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I updated yesterday, but the blog was having some technical difficulties, and the entry was lost. Argh. Thankfully it wasn't a very long or interesting entry. Just a quick word about renting a truck... I went to the Budget Rent-A-Car website and found the best deal. It's cheaper than another well known truck rental company and has the advantage of not being my girlfriend's father's least favourite corporation on earth...the only drawback is that I have to drop the truck off in Niagara Falls, NY. Now the Niagara Falls area is lovely (on the Canadian side, at least...the American side is sketch city) but it's not my destination. Due, however, to regulations regarding licenses and vehicle registrations and whatnot I have to drop it off in the US. Niagara Falls, NY just happens to have the closest American Budget. So off I'll go on Monday, August 23rd. I'll drive the majority of the trip that day, ending in the Cute Canuck's Hometown. I'll stay over night and then make the final push to TO with lots of day to spare. That way I can unload and be on the road. I actually have four days to drop the thing off (why anyone would require four days to move from Milwaukee to Toronto, or to Niagara Falls for that matter, is beyond me) but I don't fancy leaving a moving truck parked on the streets of Toronto. My final hours in Milwaukee will be spent doing the things I love best in this city...I plan on spending Saturday at the zoo or museum and wandering the downtown. Sunday is church, plus Morning Prayer at All Saints' just before loading the truck (a traveler's Benediction, if you will) and finally - lunch at the Blue Dawg. I don't know how I'll feel as I drive away...I'll be leaving a world that I truly love. Milwaukee is accessible in a way that the huge, sprawling metropolis of Toronto can never be. I know the downtown on an inch-by-inch basis...I'm comfortable here, like in a favourite sweater. It's big enough to grow in but small enough to "own." All Saints' is here, and while there are other churches (some more grand, some more humble) there's no other community just like this one. But Toronto, too, has blocks and shops and parks and churches and corners where your world is within sight. Nobody lives in all a city...cities are overlapping amalgamations of the villages we each carve out for ourselves. My Milwaukee village is bordered by the lake, by North Ave., by Walker's Point and Marquette University. My Toronto village will have a different shape - probably more scattered - but it'll still be home. So it is with an auspicious and a dropping eye that I plan my departure. I'll have boxes to pack (with far too many books) accounts to cancel or transfer and friends to see before I go. I'm excited about the future, but wish that I could take part of the present with me... There's a lesson in crucifixion and resurrection here, but I'll save the preaching till I'm official, eh? |
