The Long Silence of ii News is Over

I am typing this early on Sunday morning, the day after the movers arrived at our new house in Calgary, Alberta. It’s been a long upheaval in our lives, but yesterday it really hit me that it’s finally happened. Actually, it was while I was struggling to get Miranda’s bed together. That thing is a beast. It’s well-made (even one of the movers commented on it: said I must be a woodworker :-)) but it doesn’t like to be moved.

I think the reason people don’t move when they get older isn’t because they don’t want to be in different places, it’s just that their stuff becomes overwhelming to relocate.

So, what’s been happening since May 23rd?

I suppose things can be divided into: packing up for the drive to Calgary, the two-day trip, the week-long wait and the time since possession.

Packing for the Drive

The last couple of days in Victoria were relatively calm. We were supposed to go see the Spicers on the Thursday evening, but Chantel called at dinnertime to say that Chris’ dad was having health troubles so we couldn’t visit. So that opened up an evening without running around, which was nice. I had ridden to work that day (for the second time in the week), but on Friday I took the bus. It was office-packing day. Dan, Blaine, Mark, Nathan and I went to Brown’s Socialhouse for lunch and then it was filling four boxes with my office stuff. Blaine shipped it on the next Monday, and I got an email on Wednesday that they had arrived. I wonder in what condition? I guess I’ll see this week. Then it was changing the car insurance to ICBC zone “Z” (out of province) and back to Mom and Dad’s. Everything was packed in the cars in preparation for the next morning.

The Trip to Calgary

That we would make the trip in two days was Tammy’s intention from the beginning. In the past, we had driven to Prince George in a single day many times, but Calgary was a slightly longer trip, and through the mountains to boot. So we reserved a hotel room in Kamloops. Then I let my second cousin Naomi know that we were going to be in town. That started a whirlwind of activity that ended with a mini family reunion scheduled for the evening of the 25th. So on day one, we had a relatively easy trip from Victoria to Kamloops. We caught the 8 o’clock ferry without any problems: we had a reservation and it wasn’t that full, either.

I drove the Mazda, and Tammy drove the Volkswagen. We each took one kid, and I had the cats in the Mazda. The cats were allowed to roam, which suits them much better than two days in the cat carrier. Regardless, Squeak spent most of the trip in the carrier. Only two cat-related incidents occurred during the trip. The first was an explosive hairball from Squeak on the way to the ferry. It hit the quilt, so no harm to the car. The other was Nochie, who had been sitting on the luggage at shoulder-height just behind the front seats for most of the trip, decided to try to dart under my legs just as we were approaching Calgary. I snagged her before she did it. Miranda got the worst of it, since I flung the cat onto her lap.

The weather for the drive was good: not blazingly hot and not raining. We had lunch in Hope (DQ) and proceeded up the Coquihalla without stops to Kamloops. Miranda had her iPod with her and was taking pictures along the way.

We got to Kamloops by about 2:30 and settled into the Holiday Inn Express and Tammy and the kids had a swim. I stayed dry because I was expecting (and received) texts from Naomi with the coordinates for the party.

Honestly, I was a little apprehensive about the party. I hadn’t seen anybody there since the 1990’s, and some since the 1970’s. I joked with Naomi ahead of time that we’d have to wear name tags… so she got name tags. But as soon as the door was opened, it was obvious I needn’t have worried. I recognized practically everyone right away. We had a great time, and I got to visit with everyone… except Naomi. She was bustling around a lot of the time, and I was doing my best to talk to everyone. The roll call: Naomi and Kerry, and their kids Zander and Nick, Aunty Audrey and Uncle Doug, Shelley and Doug and their son Ryan, Brad and Therèse and their kids Mac and Will, and Allison had driven up from Vancouver on Thursday. And don’t forget Marlow, Naomi’s chihuahua. 🙂

Big thanks to Naomi for organizing and hosting. Kerry gave us a tour of their house which was nice. Some good ideas for basements there. The kids had fun playing as well. Air hockey was a hit.

