Plan Eh is what we’re calling my plan to immigrate to Canada. I’m dropping everything here and doing this alone.
It’s… difficult. Right now, this is the plan.
Phase I: The Great Sort Complete
I’m clearing out the house. There’s a lot of stuff that we probably needed to get rid of 15 years ago. I can’t take any of it, nor should I. Honestly, I didn’t even know we still had most of it, so I’m trying very hard to not get hung up on keeping it.
Complete: I tried to sell and donate as much as I could. The Lego, Funko Pop figures, and My Little Pony collections were sold pretty easily. I donated whatever clothing was in good condition, as well as a lot of kitchen stuff. The sad fact is that no one wanted to buy antique furniture, so much of it was trashed. With prom and wedding seasons cancelled, all the special occasion clothes were donated. I left a lot of stuff on the side of the road.
Phase II: Sell the House Complete
Once the house is cleared out, I can get it up on the market. It will be easier to deal with fixing what needs to be fixed after it’s emptied out. Thankfully, there’s not too much to be repaired, and only a bit of painting.
Complete: We used the same agent we used when we bought the house. She was amazing throughout the entire process. Unfortunately, shit suuuuucked the entire time. Anything that could be a problem, was a problem.
Phase III: Chicky’s Epic Road Trip
Once the house sells, I’ll be packing up the Hot Mess Express with whatever remains of my worldly belongings. Then, Chaucer, Mal, and I will spend about a week driving across the country to East Bumfuck, Saskatchewan. With Covid-19 raging across the globe, whatever time frame we had is gone. While I really wanted to be out by the beginning of summer, that doesn’t seem to be in the cards any longer. As it currently stands, my only timeframe is “before it gets too cold to camp.”
me, March 2020, before the world closed up
Obviously, none of these plans came to fruition as planned. I intended to leave in the summer of 2020, with epic plans for a trip with the cats, culminating in a stay in a glorious campground. Unfortunately, at the time I initially wrote up this page, the Covid virus hadn’t reached pandemic stage. We expected Shawshank to be released in April, and for me to follow during the summer. He didn’t get into Canada until early June. As the pandemic shut down everything remotely related to the government, my passport was delayed until July-ish. Not that a passport would have mattered; the Canadian border has been closed to nonessential travel since March of 2020.
With the stimulus payments, selling off all the collections, and some wicked budgeting, I stayed in Rhode Island and continued working through the remainder of 2020. When the house was officially sold in early March of 2021, I packed as much as I could into the truck and drove south. I’m currently in Florida with the cats, kicking it with my mother and stepfather in the panhandle. The border is still closed to nonessential crossings; however, they are currently allowing for family reunification.
At the time I’m typing this addition up, it’s May 3rd, 2021. I’m fully vaccinated. I haven’t seen Shawshank in over a year. I’m so tired of this waiting, but things are looking better.
And tonight, I started working on my route for the drive up. The trip down here was three days. The trip north will be at least four on the road. If nothing changes between now and my departure date, I can expect an extra couple of days of hotel life while I wait for Covid test results in Fargo, ND.
I won’t be able to sleep on the grasslands right away, but it will happen. Eventually.