It was one of those double-take things this morning, as I realized that since it was Tuesday today, it was a week ago that Jim and James were packing up our stuff. It’s only four more days until we head off on our trip to Kamloops and Calgary. Where did the time go?
Well, the short answer is that we’ve been really busy. Too busy. There’s been something happening every day, and when you’re busy, time flies. I suppose that’s a good thing, but it’s also very tiring, and yesterday afternoon, I felt (and looked) really run down and skipped bujutsu and was in bed by 8:00. I’m a bit better today, but I skipped going into the office. Instead, I am working through my email backlog and reviewing documents from Mom and Dad’s basement. Sort of working from home. Tammy and the kids are off to visit with Great-Grandma today after lunch, so they’ve had their first quiet morning, too.
I am trying to recall all of the things that have been happening besides the three days of packing and moving. Wednesday night was the first night at Mom and Dad’s, since everything we owned was packed. Technically we could have stayed in our house since the beds were not packed, but it made sense to move stuff over before things got accidentally loaded onto the truck. Wednesday night it was an evening out with Brian and Sharon. Lucy and the kids entertained themselves at Brian and Sharon’s house (playing Minecraft, mostly) while the four of us went to the Four Mile House for drinks and dessert. Thursday was a long day at our house, with the movers taking all the way to 5:00 to pack our stuff into the containers for shipping. The kids had a piano lesson from 3:00 to 5:00. The only fly in the ointment on the truck loading was that my ladder didn’t fit in the containers. So it was left in the back yard, and someone from Bekins picked it up either Thursday night or Friday morning. We did see a Bekins truck coming down Otter Point Road when we were heading there to clean on Friday morning, so maybe that was it. Hopefully the ladder will show up in Calgary. We stopped by Superstore on the way to Mom and Dad’s as planned, and picked up BBQ chicken and the fixin’s. To our surprise, Steph, Al and the kids were over at Mom and Dad’s, too. We worried that we hadn’t brought enough food, but it turned out Dad had gone and gotten some as well, so all together it was just fine. The weather was really good for it.
Friday was cleaning at the house and turning in the keys. Tammi came to the house and walked through it and declared it to “look really good”, so we’d done our jobs. We gave her the keys and let ourselves out via the garage. I was surprised that I wasn’t more emotional at the finality of it. Perhaps it was because I had everyone there, unlike when I left our townhouse in Prince George. Perhaps it was because we’d tried to sell the house three times and were finally successful, so it was a long time coming. The only part that was emotional for me was using the Magic Eraser to clean off the kids’ growth charts on the closet door frame. I’ve got all of the measurements in a spreadsheet, but it still was something that stung me. Mom and Dad took us out to the Royal Roads Café for a birthday dinner for me and then it was back to their house for some cake. We stopped at the beach for a bit of a walk and saw some goslings, among other things:
Saturday was the Highland Games. Even though I’m not Scottish, wear a kilt, throw cabers, play the bagpipes, or any of it, it’s something that I like to attend. It’s just so… different. I’m the outsider for wearing pants! 🙂 So we went there from about 10:00 to 1:00. The evening was a BBQ at Mom and Dad’s, and Steph and Al and the kids made another appearance. The weather wasn’t hot, but it wasn’t bad, either. It tried to rain from time to time, but never dampened the event. Tammy made a chocolate-cranberry ganache cake that was delicious:
Sunday was off to Pender Island. The original plan was to meet Colin and Carol in Sidney for lunch or supper, but the decision was made to hop on the boat instead. We caught the 9:30 ferry to Pender, and the 5:30 back to Swartz Bay. In between, the kids enjoyed the ferry ride, and we had some tea and helped Colin and Carol with some technical issues with their Mac and iPads before having lunch at Pender Sushi. In the afternoon we went to Medicine Beach and enjoyed the beautiful weather.
Monday was initially going to be a day off, with only a martial arts class in the evening scheduled, but we arranged a day with Jeff, Sasha and the kids instead. It was Victoria Day, and probably for the first time since we moved back from Prince George, we attended the parade. Jeff et al attend every year and have it down to a science, with benches and chairs and blankets. It was a bit chilly, and even snuggling under a blanket, Ian was done by quarter to eleven.
Lunch was a BBQ picnic at Esquimalt Gorge Park. It was pretty much deserted, and the weather was fine. Jeff used his portable Weber barbecue to cook up some hot dogs and smokies, and the kids were able to run and play. It was great. When we move to Calgary, we will have to make this a regular occurrence. We had a portable BBQ, but it died a slow rusting death in the shed when we didn’t know what to do with it. We treated everybody to frozen yogurt at Qoola afterwards.
So now we are at Tuesday. A couple days of work, and then we will be packing the cars and heading for the ferry. Looks like I’ll get one more bujutsu class in: Wednesday.
Been thinking a lot about you guys. I hope the next part of your journey, the drive to Calgary, is a safe and fun one!
I see you’ve managed to find our site by going to the URL directly. Well done! 🙂
Only a few more days before the journey begins in earnest.