Don’t forget the can-opener, and carry your umbrella

Posted on November 29, 2009 | 2 comments

Post #17

Why would anyone bring 25 bottles of nail polish with her to Toronto, but leave her can-opener and every single knife, fork and spoon she owns in a storage unit in Saskatoon?

My "I need it now!" belongings arrive from Saskatoon

This is just one of the many odd decisions that have come to light as I was unpacking all the boxes and suitcases I’ve been schlepping around with me for a month. But I have done it—unpacked and stowed it all.

Almost everything survived the Greyhound shipment from Saskatoon to Edmonton and the subsequent shipment from Edmonton to Toronto in good order—with the possible exception of the boxes themselves, which arrived in coherent but poor condition. I have the feeling that if they had been transferred between vehicles one more time, they would have fallen to pieces and my belongings would have been strewn everywhere.

I would recommend to anyone who wants to ship by Greyhound that they eschew cardboard in favour of something sturdier, like large Rubbermaid containers. Also, they should take into account during the packing phase that some of the items are likely to arrive upside down. But in general, I was most satisfied with the condition in which my goods arrived: only one item was actually damaged, and that was an umbrella that apparently came unsprung during the trip—its handle emerging through the corner of one of the cardboard boxes where it was exposed to the vicissitudes of life in the fast lane.

The busted brolly

In short, I highly recommend Greyhound—to the point where, with the cost of taking luggage onto airplanes, particularly in the U.S., I would even give serious consideration to shipping some of my belongings by Greyhound if I were going on an extended vacation.  (As long as I could be sure the luggage would arrive before I was leaving for home again. But that can be a problem with luggage that goes with you by air as well.)

My New Apartment

The apartment I selected (and to which I have now signed a one-year lease, as is fairly standard around here) is near Yonge St., about a kilometre from Eglinton. A friend from Toronto tells me that the nickname of this part of town is “Yonge and Eligible,” and there are certainly lots of young, well dressed and attractive people living in this area, but “Yonglinton” seems easier to say so I am going with that.

The rent in this apartment is sort-of equivalent to what I paid for a similar-sized space in Saskatoon — when you take into consideration that there utilities were extra and here they are included. This place also offers a microwave in addition to the dishwasher and air conditioner (the latter of which works, I hope, unlike the one in Saskatoon). On the other hand, I have no storage to speak of. (Mind you, at the moment I have nothing to store, so it is fine.) There is also no parking. But I don’t have a car.

Sleeping quarters with no bugs

You may be amused to know that one of my considerations for taking this apartment was that it did not appear on The Bedbug Registry. Bedbugs are a big issue here in Toronto, as they are in apartments and hotels in other parts of North America, particularly in the east, and I’ve seen more than one mattress sitting on the sidewalk out front of a Toronto apartment building waiting for the garbage truck.

Seating area

Positive features of this neighbourhood include lots of small (and several chain) shops, grocery stores, produce outlets, flower shops, ethnic, funky and classy restaurants and a lot of movie theatres. I had the best piece of pizza I have ever tasted (maybe I was just really really hungry. It was pesto pizza. It was great) at a tiny Italian place just around the corner from here, and the next day bought olive oil, balsamic vinegar and grapeseed oil at another Italian take-out. In the past two weeks, I’ve eaten at one of several Thai restaurants in the neighbourhood and demolished an outstanding burger and a great curried-chicken wrap. (It is lovely to have no groceries, cutlery or can opener for several days, but the party’s over now. Speaking of parties, I also enjoyed a cupcake, chocolate icing on chocolate cake, for my birthday, from a cupcake store. There is also a chocolate shop which I’ve been avoiding, and a tea store that I am looking forward to visiting.) I have shopped at a place that sells boxes and trays and hangers to help get you organized, a kitchen shop, a bath and bedding shop, and I even bought a shirt and skirt, on sale. I’ve also done a lot of window shopping: a person with a lot of money could have a very good time here.

