Esplanade Arts & Heritage Centre in Medicine Hat, Alberta

Completed in 2005, the Esplanade Arts & Heritage Centre is a modern theatre featuring a museum, gallery, and archives located in downtown Medicine Hat, Alberta. Along with the historic Ewart Duggan residence next door, this facility hosts world class musicians, artists, and performers on a regular basis, bringing a variety of culture to this corner of the province.

Summer Walk

Sometimes I find myself in a weird funk as a result of putting in too many extra hours, not getting out enough, or finding myself stuck in a routine.  As of late I feel like it's a bit of everything.  I can't say that I've found any easy cure all, but sometimes a good walk is a great way to clear your head.  Last night I did just that, grabbing myself a Slurpee along the way, and tried to get my mind focused elsewhere.  Sometimes I really have to force myself to feel inspired or motivated, but it sure beats settling for apathy.

Heir to the Family Fortune

After going through a few of my maternal Grandfather's things, my Mom found this old brown envelope tucked away.  My Grandpa Bjork passed away before I was born so I've never really known much about him, but now here I was holding onto a piece of his history, something that had his handwriting all over it.

Curious about the envelope my Mom had handed me, I quickly pulled out the sheets of paper neatly folded inside.  One after the other I pulled out a stack of well kept vintage stocks.  These hand-signed, beautifully designed documents represented a wealth of shares, some in the multiple thousands, some of the them over 80 years old, and almost all of them for various Alberta Oil companies.  Embellished like vintage currency, the signatures, stamps, and embossed seals were only overshadowed by the ornate imagery of gushing oil derricks that graced several of the certificates.

I'm already thinking about how awesome my Jaguar collection will be one day, how I'm going to travel to some pretty amazing places, and how my friends and family and I are going to go on some exciting adventures together.  Of course, all of this won't be happening as a result of these shares, because sadly, they're worth little more than the paper they're printed on.  Did I have you going there?  

Okay, in reality the fantasy only lasted a couple of seconds.  Written across the envelope my Grandfather wrote 'valueless shares'.  That was a pretty clear giveaway.  The documents are a pretty interesting piece of history however, and are apropos considering that I just started investing in the stock market a few months ago. 

These investments didn't pan out it would seem, and it goes to show that as lucrative as Alberta Oil is, there's always a certain amount of risk in playing the market.  Here's hoping I have a bit more luck.  That Jaguar collection isn't going to build itself.