Tag: Roxodus

A Celebration of Many Things

On By Widow BadassIn Goals & Dreams, Good Times, Health Transformation, Retirement43 Comments
Updating the months of my life lived on my painting. Click on the 3rd phase of my life link, below, to see my post discussing this piece.

Knock, knock.
Who’s there?
Orange.
Orange who?
Orange you glad I’m not going to talk about Roxodus anymore?

Well, actually I am going to talk about Roxodus for one hot second and then shut up about it (hopefully forever). The latest: the organizers have now filed for bankruptcy. No surprises here, folks!

For those of you who don’t follow me on Instagram (and why the hell not?! I’m FUN – above photo notwithstanding), here is me pouting at the site where Roxodus WOULD have SHOULD have been held, on the weekend it SHOULD have happened. Luckily, I’m not bitter. At all.

So here’s what I REALLY want to talk about: tomorrow is the 3rd anniversary of my second (and hopefully LAST) mini-stroke aka TIA. All has been good on the cerebrovascular front ever since July 26, 2016 and I sure as hell hope it stays that way.

And here’s WHAT ELSE I really want to talk about: I turn 60 YEARS OLD On Saturday! Yep, about to fully enter the 3rd phase of my life (and my wish is that I do get another 30 or so happy, healthy years in this phase).

Hehehe! But, seriously – when?

AND I am RETIRING FROM WORK at the end of this year. YES! I am so excited to enter this next phase of my life as a retired person and see where it takes me. I’ve been carefully taking mental notes of all the retired bloggers I follow (Y’all didn’t know you were role-modelling, did ya?) so if I screw it up, it’s all YOUR fault. Nah, just kidding…I don’t need any help to screw things up. 😉

AND I am MOVING TO VANCOUVER ISLAND in 2020! Expect many more posts on this topic as I plan and scheme and dream and realize this next big adventure of mine.

If you’ve been reading ye olde blogge for a while, you know that I was heart-broken when my daughter moved to Vancouver Island last August. Well, I got over it…sorta. But things have never been the same around Chez Badass since that time. And although I love my place (NOW, that I’ve spent the past 3-4 years renovating and decorating it), it has lost some of its appeal for me since my daughter became more than just a few minutes away from me. (Like a 6 hour flight away!)

And when I visited her last winter (here and here), that really sealed the deal for me. I can’t think of a better place for me to spend my free time (and by golly, that would be ALL OF MY TIME soon now, wouldn’t it?) and still be able to say I’m living in Canada.

To commemorate my actual anniversary of the day of my birth, I am spending Saturday at a rock music festival that IS actually going to happen – WTFest in Brantford, with my concert buddy, Dave. I can’t think of a better way to enter my 7th decade than rocking it out to some great live music. And to celebrate all the good things in my life, now and in the future.

I know you’re laughing right now. Don’t think I don’t know this. Also, no promises.

Whew, that was a lot of announcements for one blog post. I think I’ve worked up an appetite for a big ol’ salad. Luckily, I have one waiting right beside my laptop.

Oh look. It’s a Caesar…salad. 😉

Rock on,

The WB

Shout Out to EventBrite (and other good peeps): The Roxodus Aftermath

On By Widow BadassIn Hmmm?, Music33 Comments

In an alternate universe, I would be rocking out right now, up at the Edenvale Airport, instead of sitting in my dining room hammering out this post. My ticket money has been completing refunded as of Wednesday (thank you, EventBrite!) so I am not out any $$$ because of Roxobust, unlike many others who spent thousands on airline tickets and hotels, yet…

What could have been and never will be…

Here is a list of concerts I took a pass on because of blowing the entertainment budget on Roxodus: The Killers, Muse, Florence & The Machine, The Black Keys, Arkells, Cheap Trick (who played last month in a wonderful venue close to me BUT WHY WOULD I GO SINCE I WOULD SEE THEM SOON AT ROXODUS…ARGH).

Looking at the bright side (or is it more the Sour Grapes Department? No matter): I wasn’t looking forward to seeing Kid Rock – probably would have left early that particular night. Also on the bright side: I hadn’t transferred any money electronically for food, drink and other festival purchases onto my “bracelet” for Roxodus’s cashless system, despite their urging concertgoers to do so right up to “the end”.

I am so impressed by those that stood up for the cheated fans. Particularly EventBrite, who stepped in to refund money to everyone who bought tickets. They did not have to do this. They were not obligated to do this. Yet they did the right thing for the music fans while Roxodus promoters did…uh, nothing. Nothing except make lame excuses and blame each other for the fiasco.

Huh…what happened to the “festival grounds too wet” excuse? Seems to have melted away as quickly as a morning frost in May...

Shout out also to other music festivals, who stepped up to offer free tickets to Roxodus ticket holders – you guys rock! So far Slamfest (in Kitchener last weekend) and WTFest (in Brantford later in July) have offered good numbers of free passes to those burned by Roxodus. I passed on Slamfest and already have a ticket to WTFest. I won’t be taking advantage of these offers…I have my money back so I prefer to let someone else have the chance to one of the free tickets.

I’ll still be up in the vicinity of Roxodus this weekend – CJ invited me to come up anyways, and hang out at her place at the Beach. So that’s where I’ll be heading after work tomorrow. And I’m delighted to do so.

Taking pleasure in others’ misfortunes; that’s me in this particular instance.

I’m also delighted to see the shit raining down on the Roxodus promoters as the days go on. Bring. It. On. Yes, I am that type of person – call me The Widow Schadenfreude Badass. Not only is the OPP (Ontario Provincial Police) conducting an investigation, and EventBrite promising to aggressively pursue Roxodus for $$$…now the local conservation authority is investigating these guys for clearing hectares of trees off of the Roxodus property without the proper permits and approvals.

It’s kinda entertaining, to watch and read about all the blame-gaming and finger-pointing and mounting legal issues resulting from the collapse of this event. Not 4-days-worth-of-music-festival-entertaining…but one must take amusement where one can find it, in this ridiculous affair.

Perhaps this will result in a business school case study one day. Or a documentary. In the meantime, I am still mightily bummed and finding it hard to…

Rock on,

The WSB