New Home ... New Beginnings ...

(a wedding in St John's United Church Flesherton)

Today for the first time since the 22nd of June I feel like I can actually pause to catch my breath ... on Wednesday June 23rd the Moving Van pulled up in front of the house and we started loading stuff ... After two long hot, bug infested days the van left at 3 in the afternoon, leaving an assortment of stuff that was to be dispersed, sold, given away, or carted by U-Haul to southern Ontario ...

In the midst of this came confirmation that my house had indeed sold, and the paper work was being signed and processed ...

Friday morning began with me packing the U-Haul trailer I had rented, getting ready to say my good byes to the kids as they headed west with their mom, and trying to get organized for a wedding on Saturday afternoon in Winnipeg. The original plan was to have the trailer loaded and ready so I could just roll out of Brandon, stop in Winnipeg for the wedding then carry on down the highway ... what did John Lennon say about life ???

Oh yeah - life is what happens when you are busy making other plans ...

By Saturday morning I KNEW that I would have to come back to Brandon and leave sometime on Sunday ...

On Saturday afternoon I loaded the kids in the truck, dropped them off at Minnedosa Lake ... gave them hugs ... said my good byes then headed to Winnipeg for a wedding that was to be outside, but because of the RAIN had to be inside instead ... it was still a lovely ceremony for a lovely couple, and the reception afterwards was eloquent and wonderful ... a nice way of ending my association with the good people of First Presbyterian in Portage ...

Sunday morning began early and ended late ... I worked hard until close to midnight when I looked around and could say that I was ALMOST ready to go ... I had, in the previous few days done two dump runs, several trips to the Nearly New Store on Rosser, several trips to Samaritan House, AND had a yard sale that sold most of the remaining furniture and bigger items ...

On Monday morning I loaded the last of the stuff ... did a final clean up of the house ... packed in the two dogs and two cats ... took one last look around ... then headed off ...

I went to Samaritan House to drop off some last items that were in need of a new home ... I said my farewells to folks who were an important part of my life for the last ten years, and without whom the last 27 months would have ended very differently ... Then I hit the highway at 9:30 am ... two days later than planned ...

The drive was relatively uneventful ... stops for gas and pee breaks for the dogs and me ... then in northern ontario after one too many trips over the centre line of the highway I pulled off for a nap ... an hour later I was awoken by the cry of a loon ...

Monday ended in Thunder Bay at midnight when I pulled into a motel, rented a room, fed the various critters and fell asleep two minutes after my head hit the pillow ...

Tuesday began at 4:45 with my alarm waking me up, followed by a ten minute reloading of the car ... ten minutes to get Chrysanthemum OUT of the bed frame and back into her box ... then hitting the highway at 5:15 am ... The biggest challenge was getting the ridgeline and u-haul trailer OUT of the parking lot !!!

Tuesday was relatively uneventful ... UNTIL I pulled off of Highway 400 on to Highway 9 just east of Orangeville when I hit some debris in the road and blew the back tire on the truck !!!

I called CAA and they promised me a response in 30 to 35 minutes ... I took the time to UNPACK the back of the truck and the trunk to get out the spare ... By the time the CAA truck pulled up I had repacked the back of the truck with room for the flat to go in after the repair was made ...

At 10:35 I was ready to roll with a mini-spare ... at 11:00 I pulled into Waterloo and helped L continue to load her U-Haul truck ...

Wednesday morning began at 6:30 with the first of many tussles (good-natured) between Flute, Oboe and Oboe's brother Darby ... then it was back to loading up L's stuff and getting ready to move it to ????

That became the variable ... on Wednesday I got the call that my mortgage request for the house in Ontario had been turned down ... with Canada Day looming the next day, and a four day weekend to follow life began to spin ... fortunately we found a storage locker to accomodate all of my stuff from the U-Haul and the truck , and L's stuff from her town house in Waterloo ... sooooo, with a deep breath and a prayer ... we put our trust in God to see us through ...

Wednesday night ended late in Flesherton with a two room suite at the local motel, an assortment of stuff in our vehicles, AND a storage locker full of stuff ...

Thursday started slow and late and we just lounged in the air conditioned comfort of our motel room ... then in the late afternoon we headed to Owen Sound for supper and to watch the fireworks over the Bay ...

Friday I tried to begin setting up and sorting out my office only to realize that some of the boxes that were to go in the U-Haul had gone into the moving containers, leaving me with out some of my "necessary supplies" - UGH !!!

Saturday I had a sermon to write ... and we made a trip to Waterloo and Stratford to pick up food, and to get some stuff from my brother's and move it to the storage locker and to our motel room.

Sunday I had my first services with the congregations of the Flesherton Pastoral Charge ... 9:30 am at Eugenia United Church, and 11 at St John's United Church in Flesherton.

The first full week in Flesherton was marked with meetings in the evenings with various committees and the Board to get my feet under me, and days filled with various activities including a wonderful trip to the beach at Wasaga to escape the heat by lounging in the blue waters of Georgian Bay.

Then on Friday morning we found out we needed to be out of the motel room for two nights, not the ONE night like originally promised ... so we rushed to pack up everything and move it to the Church where it filled the cloak room and spilled over into other nooks and crannies ... I set Chloe and Chrysanthemum up in my office and we headed off to Waterloo and to my mom's ...

Sunday morning we got up early and drove back to Flesherton in time for the 9:30 church service ... L checked back into the Motel later that morning and we were given a terrible room, and when we enquired about moving were told "that's ALL we've got" ... Sunday had the added surprise of a visit from an OLD friend from Centennial United in Stratford who along with his wife had made the drive up to be present at our worship service in St. John's ... we had a great visit over lunch then after our good byes, we headed to the motel for much needed showers. (I don't think I EVER missed the hot humidity of an Ontario summer).

The plan was to then catch the family reunion in Scone (about 30 minutes west of here) but by the time we got there only a handful of relatives were left ... so we had a short visit under trees before heading back to Flesherton for the night ... and oh what a night it was ... the room was overrun with ear wigs ... the sink leaked on to the floor ... there was mould under the sink ... and everything was dirty and musty ... THEN on Monday morning the room we were promised was suddenly unavailable, and we were looking at no less than a week in a room that gave us all stuffy noses and caused us to question our sanity ...

I went into the office and began phoning rv rental places looking for a tent trailer to rent and after my 8th call found one in Harriston that was available immediately ... just after lunch we set out in the rain to go and pick it up ... then we started looking for and at camp sites ...

We discovered along the way that there are NO campgrounds anywhere near Flesherton - the closest is about 15 minutes away ... fortunately, the Board Chair of Eugenia came up with a creative and wonderful solution ... he said - "Park it behind the church ... there's a kitchen there, there's office space there, and there are bathrooms and the lake is a five minute drive away ..."

So last night we parked the tent trailer behind the Church and set up our "home base" in the CE Wing and the basement of the Church for the next little while ...

Today for the first time in weeks I feel like I've been able to pause and catch my breath ... the weather is cooler than it has been ... things are calmer ... and having the trailer, though far from perfect is comfortable and clean and will serve the purpose ...

Now, the next step is getting all of our financing in place for the new house, arranging for a move that may happen as soon as next week, and getting more settled in a new community ... All in all things are getting better and better each day ... and by this time next month we'll be looking back and wondering why were so stressed ...

Life is an adventure ... so days are simply a little more unpredictable and more adventurous than expected !!