is fairly easy. All you have to do is check one of the airline booking agencies once you've decided when to go, then choose whatever connections appear easiest. They let you decide whether to ride up front in the big fat seats or in back where you may be less comfortable but won't have to put up with the nauseating stench of expensive cologne and filets mignon.
There are no new drawings or paintings to show and not because my work table has been covered in forms and legal documents, although that's been true as well, but because my mind has been full of such stuff. Over the past 8 months neither the Canadian nor the American governments have been a cause of delay. It's all been about the attorney, Phlegmatic Q. Stupor, taking a lot of time in his process with a few intermittent questions and weeks going by before he sent a few more. Our most recent concern was when he didn't send the documents for our signatures as promised. When we called to inquire he had his secretary, Ms Longsuffering, tell us lies about important conference calls. I mean, just how much crime and international intrigue could be happening in Halifax, NS? I guess we made a mistake hiring a firm called 'Apathetic, Dawdling and Idle'. Next time we'll know better. The papers finally arrived 10 days late and we only had to correct half a dozen of them so it all worked out.
Another pile of papers relate to our retirement income. Pension claim documents are lengthy and complicated affairs that contain all sorts of niggling details about paying taxes, post mortem spousal benefits, financial planning etc. Considering what we can expect to receive all of it is laughable even though it must be signed and documented.
Cleaning out our storage locker made the people at a local record exchange very happy when they got 8 cases of free cd's. Most of the stored books and movies went to Goodwill which left us with not too much to carry home. Since then we've been visited by representatives of a couple of large moving companies and are in the process of choosing one that's familiar with the complexities of moving stuff across borders. I politely refused their offers to pack everything including my underwear but they'd be happy to transport our little car.
We expect to be homeless (not having your belongings handy being our definition) for 10-12 days while the stuff travels so we have a decision to make whether to fly directly to Halifax and hang out while we wait or to have an adventure and drive ourselves the 4300 miles between here and there. I do know that neither of us ever wants to drive through the factory pig farm countryside of Iowa again, which is where Rte 87 goes. It's also true neither one of us enjoys flying anymore. That means our likely plan would be to drive the northerly route through Fargo, ND to Winnipeg where we could link up with the Trans-Canada Hwy for the rest of the drive.
Our 94 Geo Tracker has low mileage and has visited her mechanics often enough that driving ourselves may be the way to go. She (Fuschia) won't be the most comfortable ride but I'm sure she'd be happy to take us over the Cascades, through the Rockies and across the Great Plains to the Great Lakes and beyond to the Atlantic.
It might be fun but we're still mulling it over. Meanwhile, perhaps I need to go for a walk and look for a few stones that need a ride back.
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