Daryl’s Brain

I am writing this as I try to recover from a weekend on the mainland. No, I do not have a hangover, but I got so very little sleep this last weekend I am having trouble maintaining consciousness. This is why God made coffee!

The reason for our presence on the other side of the water was a wedding. Two of our friends from church were married and the ceremony and reception were wonderful! During the reception someone mentioned that if you say the name of the groom to anyone who went to Trinity Western University they will know who you are talking about. I decided to test this.

When Stella and I got back to my parents place I told my mom, who works at the university in question, and a look of recognition was the response. Sure enough, she knew who I was talking about.

Too weird.

So, it ends up that I’m not heading over to the mainland this weekend. Just as well, I really need to stop and take a breath anyway. I’m not sure what I will do, however, as my computer is in the shop and it is my main source of “relaxation.” If I stop for too long without something to at least occupy my mind I just end up missing Stella something awful.

Speaking of occupying time, I managed to get the pictures of Bear’s Trip on line. Hope you enjoy them.

My brain was trying to figure out how to best go about celebrating the Twelve Days of Christmas. After much grinding away inside my head, and having to stop the fire alarm from going off due to all the smoke, it figured out that the best way to do this on its blog was by posting twelve miscellaneous facts. So here you go…

On the first day of Christmas my brain pointed out to me:

• Poirier is French for “pear tree”. (And Richard Poirier was born here in Massachusetts)

First of all, thank you to everyone who has kept my father in their prayers and for all the words of encouragement. For those of you who don’t know he is doing much better and is now recuperating form the surgery, a process that involves him being waited on by his wife. Poor guy. (said in the tone of “poor fish”)

Second of all, our visit with our friends went very well. Much fun was had by all. I had a chance to get out some of my ideas and to work through them with another idea person. We built a city. Sort of. Now that they are gone again our home feels just a little bit empty. We love them tonnes and can’t wait until we both live in the same city again, wherever that may be.

Third of all, there is no third. But now that I’ve said that, there is. Or is there?

My dad just had a heart attack. As far as anyone can tell it looks like he will be fine. It does remind me, however, of how fleeting time really is. It was just yesterday that he and I were working on the hovercraft together. The day before I was roasting wood chips for wine in a warehouse that was an investment he had made. The day before that he and my mom were pretending that someone bought my Lego so that they could give me money for rent and still hold on to the toy for my future kids. It’s only been a very short while that we have had together. I love him a lot, and I am proud to be his son.

Today it rained. I went for a walk in the rain. People thought I was crazy.

I miss the West Coast.

We (finally) have our family photo album on-line. Currently, the only album in the gallery is our trip to Boston (which also includes early pictures of our apartment).

Enjoy.

We arrived in Kamloops and spent a few days with Stella’s parents and brother. They are wonderful people. We celebrated Mom-in-law’s birthday and had a great time visiting with everyone. Neither Stella nor I wanted to leave, but we did. Many tears later (and after a stop at Zack’s Coffee Shop for essential supplies) we were on our way to Edmonton. It took a while for the eyes to clear, but when they did we fully enjoyed our surroundings and took many pics to remind ourselves of where we come from.

The road to Jasper was fairly uneventful.

Jasper to Edmonton took us quite a bit longer then planned. Road construction, letting Bastet have a bit of a run outside (she’s such a trooper) and trying to find real coffee slowed us down quite a bit. When we were close to Edmonton we were treated to a lightning shower. You know, when it showers lightning all around you. There was an absence of thunder, however, so we really weren’t in any real danger. It did make for some “white knuckle driving”, however.

Now we are staying with some of Stella’s friends and there is some question of when we will be able to leave. We are waiting on some important documents that we need for the border crossing. When we get them we can head out, but we may not get them until Monday which would put us a full day behind schedule. Wait and see, I guess.

Original Plan

The original plan had me heading down on a TN visa (allowing me to work) and having a temporary job all lined up for the first three months while we were there. We were to qualify for interest relief and, therefore, not have to make any student loan payments for the first 6 months.

Reality Sets In

The contract I had fell through, I work out my experience and realize I don’t qualify for a TN visa, and our interest relief gets denied.

Modified Plan

We head down with me going on a TD visa (spousal version of the TN, which Stella will have), I will look for contract work out of Canada that can be done remotely over the internet, and we reapply for interest relief (we can’t go if we don’t qualify).

Also, we now have more details worked out. We are thinking of getting our plates, car-top carrier, and visa documents, and having our apartment empty and our car packed by Monday night. Then we go to the 6AM liturgy, breakfast afterwards with our church community, and then head to the ferries. Once in Langley we can visit with all the people we need to say goodbye to.

Reality Hits Hard

Monday comes and we are no where near ready. We receive the visa documents, but not the plates for the car nor the car-top carrier. The apartment is not cleared out and not clean. We put a call in for help at church and people came over to help get things done.

A BIG thanks to those who were there! Your help and motivation where invaluable. We will miss you all.

We head to the 6AM liturgy with no plates, no car-top carrier, and all our stuff still in our apartment.

Heavily Modified Plan

Now we are thinking that we will just get as much done as we can while waiting for the plates and the car-top carrier. We get news that our plates will not arrive until Wednesday.

Wednesday.

ARRRRGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!

We call around trying to work something out but nothing works. By this time we are realizing that we can not emotionally handle another day. However, there really isn’t any other option. Now we must leave on Wednesday.

God Steps In

Then there’s a knock on the door. We look at each other and say “wouldn’t it be funny…”

We open the door.

We practically leap on the delivery man standing there with our plates in his hands. The poor guy hears all about our dealings with his company who had told us we would not get these plates that day. We call a friend and get a ride to where our car is parked. We see the car-top carrier in the house of the family that were taking care of the car, but no one is home. We debate breaking the windows and running, but decide not to.

Just as we are about to leave, someone shows up to let us in.

On our way back home we stop by our priest’s house. We hug and say our final good byes. He blesses our car and we head out.

When we arrive home we call a family member who needs to pick up some stuff from us and she comes over and begins helping us get everything done. Then one of Stella’s friends shows up and starts helping. It still looks like there is way too much to do and we started way too late. Then another family member shows up with a truck so we can take things out to be shipped (there’s a lot).

Then there’s less to do.

Then it’s done.

With no time at all to spare, we head to the ferry terminal, hoping to be able to catch the 9PM sailing…the last sailing of the day. We get there at 8:45PM. We practically drive on to the ferry as it takes us to the mainland where we will be too late to say good bye to some of our dear friends, but not too late to say good bye to my family.

Credits

All the credit goes to God, whose hand was very definitely in this, and to all those He guided to help us out (you know who you are). If any one of them had not helped, we would have been delayed by just enough to miss our ferry. Each and every one of you played a key part.

We will miss you all.