Are we prepared? Not even close!

March 23, 2022

Less than 6 weeks until we get on the plane

Here we are at less than 6 weeks until we leave for our long-planned, much-postponed, Fibonacci scribble through Italy. And we aren't ready. It's not even top of mind just now.

It wasn't supposed to be like this. We sold our home of almost 32 years in June but completion wasn't until mid-September. We had some time to purge, pack, move the stuff we were going to keep (for now) into storage lockers (yes, plural). During that time we also prepared for and attended our son's wedding and even got in a few bike rides.

It was a beautiful wedding! Our son Graeme is taller than Al while Rachel is my size.

In their speech at the reception, Rachel spoke about how she'd had to get a bike and start riding again in order to participate in family traditions like riding to Victoria for Thanksgiving dinner.

In September, I also contacted the sales agent for the development of our new home in North Vancouver. Our disclosure document noted a completion date range between the beginning of November 2021 and the end of January 2022. The web page was advertising, along with "almost sold out!!!", "move in 2021". Yes, I was assured, move-in would be before the end of the year. We made our plans.

Then we were informed that possession would be in January and we added a cycle tour to our plans. So:

Penticton for two weeks of cycling. We were exhausted and spent more time sleeping than riding, but we had some good days.
Somewhere along the Kettle Valley Railway trail

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Victoria for a month of cycling. We actually got in a decent amount of riding and met up with some fellow CycleBlazers as described in the journal linked in the next bullet.
Spain! See Escaping the Rain -- In Spain
Victoria for what turned out to be a week of not quarantining. And not riding; we didn't even get our bikes out of their cases. We went for walks and searched for temporary accommodation in North Vancouver.
Living in various North Vancouver basement suites mostly found on AirBnB. Getting in some skiing but no cycling.

No cycling? One reason is that there has been no room for bikes in most of the suites we've been in, and when we had room, the weather was atrocious. Another reason is that it's ski season and we'd much rather ski than ride on salty wet streets, although March has been a washout (literally) for local skiing. Mountain biking? We both have dual-suspension mountain biking but Vancouver's world famous North Shore isn't for us. Al used to, but not anymore. Take a look at the video and you'll see why.

And the big distraction? We take possession of our new home at the end of March. Considering the pandemic and its labour and supply chain woes, plus BC's extreme weather in 2021, only two months late is pretty good.

They are waiting for us! The bikes we'll take to Italy are the same ones we took to Spain--in their black and blue cases bottom left. The ski equipment gets returned to this locker every time we move and then collected once we've moved everything else.

Before I wrap this and get out for a walk in the rain, I need to give equal time to our second son. He will be graduating with a Bachelor of Music in Jazz Studies - Performance/Composition this spring. Our flights were booked to be just after his graduation recital.

Colin's first gig at Frankie's Jazz Club! (Photo: Vincent Lim)

April is going to be a very busy month! We leave May 1.

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