And away we go!

Lunch on Main Street Unionville soaking up the sun and friendship. An evening on a patio with a good friend and a bottle of wine. Rooftop BBQ overlooking Lake Ontario. Dinners in Markham with good friends. Family parties to celebrate birthdays and travel and each other. Laughter and food and good friends. I am going to miss each one of you in oh so many ways. But thanks to technology we can phone and email and FaceTime and Skype and imessage and text and Facebook and Instagram to our hearts content. This way we won’t seem so far away from each other.

The goodbyes were harder than I imagined. Tears threatened at each farewell hug. I have often called my brother a “mushmallow”. Ironically it seems to run in the family. Eric, I feel your pain.

The journey begins (in our Dodge Journey of course) as we shut down our iMac and pack it into the trunk along with other valuables, mostly electronic, that we didn’t trust to the movers. First big stop will be Chicago and we will arrive at the same time as the tall ships. Looking forward to seeing the Windy City for the first time. What comes to mind when I think of Chicago? Chicago….the band, the Blackhawks, deep dish pizza, the musical and gangsters.

Well the city does not disappoint. An architectural river cruise (during which we experienced an incredible rainstorm) filled my soul with engineering and architectural data that leaves me wanting to go back and study. It truly is a wonderful city having rebuilt itself after the big fire. Toronto, take a lesson. This is what your waterfront should look like. Thank you Chicago for a wonderful day and a break from the miles on the road.

Next stop Fargo and visions of a wood chipper haunt my dreams……

Summertime and the living is easy….

The movers have come and gone. We will meet up with our stuff in Alberta sometime in August. In the meantime, it is summertime and the living is easy.  I can hear Janis Joplin wailing in the background.   The cottagers have finally left the city and the stores are empty. More importantly I can now go to Starbucks and not have to fight for a seat to enjoy my favourite brewed beverage. Yes, going out for a coffee is a luxury, something to be savoured and enjoyed. People watching at its finest. Look at the two in the corner….are they having a clandestine meeting? Where are they planning their next adventure? Let’s check out the latest books people are reading or shoes (yes I know….it always comes back to shoes) they are sporting.

I admit it, coffee is an addiction; one I am not prepared to give up. So I simply don’t understand the phenomena of people conducting their business in a coffee shop. That’s mixing business with pleasure, my pleasure. Are we so consumed with work that we must take it with us everywhere? It seems to me we have gone astray, gone off on a tangent.   To quote Julia Laplane, OECD:
 “Whereas “Baby Boomers” fought to disconnect from work when they were not in the office, the technology savvy Millenials (aka Generation Y, the generation of youngsters born between 1978 and 1995) now work from their laptops, tablets and smartphones thus blurring the line between work and home. Even the expression “work-life balance” might become obsolete as it implies some kind of separation between the two.”
The expression “work to live” always made more sense to me than “live to work”. Since retiring from the working world, the question most often asked is “what will you do?” which is immediately followed up with “I would be bored”. Mostly I respond with “what won’t I do?”.

But bored? There is a wonderful world out there just waiting to be discovered. Books to be read. iPads to play upon. Sunshine to soak up. Places to see. Friends to enjoy.  Volunteer opportunities abound. The limitations appear only in your psyche. And the best part of retirement…….you don’t have to wait for the weekend to do it. You can do it on a Monday or a Tuesday. So as I write this blog (on a Tuesday morning I might add) I challenge you to keep your “work-life balance”.

All my bags are packed, I’m ready to go…..

John Denver would have been 70 this year had he lived. Janis Joplin as well was born in 1943, leaving us much too soon. Joni Mitchell and Robbie Robertson both turn 70 this year. If that doesn’t put a spin on time moving on, I do not know what does. Icons of the music scene that took many of us through our teen years, their poetry and music moved us. Which leads me to the perfect segue….

The movers arrive on July 15th. The price quoted was for up to 1000 pounds which at the time appeared to be more than we would require. After all, we are not moving furniture or household items. Voldemort and I worked in tandem, picking and packing what will travel with us to the Wild Wild West. The goods have been weighed and measured and, wait for it, the number comes in at around 1100 pounds. We will have to pay for the surplus.

What could we have done without?
                      

Skis? No, we are going to be so close to the mountains we want to be able to ski and ski.
Golf clubs? What would we do in the summertime if not spend some time on the greens?
Bicycle? How to enjoy the local scenery if we don’t take our two wheelers?
Summer clothes? Winter Clothes? Check and double check. Seasons change.
Shoes? Let’s not go there as we have previously discussed my addiction.

(Could not resist a gratuitous photo of sexy shoes!!!)

No, there was nothing we can do without. The overage will have to be paid for;  after all to buy everything new goes against my new methodology of living simply. And when I look at the 30 litre and 55 litre backpacks that my wonderful son and daughter-in-love are going to be living out of for the same length of time…..well I feel over packed.