On Monday, after I had picked up the key to my new apartment, I rented a car for 24 hours and went downtown to the Greyhound express courier station on Front St., and collected my packages and luggage. Then I tried to think of all the other things I should do while I had a car, and to get as much of it done as possible. That included some shopping at Canadian Tire and Future Shop, and retrieving the luggage I had been using while I was at my friend Pat’s house. (We had a lovely farewell supper at her table, attended as always by about four of her six cats. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find my camera at that point.)

The Dining Area

The days since are a bit of a blur but I’ve nearly walked my feet off getting all the things I needed to get in order to subsist until I can figure out how best to get my stored belongings here from Saskatoon and Edmonton. There is still lots to do, but I have the important stuff at last—a home phone number, a local cell number, high-speed internet and television (go, Riders!). I took the subway to Staples at Yonge and Marlborough to buy a table for my computer, then took a cab home. Then I did it again the next day because I liked the table so much I decided I wanted two! (I have now put the phone number to Beck Taxi into my iPhone so I don’t have to look it up again.)

One evening I walked 2.5 k to a Home Hardware to pick up cleaning supplies, and another day I walked back up to the dentist’s on Lawrence and Yonge for part II of my root canal. I’ve done several hikes for groceries. So I am really beginning to feel as though I belong in this area, and today I even got some work done on my novel, so I am also feeling inspired. I’ve also seen two movies—mainly just to take a break before the TV got hooked up.

Home Entertainment Centre

The work area: ready to go!

As you will see from the photos here, I am what could be described as “sparsely furnished” at the moment, but I have everything I need to resume work as a writer and editor, so I am good to go.  In a few days, I will write a post about the places I’ve been outside this neighbourhood (no moss on me!) and a few more differences I’ve observed between Toronto and the West. I’m classifying this as a “during the move” post because I still don’t have the furniture, books, etc. that would allow me to consider myself completely “moved.” But I’m on track and feeling optimistic.

CN Tower in the mi(d)st

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In which Mary is grateful for a pair of good shoes

Posted on November 18, 2009 | 5 comments

Post #16

Today I went to drop off an application to rent an apartment. The apartment itself is near to where I am staying now, but the rental-management company’s office is closer to downtown; it is, according to Google maps, 6.3 kilometres from here. It was a lovely day for a walk and I decided that I could use the exercise — and that by walking, I would gain a better sense of at least a small portion of my new city. There was no way I could get lost (even if I hadn’t had the Maps app on my iPhone, which I do): from the house where I’ve been staying, a few blocks north of Eglinton, I simply needed to walk straight down Yonge Street to a few blocks south of Bloor, then turn east for three blocks. Simple.

I planned that after I dropped off my application, I would stop for a coffee, Google some information about the transit system, and return home either by bus or subway.

Would-be transit users stranded at Bloor and Yonge.

I enjoyed my stroll, which took just over an hour. I noticed lots of stores and restaurants and a library I intend to investigate more fully when I have more time—not to mention the scenic expanses of Mount Pleasant Cemetery (“We have lots of vacancies!” the sign outside announces) which clearly merits an investigation of its own some day.

When I got to Yonge and Bloor, however, I began to suspect that my return trip might be more complicated than I’d hoped. I could barely get past the subway station there because hundreds and hundreds of people were standing on the sidewalk and more were pouring out of the station (thousands, I learned later), being herded into line by TTC security and police. The streets out front were jammed with cars, buses, taxis, and television news trucks.

After I dropped off my application, I went to a Second Cup, where I checked the Toronto Star website.  The lead story told me that a private contractor had somehow damaged a tunnel near Bloor and Yonge and the subway line had been closed.

