with Tina already and she bought a 2005 Pontiac G6 GT, it's pretty nice, I haven't taken a picture of it yet though. This week was my first time commuting to work on my bike. Since I work Saturday and Sunday I decided to bike to work those days and take my van on Monday and Tuesday when the traffic is bad. Except for Sunday when I got a flat tire it went pretty well. I have to leave a little earlier but it only takes me 25 mins to ride the almost 8 kms to work. Anyway I will try to update this a little more often (I know I always say that) Anyway ride safe and have fun until next time.......

Hello again!!

Austin not sleeping in his crib, something he likes to do a lot. :)

Spadina Crescent at night.

I was playing around with my camera down at the Weir one night, here is one of the photos.

Austin all streached out on the couch, he is getting bigger by the day.

Looking very shocked after his bath! :)

Finally got out on the bike for about an hour today, I found several routes for getting across Circle Drive, all of them involve tunnels which I'm not crazy about, since there is a lot of muggings and such around them.

I got a sweet deal on this Lowepro Slingshot 200AW camera case. I wanted one for a long time, but $130 was too much for me to pay, I found that Blacks Photo had them on sale for $69!!! and ordered one. My old camera case had no more pockets left to offer, with this one I need to eventually get some lenses to fill all those spaces.

Some days Austin loves his bath, this was one of those days. Isn't he the cutest?

He seems to enjoy sleeping on his tummy sometimes, we started him on his back, but now his neck is pretty strong so he can sleep either way, Tina put him on the couch and we took this photo because he looks like a little bean all curled up and sleeping.

On Saturday we went to Saskatoon's largest garage sale in Montgomery. Tina put a hat on Austin because it was a little windy out, he also has a leash on his soother in case it blows away. :) We didn't find anything too good at the garage sales, or anything we really needed, so we just walked around for a long time looking at stuff.

Wow, there has been a few things happen since my last post. First of all I got a new job, I'm currently working out my last two weeks at Siemens Laserworks, and then I will be starting at Envirotec on May 12th. I will be driving and operating a vac truck in and around Saskatoon. I'm pretty excited about it because it looks like it will be a pretty enjoyable job and I think I will do well at it. The other thing that happened is my brother moved to the Phillipines. He has been actually married to a girl from there for a just about two years now and he finally moved there since she has been unable to come here. It is pretty sad for my parents and I, but I know he is pretty happy there and things seem to be going well for him there. It is weird to talk to him and he is half way around the world away, they are just entering their winter season there now, which is pretty crazy. Austin is getting bigger and with that he seems to be getting a little more moody lately. I think he gets bored sitting down or lying somewhere for a long time and he get's cranky and wants you to play with him. I guess it won't be too long now and he will be into everything. Well, until next time, ride safe and have fun!!

Hello again

There is a funny story behind this photo. Austin decided he didn't want his soother, so he took it out and put in on top his head, then he fell asleep. :)

Mommy is drying him off after his bath.

Cuddling with Daddy on the couch.

In last post I forgot to show our backyard. We do have a small backyard with our new place. It even has a small shed where the bikes can stay. There is a garden along the fence too, so I may make a second attempt at cherry tomatoes this year.

I just took this photo today when I got home from my bike ride. Tina made a bed on the couch for him. He always holds his hands up like that when he's sleeping for some reason.

How's it going? It's been a while since I put something here. Austin takes up a lot of our time during the day (and night). Today we got up to around 14 Celcius and all the snow melted and dried up so I decided to head out on the bike for a while. Whew! Am I ever out of shape, I went out for about an hour and headed down 33rd St out of town and then out on the highway I went. I took the highway over to where they are building a new school and Olympic size swimming pool just outside of Confederation area. They just threw in some new bike paths over there, so I rode around on them for a while before heading home again. Austin isn't being too bad, but he has a lot of gas for some reason so he often doesn't want to fall asleep right after he has eaten (can you blame him). He thinks it's bedtime around 12:00-2:00AM. Tina looks after him at night when I'm working and I look after him on the weekends. I'm hoping it warms up a lot more so we can take him out for walks soon. We took him to some stores today and walked around with him in the stroller a bit. Anyway keep looking here, I do post occasionally :) :) Ride safe and have fun.

Our newest family member....

Getting fed in NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit).

All hooked up in with wires in NICU.

Isn't he cute?

In the car seat waiting to go home.

The first time Mommey got to see him

Snuggling with Mommy in the hospital room.

His bed for five days.

Austin's favorite thing to do.

In the hospital room.

AUSTIN ANDREW STEPHENSON

Born: March 13th, 2oo8 at 8:57am

21" long and 6lbs 15.5 oz

Well that is all the information on Austin for those who like to know such things. Everything went really well except that he got really plugged up with mucous and had trouble breathing and feeding properly, so he had to spend a few days in Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. We still got to visit and feed him in there, but he didn't get to stay with us until Monday. The first night at home was pretty intense, thankfully my parents were here and could help Tina and I out. He really didn't sleep at all that night, but since then he has slept pretty good at night. It's certainly a lot of work to look after him, but also kind of cool to think that one day he will grow up and be an adult, pretty amazing when you think about it. It's been hard because Tina had a C-section, so she isn't able to do too much right now, so I haven't been able to work too much. She is going to her Mom's house for a week so that her Mom can help her out. Anyway I will try to keep this updated more now, but with Austin here and all it took me two days just to get this in here. :) So until next time, ride safe and have fun.