Home again, home again...

Another year of Blue Skies is over. I have returned home to resume the frantic packing and be ready to move in 6 days. As always Blue Skies afforded me the opportunity to see loads of people that I love to spend time with, but rarely get the chance to. The chance to relax, drink some beers, camp and listen to fantastic music. Friday night was amazing as for once I was able to sit and listen to the entire evening of music without worrying about doing anything else. The highlight (although everything was awesome) was listening to an absolutely amazing band called Delhi 2 Dublin. Seriously, go listen to their music. It is the most amazing fusion of Celtic, Indian and Electronic music I have ever heard. Their stage performance was awesome and the energy was unbelievable.

For the majority of acts, only about 5% of the people there will get up and dance. Often, depending on the style of music, that group varies. However, when Delhi 2 Dublin took stage, there were mutters from some of the older Blue Skiers about how this wasn't really "Blue Skies Music" and some even took off back to their campsites early, as Delhi 2 Dublin was the last act of the evening. But there were only a small handful who appeared to depart. What came next absolutely knocked my socks off. 99% of everyone else got up and started dancing. The young, the old, the in-between. That is something that so rarely happens that I felt the need to write so much about it. To finish this thought, seriously, go check out their music, you won't be disappointed.

Moving on.

This year however, despite the awesomeness of friends and music, had some serious downers for me. As I mentioned before, leading up to Blue Skies has been a lot of stress with the impending move and all that surrounds that. So needless to say, I was tired going up but really looking forward to it. I am usually set up the work weekend before, and up again on Wednesday. This year, with everything going on, I had to come up Friday morning, which is hellish for getting in. Usually, if I am driving in on Friday it is only because I ran into Sharbot Lake and then return, drive past the huge line of cars and park where I was. So, this year, I started driving past the lined up cars, got about 10 down the line and realized that I had to be like everyone else and line up! Driving my stick shift and having to reverse up a hill where I only have about 2 inches leeway on each side is difficult. But I was saved! There was someone driving to cars in line, I am guessing his and his wife's (very environmentally friendly...), this of course caused a small gap in the line up while he took turns moving them. I used the opportunity to pull into the line up so I could turn around and drive up the hill, excellent! No sooner than I pulled into the line than this old son of a bitch came to my window to chew me out for trying to cut into the line. He was so self-righteous that I didn't even get the chance to explain to him I was turning around.

So, just a couple minutes into arriving and already I get someone being a total fucking asshole. What a great way to start my weekend...

Throughout the weekend I had several other experiences of this nature, some I simply don't feel like getting into. As I stated earlier, the great music and awesome friends made me smile, a lot. But this year, the fucktards I had to put up with, along with other political Blue Skies bullshit really ruined the festival for me. So much so that on several occasions I discussed with SJMonkey leaving early and not returning next year.

Blue Skies for me is my rejuvenation weekend. Every year it is a chance for me to get back to what I feel are basics; friends, no-frills life, being outdoors, not participating in the capitalist machine. As an aside, the last is the funniest. I have to buy a huge load of necessities right before camping. However, what I really should have said is I am not selling shit while I am there. Anyway! I do not feel overly rejuvenated this year. In fact, I feel much more wiped out, physically and emotionally today.

Again, just to be clear, my friends are awesome. Some in particular. Some of those people may even read this post and know who they are. Most of those people will have me living closer in 6 days, some will be there when I do move in!

To cap this off, post-Blue Skies we drove to the new house, dropped our camping gear, showered for the first time in our new house and then went out to dinner in town. Sushi. That is great post-camping food by the way.

Now, Tuesday night, I am writing this, listening to Delhi 2 Dublin and getting ready to get back to packing. Have a good night, be good to each other and remember this one important lesson; People are fucking assholes of the highest order. BUT, some people are worth more than the contents of Fort Knox, and those people should be told so, often.

Time marches on

Wow. I stopped and thought. I didn't hurt myself. Much.

Two weeks from today we move. This weekend was all about getting ready for Blue Skies and still trying to figure out what needed to be packed for the move. As I mentioned previously in Taking a look around, we really hemmed ourselves in time-wise. Part of this of course was out of our control. The people who we bought the house from had a rigid closing date on their new home and were not budging on the close date of their home. Even baring that in mind, factoring in SJMonkey leaving her current job, it being recently post-wedding, Blue Skies, Balsam Lake trip, we figured we can do it.

Again, as previously mentioned, living as a minimalist for so many years has an impact. I am finding myself drowning in boxes and packing tasks. Time is running out and burn-out is already setting in. Who knew that two people could amass so much stuff?!

To make matters easier on us we have decided to toss a lot of current furniture and appliances. Two reasons; one, we received a lot of new stuff as wedding gifts, and two, we have a want to start buying things that are just ours. I think anyone who has ever permanently shacked up with a partner has felt this need before. No matter what you, or your partner own, there's a good chance there is a memory attached to it that involves a previous partner. Obviously, some things were sentimental before that person and won't be ditched, and some are pleasant memories which you wish to hold on to. But in the main, both you and your partner agree it would be nice, to be blunt, to have furniture that only the two of you, together, have fucked on.

