Weekends of Goodbyes - part 3 + the final week

I have tried at least 4 times to write this post. Every time I get a maybe a sentence out before I'm pulled away for some urgent thing that needs to be done. I have so much to talk about, hopefully I can remember it all.

Our last full weekend in Halifax was all about our own goodbye to the city, to the places we go all the time. This probably deserves a more thoughtful blog post than its going to get. Suffice to say it was full of lovely moments and final visits that everyone is pretending aren't actually good byes.

The last week in Halifax was a whirlwind. Monday and Tuesday were filled with even more packing and preparation for the move into storage. We continued to argue about what hangers to pack, and whether we needed to pack hangers at all. In the end, Justin gave up his wire hangers. Instead, we both stood in our closet and systematically chose our 'favourite' hanger types so we could pack them (excluding wire ones). I had no idea that hanger preferences are so ingrained in us. But I feel like my actual victory over the hanger situation is my vegetable elastics. For those of you who aren't aware, I have some very low-key hoarder tendencies. You know those elastics that come on vegetables like broccoli and asparagus? I have been saving those for as long as we have lived in our place. Maybe 6 months ago, Justin THREW OUT over half of my elastic collection, stating that we would never need that many elastics. I was outraged. So imagine my delight when told me that the elastics have all come in so handy for packing. He used them to keep his computer cords organized, and yes, that's right, for the hangers. I think we used pretty much all the ones that were left. I'm still feeling smug about it, and will take this as a sign that future vegetable elastics should be saved indefinitely.

Anyways.

My brother Frank arrived from Ontario Tuesday night to help us with moving day. On Wednesday we picked up a 16' truck and loaded it with everything we own. Huge shout out to Frank for being prepared to move in a way that Justin & I never would have been, complete with crampons, carabiners and strapping. First stop was Truro, where we unloaded our trip luggage + our washer, air conditioner and a random assortment of things. Then we were on our way to the Donegan-Millican household in New Brunswick.

Many have asked what we are doing with all of our stuff while we are gone. We have downsized a lot, but we have collected some things in the last few years that we aren't willing to part with. Our lovely friends Ian & Sarah have kindly agreed to take a bunch of our furniture, and store anything that isn't being used.

We got in to New Brunswick just as it was starting to get dark. Justin was able to get the truck to the top of Ian & Sarah's long and icy uphill driveway. Half the truck was unloaded into the garage at the top of the driveway. The other half of our stuff needed to be unloaded at the side door, a little ways down the drive. Justin carefully maneuvered the truck down, stopping so the back was in line with the side door. Despite the sand and salt that had been put down, the driveway was slippery. Justin, being the responsible driver that he is, moved the wheel around to make sure the truck wouldn't slide. We opened the back of the truck, and started to unload. I had just gotten out of the back of the truck, and Justin was still in it when it suddenly starts to slide down the driveway. Justin throws the lamps he was holding into the snow, jumps out and tries to catch up with it. Luckily, it ran into a snowbank and stopped by itself about 10' down from its original spot. It was wild to watch!

The rest of the unloading went off without a hitch. Ian & Sarah treated us to a homecooked meal, and the best gas station cheesecake money can buy! We ended the night with drinking whiskey in the hot tub - something Justin had been talking about all week. A great end to a very long day.