So I walked home again. I had lots and lots of company on the return trip – although most of the other pedestrians were on their cell phones trying to find someone they knew to come and save them from the enforced hike. The special “subway express” buses that had been pressed into service to help relieve the commuter congestion were packed, and cab drivers were taking on three or four fares with different destinations at a time. The happiest looking person I saw was a man with an electric scooter. Next happiest was a woman who was telling someone on her cell phone that she had decided she was “just going to walk. It’s a good day for a walk.” I agree with that approach under normal circumstances, but after 12.6 kilometres (most of the return trip of which was uphill) today, I am planning no expeditions for tomorrow.

Welcome to the big city, Mary.

The cultural/social differences between prairie Canada and Toronto continue to present themselves: albeit subtly. Yesterday, after I’d had Part One of an emergency root canal, I decided to get a frappuccino for a late lunch. I was hungry. I hadn’t eaten since breakfast and I knew it was going to be hours before the freezing came out of my face enough that I could eat anything that required chewing. But when I placed my order at Starbucks, the barista looked astonished. She said to me, “You do know you have ordered a frozen coffee, right?” I assured her that I did know what I’d ordered. It wasn’t until I heard a few people complaining about the cold weather (I think it had gone all the way down to zero, but it was sunny) that I realized why she had asked me: I guess Torontonians don’t often order frozen coffees in November. I’ll have to be careful not to make myself stand out from the crowd in future.

Also in Toronto, as compared to Edmonton and Saskatoon, there are:

  • Many many more tailors, which makes sense because there are also
  • Many many more people who are perfectly tailored!

There are also

  • Fewer people who are overweight
  • More people who honk their horns at other drivers and
  • Many more people carrying cases containing violins, cellos and other musical instruments (unless they contain machine guns, of course. I didn’t think to ask).

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My First Two Days in Toronto

Posted on November 16, 2009 | 1 comment

Post #15

Mere hours after I had landed, my host and I were out walking through a balmy (for November) Toronto evening along Yonge Street near Eglinton – an area where I immediately felt at home. By the time we had returned to her house, I had started a list of apartments in the area with “for rent” signs; many of them are listed on viewit.ca or other similar websites, where there are photos and some general information you can look at before calling for the details.

IMG_4544

The back garden of my host

Since there are so many sources of listings of apartments here, and all of them seem to divide up the city in different ways, it can be frustrating to try to figure out which apartments are in the part of town you are interested in living in unless you know the names of all the streets in the area – and the various names by which their neighbourhoods may be known.

The easiest way to find an apartment is to walk around and take pictures of the ones you like and jot down notes about them. Yesterday I took a couple of hours to do that – it allowed me a lovely stroll through well-treed old neighbourhoods. The temperature went to 13 (55F) yesterday so I was really too warm in my all-weather coat.

It is reassuring to see that there are quite a few apartments for rent. Some of them are well beyond my reach, of course, but some are manageable. It has been my hope to find a two-bedroom apartment in which I would use the second bedroom as a den and guest room, but last night I considered that perhaps I was being silly: I can make do with a one-bedroom for now, and conserve a little money every month. So I am open to renting either a one- or two-bedroom at this point, and it will come down to what’s available at what cost, what utilities need to be added on each month, the availability of laundry facilities on-site, and whether or not there is air-conditioning.

When I arrived at the Toronto airport on Saturday night I thought how much of a different feeling I would have had if I’d been arriving from Sri Lanka, Kurdistan or Hong Kong to start a new life here. But it still seemed pretty momentous. I have moments of great misgiving about what I am trying to do, but this is familiar territory to me and I am sure that I am doing the right thing for me, and that gives me confidence. So far the only “cultural” differences I’ve noticed between here and western Canada are that the taxi driver assumed I’d sit in the backseat rather than the front, which I prefer anyway, and (unlike in Saskatoon but similar to Edmonton) drivers actually come to a stop when there is a pedestrian in a crosswalk.

My host has been more than kind – and I’ve already booked an appointment with her dentist for the tooth that broke last Thursday and has been nagging at my tongue ever since. She has fed me, given me a comfortable bed to sleep in, and driven me all over this part of Toronto so I can orient myself. I am very fortunate to have been taken in by such a kind and helpful person!

