Life's a Stitch

Moving after 18 years in our home, raising kids and providing living and storage space to many of their friends, is a full time job. I told C that at times I've felt far more stress in this experience than I ever felt in the job from which I retired. It's almost enough to send a person back to the land of the employed.

This post will cover the top three highlights, all of equal importance:

Daughter M, between jobs, came to our rescue accompanied by partner KC, and roommate, Devin. They commandeered plans for a garage sale. sorting through closets and setting up the 10×30 pink party tent as a mini department store: health and beauty, toys, clothes, housewares, books… Fortunately there was no maternity department as, unlike other items, I was wise enough not to hang onto those clothes for 26 years. My stuff busters changed the online ads daily, afterwards getting most of what remained hauled away for free. All in all a successful process.

Next, we were visited by a member of our Camino family, fellow pilgrim, Diego from Mexico. 

A chef with a high end cruise line, this is the guest everyone loves to have. He and KC worked together on a fabulous meal of Indian food, starting with Diego's Whisk-tea, black tea, clementine and peach juice, fortified with whiskey:

The next morning he cooked a fancy version of huevos rancheros, complete with roasted veggie salsa:

Notice the vintage Corelle dish? I threw out all my chipped and scratched good dishes and am filling in with old Corelle, pulled from the garage sale. Love the weight of them.

So sorry to see him go, but Diego renewed my Camino anticipation and I'm looking forward to the next phase of the pilgrimage in Portugal. 

Finally, remember B's RV from my last post, the one that was causing me considerable maternal angst? It's been sold!! Excuse my enthusiasm embellished with double exclamation points. In consideration of their future plans, and working on all the interior updates, B and S decided that the beginning of the summer provided the best opportunity for resale. It was sold in two days proving any type of residence is a hot item in the Vancouver market.

Tomorrow we get the keys to our "new" house and on Tuesday we meet with the builder. Way too much excitement around here. 

I've written about my variety of roles since my girls moved out, leaving me in an house of men. From fraternity house mom to Burning Mom, I've now been dubbed the Trailer Park Mom. I try not to let it get to me as there is a natural end date to this predicament and I'm sure the neighbours have not called bylaws with complaints because they, too, are aware of our moving date.

It gets worse, as C, in his paradoxical energies of frustration with packing and wanting to support his son's creative endeavours, pulled out B's effects from the shed and laid them across that part of our yard, a carpet of junk. 

As of this evening the art car is gone and the RV leaves shortly, destination Merritt's Bass Coast festival.

They did do a good job pulling the RV's interior together:

I don't like living in this mass disorganization coupled with the fear that they don't have a clue what they are doing, somewhat balance by a sense that the end in in sight. A vicous cycle of terror vs relief, but isn't that what being the mom of a creative type boy is all about?

 

It's happening again. We are grateful to be able to be dreaming about our second Camino route this September, after the house is sold and we begin our phase of drifting. This time it will be the Camino Portugues, walking from the north of Lisbon to Santiago, Spain including a side trip to the shrine at Fatima. Hopefully, a pilgrimage, just in time for a necessary boost to our sense of patience while waiting for building permits for our house and the next stage of our retirement. 

We'll walk from south to north instead of east to west. We had read this about the French route we walked the first time: "The popular Spanish name for the astronomical Milky Way is El Camino de Santiago. According to a common medieval legend, the Milky Way was formed from the dust raised by traveling pilgrims. Compostela itself means "field of stars"." What an appropriate introduction to one of the little Milky Way paintings I recently finished:

Time for these feet to create more dust although the Camino in Portugal involves a lot more cobblestone and boardwalk as compared to the last one.

It's a stripy week here at the Northvanage, starting with the arrival of B's girlfriend from England.

She was given a difficult time at security upon departing from her first stop in Canada, with multiple scans of her hair and a thorough going over under each braid with explosives detection wipes. She's a creative one, this child, a costume designer and mermaid model by profession. Here's her tail, hiding her socks, striped of course.

 

My encounter with stripes balanced hers colourwise. This week I painted zebras:

My next project will be dog. Not striped, but who knows what could happen with all that young creativity floating around here.

 

 

On the family reunion cruise the youngest Boesen progeny shared a common attribute – cuteness. Of course I'm the grandmother of the little boys and grand-auntie to the girls. Pure bias here:

Ear worm of that day in Sitka? The Wheels On the Bus Go Round and Round…

That's Auntie Ellen's Dirty Martini. OK I ate the olives.

Every night another cookie was added to her dessert plate. Can you tell how well the NCL staff catered to the little ones?

