I awoke this morning to a massive feeling of OOOPs!
When I originally approached my bestie Joyce with the idea of selling our Barrie home of 30 years, I felt strongly that I really desired a change of surroundings, and to her credit, she agreed. I was raised in Barrie, left for the extended university years, and then taught in Barrie for 30 years. I loved the city and all the fantastic memories I had made there be it personal, familial, or professional, but the dazzling gleam of snowflakes in the air were fading, with it winter recreational activities were losing their attractiveness. All of this created a yearning to experience a different community.
Those of you that have read a few of my posts are likely already familiar with the escapades of relocating to Wasaga Beach by way of a year long stop-over in Guelph, but in the event that you're a first time reader, we rented a condo in Guelph, fell in love with the vibe and energy of the city, entrenched ourselves in the wide assortment of outdoor recreational activities available, and were pleasantly pleased with significantly less winter weather ... aka snowfall.
We started the search for real estate we might purchase with the hopes of putting down roots in the Guelph area, but months of searching left us feeling hollow since what we desired, we refused to pay the asking price, and what we were willing to pay for didn't check enough of the boxes on our list. When we expanded our search to include locations in Simcoe County that were NOT Barrie, we were tickled to find a place in Wasaga that checked most of our boxes AND we were willing to pay the asking price.
Now, back to the OOOPs ...
While we immediately fell for the serenity and beauty of Wasaga pre-winter, we were timidly optimistic about what the looming winter would look like. Would it feature frigid on-shore gales, December cousins of the heavenly zephyrs of the summer and fall, and would they carry the accursed snow streams inland, missing our new little digs? Or, would those winds simply deposit large volumes of 'Fluff Stuff" in our laps? Well, early indications would favour the latter, as we awoke this morning to an overnight accumulation of 20+ cm!
Shazbat!
One thing unique to condo life is the snow removal waltz. Like many at our complex, we are fortunate to own two parking spots, one that we choose to use because of its desirable location to our front door, and one that is less so. In hopes of getting our number one spot plowed, I hustled down to "dig" the RAV out and was greeted with almost knee-deep drifts and 20+ cm effectively camouflaging the RAV with its never-ending whiteness. It was a race against time as the plow clearing the unoccupied spaces was nearing completion, and I was filled with sadness as I watched him pull away at the same time I pulled into our second spot.
Drat!
With a defeated shrug, I left the RAV in our second spot, and hoped that the day's sunshine would eventually do the deed and clear away the blight. Imagine my relief when this afternoon I heard the unmistakable return of the plowing company as the clunks and bangs of a Skid-steer quickly solved our accumulation problem.
Now we play the "Wait 'n See" game of what the rest of the 2022/23 winter season will bring. Perhaps this was an aberration and we won't get buried? Perhaps all will be right and the snow squalls from H-E-Double hockey sticks won't fill us with regret.
I will tell you that a pleasant walk around the neighbourhood this midday bolstered our spirits with Hi's and Hello's of neighbours busily dealing with the overnight conditions. To be honest, we really do like this new-to-us part of the world.
Especially when it doesn't include snow!
Wish us luck!
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