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I’m in the air!

Posted on November 15, 2009 | Leave a comment

Post # 14

Days to departure from Western Canada = 0

IMG_4537

Descent into Toronto

This is it! Today I am flying on WestJet from Edmonton to Toronto, a 3.5 hour flight during which I lose two hours. I am writing this on the plane and so far it’s a smooth, smooth flight.

The adventure is about to begin in earnest!

The best part about the actual moving part of a move is that the time pressure is off. I want to find an apartment in Toronto by December 1, but if I don’t find it until January 1, it is not the end of the world (thanks to my friend Pat who is allowing me to camp out in her basement suite for as long as I need to!)

The 13 boxes and suitcases full of stuff that I shipped by Greyhound from Saskatoon to Edmonton, where I have had them with me these past two weeks (thanks, Bev and Phil, for putting up with me and them!), and have now shipped to Toronto, should arrive mid-week, and then I will have the basic requirements for survival until I am able to send for (or go and get) the rest of my books, furniture, clothes, etc. from the storage unit in Saskatoon.

For the first time in about two months, at the moment I have no urgent deadlines (I even managed to get two freelance jobs done on time, one in Calgary and one in Edmonton—both for clients in Saskatoon), and the relief is enormous. All my responsibilities have momentarily been attended to, all my goodbyes have been said. I feel as though once again I can start thinking about the future. And the future is looking good.

I will continue to post my thoughts here, more regularly I hope now that I have some time, and will let you know my impressions of Toronto. At the moment I am consciously aware of the fact that I am returning to the province where I lived from age 2 to age 15, but I have no idea what that means emotionally, financially, creatively or in any other way. It will be an interesting exploration.

IMG_4539

The landing

I am not, however, concerned about feeling isolated: aside from the many friends who have assured me they will be coming to  visit me before I know it (including those Edmontonians – ahem! — who said they would come to visit me in Saskatoon, but never did; they insist that Toronto is “different”), several friends who live in the Toronto area want me to get in touch with them soon, and two friends (including one I ran into at the airport in Edmonton today!) have trips to Toronto already scheduled in the next month! Solitude is not likely to be an issue.

Some Moving Tips

On a more practical note, I have a few tips to share with any of you who are planning moves. They are totally unrelated to one another for the most part, and this is certainly not an exhaustive list – just thoughts that occurred to me during the past few weeks where I thought others might benefit from my experiences:

  1. Avoid scheduling a move for a Monday. Aside from the fact that the movers’ truck might not work on a Monday morning (which the one scheduled for my move did not), in the final hours before your move, you are likely to think of at least one and possibly several administrative things you need to do before your move. These might include, for example, getting your household insurance transferred to your new location, returning equipment to your phone company, acquiring more boxes, finding an auctioneer at the last minute or taking household items to a Salvation Army store. These are all chores where, depending on the town or city where you live, you may have problems getting business done on a Sunday–or even a Saturday;
  2. To prevent the loss of those little pegs that hold up the shelves in your book cases during moves, put them into a Ziplock plastic baggie and tape the baggie to the top of the bookcases or a horizontal surface on the inside—like a non-removable shelf.
  3. When listing the contents of boxes, mark the room (e.g., office, master bedroom) where the boxes should go as well as what’s in them (thanks, Merna), and be as specific as possible (without calling too much attention to particularly valuable items) so that you can find things when you need them at the other end. E.g., if you toss the coffee grinder into a box of Christmas decorations, mention the grinder on the outside of the box—or,  unless you moved on December 1, you are guaranteed to end up buying a new one (thanks, Gordon);
  4. Acquire more than one black thick felt-tipped pen for marking boxes (and a finer-tipped one for making lists of box contents. I used big label stickers for this) because if you only have one it will disappear in the uproar several times an hour;
  5. Eat. On two days of my move, I didn’t get food into me until about 4 p.m. This does not pan out well when you are also likely to get increasingly edgy as the day wears on and you become more and more convinced that you are never going to meet your deadlines;
  6. Look carefully around all the floors and check every rug before you leave. I am missing one diamond stud earring. I am sure that by now it has been sucked up into some steam-cleaning machine and is gone forever.  This is (as far as I know) the only major Unfortunate Incident associated with my move. My one remaining hope is that I vacuumed it up myself and when I am reunited with my vacuum cleaner, i will rip the bag apart with fingers crossed.