She's my budding artist:

 

 

 

 

Who'd have thought that a floating family reunion for those descended from the Danish family of Boe, plus spouses, could go off without a hitch? You can't imagine the details involved in getting 22 people, ages 9 months to 82, from five states and two provinces, on one vessel enroute to Alaska. How to choose the pictures? Let's start with these:

All 22 looking at the camera:

The five siblings:

We hoped for two family afternoons together onboard, and two dinners, but with the help with Norwegian Cruise Lines' Group Services Director and the dining staff, we had many more opportunities for quality family time. We played Left, Center, Right (thank you to my sister Jane, for introducing us to the best easiest family game ever and a special thanks to her from Mari, who won $60), Head's Up, Catch Phrase, and the Not So Amazing Race – daily installments devised by Ellen. And we really didn't queue the whales that appeared alongside the private dining room, the bear on the shore, the birds following the ship or the calving glaciers, but who could ask for anything more?

 

 

 

I was writing to our realtor to request a change in closing date for the sale of our house. Explaining that we had an offer in on another house (!), I ended with the  phrase "exciting times ahead!" Auto correct guessed at my inaccurate thumb typing and came up with a not-too-far-off word, in meaning. Yes, we are exiting our house to go to another one. But not so fast.

In our tradition of rescuing Piggy, a substantially featherless parrot, our Gracee dog and the very house in which we currently reside, we've done it again. Our realtor explained that houses fall into three categories: move in ready, liveable in need of work, and a tear down requiring substantial rebuilding to make it liveable AKA a rescue.

After selling our house, we were warned that we needed to get back into the house market ASAP lest prices run away from us. It's true, houses were selling before we could drive to White Rock to see them, and each new listing came on higher. We saw homes being taken off the market for a day, and reappear with a shiny new, more expensive price tag. It was time for a change in strategy. Why not buy something substantially less attractive and renovate? 

Found a builder online, who agreed to meet with us the next day. The target was a teensy cottage on a lot the size of a postage stamp: 30×50 feet. Seriously compact real estate, but approved for a new house of 2100 sq ft on three levels. We arrived at his office at 10:00 am, the realtor joined us at noon and guess what? Already sold. 

Another possibility was a new listing that contained no pictures and the following description: "built in 1994, this house contains major structural defects…" Offers were to be presented that afternoon. Where are the TV cameras? The builder (who reminds me of Mr. Holmes of Holmes on Homes fame), and his team accompanied us and as they say here in Canada, Bob's your uncle. We got it and there were three back up offers behind us. We are the proud owners of this view and those exciting times, previously mentioned, are ahead:

I am thankful and relieved to be out of house hunting mode. It wasn't all a roller coaster ride, though, having the opportunity to cut some of the tension by immersing myself in painting. I like this one better than the tulip painting I posted a few weeks back:

 

 

 

 

I avoid cliche. I dislike exclamation points. And forget those over-dramatic screamy all caps. But, as the high school teacher who taught me "a guilty conscience needs no accuser" and "the road to hell is paved with good intentions" used to say, "there is an exception to every rule:"

"Where does the the time go?" says I. I swear that time goes faster in retirement than it did when we worked outside the home, and then time seemed to move at the speed of sound.

Then: "What, that yearly grant deadline is here AGAIN?!" 

Now: "Didn't I  just listen to CBC's Backstage with Ben Heppner?" If You're Canadian you realize that it is possible to listen to the same CBC public radio show six times during a given week, but in this case, it really is Sunday night AGAIN. And my baby turned 26 today. How did that happen?

This week while grocery shopping, I had an example of being in the right place at the right time (cliche). As I entered the grocery store the sun came through the doorway at just the right moment. I took this picture with my phone, maybe a painting to be:

I "struck while the iron was hot" and a minute later it was gone!

 

 

The retirement adventure continues. For the past two days, instead of house hunting, C and I had the ultimate knitting, painting and woodworking experience. Imagine getting paid for the things you love to do that don't seem like work. We were hired as skilled background, AKA extras, for a made-for-TV Christmas movie, brought to you by a feel-good channel that, at this point, I can't mention. 

The scene was a craft fair in a community hall. We set up and staffed three booths, you guessed it: my knitting, watercolours, and C's bowls. What's it like to be in the background of a real movie? Think 12 hour of: check in, sit, sit, sit, eat, act, sit, eat, sit, sit, act, sit, eat, sit, sit, wrap out, go home. The fact that we brought with us creative skills made it pay well. The food was delicious and the people were interesting. All in all a good experience.

Sorry no pictures. None allowed.