Next morning dawned sunny. It wouldn’t last the whole day, but it was a good start.

We thought we would end up in Revelstoke for lunch, but we were there before 11:00, so we stopped and let the kids run around a bit before heading off to Golden. The scenery crossing the Rockies was just amazing. I had never driven it before, and I think the timing of our trip (spring, but before the snows were melted off the mountains) probably meant it was as awesome as it could be. Again, Miranda was our picture-taker, except for when we stopped at Roger’s Pass and I took a few with the Pentax.

This is only a smattering of the hundreds of photos. I will see about making an album soon.

The Wait

The week in Calgary did not end up the way I had planned. I had expected a week of exploring with Tammy and the kids. Maybe taking in a few tourist destinations like the Zoo, with some errands scattered in between. Nope. The weather was wet and stormy for most of the week. The bank, lawyer and appliances ate up Monday. I attended the Esri Canada User Conference and Energy Summit on Tuesday and Wednesday (taking the C-Train as a test-commute each day!). Wednesday evening had us going to Ikea to order our dining room set and the sofa bed for the bonus room (arriving this afternoon, need to get busy and clear the way). Thursday was the only day of exploring: we went to the Chinook Centre Mall. There was a great store, the Discovery Hut, that the kids could have spent most of the day combing through. But we needed lunch and Daddy wanted to go to the Apple Store… I won’t post pictures of my new iPad. We also went to Matco to pay for the move, because they called us just when we were leaving the Mall. We also got a walk through of our house on Thursday. We met up with Monika at 11:00 and spent most of an hour walking around and measuring and just… looking. It was the most time we’d spent in it, period. The good news was that there were things that we hadn’t remembered, like lots of shelving in the garage. The paint wasn’t as good as we’d remembered, though. If we’d had possession a week before our stuff arrived, I would have broken out the drop cloths and got to work.

Moving In

Possession was at noon on Friday the 31st. Monika met us with the keys.

The previous owners had collected our mail and the extra keys and a bottle of wine and a note wishing that we would enjoy our new home. That was a nice gesture. We put some of the sundry items that we had been hauling with us for two weeks into the house, clearing out the hotel room. The carpet cleaners were scheduled to arrive between two and three, so Tammy stayed and started cleaning, while I went hunting. For electronics. Yes, I was replacing the TVs and receiver. I went over to Visions and managed to get a pretty good deal on a Panasonic 50″ plasma for the bonus room, a Yamaha AV receiver and a Toshiba 39″ LED for the master bedroom. Good thing I did, because when the Shaw Cable guy showed up yesterday, he wanted to hook up the HD PVR in the right room and give his demo. Wouldn’t have been able to do that if I didn’t have a TV. We were back in the hotel for a last night, since we didn’t have anywhere to sleep in our new house.

Tammy was awake at 5:00 yesterday morning. Yes, the Tammy I’m married to. That gives you some idea of the apprehension she was feeling about the move. We were checked out of the hotel and at the house by 7:00 and waited for the movers to arrive just before 9:00. They did, and got to work. I was directing traffic for the most part, and Tammy was handling the “bingo sheet”, crossing off numbers as the items were unloaded from the truck. Eventually, I got called away to help put the kitchen away and assemble Miranda’s bed. Man, we have too much stuff. Soon, every room looked like a bomb hit it.

I wanted as little as possible in the basement, but still ended up with a fair amount there. The garage is a disaster. One car could park in it, if we weren’t piling the empty boxes and packing paper there. There’s going to be a fair amount of creativity required before we can say we are truly moved in. But it’s coming together.

The only hiccup of the day was Sears getting our address wrong. At this point, we have no idea when we will get our washer and dryer. I hope I have clean clothes enough for the trip to Toronto. Darryl from Shaw was very efficient and got us up and running with our Internet and TV. Everything was working right away.

Now for some breakfast. Hope you enjoyed this tale. There’s lots more to tell, but I’ve got stuff to do. 😉