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In (sic) glorious transit (Part 2)

Posted on November 11, 2009 | 1 comment

Post # 13

Days to departure from Western Canada = 4

…continued from Post #12

Monday night/Tuesday morning, Oct. 25/26

Heading down the home stretch before my departure from Saskatoon, my primary accomplishment – as it had been throughout the moving process, it now seems in retrospect—was to whittle down the list of things I hoped to do until I got to the list of things I was actually able to do. (The list-making went on in my head as I worked: there was no time to make actual lists. :))

My goal with what remained after I had shifted most of my belongings to storage was to separate the wheat from the chaff. I had hoped to sort out what I didn’t need from what I did, throwing out such things as bottles of dried old nailpolish, leftover skeins of wool, account files that Revenue Canada no longer required me to keep, etc, etc. But sorting takes time and after the several family crises and moments of joy and farewell visits that had consumed my attention over the previous week or so, I simply didn’t have enough of it to do all that needed to be done.

1718As a result, the sorting I managed to do mainly consisted of trying to separate the things I’d need while I was in Alberta for two weeks and a bit, before the final move to Toronto, from the things I wouldn’t need until I got to Toronto. Even this attempt was only partially successful. Despite working on Monday evening until 2 or 3 a.m. and a resumption of activity at 6 a.m., by the time my apartment manager came to do the damage inspection at 9:00, I was throwing everything into boxes and suitcases willy-nilly. Since the manager stayed around to see if she could help until I left, I was distracted, and at the end I just filled and taped, filled and taped until everything was packed. Half of those boxes went unlabeled.

Finally at about 9:45 a.m., I told Maureen (the apartment manager) that I was either going to miss my plane and clean the oven and the fridge, or I was going to leave those things undone and she could deduct the costs of cleaning the two appliances from my damage deposit. She seemed to understand completely. She even looked a bit worried at what I still had to do before I caught the plane, and kindly offered to take the equipment from SakTel back to the store for me. I am eternally grateful for that, because I never would have made it if I’d had to go to the SaskTel store on top of everything else.

As it was, I still very nearly didn’t make it.

Ultimately I loaded fifteen boxes and suitcases, the vacuum cleaner and various odds and ends into the rented car—filling  nearly1714 every single square inch of space to the point where I could see very little road behind me because of all the luggage jammed against both rear windows and nearly up to to the interior roof light. My seat was so close to the steering wheel–allowing a suitcase to be jammed between the back of the front seat and the front of the back seat–that I could barely move my feet around enough to hit the gas and brake.

My first stop after leaving the apartment (forever, although I didn’t have time to absorb that information then) was the Greyhound station, where I addressed thirteen of the boxes and bags to myself in Edmonton, handed over $145, and breathed my first real sigh of relief.

The next stop was the storage unit in Saskatoon, where I left the vacuum cleaner, the pail (I brought the damp and dirty rags with me to Edmonton to wash) and a couple of boxes of things I’d neglected to send with the movers.

Next I drove to a gas station and filled up the rented car with gas. Then I drove the car to the airport, handed the keys to the staff at the Enterprise desk, took my suitcases to the WestJet counter, and picked up a boarding pass. I got myself and my backpack through security (fortunately, unlike on one previous trip, I’d remembered to pack the box cutter somewhere besides in my carry-on luggage), and walked up the stairs to the appointed gate–where my plane had already started boarding. I walked directly onto the plane, and sat down in my seat. For the next hour I simply marveled at the fact that I was on the plane.

