Happy Sunday,Eight floors above south central Calgary. I’m sitting in a boardroom, attention waning, glancing through the window. Outside, people are walking to lunch. Cars crawl through intersections. The mountain edges sketched in the distance. Inside, a stack of papers is splayed out in front of me. Ready for signatures. This is it. We’re buying a home. But I should rewind first. Can’t start at the crescendo. For two years, Sarah said we would buy it, the place we rented. It made me cringe when she told people. She treated it like a possibility. I treated it like a hopeful secret. Then boom, it’s April 18th, and the landlord says yes, he’s ready to sell. He’d love to get it done by May 15th. And so started twenty-five days of go time. Broker. Lender. Lawyers. Insurers. Condo chairs. Juggling plates with physical and digital documents, needing one more signature from one new witness. Always something, increasingly urgent, requiring a minimum of three people. Then bang, it’s May 13th, and we’re eight floors up. My depleted enthusiasm fights for its life, listening to the lawyer read us each and every detail of the contract. I hand her the down payment like a hot potato. We sign dozens of Xs and leave with a folder that should come with a satchel. It’s over. But until the papers are shuffled and stamped, it doesn’t feel finished. Two days later, it’s done. The place is officially ours. Liberating and daunting at the same time. Bells. Whistles. Dents, dings, and deficient piping. It’s all ours now. The neighbourhood, neighbours, and friends down the street feel strangely real now. More concrete than before. That’s what I noticed first. The change is coming in waves. For two weeks short of two years, this place was somewhere I lived. Today, it’s the place I’m building my future.
May in 3 snapshots 🛠️ Making holes in the wall — first thing I did as a homeowner was start breaking things. Ripped out an old security system. Tore down some shelving. Felt good making a mess to make it my own. Looking forward to fixing it up. ☀️ Summer arrived in Red Deer — drove up to Red Deer to see family for a graduation party. Big backyard, candy buffet, jello shots, perfect weather. Felt like the unofficial start of summer. Drove home smiling in the dusk. 🎮 Xbox 360 saga — got sucked back into chasing nostalgia with video games. Started with an emulator that kept crashing. Fix: buy an Xbox 360 off Kijiji for $100. Far more effort than was reasonable, but NHL 15 now runs on the projector. Priceless victory.
3 Lessons Learned I. Everyone is clueless, so just do it. We’re all winging it. Jobs, relationships, diets, life in general. Experience helps. Confidence builds. But certainty doesn’t stay constant. Those you admire is figuring stuff out the same way you did. Relax. Start. Adjust as you go. II. Date the tools, marry the process. New AI models arrive monthly, each flashier than the last. Easy to chase the sparkles. Same trap as any tool though. Hammer or chatbot, you need skills to use them. Tools change. Craft remains. Build the muscle memories. III. Doubts are like dessert, best enjoyed on occasion. Whole days can disappear chasing concerns. At some point, you let it go to live. Sweet, those doubts. Worth a taste now and then. Indulge too often, and it rots you. Practice a balanced diet. Forward motion requires proportion.
3 fun things to check out
I’ll leave you with a quote 🤔 “Use the talents you possess, for the woods would be very silent if no birds sang except the best.” — Henry Van Dyke Until next time, Scotty
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