Tonight, before going to bed, I want to record something that may seem quite ordinary to other people.
But to me, it feels like another little milestone in my Grandpa Journey.
I started the process of registering Grandpa Journey as a business in Ontario.
At 80 years old, I never imagined that one day I would be sitting in front of my computer, filling out government forms and trying to figure out how to turn my two little blogs into something that could actually earn a little money.
But here I am.
And, as usual, I am learning as I go.
Two Blogs, One Journey
I have two blogs that have become important parts of my life.
The first is Grandpa Journey.
That is where I write about my everyday life, my memories, my family, my friends, my walks in the shopping malls, ping pong, gardening, food, old classmates, unexpected encounters, and the many little things that happen during this stage of my life.
It is personal.
It is my story.
The second is AI123.ca, my AI blog.
That one is quite different. I write about artificial intelligence, blogging, Google Search, AI tools, experiments, and what I discover while trying to keep up with this rapidly changing world.
Sometimes I wonder how an 80-year-old grandfather ended up writing about artificial intelligence.
But that is exactly what makes the journey interesting.
I don't pretend to be an AI expert.
I am simply curious.
I try things.
Sometimes they work.
Sometimes they don't.
Then I write about what happened.
Why Register a Business?
For a long time, I treated my blogs mainly as hobbies.
I tried Google AdSense.
I tried affiliate marketing.
I added a "Buy Me a Coffee" button.
I experimented with advertising.
Some things worked a little.
Some things hardly worked at all.
AdSense, in particular, never produced much after all these years.
So I started thinking differently.
Maybe I should stop waiting for advertising networks to send me a few dollars here and there.
Maybe I should try something much simpler.
Sell advertising directly to small businesses.
I already have the space.
I already have the blogs.
I already know how to write.
Why not offer a small business a simple advertising opportunity?
That is where the idea of my $1-a-day advertising experiment came from.
For a small business, $365 for a year is not a huge advertising budget.
For me, it could become a meaningful little business.
More importantly, I like the idea of helping a small business get noticed while I continue doing something I enjoy.
One Business, Two Blogs
At first, I wondered whether I needed to create two separate companies—one for Grandpa Journey and another for AI123.ca.
That would have been unnecessarily complicated.
The simpler idea was to have one sole proprietorship and operate the two blogs as two brands or business activities under it.
That made much more sense to me.
One person.
One business.
Two blogs.
Two different audiences.
One journey.
Grandpa Journey is about life.
AI123.ca is about artificial intelligence.
But underneath both of them is the same person sitting at the keyboard:
me.
The Ontario Registration Journey
I went to the Ontario Business Registry and began the online registration.
I have to admit, some of the government terminology made me stop and think.
There were screens asking about the business structure, business activity, address, owner, authorization and other details.
Fortunately, I had my AI companion walking beside me through the process.
I would tell him what appeared on the screen, and he would tell me what to choose.
One screen asked me to choose the primary business activity.
I selected:
54181 — Advertising agencies.
That seemed to make sense because the business would be selling advertising space on my blogs.
Then came the address section.
The form asked whether I had a place of business in Ontario.
Yes.
My business is being operated right here in Ontario.
Then came the owner section.
That was easy.
The owner is me.
I selected sole proprietor.
Another small detail caught my attention: the postal code.
I even stopped to ask whether a Canadian postal code should have a space in the middle.
Yes.
At 80, I am still learning the little things.
GRANDPA JOURNEY in Capital Letters
Another amusing moment came when I entered my business name.
I wanted it to appear as:
Grandpa Journey
But the registration system displayed it in capital letters:
GRANDPA JOURNEY
At first I wondered whether I had done something wrong.
Apparently not.
The registry simply uses its own formatting.
The blog can still proudly say Grandpa Journey.
The legal registration can say GRANDPA JOURNEY.
I'm okay with that.
In fact, there is something rather amusing about seeing my grandfatherly blog name written like a serious corporation.
GRANDPA JOURNEY INC.?
No, no.
Not yet.
I'm keeping it simple.
Just Grandpa Journey, one man, one sole proprietorship.
Then Came the Review
After going through the different steps, I finally reached the review stage.
The system generated a PDF.
I opened it.
I checked everything carefully.
The information was complete and correct.
Business name.
Business structure.
Business activity.
Address.
Owner information.
Everything looked right.
Then came the declaration:
I had to confirm that the information submitted was accurate.
I checked the box.
For a moment, I thought:
Well, Grandpa, you are really doing this.
And Then... Timeout!
Just when I was getting close to payment, something unexpected happened.
The session timed out.
The system told me that, for security reasons, my session had automatically ended.
I stared at the screen.
After all that work!
But I decided not to get upset.
These things happen.
I tried signing in again, but by then I was tired.
So I did something that I am becoming better at learning:
I stopped.
I told myself that it could wait.
The registration wasn't going anywhere.
Grandpa needed a break.
Why This Little Story Matters to Me
Someone else might look at this and say:
"What's the big deal? You just registered a sole proprietorship."
Maybe that's true.
But my life is not measured only by big events anymore.
At this stage of life, I have learned to appreciate the small steps.
Writing another story is a small step.
Publishing another blog post is a small step.
Walking another few thousand steps is a small step.
Learning a new AI tool is a small step.
And tonight, registering a small one-man business for my two blogs is another small step.
Together, these small steps make up my journey.
I Don't Know Where This Will Go
I don't know whether anyone will actually buy advertising from me.
Maybe a few businesses will.
Maybe none will.
Maybe this little experiment will make a few hundred dollars.
Maybe it will eventually become something bigger.
I honestly don't know.
And that's okay.
I'm not trying to build the next Google.
I'm not trying to become a millionaire at 80.
I simply want to see whether I can turn something I enjoy doing into a small, honest business.
And if I make some money from it, perhaps I can use part of that money to support causes and organizations that mean something to me.
That would make the experiment even more worthwhile.
At 80, I Am Still Starting Something New
There is something I really like about getting older.
You realize that you don't have to know exactly where the road is going.
You can simply take the next step.
Tonight, I took another one.
I started the registration of GRANDPA JOURNEY as an Ontario sole proprietorship.
Behind that name are two blogs:
Grandpa Journey — my stories about life.
AI123.ca — my experiments and observations about AI.
Two blogs.
One man.
One business.
And still, one continuing journey.
The registration was approved and payment received by the New Business Registration.
I still have to sign in again and complete the payment after the session timeout.
I'll do that another time.
For tonight, I'm satisfied.
I learned something new.
I moved forward.
And I have another story to leave behind.
That's what Grandpa Journey is really about.
Not knowing everything.
Not getting everything right.
Just continuing to walk forward.
One little step at a time.
Update: Registration approved and payment received by New Business Registration
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