I am looking forward to a similar time for reflection after I board the plane for Toronto on Saturday: I have barely had time to think about being a non-Saskatchewanian since I left that province two weeks ago, much less to consider that my adventure in Toronto is about to begin in earnest.

But it is!

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In [sic] glorious transit (Part 1)

Posted on November 3, 2009 | Leave a comment

Post # 12

Days to departure from Saskatoon = minus 6! (below and to the right is a photo of the main reason why I did not post this update sooner Library - 1720: my first grandbaby, whom I am now visiting in Calgary is an attention grabber, to say the least.)

Days to departure from Western Canada = 12

Wow! I am no longer a resident of Saskatoon.

“Incredulous” is the only word that comes close to describing how I felt last Tuesday at noon when I walked onto the plane for Edmonton as scheduled. I cannot begin to count the number of times prior to that moment that I was absolutely certain I would never make any of the deadlines I had set for myself.

Here is how the final days of the move unfolded (fell apart) —

On Sunday, October 25, my state of mind went back and forth from energy-fuelled elation to despair. Depending on the hour, I was either certain that I would get everything into boxes before the movers arrived at 8 a.m. the next day, or sure that I could never finish, not even if I stayed up all night.

At about five p.m., my friends Mari-Lou and Albert dropped in. Mari-Lou looked around at the disarray in my apartment, took in my crestfallen expression, and then asked me a question that helped immeasurably.

She said,  “How much stuff do you actually still need to pack before the movers get here?”

Her question made me realize that until then, I had been trying to pack for two moves all at once. The first move, the one that would take place on Monday morning, was from the apartment to the storage unit. The other involved the belongings I would need immediately when I arrived in Toronto. That second part of the packing job didn’t need to be done until Tuesday.

Library - 1711

Sunday evening

So after Mari-Lou and Albert left (having offered to help with the packing, an offer I declined with thanks because no one could sort out the mess but me ), I went for a farewell bowl of noodles at the Nutana Café and then, reinvigorated, started shifting everything I would need immediately in Toronto (my computer, clothes, something to sleep on, linen, cosmetics, a few books, financial and work files, etc etc) into my bedroom. That left me with only what I needed to pack to move to the storage unit.

And there was still a lot to pack….

At about 2 a.m. I quit and went to bed, still completely uncertain I would  get it done on time. I planned to get up at 6, but I woke at 5:30 and started packing again right away. Fortunately the movers were an hour late, and an hour or so after they did arrive, I ran out of boxes. By then, I was almost finished packing the stuff for storage, so I put away the packing tape and marking pens, loaded a few paintings into my rented car, and started making all the phone calls I should have made on Friday if I hadn’t been too busy that day to remember that there were no business days left between me and the move.

The first place I needed to phone was an auction house. Since I had not received any inquiries in response to my furniture ads on Kikiji, and I was determined not to move furniture I didn’t want to Toronto, I’d decided to try to put these items up for auction. On the basis of an ad in the Yellow Pages, which made me think the company didn’t deal in junk but also wasn’t too exclusive or specialized for my furniture, I called McDougall Auctions. The owner, Terry McDougall, was very helpful, friendly, and sympathetic. Although he doesn’t normally do household auctions he agreed to take my couch, table, chairs and lamp and a few small other things, and to put them up for sale in a couple of weeks when he has some appropriate other items to auction.

The next item on my list was to cancel my internet connection and tv. Attempting to make contact with SaskTel of course led to half a dozen decisions about which buttons to push (why is there never any “back up one step” option?), followed by the usual wait and wait on hold for a customer service representative (who would “be right with [me]” according to a recorded voice I’ve come to know in the past four years better than I do the voices of many of my relatives). This (again as usual) was followed by great confusion at the SaskTel end because I no longer had a phone with them (VOIP is cheaper, folks), which meant that they didn’t know how to look up my account. I finally managed to get the service cancellation sorted out, but was then informed that I would need to come, in person, to the SaskTel store downtown — no other location would do — to return their equipment to them.

