My take on Calgary, 2 months in

Welcome dear readers! I've been feeling a bit detached from all of our old friends and family, in Toronto and elsewhere, so I decided to blast into the future (or the present, as it were) and use technology to keep in touch. At least you'll know what we're up to, when we're not moping around the house missing you, that is. :) And maybe you'll even get a hankering to c'mon down and visit sometime. We promise not to lasso you.

As you know, we moved from Toronto to Calgary at the beginning of January. So we've had almost two months to settle in and get accustomed to life in the Prairies (or, in The Heart of the New West tm, as both I and the folks down at Tourism Calgary like to refer to it). As with anywhere, there are some great things and some things I could easily live without.

The Things I Like About Calgary (in no particular order)

1) The prairie sky, as evidenced above in the title bar. It really is beautiful, and hardly ever cloudy. There is just something about leaving work after a long day and heading out into the bright blue cheeriness of the outdoors. And come on, it's one of the Seven Wonders of Canada.

2) The lack of precipitation. I'm used to slogging through the slush and snow and, well, yucky road sludge to get around in the wintertime in Toronto. Here, there's really not much snow to speak of. Yes, it gets cold, but I prefer dressing for the cold to arriving at work with salt stains halfway up my pant legs. Oh yeah, they don't really use salt either.

3) Driving. Perhaps this has a lot to do with our new truck, but whatever you say about Calgary, it is a city built for drivers. Except maybe during the briefish rush hour periods, during which I don't drive. It has roads that are designed for the capacity of cars that drive them and parking lots virtually everywhere you go. It would be unheard of to sit in a traffic jam at 10 p.m. I like that.

4) Bunnies. Calgarian raccoons are bunnies. We commonly see them on our steps, in the yard, and hopping cutely about the cul-de-sac. They don't get into the trash, they don't crap all over the place, and they don't have rabies. People around here seem to think they're a pain in the ass. Meh. Love the bunnies.

5) Polite transit users. I have been offered a seat, more than a few times. Because I'm carrying a lot of stuff, can't reach the 'hold bar', or... just because, I guess. Every time it happens, I become self-conscious and immediately rethink my outfit, thinking I must look very pregnant, as this is the only way that would happen on the dreaded TTC.

6) Being close to Medicine Hat. This is purely a Cheryl point, well actually all of these are as I do believe Gregg feels about the same about my blog as he does Facebook. It's really, really nice to be close to home and especially to my grandparents again. It's been a long time of being a long way away, and it's nice to be able to zip down for the weekend rather than spend $1000 and a week of precious holidays to see them.




The Things I Dislike About Calgary

1) Lack of Recycling. I didn't mention that this list is in no particular order, because this one is tops. There is no municipal recycling pickup in Calgary. Yes, that's right. None! If you want to recycle, you have to separate everything into a bunch of annoying categories and haul it to a recycling depot yourself. And you can't recycle plastic. At all. (Okay, you can recycle plastic pop bottles. But that is hardly the tip of the iceberg.) I didn't think of myself as much of a granola cruncher but man, this really bothers me. We do recycle, sorting and hauling as mentioned above, but lots of people don't. On trash day, I see mountains of cardboard piled up, ready to go to the dump. I suppose if you have mobility issues or no vehicle, it would be pretty difficult to DIY. I just cannot believe that the City of Calgary doesn't have any kind of program. Apparently, it's coming sometime in the next year or two. Um, we had blue box pickup when I lived in Ontario in 1988. Gah.

2) -52 with the windchill. Yeah. There's only so much dressing for the cold that you can do. Also, pipes can freeze when it's that cold. Easily. Don't ask.

3) Parking downtown is freaking expensive. As in, my subsidized spot at work is $300/month and it is a good deal. On the upside, this probably encourages many to take transit, including me, sadly. But it's not so bad (except when you are waiting for the bus in -52) and a monthly pass is only $75.

4) Downtown is, well, not so nice. Particularly at night. I thought that living in Toronto and going downtown almost daily would prepare me for anything I might find in Calgary, but I was wrong. There are not many garden variety homeless people here. Mostly drug addicts and dealers. Gregg refers to them as "the undead", following an unpleasant experience at a downtown McDonald's where he ate his lunch near the window and under the not so watchful eye of all of the vacant, drugged out faces staring in at him. Mac's Convenience Store, commonly known by the charming moniker 'Crack Mac's' is also to be avoided, at any time of the day or night.

5) Driving. Yes, I know it's on the good list too. Here's the thing - Calgary really was built for drivers. There's not much of an option to get around without a car. Yes, you could take transit, but most of the places that you'd want to go are not well serviced by transit outside of business hours. Also, the C-Train is scary at night. It's probably a bit early to say, being that it's still winter which keeps us from getting out to explore other areas, but there's not a lot in the way of walkable neighbourhoods here. Certainly we don't live in one.

6) Our friends and family are mostly in Ontario, or elsewhere. If no recycling is number 1, this is a close number 2. It's just not the same without you guys. And Java Tuesdays.