In any case, we posted these items to be given away, free, just come and get it. They're all in good repair (everything that wasn't is being tossed) and clean (you know what I mean by clean). And, right away, lots of people piped up to claim items for their own place. It's easy as pie to grab things like lamps or microwaves. Even without a car, they're not hard to bus or pay for a taxi or get a friend to give you a lift. The larger items are the issue. And wow, I never realized how hard it would be for people to find a truck to borrow for the afternoon.

Growing up in the country, trucks were the easiest thing to procure (next to tractors or farm animals) but in the city? Damn... Worst of all, is the lack of communication. I have sent out messages asking people, "Do you still want X? Did you find transportation yet?" and the answers are still not coming. Here's the thing; we wanted this stuff gone to facilitate packing and cleaning and organizing our stuff for moving. Some items, are useful right up until we leave, and the people who were interested on those items were informed of that. But everything else? GET IT OUT OF MY HOME!

*sigh*

So, being the person I am, I sent a message to everyone, basically stating that anything that wasn't accounted for and guaranteed to be gone, I would get it rid of. Next Monday, I return from Blue Skies and anything that isn't claimed, either physically or in writing, is going to end up as a donation to a shelter or Salvation Army.

Of course, someone I recently spoke to about this posited this, "You're giving your stuff away for free because you want it gone. It's all good stuff in good shape, some of it pretty new. Anything that isn't claimed fast, put up on Kijiji or Facebook Market and sell it."

Huh... Make money off of my old stuff. Grand idea! Except it defeats my purpose. Yeah, I'm a salesman. Yeah, when it comes to work I'm all about making cash and kicking ass and being part of the Capitalist machine. But that's not me. I'd rather see people I like getting it if they can use it and failing that, the stuff going to a charity for others. But honestly, part of me totally wants to turn around and sell this stuff, make some cash and tell everyone that they snoozed and they lost.

OK. Enough angst from me for one evening. Need to sleep so I can wake up tomorrow and continue on in the vain hope that I can somehow get our lives packed and be ready for four days of camping in the next couple of days.

Anyone want to make a shiny nickel and come do all this for me?

:D

Taking a look around

I wanted to start writing this to keep a loose record of the goings on these days. Several months ago, SJMonkey and I decided to get the hell outta Ottawa, we had both had enough. We looked at several different places, looking for work in each and what housing was like in each place. Picking up and moving used to be a very easy thing for me; pack bag of clothes, grab my few tiny possessions, which were mostly made up of books, and go. Simple, uncomplicated, easy. Living a minimalist life has pluses. But, times change.

In June, SJMonkey and I got married. We're a permanent, unbreakable unit now. This can make picking up and moving more complicated. However, being with her makes every aspect of my life infinitely better, so it is the tiniest of trade-offs. We were married in Peterborough, her home-town and quite possibly, one of my favourite towns to spend time in. In fact, while looking at places to move to, we kept using the distance and ease to Peterborough as a measuring stick.

This of course brought up the most obvious thought, 'why not just move to Peterborough?'. For one, job's aren't easy to find. That becomes the biggest stumbling block. However, skip back to February, when I still worked in Kanata, and we find me being contacted by a recruiter who is trying to fill some positions for a very large company. Few months go by, I talked to lots of different people in the company, I drive out to Vaughn (via Misssisauga, accidentally) to meet with someone, and things are good. Come back to June. We say we're going to do it, after the wedding. Move to Peterborough.

I have a lead on this job that I can do in Peterborough, SJMonkey has some leads. Go for it. With a twist. Instead of renting again, we decided to buy. Everyone had advice for us (much like the reams of advice we got for the wedding and wholly ignored) and every piece of advice came with the caveat that 'trying to find a home takes forever, don't give up.' So, 1 week of looking at the MLS, 1 weekend of interviewing real-estate agents to see who we actually wanted to work with, following weekend spent looking at houses.

We found the one we wanted. It was the second house we saw. No screwing around, no BS, we made an offer, got a counter, accepted and began to what we needed so both parties met all the conditions; quickly. The house closes on July 29th, 4 days from now. We're almost completely packed, movers have been hired and we're set to go.

Of course, we're not moving in on the close date. We're going camping first. Not just chill at a fire for a weekend camping, nono, we're going to Blue Skies. We do some volunteer work there every year and it's a long, involved thing. This year, we're doing much less and will be there for only 3 days, but there is still a lot of planning and packing that goes into it. So here we are.

We pack, camp, return, finish packing, have a going away party and then move. Poof! Gone from Ottawa. Now, it isn't that we don't love people in Ottawa, it's just that the city itself has nothing for us. And so many people, oh man, SO many people have been harsh about it. I've heard so many people tell me how terrible living in Peterborough is going to be. How the housing market is shit. How getting jobs is awful. So on and so forth, et al., etc.

But, too bad. Off we go. People who don't like it, suck it up. In any case, we're all caught up now, and I have rambled quite enough. Best of luck to us, best of luck to you. Have a great weekend and if you're in Ottawa, we'll see you at the going away party hopefully. And if you're in Peterborough, get ready for us, because here we come!