Library - 1715

Sunday evening

Thank you very much, SaskTel. I will not miss you even for a second.

I had intended also to call the utility company to get the power doused on Tuesday afternoon, and to phone my health insurance and tenant policy carriers, but by the time I was finished with SaskTel, the movers were ready to depart.

After a stop at the auction house to unload the items to be sold, we went to the storage unit, and the two young men unloaded my belongings there in short order. (I was very impressed with the efficiency of Saskatoon Movers, and recommend them. The one-hour delay was caused by a broken-down truck, and not their delinquency, and everything else went smoothly.) While I was waiting in the car for the movers to finish, I managed to find City of Saskatoon utilities on my iPhone’s internet, and cancelled my power effective the following day.

After the movers were finished, I had a few errands to run:

  • I took my aunt’s watercolour paintings to a shipper (Pack and Ship – they were recommended by a framing company I’d done business with previously) to send to my son and my cousin. We don’t want those valuable works of art spending time in an unheated storage unit
  • I got more boxes and more packing tape
  • I dropped off clothes and some household items I no longer wanted at Goodwill.
  • I went to my insurance company office, and got the storage unit added to the coverage on my tenant policy. (After I get to Toronto, I will have thirty days to find a new insurance company for my belongings–including those still in the storage unit in Saskatoon)
  • While I was at the insurance company office (where a  huge fish tank had just cracked apart along a seam, spilling gallons of water all over the rug, which added to the  feeling of unreality of the day. And no, I was not the only one to ask them if they had insurance), I realized that my driver’s license was about to expire. I didn’t want to have to get an Ontario license as soon as I arrived there, so I decided to renew in Saskatchewan so I would be valid until I had time to sort things out post-move.  Unfortunately this required a photo. So my new driver’s license photo features me mid-move, sweaty and wearing grubby clothes. I couldn’t find a hairbrush in my backpack, although it contained everything else but the kitchen sink. (It’ll probably turn out to be the best driver’s license photo I’ve ever had.)

I finally got home at about 4:30 and had a quick shower before going out to dinner—which turned out to be a feast—prepared by the aforementioned Mari-Lou in honour of my departure and a forthcoming natal day.  Rejuvenated (a little) I went home to tackle the final phase of the packing, the cleaning of the apartment, and a host of other odds and ends that needed to be done before my plane for Edmonton left at noon the next day.

(to be continued)

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Equipment Checklist for Home-Moving Persons

Posted on October 24, 2009 | Leave a comment

Post #11

Days to Departure from Saskatoon: 3

Days to Departure from Western Canada: 21

7 p.m. Friday Oct. 23

7 p.m. Friday Oct. 23

There are certain objects that a Moving Person needs to attach to herself somehow when she is packing; otherwise these objects disappear completely and she spends half her time looking for them, rather than packing.

I have put these objects (well, except the vacuum cleaner) in a plastic pail so that I can carry them around with me, or at least locate them when I need them.

The next trick will be to train myself to put the objects back into the pail after I have used them. 😦

Friday night

Friday night

  • packing tape
  • marking pen
  • stickers for labeling boxes
  • scissors
  • box cutter
  • polly filla
  • scrubber and/or abrasive cleaner for marks on walls
  • pliers
  • a container for extracted, re-usable screws and nails
  • vacuum cleaner

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I’m having sushi for breakfast

Posted on October 21, 2009 | 1 comment

Post #10

Days to Departure from Saskatoon: 6.5

Days to Departure from Western Canada: 24

Rule to live by: in the final five days before a move, you can eat anything you want whenever you want, particularly if it uses up something that is in the fridge, and as long as you also eat lots of fresh fruit and vegetables and take your vitamins.

Also, you don’t have to do the dishes unless you feel like it or run out of clean cutlery because everything else is in disarray, so who cares?

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Life has a way….

