Gatineau

by

Catching Up With Friends in the NCR

Yesterday, Wednesday August 1st, I had a lunch date with my former colleagues at Industry Canada. I was delighted that what was supposed to be a quick meeting at the food court was turned into a proper reunion at a restaurant and that the organizer even remember that I love Thai food, so she reserved at La papaye verte (The Green Papaya) on Laurier right in front of the Museum of Civilization.

The old gang hasn’t changed, I apparently haven’t changed, and the work environment has changed. It was great to see everyone, catch up, laugh, and be reminded that I was lucky to work with those people for three years.

After work, I headed up to La Pêche (fishing), the community in the Gatineau hills where I lived for five years (one year in an apartment, one year renting my house, three years owning my house). The community has a number of villages, the biggest ones being Masham and Wakefield.

Wakefield is very picturesque and touristy. A popular thing for visitors to the National Capital Region to do is to take the steam train from Hull to Wakefield for a lunch at a quaint bistro and an afternoon of shopping in the boutiques. The steam train was having financial difficulties when I left and is not running this summer. I hope this is a temporary setback.

The drive to Wakefield along autoroute 5 was a little different as the autoroute is finally, after 30 years of planning, being extended. It used to stop at Tulip Valley, but not goes a few kilometres farther to Farmpoint, just before the grocery store. It will soon come all the way up to Wakefield and the junction with the 366 to Masham. There is no way that kind of road work won’t change life up in those sleepy little hamlets. Wakefield now has a Tim Hortons, a major sign that life is about to change radically.

I was early to meet my friend for dinner, so I decided to push on to Lascelles to see if the old homestead is still there. It is! There were cars parked out front, so I didn’t go up the laneway to get a better look at the house because I used to freak out when people did that.

Back in Wakefield, I parked outside the Black Sheep pub and grabbed an outside table at the Rutherford Bistro on the main floor of the pub. I had time to check out the menu before my friend arrived and was rather disappointed that my top two choices for dinner were sold out. I wound up having a decent buffalo chicken burger with delicious fries.

After gabbing for ages, I headed out to my friend’s house. She has been building it with her dad for six years as time and money are available. It is her dream home in her favourite place in the world.

The house is inspired by the Swiss chalet style, but is built with modern eco features, including walls lined with styrofoam and filled with concrete. The house feels really out in the middle of the bush, but she’s only a couple of minutes on a horrible dirt road from main highways and the autoroute. She can get to Ottawa in 25 minutes now and it will soon be no more than 20 minutes. The extra 10 minutes I had to drive to get to my house combined with the lack of services made a future there unappealing.

A lot of people, including politicians, have cottages in the hills and I think that the extended autoroute will bring more people to have their full-time home in the hills. Even without the autoroute, it takes much less time to commute from Wakefield to downtown Ottawa than it does to go from Orleans or Kanata (the eastern and western edges of the city respectively) to downtown.

The drive back from Wakefield was not without incident and I will get into that once I’ve caught up on sleep. 🙂

on Laurier Avenue in Hull looking at the Museum of Civilization

on Laurier Avenue in Hull looking at the Museum of Civilization

on Laurier Avenue in Hull looking at the Museum of Civilization

on Laurier Avenue in Hull looking at the Museum of Civilization

on Laurier in Hull looking across the Ottawa River to Ottawa

on Laurier in Hull looking across the Ottawa River to Ottawa

on Laurier Avenue in Hull looking at the Museum of Civilization

on Laurier Avenue in Hull looking at the Museum of Civilization

La papaye verte, a yummy Thai restaurant

La papaye verte, a yummy Thai restaurant

driving north on autoroute five just out of Hull at the Chelsea limits; this was my commute for several years

driving north on autoroute five just out of Hull at the Chelsea limits; this was my commute for several years

the Gatineau River from main street in Wakefield

the Gatineau River from main street in Wakefield

Wakefield

Wakefield

the Gatineau River from main street in Wakefield

the Gatineau River from main street in Wakefield

the Gatineau River from main street in Wakefield

the Gatineau River from main street in Wakefield

by

Back in the NCR

I’ve been in the National Capital Region (NCR) for about 24 hours now. As soon as Montreal was behind me yesterday on the 40 west I felt a weight fall from my shoulders. I was looking at three days in a region where I wouldn’t need a GPS, where I know the myriad ways to get from point a to point B, where I would return without hesitation if I ever had to be housebound again.

I’m here on business with my mother and we took my truck, so I drove. We arrived after dark and it was no big deal for me. I knew what was the best exit to take on the 417 at that time of day, exactly where the hotel is, and even the construction around the Lac Leamy casino was a non-issue. In any other city in the dark, after a very long day, and with a GPS squawking in my ear, the sight of construction would have been overwhelming.

