September 2016
OK the summer ended on August 31 and the temperature has not
gotten above 25, or its so cold at night that by the time it gets to 27-28 the
sun is about to drop behind the horizon.
We are living in a forest so it's difficult to see the sun sometimes.
The job is winding down. Sauble Beach turns into a ghost
town after school starts and is only open on weekends ...literally. Today being September 19 will probably be my
last day. Rick; however, is working until the end of October so I have no
excuse for not getting everything done that I had planned to complete this
summer.
I had applied for two jobs at the local college: one was as
a student advisor to the new students who were foreign or were first-family
[who were the first in their families to actually attend post secondary]. The other was as a writing assistant to help
students with writing essays in proper English. I got neither position.
I think I was not acceptable firstly because when they
looked at my resume which covered all of my post-secondary degrees and my
Ontario teaching qualifications [public and high school], and looked at the
dates, my age gave me away. Secondly, there were no typing mistakes in my cover
letter and my resume, so that was a mark against me. {There were typos in the
ad listing the requirements for the positions} And thirdly my B. of Arts, B. of
Education, teaching certificate; having taught both high school and adults in
re-training and being a published author did not equate to their requirement of
some obscure certificate that said I knew how to teach English to adults. Oh
well, I would have stayed the winter here, but maybe the Universe is telling me
I don't have to now! [Besides, I was afraid Jeanne would have hunted me
down...]
I am NOT without skills. I re-made the sail cover...gave up
the lazy-jack idea and just made it better, and patched the wear spots. I
completely repaired the spinnaker. Yeehaw! And we have lots of extra patching
material. I have made up the UV strip for the small jib and if I can't get it
sewn on, the sail-maker will finish it for me. Plus, I have done so many
repairs to jeans, pants, shorts, shirts, and kid's clothes, I COULD have opened
my own shop this summer ... hmmm ... next year?
We finally replaced the van. We had to when the strut fell
through the engine compartment and sat on the wheel. I had been driving our old
Kia that my brother bought when we left. Rick was driving at time the Tobermory
Marine truck [a well-used Ford] and when that didn't work, he drove his boss's
Cadillac XLR ragtop...very scary to drive a million dollar car that isn't
yours...especially on gravel roads!!!
We search all through the Auto trader and various other
sites; we scoured the yards of auto dealers here and even private offerings but
there was nothing that was under $2000.00 that didn't need an equal amount of
work and had less than 200,000 km on it. We finally went to London after a
couple of false starts, to look at a vehicle at one of the dealerships. No go; so we drove around London for a day,
scouring their lots, this time with the dealer's agents or mechanics as guides.
We passed one car in a lot and the agent said laughingly "You should take
this one. It just came in yesterday...little old lady... only on Sundays."
It was nothing close to what we were looking for but it was
a beautiful car: a 2000 Chrysler 300 M with only 72,000 km; only $3100.00. Not
a mark on it: white with cream leather interior and it could do everything
except make coffee. I sat in it, pretending I was a queen while I admired the
elegant instruments and the faux wood trim...for about 45 seconds, and then
slid back through the portal into the real world, where we continued our search
for a van/truck/SUV in which we could carry shit without guilt. We found another bargain and they agreed to pre-examine
it before we bought it...just in case.
I drove back to Owen Sound because I had to work the next
day but Rick waited for the SUV to be ready. Around 10 am the next morning, he
texted me and said that it was junk and was being scrapped, so the hunt continued.
He and my brother-in-law continued to look for another 'bargain'.
For some reason I was starting to obsess over that car. I
bawled all the time I was making beds and cleaning toilets that day, trying to
send him mental messages to go get that car. Completely not what we needed!! [I
think I might have texted him once or twice...]
So we have this lovely luxury car that we could actually
live in and it will kill me to park it for the winter! The mechanic who
certified it told Rick it was a great deal and it would last us another 10
years. Aha! There's the justification! It is a $500.00 -a-year-car instead of
replacing it every year for 1-2 thousand, right? So the Universe provided the car instead of a
job. Now if it would only let me win a lottery...
So many changes happening this winter too. People changing boats; changing destinations.
It feels like we are going back to a new community. I hope we see some of them
back in the cruising community somewhere, and I hope we see all of the people
on our land list before we leave, too!
It may take until Christmas but...
I got an email from the College yesterday to tell me that
there was a job posting that I might interested in. OH LOOK, it's the same one I
already applied for...think I'll give it
a second shot to see what happens. I can always say "no". And if it's
offered, I can also take it for a while and if I don't like it, quit...not as
if I need to replace it with anything.
See... not much news. It's more exciting on the boat!
