Lighten Up

Due to dire weather forecasts (which were, of course, incorrect as usual), the MIT Flea was pretty lightly attended, both by sellers and buyers. Too bad it was our last one. So, as Mr. Eliot says, ‘not with a bang but a whimper’. We sold enough to cover the entry fee, but not as much as we would have liked to. We keep culling our paperbacks; Pam is much better than I at this (I want to hold on to too many of them). Think lighter. Think leaner. Think small rooms and even less storage than here (well, maybe the same, if you count the storage in the garage that we haven’t seen yet).

We have two moving companies (our target is three) coming out to give us estimates this week. We keep vacillating on what furniture we’ll take. There is a core group of items — the bed, the dining room table and chairs, the living room couch and chairs. After that, a lot of books, the cutlery, dishes and glasses, the computer equipment and printer, and the art, it gets dicier. Sometimes an item is on the truck, some days it’s off.

We keep going back and forth on how we’re going to make the final trek ourselves. Will it be rental car or take our unreliable Beetle on one last trip across Canada? Fly together or separately? I swear, we must have run through every permutation and variation of the these. We debate and discuss ad nauseam the finer points of driving versus the time in motels saved on one flight. If only it weren’t so tricky to get so much stuff moved so far!

The Economist came out with their 2004 Rankings with everything from Corn production to the Divorce rate of most countries in the world. It’s a fascinating little booklet. Of particular interest was their best cities to live. Number 1 city in the world to live? Zurich, Switzerland. Number 2 city? Geneva, Switzerland. If Fondue and Cuckoo clocks don’t agree with you, the third city, Number 3 as the best city in the world to live is our destination: Vancouver, British Columbia. Don’t tell, OK? Wouldn’t want it to get too crowded and ruin our fun.