Getting to the client this morning was easy and I took us to Toscano’s on Saint-Joseph in Hull for lunch.

A good friend and I had made plans to have dinner tonight, so I headed to her place after work. Being just a couple of blocks from St-Laurent in Vanier, I told her we were going to Lonestars for dinner where I got their fajitas. My last meal in Ottawa four years ago was at the west end Lonestars, so that might give an idea of how much I’ve been craving their fajitas. 🙂

Tomorrow evening, I am heading north to the picturesque village that was the closest bit of civilization from my house. If I have time, I might even go see if the old shack is still standing. But first, I am heading to Place du Portage to have lunch with my former colleagues!

A bit of nostalgia is nice, but there is no going back for me. It’s still nice to be home. 🙂

by

Trials and Tribulations

I don’t have any pictures to share at this time because my desktop computer isn’t set up and hooking up the camera to the laptop is too fussy for the short time frame I have. So, enjoy all the bla bla bla and come back later for pics. 🙂

Oh, I’ve written soooo much about the last almost week, but I need to save some material for a book! 🙂

Here are some highlights from the past six days.

Friday August 29, 2008

  • I successfully backed up into a busy street at rush hour as I couldn’t very well sleep at my mechanic’s. No one was injured during this impressive feat of driving. Thank you to David for stopping traffic!
  • After spending several hours loading STUFF into the RV, I took off for a sports arena a few blocks from the house to spend my first night as an urban boondocker. The cats took to the RV immediately and slept good nights. Mom was too exhausted to fuss and had a good night, too. The arena wound up being quiet and dark. I didn’t suffer for lack of 120V current and I really, really, really enjoyed being able to take a hot shower!


Saturday August 30, 2008

  • Up at six, worked non stop, got the house emptied and the RV stuffed by noon, right on schedule.
  • Was screwed over by Vidéotron one last time.
  • Arrived at the campground absolutely drained and overwhelmed.
  • Circled my loop, planned my entry into the site, came back, pulled straight into an empty site, and unhooked my toad, which is where:

Rae learns a very important lesson about towing

Watch where your feet are. The tow bars are heavy and purple toes are NOT a fashion statement.

Toes weren’t broken, so I ignored the throbbing pain down there and moved the toad out of the way. Moved the RV back, forward, and back again, getting it into the campsite in one shot. Eyewitness testimony states that I seemed to have been doing it my entire life. Which is where:

Rae discovers that backing up perfectly (in one try) into a campsite is actually not the most important consideration at that time

As it turned out, I had circled my loop and reentered another one. I was in the wrong site. But, in my defense, both sites had neighbours with a blue tent AND both sites were of the same shape as I’d been told to look for!

A very nice park official checked to see if the site would be available for the five nights I was staying. It was. I could stay.

The RV was stuffed to the gills, I was overwhelmed, and just about burst into tears when I saw how much work I had ahead of me. So, I said *expletive deleted* that and went out for a nice dinner during which I formulated a plan of attack.

I slept the sleep of the dead. Never mind that the mattress is really too thick and that I can barely roll over. I was on my own mattress with my feather duvet and pillows. The cats were by my side. I could hear crickets outside. The wind was whispering a lullaby. I was home.

Sunday August 31, 2008

I slept so late I was disoriented upon waking up. I mean, the day is half gone by the time 9:30 arrives!

I hadn’t been able to plug in my RV on Saturday since the prongs on my cord didn’t match the holes in the electrical post. So, I just dragged the coffee maker and toaster out onto the picnic table.

A few hours later, as order begins to emerge from the chaos that was the basement:

Rae finds something that no longer makes it necessary for her to run an extension cord from her electrical post to the coffee maker set on a picnic table.

She believes it’s a ‘cheater adapter.’ Possibly. Whatever it is called, it’s an adapter. She now has 15AMP service!

One of the most useful things I did on Sunday was label a tote TOWING and put in it all the odd bits that I use for towing.

I took the afternoon off to get organizational stuff at Wal-mart, then I head off to a friend’s for a Labour Day BBQ. Her mom gave me a hibachi she had lying around in the shed and I am now able to char my own barbecue sauced bird!

Monday September 1, 2008

I was spending the day with a friend so I woke up early and attacked the basement. I got it so well sorted and organized that it is no longer stuffed to the gills!

At some point during this day:

Rae has a real light bulb moment involving a too highly chlorinated fresh water holding tank

“Gee the water is caustic. I can’t wait to empty the tank and put in fresh water. Waitaminute. The tank is only a third full. Maybe I can use the new hose I bought yesterday at Walmart at a major discount and top up the tank with fresh, unchlorinated, water and dilute what’s left?”

