Homeless

So much has happened over the past few days, and I've been out of reach from a computer. In a nutshell: packed everything in the apartment, moved it all to two places in Ottawa, bought the plane tickets. Read on for more...

Big thanks go out to the friends who lent their arms and backs to help us move: Dave, Michael, Irene, David, Steph, Jse-Che, Shannon, and of course P.J. and Amy's mother Margaret, who are providing tenancy to the majority of our worldly possessions for the next twelve months.

The move was not without challenges. Starting with U-Haul, which assured us at the time of our booking that a 14-foot cube van would be available for easy pickup at a location East of Downtown Toronto. When they called to confirm on Friday night, they politely informed us that we could pick up our van in Belleville.

For those not familiar with eastern Ontario geography: Belleville is two hours (175km) away from Toronto. After some discussion, Amy and I decided to take it, as they were throwing in some massive incentives by way of apology: 1,000 miles worth of road credit, the price was cut in half and we were given a 17-foot cube van instead.

The place we picked up the van from in Belleville was a bit of a surprise - we did a double-take when we first got there, but no, that was it, with all the U-Haul vans sitting in front of it - it was the typically rural storefront that's seen way too many winters, complete with missing letters - something like "DAVE'S HO E & COUNT Y TRAILE HITCHES". The proprietor (Dave?) was attacking a piece of metal with a grinder - a four foot long, thick rod with a thin cylinder on the end. Sparks were flying everywhere.

Our rental was smooth and effortless, nice given the drive from Toronto. As he punched in the reservation details it gave us real insight into the relaxed nature of the U-Haul operation - the individual franchise owners get a computer program and probably some training, but that's about it; everyone integrates it into their own fashion. In Dave's case, his storefront relating to trailer hitches and truck repairs probably had enough space to accomodate the U-Haul trucks, so it was a perfect fit. But the computer stuck out like a sore thumb: black oily grease marks smudged onto a precision instrument that you'd see in a lab. In a way, it didn't fit, but the ease with which he used the system made it work. He clicked and tabbed his way through the checklists until we had printed out our materials and jumped back on the road in our newly-christened hauling vehicles.

Unfortunately, we'd already been a bit behind in our packing and were counting on that Saturday morning to finish it before people arrived to help, so losing four hours in driving back and forth to Belleville to pick up the van completely thwarted our plans to be finished for supper and a party; people who had arrived for the latter were unwittingly recruited into the final phases of our moving effort. I don't think it was so bad: if it had worked out according to plan, we would have been drinking out of bottles in a completely empty apartment. At least this way we had something to do...

We must have finished around midnight, and chatted for another forty-five minutes. The van was absolutely packed. We would spend another couple of hours doing the final packing in the morning, and then after one final breakfast at our favourite breakfast place in Toronto, Three's Company, we drove an uneventful drive to Ottawa - Amy driving the car, and I driving the van.

The unpack was similar to the pack, but longer, and sweatier. The things I've learned about moving can be summarized in five bullet points:

• Devote four times as much time as you think you'd need to pack, towards packing. There's aways more than you think.


• If you have many able and willing hands, you become a director, and that's the most valuable contribution you can make.


• If you're good at Tetris, you'll be able to fit everything you own into a 17-foot cube van.


• Moving an apartment containing the worldly possessions of two adults over the age of thirty is an excellent way to prepare your body for a twelve-month world trip.


• Next time, hire movers.

And then we bought our tickets at the Ottawa airport (my, how that's changed since I was there last), which was the largest single purchase I've ever put on a credit card. Normally it would all be an e-ticket, but since at least one airline in our itinerary does not support e-tickets, all of our tickets had to be paper. It's not really that bad - perhaps the size of a very thin cheque book - but it's definitely something we're going to have to protect and squirrel away somewhere it won't get easily lost.

The revelation that in about a week we'll be en route on this big trip hasn't really struck me yet. So far, the revelation is that we're officially homeless is what's registering - that and most of our worldly possessions fit into a space that will eventually become a bathroom.