Posted on October 19, 2009 | 1 comment

Post #9

Days to Departure from Saskatoon: 8

Days to Departure from Western Canada: 26

Schedules are fine in theory but they tend to fly utterly out the window in the face of real-life events.

In the past week, I have learned of the death of my first cousin’s husband, who was only 45 and whom I loved a lot, as I do his wife and their young-adult sons. This meant I wanted to fly to the funeral in Vancouver, and I did, on Saturday. While I was there I learned by email of the terminal illness of a dear friend who is in her 90s but has not suffered a day of major ill health until this year.

I flew home and hosted a gathering of friends at Amigos here in Saskatoon yesterday, which was lovely but emotional. I am going to miss quite a few people who live here. And later yesterday I learned that I had become a grandmother for the first time (thanks, Matt and Nancy. You have made a beautiful little baby and thereby enriched my life in ways that I don’t have any inkling about now, and in ways that I already do).

LR Oct19 09Needless to say, none of these events has actually advanced the move that I am preparing for in any kind of physical way (i.e., the Brownie elves did NOT come in while I was in Vancouver and pack the books). As you will see from the attached photo, I am in more of a mess here than I was last time I took a photo. I think this is a good thing – a sign of some progress. But just now, at 4:30 on Monday afternoon, one week before the movers arrive, I noticed myself walking aimlessly from room to room, trying to remember what I was looking for and thinking instead about the people we learn to love, and the inevitability of loss.

So now I have sat down to try to prioritize what I absolutely must do and cross things off my lists that are not essential.

I decided one thing I could do right now was to write a blog post. And another thing I will do is to evaluate some work that has come in and figure out where I will slot it into my week. And I will put my furniture that is for sale on Kikiji. And that will be quite a bit of something, even if that’s all I get done for the rest of the day.

More soon.

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Mover booked!

Posted on October 8, 2009 | Leave a comment

Post #8

Days to Departure from Saskatoon: 19

Days to Departure from Western Canada: 37

Today I finally found time to send out requests for estimates from movers. A tip for any moving company reps who might happen by and read this: I am so used to doing business on the Internet that if I found from the phone book or a website that I would have to phone rather than email to get an estimate (because no email address was provided), I didn’t bother with that company. It is so much faster to send an email request to eight movers at once (using bcc, of course) than to call them one at a time, phoning doesn’t seem worth the time. However, I did include my phone number with my emailed request for estimates, so that movers could call me if I hadn’t provided them with enough information.

Since my move is small, from a small two-bedroom to a storage unit, it was not necessary for the moving companies to come out and look over the situation before they were able to give me a quote. We ball-parked it — estimating that to load the belongings and take them to the storage unit and unload them would take two “men” (are they ALL men? That’s how they quote) three or four hours. One company estimated it would take three men five to six hours! They obviously didn’t want my business. But three others were fairly close to one another. I chose the company that phoned and asked a few questions, and assured me that they would wrap any valuables in plastic wrap and leave the wrap on them so that they were protected when they came out of storage as well. The two companies that haven’t got back to me yet are out of luck.

So Saskatoon Moving will be here at 8:30 a.m. on Monday, October 26. Once I had that settled, I booked a flight to Edmonton from Saskatoon for the next day on a seat sale. It was only $45! Plus tax (which doubled the cost, but still). Then I booked a rental car in Edmonton — and there I found one company’s cost varied from another’s by more than $100/week. Amazing.

Snow, Saskatoon, Oct. 8/09I find that in the mornings when I wake up, I feel as though I have lots of time to get everything done before I have to leave Saskatoon, but by the end of the day (as now), I find myself panicking that I will not. I hit what is likely to be the closest perspective to reality at about 4 p.m., I guess: and at those times, I know I will make my deadlines, but I also know I may not get all the fine sorting done that I had hoped to do before I go.

So there’s progress. And today there was a snowstorm in Saskatoon to help remind me of one of the reasons why I’m leaving. It was so beautiful here last week that I thought maybe I’d just been dreaming prairie winters all these years. Not.

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