If I learned anything from a recent trip to the Muskokas, it’s that Ford is great at making SUVs!
The 2017 Ford Edge in full effect!
Sure, the Sport/Suburban Utility Vehicle might not be everyone’s first choice when shopping for a new ride, but if they’re not, they are missing out! SUVs are growing in popularity worldwide as drivers seek more flexibility and utility from their vehicles, no longer content with options that do the bare minimum. We don’t just want to get from A to B anymore—we’re doing it with our groceries. Our furniture. Our ski gear. And our babies. We need vehicles that grow with us—not ones left behind as our circumstances change.
And perhaps that’s why SUVs stand as the top-selling vehicle segment in Canada and the US—heck; Ford sold 1.7 million of them in 2016 alone! As the #1 SUV brand for seven years running (with an eighth hot on their heels), I’d say Ford knows what it’s doing—which is why they’re introducing five new SUVs by 2020, including the Ford EcoScport compact utility and the all-new Ford Expedition! With Ford’s global SUV sales growing a staggering 80% these past five years, ain’t no stoppin’ ’em now!
But that’s only part of the story—I could go blue in the face telling you about the thousands of features that go into making Ford’s SUVs top-notch, but you don’t want stuff you could lift from a spec sheet… you want to see how they work in the real world.
And that’s exactly what Ford Canada challenged us to discover this past summer!
Somehow it always comes down to this—it’s suddenly December and we look at our to-do lists realizing that we hadn’t accomplished nearly as much in the year as we’d planned to. So we get in a tizzy, try to do months of work in a matter of weeks and end in the year in a BANG on New Year’s Eve!
And we wonder why it’s always so hard to start our resolutions off on the right foot in January!
Ever the overachiever, I set out a list of 100 goals for myself in January, hoping to knock some things off of the list that’d been there entirely too long, and set foundations for others that’d lead to a promising future in the years to come.
Too bad I didn’t put the secret 101st item into the equation: having a kid.
I’ll admit—much of 2013 is a blur. One baby, two Vegastrips and three job changes later, my priorities have definitely changed, with me at home more often than not, trying to enjoy what quiet moments I can before DoomzToo’s more vocal—and more mobile.
But kid or not, 2013 was still a year for the books, and while I didn’t always get it out in the blog, I never truly lacked things to do.
So I wrap the year up with this—a look at what I pulled off in 2013; what flopped; and what will rear their ugly heads once more in 2014 to see whether I’ll manage to finally get them done. It’s all too long for one entry, so I hope you like reading about my hijinks and exploits because it’s going to take 10 to get through it all!
Buckle up, my lovely readers. Uncle Casey’s gonna tell you some stories!
The 2013 100, Items 1-10: Driving, Drawing and Dining
I’ll be the first to admit that I pay way too much for my cell phone. It’s good to have a monster of a device with plenty of features, considering how much time I invest in social media and geo-location games, but I rarely use it like a telephone anymore. So maybe it’s time to revisit what features I actually need and make it a priority to get a new plan in 2014!
There’s something I need to remember about having a traditional 9-to-5 at a large organization—there’re more benefits when telecom companies sell deals in bulk and not haggling individually level. It’s time to get a corporate plan.
2014 Casey Palmer—saving more money to feed his kid!
STATUS: On to the next year!
2: Give Sarah the present I always alluded to but never got around to giving her
Jeez—I think I alluded to this gift from our first Christmas together in 2008! Welp. Sorry, babe—this one’s going to 2014, ’cause you’re not getting it this year! (I even saw it on her Amazon wish list—hold your horses, Sarah! You already got the ring on your finger, yo! Way I see it, we have all our lives for me to work on this one! [Insert maniacal laugh here.])
STATUS: On to the next year!
3: Start a business or two
Somewhere in my mind is this idealized fantasy of owning a business, where I call the shots, wake up when I damn well please, do work in my house clothes and essentially do what I want, when I want.
Then I quickly come back to reality, realizing that it takes a heckuva lot of work before you make money while you sleep like the Dragons on Dragons’ Den.
Owning a business means taking on a lot of risk, a whole lot of discipline, and some prayers — especially if you’re trying to raise a family on that money! If I’d developed the online presence that I have now 10 years ago, going out on my own would be a highly attractive notion. But in 10 years, I got married, had a kid, and built knowledge and clout in my organization. I’m compensated for the skill set I’ve developed, and the benefits package that comes with the job mean that DoomzToo will never be stuck with crooked teeth or poor vision.
While choosing a 9-to-5 and owning a business aren’t mutually exclusive, I’m content enough to take the long path on this one and not search endlessly for a quick payday.
STATUS: Ain’t nobody got time for that!
4: Learn to drive, learn to drive, for the love of God learn how to drive!
For a decade, driving was the biggest cloud hanging over my head.
My hometown in Mississauga, a suburb of Toronto, In the ‘burbs, driving is essential to living, as the public transit isn’t world-class and places of interest are seldom walking distance from the residential blocks. I originally tried to get my driver’s license at 20, which was already years later than everyone around me. Spending my Saturday mornings in drivers’ ed with kids who’d celebrated their Sweet Sixteens just the week before is an experience I’m not eager to repeat.
