Our promise to one another and to you
On several occasions we have taken note how certain cruising friends, once finished with their life on the water, so easily slid back into accumulating all the trappings of life on land. I don’t say that to judge because comfort and toys can feel good. Our promise to one another though, and I express that same promise to you, our readers: we do not intend to follow that same path. We have become so accustomed to living in small spaces with very little in the way of possessions that we find it hard to imagine doing anything different.
In spite of what I wrote above, we did spend our first day in Fernie visiting some second-hand shops to purchase suitable clothing. Bike shorts and leggings can only take you so far in a place where sub-zero temperatures and meters of snow are the winter norm. Just for kicks, we decided to record how much money we spend while here. I may or may not share those numbers in the future but, if nothing else, it’ll be fun for us to see just how much or how little we spend.
Bike shorts and leggings won’t cut it here.
A big item on our project list was creating resumes for our job search, a task that I haven’t been forced to complete in over 30 years! Thanks to the amazing help of our cruising friend Diane Selkirk, I think that we both now have something workable that highlights our skills, as diverse as they may be. Thank you again, Diane. You rock!
We also spent some time completing all the mundane things that people reintegrating into society must do. We filed for provincial healthcare and purchased private insurance to cover us until that comes into effect (we have been self-insured since we left Canada but couldn’t afford even a simple hospital visit here). We changed the address on our credit cards and have been shopping around for telephone service. Like I said, mundane
Rebecca grew up skiing, both cross country, and downhill.
Rebecca’s sister Deb being photobombed by her dog, Sennen.
In spite of working through a long list of things that need to be done, Rebecca especially has been out enjoying some of the outdoor activities that Fernie is famous for. Her sister Deb (and her husband too) is very athletic so she was able to join her for both a run in the snow and some cross-country skiing. We also got our bikes out for their first, and our first, winter ride. Fat biking is huge in Fernie and I can see us having a lot of fun here with that.
Our bikes performed great on their first winter ride.
Finding some work remains top of our priority list. Now that we have our resumes sorted, we’ll be able to start looking for some work in earnest. What that employment may look like, we’re not sure. We do have some ideas though and hope that we can make them happen. Please wish us luck!
Thank you!
Special shout out to Wade Shikoski for contributing to our get-back-on-the-road fund. His donation helped to put us in some Fernie-appropriate clothing!
So, maybe I read this some place or maybe I made it up but we say – “There is cold, and then there is cold on a bike.” I don’t know how many miles until you hit that, but at some point the saying holds true.
Experienced that yesterday. Very cold on the face and hands. Today I wore my buff so my face was OK. It was my eyes that were cold! Need goggles when it is snowing out!
Quite the change for you two but I’m sure you’ll get the hang of it soon. Best of luck. I too will be starting up the chip truck soon. Looking forward to getting back at it.
I wonder if Fernie has a chip truck. I hope so!
I could always branch out! Albiet a little far but it would be fun to travel back and forth ans spend time in both places.
Make it happen and I’ll be your first (and a regular) customer!
Still in awe of you guys. Best of luck in the transition.
Thank you. We may need the luck! 🙂
I took a bike clinic once and they told uus: “Don’t look down; don’t look back, look forward to where you want to go,”
Here’s to looking forward, my friend’s!
Great advice. Thank you. Hope you guys are having a blast at the boat show!
Good friends of ours just moved to New Zealand for a new opportunity. They are very “portable” with minimal stuff just like you two are.
In discussing the process of setting up in a new country, he reported that everywhere a person travels they need a minimum number of “subscriptions”, as he called them, to function. Cell phone subscription, drivers licence subscription, bank account subscription, medical subscription etc.
His point was that no matter where life takes you, no matter how much stuff you have or don’t have, there seems to be some minimum number of “subscriptions” that are a required to function in any given society or culture. The longer you spend time in that society the more “subscriptions” people tend to accumulate (maybe a mortgage subscription or gym subscription?).
He felt the key to being portable and cost effective, yet fully functional, was to keep the number of subscriptions to the minimum. That is what he felt defined their flexibly and unburdened their thoughts when new adventures called.
I know you two already think like this… I just found the idea of breaking things into “subscriptions” was an interesting way of looking at things.
Cheers
“Where, then, lies the answer? In choice. Which shall it be: bankruptcy of purse or bankruptcy of life? ”
? Sterling Hayden, Wanderer
You’re very right. We just changed our driver’s license and our health care to reflect our new BC residence. Our new subscriptions. 🙂
By the way, love that book.