Each day as we get closer to the date we leave (one week from today!), it seems we complete another big step or two in this journey. It has been over a year since we made the decision to move to our property in Ontario and early on we came to realize that we can’t do everything at once but need to take it one step at a time. Here are two recent steps:
Last week, I (Bob) emptied my office at TWU. After giving scores of books away, I still lugged far too many heavy boxes home for moving to Ontario. As I closed the office door for the last time, I thought that I should perhaps pause and take one last look inside. I am very grateful for the 32 years that I spent working on the TWU campus and for that particular office with its great views of the campus and Golden Ears Mountain. At the same time, I’m not a very sentimental type of person and I was running late so I simply looked at the empty office for just a few seconds and then quickly locked the door and left. Later I thought that I should have at least taken a picture of my empty office. Fortunately, Jayne, our faithful executive assistant, was able to do that a few days later and sent me this photo.
Another step was completed that same day, one that was more stressful for me. We picked up our truck which we will be sharing with Andrew as a farm vehicle in Ontario. A week or two earlier we had sold Sheila’s car, the Toyota Avalon. That turned out to be relatively easy to do but I am not a pick-up truck loving guy and was certainly out of my comfort zone looking for one. After the first salesman I talked to asked me if I wanted a 1/2 ton truck and I replied, “I want it to carry more than 1,000 pounds!” and he ignored my comment and repeated the question as if I was really ignorant (which I was), I went home and began researching truck lingo and figured out that “1/2 ton” doesn’t mean that it can carry only “1/2 ton. I then went back into the fray feeling like I knew a bit more. We complicated our problem by wanting a farm truck that didn’t need to be too new or fancy (i.e. expensive) but wanting one reliable enough to get us and a small cargo trailer across the country. Making the problem worse, our low Canadian dollar has resulted in a shortage of good used trucks in this area as US dealers are buying many on this side of the border. After several weeks of test driving a number of trucks, none of which turned out to be suitable, we were blessed to be put in touch with Mike at Langley Chrysler by his brother Paul, a good friend of Jonathan in Toronto. Mike had a truck that met our criteria and gave us an excellent deal on it. It is actually much nicer than we had dared hope for and we are hoping that it not only gets us and a small trailer across Canada but gives many years faithful service as a farm truck.
People who know me and my lack of interest in hot vehicles will get a chuckle looking at my fancy Flowmaster dual muffler system that makes a bit of extra rumble as it goes down the road. I never would have chosen it but people assure me that it increases power and gas mileage. We shall see. At least we have completed another step in the process!
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