Category: about Rick

My School Report Cards 😀

On By Rick McIn about Rick, education, McCharles family1 Comment

too talkative at times – has good ability – could be a very good student

I have most of my old school report cards.

Grade 4. I’m the one with the … ears.

Note how every boy has worn out knees. 😀

PROOF I graduated High School. Check those English and Typing marks!

I was excellent at P.E. BUT our teacher — Humper Humphries — didn’t like me for some reason.

Surprisingly, I was one of two valedictorians with these grades.

My First Dentures … 🦷

On By Rick McIn about Rick, economics, government, health & fitnessLeave a comment

I now have 2 dentures.

The upper looks good. And is not all that uncomfortable. It does require some concentration to speak clearly. And I do have to eat … differently.

The bottom is larger and much less comfortable. I’m hoping it gets better seated over time. The denturist made some adjustments after a couple of weeks. That has helped. Some.

I’ll go back again in 6 months.

My remaining REAL bottom teeth are in rough shape, as well. I’ll probably have to do something with them in the next couple of years.

One downside with dentures is that you must remove and clean them at night. Put them back in place in the morning.

I do recommend my Denturist Vlad Dumbrava. FutureSmiles, Calgary. Two locations.

Vlad guesstimated the total work at about CAD $3000 — and that Alberta government insurance for Seniors of low income would cover about $2500. That sounded GREAT to me.

He also agreed to rush the top temporary denture so I could travel. And install the other denture on my return to Calgary.

Final ACTUAL cost to me: $648.

I had 5 teeth extracted, as well, in order to make room for the dentures. Those seems to have been 100% covered by my insurance.

Hopefully I can learn to live with dentures. I’m still considering it an experiment.

There are other more expensive options.

Happy November 2nd 🎈

On By Rick McIn about Rick, economics, happiness, health & fitness, philosophy, travelLeave a comment

I’m 65 years young today.

Give me ALL the pensions. 😀

Last year I was in Lisbon for 64.

For the 62nd I was in Nepal.

53rd was in Porto, Portugal.

I’m usually travelling the world on my birthday.

30 years ago I decided on my far-from-typical philosophy.

Life is short. Too short to waste working. Do what you want.

Financially my plan was to “retire” from age 33 to 65 — then go back to work full-time when I’m no good for anything else. At age-65. Today.

I can do that as a Gymnastics coach. There are plenty of elderly full-time Gymnastics coaches.

Sounded a brilliant plan. But I think I’ll put off un-retirement for a while longer.

Perhaps until I’m medically tied down.

All the best from Liverpool, England. I’m here for the World Gymnastics Championships.

What’s next? … I’m researching sunny European hiking destinations. Azores? Canary Islands?

Saskatchewhat?

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Sept. 1990

rick_mugWhen I wrote this I had just moved from Calgary to Saskatoon, the summer of 1990 — expecting to stay 1 year.  I ended up staying 10 years. 

I was a tourist in Saskatchewan.

I drive home alone from Saskatoon to Calgary, in September, in the late afternoon. I take the smaller, stair-casing highways, speeding with impunity. There seems to be no R.C.M.P. left in Saskatchewan.

I drive through towns with great names like Bounty, Wartime and Conquest. Who got to name these places?


The prairies are a never ending stream of checkerboard fields, barns, churches, cows, dust-devils, road kill and ponderous, overloaded farm trucks. The heat rises off the roadway and seems to evaporate the mirage pools of water before I can enjoy splashing through them. The smells are … well, unique to the Prairies. And I never knew there were so many hawks in all of the world.

Grand daddy grasshoppers wing by as big as birds. Slower, less experienced insects splatter my windshield. The freshly oiled gravel roads splatters my car as well, but I don’t care.

I stop at Outlook, Saskatchewan and sit out in the middle of a sandbar in the middle of the Old Man River. The air is calm, the sun is smoking and the song in my head is called …

I never believed that I’d grow old.

The sandbar is the highlight of the drive. Glorious. The last day of the longest summer of my life. I wish it would never end.

If I could make a wish,
I think I’d pass …

Like everyone else in Saskatchewan, I listen to CBC AM radio constantly. The weather is updated every 15 minutes. They report that the canola is too dry to reap. It will shatter if harvested. But the wheat is still too moist to take off the field. Saskatchewan weather is one big Catch-22.

Driving West into the setting sun, I find myself alone with my thoughts. I dream a grand scheme.

As night falls, I approach Drumheller and the badlands. The warmth from my big mug of tea is comforting.

It’s harvest here. Dusty farmers take dinner on the tractor this evening and plan to work all night. I see the bright lights of combines bobbing along in the dark in every field.

I drive home alone from Saskatoon to Calgary in September.

My FIRST Gmail message – Thursday 27 Aug 1998

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I was a Hotmail guy before switching to Gmail over 20 years ago.

Gmail launched 2004. I’m not sure when it started in Canada.

My very first email was a job inquiry from Cirque du Soleil. They wanted me to go on the road as Assistant Coach to Warren Connelly.

It did not happen. 😀

Can’t explain it. I went SWIMMING. 🦈

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About 35C (95F) today. Hotter tomorrow.

SO HOT that I went into the ocean for the first time in decades.

Normally I don’t enter water larger than a jacuzzi. 😀

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.