The marathon to the starting line and what else can happen?

It seems that the last 3 months have just gone by in a flash. From the moment I was selected for the EWB placement things got from busy to flat out insane. Here’s a chronicle of some of the "Out of Scope" tasks that were thrown in the mix.

Let's Save the Vegetable:

Karie and I have been literally living together for a while; we were just cohabiting in two different households. We would spend as much time in her condo and in my townhouse. As the pace of things accelerated it became increasingly difficult to manage both places with 1 dog, the 2 cats and the 2 refrigerators. So I admit that I got upset one day for having to throw away spoiled vegetables from one of the refrigerator. So I guess I said something like:

“This is too crazy and we can’t keep on spoiling vegetables like this; we have to move in together”

It doesn’t sound very romantic but the “trigger” for us to move in WAS a few spoiled vegetables. In all fairness the vegetables only precipitated something that was on the verge of happening. If I had not been selected for the EWB placement or if we had managed the 2 refrigerators better, it would still have happened. It is where we were in the relationship.

Never fire a starting pistol at a racehorse:

From the time we had the “Spoiled Vegetable” talk, Karie’s condo was listed for rental on the web the next day. The lease was signed 9 hours later and the moving company was at the door 7 days after that.

Moving is difficult at best and can be challenging; moving one household into another existing one increases the difficulty exponentially. Going through the whole cycle, lock stock and barrel, in 8 days is nothing short of insanity.

I don’t want to get into too many details; just talking about it makes my neck tense up. As you will read in the “Play Nice with Big Younger Kids”, I need to keep my neck loose and relax.

Children are Priceless:

As we were going through the challenge of merging our 2 households, my favorite x-wife kicked my 19 year old son out. Without giving up too much detail, he is a good kid but he needed a kick in the behind. Our parenting approach over the years has been one of “Tag Team”.  We always had good communication and been very supportive of each other.

So now he lives with Karie and I. To recap; my townhouse has acquired in that 3 weeks period: 2 cats, 1 girlfriend and one teenage boy to join me with my dog Tango.

Beware of Past Promises:

While in Montreal last December a distant relative, a 17 years old boy finishing his high school indicated to me that he wanted to come to Calgary to learn English. I volunteered to help him out if his parents agreed to send him to Calgary. He could live with me and I would help him. It seemed that the odds where not very good since I had not heard from him in a while.

Whatever the odds were of him coming, it doesn’t matter because now he is coming. Another recap; my townhouse has acquired in less than 4 weeks: 2 cats, 1 girlfriend and one 2 teenage boys to join me with my dog Tango in my townhouse. Did I mention that I am leaving in 8 days?

Play Nice with Big Younger Kids:

They say that 50 is the new 25. Nevertheless my body is still over 50 and has a lot of mileage. I was playing with my friend’s kids in the park. While running as fast as I could possibly run, I took a tumble and landed hard on my shoulder. Now I am sporting a brand new broken collar bone. The kid I was chasing was only 3 years old but he is really big for his age.

If you thought I had a funny smile at the EWB send off party it’s because every time I shook someone’s hand it generated atrocious pain in my right shoulder. I should have been less proud and wear my arm sling.

Fortunately it has been healing very well and there is no doubt in my mind or in my physician’s mind that I will be healthy by the time I have to go.

The downside is that many items on my "to do" list involves power tools or moving large objects.

Scope Change:

This was a very challenging period and I won’t be able to do all that was on my list before leaving on the 29^th. I have to accept it. I am happy that the end result of that crazy period is Karie and I are now sharing more of our lives. I have cut down the list to a minimum and hopefully we can enjoy what’s left of our time together. I am grateful to have her at my side; without her I would not have been able to make this happen.

It has been insane but I am excited and can’t wait to finally start this adventure. Hopefully the actual adventure will be more comb than the getting there…