Failing that test at 20 led to a decade of avoidance, keeping a schedule filled with just about everything else in the world, not helped by my parents living in a subdivision a mere 10-minute walk from a train into the city.
Why drive?
Toronto already had too much traffic as it was—I could read, draw and sleep on public transit, making far better use of my time than I would if I spent it stuck in gridlocked traffic every day.
But DoomzToo coming along was a wake-up call. I’ve seen the parents trying to navigate the subway system with a stroller, struggling to get up and down stairs as just under half of the TTC’s stations are elevators for accessibility. I didn’t wanna be one of those parents. How dare they take up valuable space on the rush hour subways? Why don’t they find another way to get their baby from A to B?
So I celebrated my 30th birthday at a Ministry of Transportation DriveTest centre, nervously waiting to take my G1 exit test and see whether I could drive the 2011 Ford Edge Select (with All-Wheel Drive) that we’d bought just that weekend. It was nerve-wracking. It was tense. And it was in Port Union. But I passed after waiting ten whole years to try again, and I’ve driven since, ferrying us to distant places like Bouchette, Quebec, while Sarah makes sure I get plenty of practice for my G2 exit test!
STATUS: SO done.
5: Sell all the stuff I’ve meant to sell
I suck at selling. Not because I’m unconvincing, but because I’m unwilling to rip someone off nor am I enough of a penny-pincher to spend time listing thing on Craigslist, courting buyers, making time to meet with them, etc.
Ain’t nobody got time for that.
So instead, while cleaning up the house for the baby, we packed a number of boxes with books, clothes and electronics and drove ’em to the local Value Village so someone in need could get them.
Everybody wins. Go give something, people!
STATUS: Please see above.
6: Start drawing comics on some sort of regular schedule
I finally started drawing again in December, taking a real crack at costume designs for my characters that’d stick — not just clothes that looked like they came right out of a clothing ad. Comics are a difficult medium to create for—where literature relies on description and pacing to paint the world for a reader and keep their attention, a comic must do it blatantly and appeal visually on top of all the things literature needs to do!
Fish ‘n’ Chimps will be no easy undertaking, but it’s a labour of love. It’s a story that’s been in my head for damn near a decade, and the time for everyone else to see what’s been going on in my cranium is long overdue.
STATUS: On to the next year!
7: Get my clothes tailored
Somehow I imagined myself living the male equivalent of Sex and the City (Entourage? Californication?) and having my “go-to-guy” for making sure my clothes fit “just so”.
All I’ve managed to do is get my dry cleaner to mend my clothes when accidents happen and let pants out since my body shape’s already change from those carefree newlywed days.
Shout-out to Kathy for making sure I still look decent, and I doubt I’ll have the time (or the money) to get a tailor anytime soon.
Besides—what good is shopping at Harry Rosen when your ridiculously expensive wardrobe has baby spit-up all over it?
STATUS: Ain’t nobody got time for that!
8: Get up-to-date on my emails
Simple truth—there is no catching up on email. The sooner one accepts this fact, the sooner they can accept the deluge of data that is their daily life.
It’s especially futile now that I’ve become a Redditor, there’s no time for stuff like lifehacking. Links to click, things to see!
STATUS: Ain’t nobody got time for that!
9: Cook at least one meal
When I included this item on the list, Sarah was thinking of an extravagant meal that’d leave Susur Lee salivating in envy.
While not quite as elaborate as she may have hoped, I did manage to cook a couple of times this year:
1: A while back, I’d received review copies of Julie Anne Hession’s 175 Best Mini Pie Recipes: Sweet to Savory and Tammy Algood’s In a Snap! Tasty Southern Recipes You Can Make in 5, 10, 15 or 30 minutes. While I didn’t get a chance to use my buddy’s key limes to make a pie (sorry, Jon), I did try my hand at some bacon grilled cheese on raisin bread—one of Tommy’s 5-minute recipes.
Turned out okay—I’ll admit that microwaving bacon was as crispy as I usually like it when done in the frying pan, but the sandwich was decent overall.
2: On the morning of DoomzToo’s birth, Sarah gave me a verbal crash course on making scrambled eggs, and while they didn’t turn out perfectly, I’ll learn more egg recipes for the future—never know when you’ll want a better breakfast than Just Right or Oatmeal Crisp with Raisins!
STATUS: SO done.
10: Make an app
Still interested in making an app, no time to do it right.
I’m largely an ideas guy. I like coming up with new ideas and schemes, so I learn a little about everything so I can translate my ideas to various kinds of people.
What apps need are experts. People who eat, sleep and breathe design and code and get paid handsomely for it. If I want to make an app, I need to align myself with the skilled people to build them—and the wealthy business people to pay them—in 2014.
Even if I get something like a 10% cut for the idea on an app, if that app profits $1,000,000—well. Let’s just say I wouldn’t be too sore about the $900,000 I didn’t get.
STATUS: On to the next year!
That’s all for today, y’all! Make sure to come back tomorrow, when we discuss birthdays, BiSC, and what really happened to Mansformation. See you then!
P.S. Gratuitous link to get my blog registered on Bloglovin’!
