Getting in a good step count

Some days it doesn't take much to get a good step count in especially when you normally don't do a lot of walking. Recently we went for a trip to Niagara Falls for three nights and doing a lot of sight seeing wasn't one of the goals as we have been Niagara Falls quite a few times. That is the advantage of living withing two hours from here we can go whenever we want. We do try and not go down to Niagara Falls in the summer as that is when it's the busiest and most expensive. Our goal for this trip was to see a concert on a Saturday night and relax and do things that we wanted to do.

Here is my step counts for the four days of being away and two of those are travel days when we don't get normally as much walking in as the days we are staying in Niagara Falls.

• Thursday - 7,580 steps (this was a travel day and we also did do some walking along Clifton Hill and also a bit of walking around the Outlet Mall)

• Friday – 10,194 steps, this is one of our full days in Niagara Falls and even going to and from Tim Horton's for breakfast accounts for 1,700 steps so that does help. We also walked over to the old Casino and walked around Clifton Hill so that also helped with the step count.
• Saturday – 13,624 steps, this is another full day in Niagara Falls, walking to Tim Horton's for breakfast and then to Niagara Casino Resort to see a concert and back. Let's see what the step count is because seeing a total that makes me happy would be good.
• Sunday – 4,296 steps, this is walking to Tim Horton's for breakfast and then the travel day back home

Of course, we may not be reaching the 10,000-step count that some people say that you much achieve each day, but we are making sure that we can get some walking in and that is the most important thing.

Being able to see that we have been able to get some steps in each day is very important and we have to accept that not every day is going to be the 10,000-steps but at least if we have been able to continue to move our body and get some steps in it is better than nothing or just getting in 1,000 steps.

 

Vacations as a small business owner

So many people ask us how do we take a vacation as a small business owner? 

I can answer this question for us because every small business owner will do things differently and that is expected. We have friends that just take a week or two off and they hope that someone can help support their clients. Of course, that should be scheduled with the person that you are hoping to support your clients because that person might also be away at the same time. Giving notice for any vacation for support coverage is important.

Our business is in IT consulting so it will be different than for an accountant, lawyer or other types of small businesses. Each business is going to have a different way of handling vacations, and no method is either right or wrong. If the clients/customers you serve are served when they need you that is what is important.

How we manage most vacations is to take a few shorter vacations and have them either start on a Wednesday or Thursday and then be back by the end of the weekend. We are fortunate that we have clients that are great hands and eyes if something were to go wrong. We can also remote into client sites from locations in Canada to assist if something major was to happen.

We have taken a couple of longer vacations, but we have arranged for people to assist with support of our clients if it was needed. This scheduling was done at least 3 months before we went away so that we knew that we would have people available to support our clients. We also made sure to let the clients know that we were going to be away for a week, but we did have support for them if needed.

It is very important as a small business owner to understand how vacations will work for you as well as your clients. Making sure that you communicate with our clients IT department is important to ensure that you aren’t away while the main IT individual for a client is away. Sure, vacations can be different as a small business owner, but it is up to you how to manage them.

 

Why can't I write

There are so many reasons why I cannot write, and I just need to figure out how to get back to writing like I have done in the past. What I would like to do is document some of the reasons that I cannot write and maybe that will help me get back to writing.

1. I cannot find the time to put the writing as a priority. I know that I have the times to do that but I just don’t give myself permission to do the writing that I want to achieve during a specific amount of time.
2. I have other things that I need to get done. Have you figured out the priority of all the other things and do they need to get done today or can you schedule them for a different day so that you can get them done without destroying your writing time.
3. I cannot figure out to get the writing done that I want to do. Here is one of the biggest issues and it is not knowing how to get the writing done. It can be a challenge when you cannot think how to put writing as a priority.

