Will miss our nice back yard 

...friends at 201..... 

Where will the Gregster snooze? 

Who will guard the 'hood now? 

Recalling how it used to be 

Brother Lang emphasizes his right wing point to Sami

Joan and Darrell and dessert 

Malice Alice may miss her garden pool 

Crunch time

Had a nice 3-4 day visit from Joan and Darrell. Son Sami and his mate Caroline joined us for a couple of days and Sami has threatened to return to help with final packing. Samantha and Chris will come by for dinner tomorrow (a chance to further deplete perishables) and take possession of the lovely Malice-Alice along with some plants and anything else I can unload on them.

It is now serious crunch time and I obviously have a few things on the mind as in a “senior moment” a pub night with old colleagues completely slipped it. My apologies to those offended!!

I have calculated that the trip to my first stop in Mexico will take 7 or 8 days without pushing it. I hope the Gregster is up to that. I am pumped! Sunday will be the beginning of some serious packing and even more serious decisions regarding what to take and what to store. It will be an interesting test of how much stuff one can get into a Chev.

Countdown

I am now in the final stages of countdown to departure – scheduled for October 1. Real estate has been sold and closing completed. Visas have been secured, as have all the required insurance requirements. An ideal home for Malice Alice has been found chez daughter Samantha and partner Chris. McGregor of course will be traveling with me, although he does not yet realize this. His papers are also in order except for the “certificate of good health” which needs to be done at the final moment. Arrangements for packing and storage of stuff has been planned for next week so that I can squeeze the last bit of use out of this old house and garden that I have come to enjoy so much.

I reflect on how many times I have done this in my life as the familiar conflicting emotions related to leaving familiar and comfortable surroundings and moving to a new and unknown destination rattle around my being. The cool 8-degree Ottawa morning and large brown maple leaves floating in my backyard fishpond motivate me.

Today I have some preparation to do in anticipation of the visit from my sister and her husband Darrell. This will serve to further run down my vast stock of frozen food ingredients that I have been slowly chipping away at over the last month or so in anticipation of my departure. Yesterday I used up all of the frozen pumpkin and so today will have to find a home for a couple of pies. I do not anticipate a problem.