Belated greetings to all!



Yes, I know I am late getting this written. Unlike previous years, 2022 was quite momentous for me. Perhaps my changes were less earthshattering than those in Ukraine, but still, my life in December 2022 is very different than it was December 2021. The downside is that I have much less mental energy to spread around. It got to the point where a friend sent me a message last week to make sure everything was okay because it had been so long since she had heard from me! So I figured that I should make the effort and send out belated greetings. My new target is to get this done before we go back to Ecuador in February...

Having a few days off will hopefully let me catch up on a few things, like hemming the pants I had sitting in my sewing room since September. (I am finally wearing them now, I figure that is a good sign!)  I think everyone has heard about my adventures in Ecuador last February, so I won't repeat them here. I finally made it home, not in time for my Godmother's funeral, but that positive COVID test meant that I was able to cross the border to make it to Connecticut for my aunt's funeral a week later. It was nice to see the cousins, and I got to impose on my brother in Troy NY for a few days as well.

A month later, it was announced that the garage where I worked was closing. No, not because I took a 6 week leave! It had been for sale for years, and the right offer finally came along, so by June I was back into the soul crushing world of interviews, and rejections for nonsensical reasons, but then lightning struck. A retired colleague of Serge phoned to tell him that a non-profit where he was volunteering on the Board was in desperate need of an accountant/administrator/director/whatever-else-needs-doing-in-the-office person, and would I know anyone? Well, Serge was happy to volunteer me sight unseen, but as it turns out, I love it. It is a small non-profit organization that manages a complex of 8 appartment buildings. We don't have subsidized housing, but since all profits must be put back into the complex, everything is well maintained and the rents are relatively low. 
 So now, instead of dealing with panicky customers with flat tires, I am dealing with panicky tennants with blocked drains! I don't have to unblock the drains myself (fortunately, or we would all be in trouble), I work with the Director who manages the concierges. I handle all the money issues, from collecting the rents to paying the bills, and I am learning payroll, taxes and government regulations from the employer side. I can definitely say that it is a really weird feeling to sign one's own paycheque! The complex is located in a pleasant area, and the mature trees means it is also home to some of the fattest squirrels I have ever seen!Tubby squirrel

Sarah has also had an eventful time, she started back at school this fall, and realized that she just wasn't feeling it for nursing anymore. She enjoys the patient care, it was the advanced nursing stuff that didn't excite her, (you know, the needles and all the paperwork), so she is changing to specialized education, at a French cégep no less! Due to timing, she was left with a very light load last term (one course. Techniques in art. Yes, drawing, painting, and plasticine), but before we could complain about certain kids sponging off their parents, she had gone out and found a job with a company that provides at-home nursing services. She is enjoying the one-on-one patient care, and she can continue part time this coming term as she wraps up some of the general required courses for a cégep diploma in English, before she switches to the new French curriculum in the fall. She is enjoying life with spending money, and spent a week in Cuba just before her passport expired.
Jeremy is still working his way through his Mechanical engineering degree. I am not sure exactly what year he is in any more, (Co-op messes things up somewhat), but I think he has another year. At any rate, he is starting to talk about doing a Master's degree, so he must be getting close to the end! He and Serge had a 'man-cation' over the Labour Day weekend. They did something called the 'Via ferrata' in the Saguenay.   Jeremy's reaction was "I don't believe I just did that.  Let's do it again!"  Serge's reaction was "I really should have read the brochure more closely!"

Serge continues on at ArcelorMittal. He is frequently stressed, but never bored! His parents continue on in their own house, with help from Jeremy who is living there almost full time now. We did make it up to Ottawa (during the 'snow bomb' no less, or as someone pointed out, 'winter in Canada') but Eric, who lives closest, did not!  His children are now in school, and brought home a nasty bug for the holidays, so we have a picture from June: 

Take care every one, and all the best for 2023!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Settling in

Image
Karen's travel tips If you arrive in Quito on a Sunday evening, better have snacks with you! The carpets roll up and the metal doors come down at 6. Well, at least they do in the neighborhood where we are spending the night. There are a lot of restaurants close by, but nothing open. Add to this that apart from a tuna wrap at Dorval airport the only thing I could eat on the plane was the fruit salad (the steward kindly gave me two), and the pineapple juice, by Monday morning we were both feeling somewhat light headed when we set off down the many, many, many steps down to the commercial district (visualise Mount Royal, only steeper, no hand rails, and a descent at least twice as far, with your head spinning). Needless to say, we were a bit early for breakfast in the commercial district, but a cafe kindly opened early for us, and I essentially inhaled eggs, avocado toast, fruit salad and an almond milk cappuccino. Serge, who had ordered a larger breakfast actually ran out...
Read more

Touristing at home

This year, new ways to get to Montreal were introduced to the South Shore, just in time to mitigate the chaos caused by the closing of the LaFontaine tunnel, 8 months after the fact. The planning abilities of governments and NGO's boggles sometimes. Essentially they told the thousands of people suddenly cut off from their place of employment to 'take a bus' without adding additional bus routes.  There is a reason we don't use the buses around here. Most of them don't go where you need them to go, don't go when you need them, and cost a fortune to take. Actually, after 25 years, they finally did do something about the last part. They forced all the disparate bus companies to use the same regional pricing and zones. So now I can get to work for $3.75 a trip, instead of $6.50 + $3.50. lousy scheduling between busses means that it takes an hour longer than it should. Really lousy planning means I have to go three towns over, and come back one because of jurisdiction...
Read more

I dunno, Post 1?

Oh dear, this seemed like a good idea until I saw this blank page staring at me... Why this blog? Well, like everyone I have a running commentary in my head, which occasionally I share with people, usually at Christmas, or when I am traveling. In the past, I could put pictures and stuff where I wanted  in my emails, but Gmail has changed, and now they all mob at the bottom. (Now how do I turn off the underline, and why did it turn on in the first place. This might be a steeper learning curve than I thought.)  Success! Now where was I, oh yes, pictures. Pictures all clumping at the bottom is not satisfactory when you want explanations to accompany the images, so maybe a blog might be a better option, since I want something that I can get to from both my laptop and my phone. And maybe sending it out might be easier than the painstaking typing in of the many many email addresses on the mailing list, which took longer this winter when I was in Ecuador, than writing the email in th...
Read more