Not being able to write can be such a challenge but you also need to figure out what is the block for getting the writing done and how you are going to manage everything that is currently being thrown at you. What people have said is that they have not been able to deal with the blank again and what I have done to give myself a break from that empty page, is set up a page that I can open up at the beginning of each day and it starts me writing without looking at a blank page. Before I do any writing for the day, I quickly open up a blank/formatted page and then I can start to get the writing done. I understand that there are going to be days when I can’t get a lot of writing done even with the formatted page.

I think for everyone there are going to be days or even weeks that you cannot get the writing done that you would like to achieve, and you just have to give yourself permission to accept that writing isn’t going to happen each day and we need to deal with that. It would be nice to be someone that can just write off thoughts/stories a day but there are going to be times what we all need to step back and understanding that I can’t write today and no matter how I try and get more things written it just isn’t going to happen.

This winter

Here we are the end of January, and I think a lot of us are saying when it is winter going to end. What has made this year so different is we have been having major snow falls and extremely cold weather. Here in Toronto, we have broken records for the most snow fall in one day and the coldest January on record. 

In some cases what we haven’t said anything about is the areas just outside of Toronto that have broken records of their own. Barrie, Ontario which is roughly an hour north of Toronto has set a record with getting move than 300 cm from November 1, 2025 – January 28, 2026, which isn’t a record I would like to say we achieved. So, 300 cm of snow is 118 inches of snow which is 9.83 feet of snow. I wouldn’t have wanted to deal with that amount of show and thankfully it didn’t come all at one time but having to continually have to shovel our driveway would become a little much. We have friends that live up in Barrie, and they are saying “enough is enough”.

It isn’t just Ontario that has been getting the extremely weather as there are people in Texas, that has seen snow and then areas like Atlanta, George that have received ice storms which are extreme for both of these areas. I know people in other of those areas and they have commented on how different this has been.

Here we are the first week of February and I am not certain what this winter has in store other than the next couple of weeks are going to continue to be very for us here in Ontario and I just hope things will star to warm up even a little bit for areas to the south of us. Seeing the temperatures are levels that not what we normally have doesn’t make me happy. This morning, we awoke with a temperature of -1F feeling like -28F wasn’t a good thing. Now I am looking at the forecast over the next 14 days, but we might not reach the temperatures that we did in the last couple of days, but we are still cold and that doesn’t make me happy.

We might not be reaching the lows that we have reached this past week, but I have to admit that I am very tired with the snow that we have got in the last couple of weeks (12 inches, and then an additional 22 inches) as well as the cold temperatures. I guess all we can do is except that this is the weather that we are going to get in the next couple of weeks and then hope it warms up soon.

It might not feel that we are getting a break from this cold and fridged weather but we also have to remember that in the middle of July when we are complaining about the heat and humidity we have to deal with extremely cold weather as well.

 

Are you present when out for a meal with others

How many times have you seen a bunch of people at a table for a meal and all of them are on their devices. It is always interesting when a bunch of people seem to be together, but they also seem to be separated because of how little they have communicated with each other.

I know that there are times when we might spend a bit of time checking our phones, but we also spend quite a bit of the time chatting and spending time together. There are also times when we will sit and just spend time together and totally ignore our phones because that is what we want to do. It is nice when people can go out, and our devices are put away and they are present with the company that they are with.

When you go out with a bunch of people it is important to ensure that you are spending some time with those that you are with. I understand that you might have to check work e-mail especially during the week but making sure that you can enjoy the company of those you are with is also so important.

If you want to spend all the time on your device, it is probably a good idea to just stay home and do that, because you aren't good company for other around you. If your device is more important than the company, you are with you are communicating quite a bit to those other people as well. You are saying that their company isn't worth your time or energy and those that are messaging you are very important.  

When you are out with others it’s extremely important to make sure that you put your personal device away a while so that you can enjoy the company you are with instead of the company that might be part of your phone. It might be hard to walk away from your device totally but remember we need to be present with those around us because there might be a time when other individuals are no longer around.