Tuesday September 2, 2008

WORK! I finalised all my files and opened cases and packed since I knew Wednesday would be a wash.

A separate entry will follow about the evening.

Which brings us to today, Wednesday September 3, 2008

I did some real work, spent some time on line, shed copious tears, received and gave a ton of hugs, and left the way I’ve always dreamt of leaving a place, with a tug of regret.

by

Crunch Time

I’m pretty much in melt down mode now (par for the course for me when I move), but am better than I was four hours ago.

When I picked up Miranda in July, I didn’t have the tow pins, so I couldn’t hitch up the car. The previous owner was going to be out of town for several weeks, so I set all thoughts of the pins aside until he got back. When he did, he questioned if the pins really belonged to me or came with the base plate. By the time I got an answer about that, and learned that no place in town has the pins in stock and they would all take at least two weeks to get some in for me (!!!), the PO was unreachable and… it was 4:30 today. I came up with several contingency plans for getting both Miranda and Pommette back in town by Saturday. None were pretty. Then the phone rang at 4:45 and it was the PO, out of town, but back tomorrow. I can pick up the pins at 5PM. Crisis averted. PHEW.

I woke up at 6:15 this morning in full panic mode and made up several more boxes before leaving for work an hour and a half later. I really don’t have that much left to do, but it’s all spread out and looks worse than it is. I’ve also essentially ‘lost’ an evening. Tomorrow, I’m driving out to North Gower to pick up Miranda, and I’ll drop her off at the mechanic’s where she’ll undergo an oil change on Friday morning.

Friday afternoon, I’ll go pick her up and drive her here to fill her up as much as I have time for. Then I’m going to a sports arena a few blocks from my place that allows overnighting in an RV at no charge!!! How convenient is that?! I was surprised to find not only this option, but also TWO Wal-marts within a ten minute drive. Ssh, don’t tell Gatineau! They’ll shut down that practise if they get wind of it.

So, Friday night I’ll sleep in the moho at the arena with the catkids and be back here bright and early on Saturday morning. I’ll have time to clean the house before my friend shows up to help me with the mattress.

Then, it’s off to the municipal dump to get Miranda weighed, the grocery store for supplies, and, finally, the campground for some well deserved downtime and BEER.

This is my seventh move in ten years. One would think I’d have such an event down to a science by now, but I’m not. Each move has been very different. I’m just so tired of it and hope that I can RV for a few years.

Things are so rushed right now that I have to remind myself that this time next week, I’ll be trying to wind down in preparation for the big departure the next morning. I might not feel ready, but “There is a time for departure even when there’s no certain place to go.” (Tennessee Williams)

Eight sleeps left!

by

There is No Love Lost…

Between the city of Gatineau and myself. It’s no secret that I have nothing to recommend about this backward money-grubbing city and that the only way I could have survived another couple of years in this area would have been by returning to Ottawa.

One of the biggest issues I have is the draconian parking enforcement. Here are two examples:

1) One day, I parked my car in front of my house at about ten to five during the week. The way parking is set up at my house is that I have to drive down a narrow laneway and then park in the backyard. To get to the car, I have to go down a flight of stairs. In the front, though, I only have two steps to go down. So, I had parked on the street in order to fill the car for some excursion or another. During the week, I’m only allowed to park one hour in front between the hours of 8 and 6PM, so I needed to be out of the spot by ten to six, then move the car for ten minutes. Well, with seven minutes left on the metre, a parking enforcement officer came by and told me that he was watching me and that if I wasn’t gone in exactly seven minutes, I was going to get a ticket. He could see that I lived there and was loading boxes and that there were a ton of empty spaces on the street. He could have let me have those ten minutes. Instead, he sat there staring at his watch while I shut up the car, drove down my laneway, parked in the back, did a couple more loads up and down the stairs, and then came back to the front once 6 came. He was still there, making sure I didn’t repark until it was 6:01.

2) I’m beginning to fear that I will be rushed on Saturday morning. I need to drive to North Gower, boost the coach, and hook up the car for the first time. A friend is meeting me at 9:30 to move the mattress in and I need to be out of there for noon. So, I thought that I could bring the coach up on Friday. I don’t trust the neighbourhood, so I would sleep in it with my cellphone kept closeby. That would give me all of Friday night to get the coach loaded. I called the city of Gatineau to see if this was okay and made one heck of a mistake: I told the lady where I live. She informed me that I cannot park on my street, no exceptions, not even to load the coach on Saturday. She said that she knows my address and is looking forward to sending someone over on Saturday to ticket me.

I’m fairly sure this is just talk on her part to discourage me, but Saturday night onward I am sleeping in Ottawa and I will never, ever return to this city to live ever again.