unlike my wife, I could not wait for the various furniture pieces that I have carried with me since puberty to be sucked up by bargain shoppers and the special breed of people who cruise the streets looking for stuff at the end of the driveway with a "FREE" sign on it. For example...our couch. It has certainly served us faithfully for many years, and yes, I have had a few pleasurable naps on it. But I hated that couch from the moment it arrived. Especially after I sampled my buddy Matt's couch. It's one of those where you just melt into it and 4 hours later it spits you back to reality all refreshed.
The person who will now be renting our old place came by a couple of weeks ago to show her friend and get his opinion. She happened to ask what we were doing with our stuff...well - my wife just pounced all over that and managed to sell her the matching loveseat and ottoman (why is it called an ottoman?), but we couldn't make her bite on the couch. Even at the very reasonable price of nothing.
So now it's moving weekend and the couch is still around. I do a quick prayer and ritualistic sacrifice to the bargain shopping gods, then we put the couch at the end of the driveway. This has to work. We then head off to dump , err, deliver some of our things to the family cabin. We come back...it's still there. We head out for dinner and return. It's still there. The gods have forsaken me.
Now it's Sunday, Do or die. Everything must go cause by the end of the day we will be homeless. We take the couch back to street-level and say a quick prayer. Fast forward to 3 PM, when our ever vigilant guard dog starts barking madly from her perch above the carport. I go to see and pull her in, when I notice that two people ARE NOW TAKING THE COUCH AWAY. Oh happy moment. I quickly move Jessy inside so her barking doesn't scare them off. I don't even move once back inside. I don't want to jinx it. Finally my daughter returns and says "hey Dad - the couch is gone!" And life is good once more...
Showing posts with label pre-trip preparations. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pre-trip preparations. Show all posts
Monday, July 11, 2011
Sunday, May 8, 2011
What the heck are you thinking???
We've had loads of questions from friends and family about where we're going, what we're doing and why we're doing this. Well, I thought this was a perfect place to answer everything at once (from my perspective anyways - Chloe and Paul may have some different notions!)
Why we are doing this: When Paul and I were in Paris in 2006 for my 40th birthday Paul noticed a tour bus pull up as we were enjoying a meal in an outdoor restaurant. Many of the people getting off the bus needed to either hold on tightly to the railing, use a cane or grab onto a helping hand as they gingerly side stepped down the stairs onto the awaiting sidewalk. He turned to me and said, "We have to travel before we're that age!" Reason #1 - we still have our health. I often hear children and adults alike talking about all of the "stuff" they are proud to own or the things they absolutely "need" to have. I too enjoy a good shopping spree and have been known to buy things that I have absolutely no need for but feel somehow that I must have. Reason #2 - to get back to basics and hopefully develop a better understanding of how privileged and fortunate we really are and that we don't need to keep up with the Jones's! Our lives get so busy with the day to day business of working, cleaning the house, preparing meals, paying the bills, and most importantly of all raising a child, that we often forget how much we enjoy each others company and how much fun we can have together. Reason #3 - we realize that we only go around once and we are looking forward to laughing, learning and being amazed together!
Where we're going: We are starting from the west coast of Canada in July 2011. After exploring our marvelous country and delivering the dog to Nova Scotia, we will head down as far as Boston to catch a flight to Peru. After a 3 week stint volunteering in Cusco with Peru's Challenge, we will continue to explore some countries in SA and then fly to Australia. We are booking flights a la carte rather than the RTW ticket option so we haven't booked any flights past that. We are thinking we will head into SE Asia from there and then through India, Africa, Turkey and Europe. We remember the planning of our youth when we would meet other travelers who would recommend a great spot and that would become our next destination. Although I'm sure we'll book a little bit further in advance than we did in our youth, that is our plan - not much of a plan to some but a great adventure for us!!
Why we are doing this: When Paul and I were in Paris in 2006 for my 40th birthday Paul noticed a tour bus pull up as we were enjoying a meal in an outdoor restaurant. Many of the people getting off the bus needed to either hold on tightly to the railing, use a cane or grab onto a helping hand as they gingerly side stepped down the stairs onto the awaiting sidewalk. He turned to me and said, "We have to travel before we're that age!" Reason #1 - we still have our health. I often hear children and adults alike talking about all of the "stuff" they are proud to own or the things they absolutely "need" to have. I too enjoy a good shopping spree and have been known to buy things that I have absolutely no need for but feel somehow that I must have. Reason #2 - to get back to basics and hopefully develop a better understanding of how privileged and fortunate we really are and that we don't need to keep up with the Jones's! Our lives get so busy with the day to day business of working, cleaning the house, preparing meals, paying the bills, and most importantly of all raising a child, that we often forget how much we enjoy each others company and how much fun we can have together. Reason #3 - we realize that we only go around once and we are looking forward to laughing, learning and being amazed together!
Where we're going: We are starting from the west coast of Canada in July 2011. After exploring our marvelous country and delivering the dog to Nova Scotia, we will head down as far as Boston to catch a flight to Peru. After a 3 week stint volunteering in Cusco with Peru's Challenge, we will continue to explore some countries in SA and then fly to Australia. We are booking flights a la carte rather than the RTW ticket option so we haven't booked any flights past that. We are thinking we will head into SE Asia from there and then through India, Africa, Turkey and Europe. We remember the planning of our youth when we would meet other travelers who would recommend a great spot and that would become our next destination. Although I'm sure we'll book a little bit further in advance than we did in our youth, that is our plan - not much of a plan to some but a great adventure for us!!
Monday, April 4, 2011
Luggage
Another small step accomplished as we gear up (quite literally) for the trip! While Paul and I were in Seattle we made a visit to the REI store (a destination not to be missed!), and got 2 Osprey rolling backpacks. It's hard to believe that we are only 3 months away from our departure!
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