I know for use, we have made it a rule to make sure that we have found time to be present with who we are with because that is who we are having a meal with. Sure, we might need to check our device due to work demands but other than that we try to be present in the moment and enjoy the company we are with.

Snowstorm Jan 25/26

Here we are trying to document the storm that hit us here in Toronto, Ontario on January 25, 2026. The original forecast was that we might get around 10 or 20 cm of snow, so it wasn't going to be too bad. 

Well, I have to admit that after watching the snow fall throughout Sunday, I came to realize that we were getting a lot more snow than was originally forecast. What also made me wonder about the show was watching the snow falling and looking out our window and seeing that there was roughly 9 inches of snow on our windowsill, so I figured we had got a lot more snow that we had been originally forecast.

I was also trying to track the snowfall that we were getting and it kept increase from the original 10-20 cm to now 30-40 cm to what they finally said we would be going to get between 50 - 60 cm of snow before the storm finally stopped. Well, we were watching the area around us and realized that there was a lot of snow that we wondered how it had been cleared because we hadn't heard a lot of snowplows, so we decided to go outside and see what it really looked like.

Now, word of warning, I went outside without putting boots on and only went out with my runners on because I didn't think I would venture very far from the door. Well, as you can clearly see there weren't very many paths for anyone to walk so I decided that I would try and see if I could at least get some walking achieved but before long I decided it was time to turn around and head back to the door and forget about trying to adventure to see what it was like out.

What I did discover was a lot of the parking lot hadn't been plowed because the snow had just kept falling making it a challenge to doing the plowing that was necessary. We also saw that a lot of people had taken the advice of the police and had stayed home and avoided being on the road.

So now, here it is the start of another work week, and we have already heard that schools within the GTA are closed tomorrow which I think is a great idea and we will see what else ends up being closed. There were things that were closed today during the snowstorm but now to figure out what is going to be closed tomorrow as a result of the after effects of the storm. I guess we are going to be waking up tomorrow to figure what is going to be cancelled or opened tomorrow. 

I haven't heard the total snowfall accumulation as of when I am writing this blog, but I have to say that we probably have between 18 - 24 inches of snow that fell and that wasn't what was forecasted so now we need to figure out how now to manage this snow. 

If you were impacted by this storm, I hope that you were able to manage it because I know there were areas that got freezing rain, others got sleek and then there were us that got snow. I hope if you were impacted by this storm, you were able to stay safe and hopefully things are getting better for you.

Edit: now that the snow has stopped it was reported that downtown Toronto received 56cm (22 inches) of snow.

 

Getting map locations wrong

Recently we heard that a restaurant would be opening in the GTA and that made us happy because this restaurant was around when I was younger, so it was nice seeing that it was going to be turning. When I heard the announcement, it was great because it was in an area that isn’t too hard for us to get to as it was in Vaughan Ontario. The restaurant is Olive Garden so that is nice that it is coming back. 

Well, what made me laugh is when I saw a map of where the two locations are going to be in Ontario. (Picture from a social media post) The map is totally wrong because on the map, Vaughan Mill, GTA is indicated to be around Thunder Bay which is not even close to the GTA. Thunder Bay is approximately 1,390 KM from Toronto so that would be a long way to go. So that is the first location on the map that was wrong. The other location is Westboro, Ottawa region and once again the indicator on the map is off. This time it shows that the Ottawa location would be around North Bay which is approximately 350KM from Ottawa.

If you are trying to get people excited about restaurants coming to their area it would be a good idea to make sure that the map is correct because these locations aren’t even close to where they are going to be opening. Now my concern is if Olive Garden really knows where they are opening because given the map, they might be doing construction if different areas than they should be doing the work.

What makes me laugh is the company that owns Olive Garden has its corporate head office in Vaughan, Ontario so you think that the map would be a lot more accurate. I understand that the previous owners are from the states but please when you are promoting the returning to Ontario of restaurants make sure that you are showing them correctly on the map.