Last Updated on: 21st April 2015, 10:17 am
Seems I’ve had to say this far too many times lately, and now here I am doing it yet again. We are, believe it or not, still 100% alive and mostly well. There have been migraines and things that go along with migraines attacking me on and off the last week and change, and since I do most of the writing nowadays with Carin out of town so much, well…it’s been quiet. Scatterbrained migraine suffering guy doesn’t work as well as scatterbrained kinda sorta sleepy guy when it comes to reading things and writing words in a post editor, I’ve discovered.
But the silence has more to do with just migraines. there’s also been Thanksgiving, which I hope was happy for the Canadian portion of you. Ours was mostly nice. We spent time with families and had a couple of pretty good dinners. I could have done without a certain pain in the ass being a pain in the ass, but since when he’s not flexing his pain in the ass muscles he’s a really nice guy, I’ll deal. Just wish he didn’t like to work out so much, if you catch my drift.
The other thing that’s been taking up what would normally be the writing time and the thing that’s actually the reason for me writing this post in the first place is, unfortunately, a move. Even more unfortunately, it’s a move out of Guelph, a city that’s become my adopted hometown in the 11 years I’ve lived here. We’re leaving for good reasons, but it still feels crappy having to leave the only place I’d ever thought I’d like to settle down and spend the rest of my life in. I’ve lived in a number of places of different size and shape, and other than the wee village my family lived in when I was little, I haven’t ever felt like they were a perfect fit for me the way Guelph is. Guelph is that little village with its friendly people, but with the added bonuses of things to do and ways for a blind fellow like me to get to them beyond “hey mom, can I have a ride into town?” It’s a small town that’s being dragged kicking and screaming into becoming an honest to god city, and I think that’s where the charm is. It hasn’t lost it’s uniqueness yet, and as long as certain folks have anything to say about it, it won’t anytime soon.
Man, I’m going to miss this place.
I’ll miss the Wooly, where without fail I always run into somebody I know.
I’ll miss the Penny Whistle, where I somehow tend to end up in conversations with people I don’t. I think they played the best music of any restaurant in town, too. Thanks for getting me back into the Who, Penny Whistle.
I’ll miss the Baker Street Station, which hasn’t been around long but fits right into the area and feels like it’s always been there.
Even though I haven’t been there in years, I’ll miss the Arena. So many great chats and fun times were had in that place when it was just a few steps away from and a few stumbles home to my first apartment here.
I’ll miss the River Run Centre and all the great music and comedy I saw there. It’s a fantastic place to watch a show.
I’ll miss all the random live music you could stumble upon just by walking into a restaurant or pub, often for free or next to free.
I’ll miss the Guelph Royals, even though I know I can still follow them. Knowing they were right down the street from me and that I could often catch their games on the local Rogers tv station was comforting because I love old ballparks.
I’ll miss CFRU, where I got to be an honest to god FM radio personality that people actually paid attention to. Being recognized by people on the street and the guy who came to fix your phone even though they’ve never seen your face is pretty neat.
I’ll miss having the Shoe Thief so close at hand. My shoes will stay where I put them more often, but for some reason that doesn’t seem like nearly the happy happening it should.
I’ll miss all of the friends and acquaintances I’ve met along the way, even if some of us haven’t spoken in years or only see each other for a few minutes here and there at a lunch up or something.
Let’s be honest, I’ll miss everything. Ok…almost everything. Living on a public transit island where a 40 minute trip between 2 cities becomes a 4 hour ordeal with a layover in a place you shouldn’t be ending up in to start with is no fun, nor is a bus system that doesn’t bother to run when it could arguably be used the most. But like with anything else you’ve got to take the good with the bad, and Guelph has most certainly been more good to me than bad.
I know we’ll be back in town here and there, but it’s been very sad to start saying goodbye to our favourite people and places. After you’ve had so much time to get to know and love a place, starting from next to absolute zero in a new and bigger city isn’t a pleasant thought. It’s about as pleasant as leaving Guelph for the last time as a resident will be. I love this city, and I know Carin does, too.
But on the bright side, the hunt for a new apartment wasn’t nearly as sucktacular as the last time we went through it. We only had to look at 3 places before we found something. Thank you Kitchener, that’s a good start. We signed all of the documents over the weekend, and once the final bits of cleaning are done in the next week or so, we can get in and start moving. Yay…and stuff.
Speaking of moving, do any of you happen to know a good place to rent a big ass van that would be suitable for such activities? If you do, let me know. Leave a comment, send an email, or do what most folks do now and throw a tweet in my direction. Thanks.
That’s it for now. This is getting long, and there are things that need doing that aren’t trained to do themselves. If you need me, I’ll be going through our junk looking for tossables/donatables. Oh, joyous day.