Spring Break

Mother Nature took a hissy fit this spring. There was more snow in March and April than we had all winter.  So to escape this very Canadian temper tantrum, we flew off for a month to California.

Now normally when one is heading for a Spring Break in California, one would pack shorts and suntan lotion. We pack tools and paint clothes.

Guess we always did take the road less travelled.

This is our third go-around in the San Francisco area since we retired. We are lucky to have family living here, and have enjoyed a lot of the touristy things the place has to offer. We have toured Napa Valley (a particular favourite of mine), eaten oysters by Bodega Bay, crossed the Golden Gate Bridge, and walked up the famous steep streets of the city. But for this trip we have other priorities.

Since we sold off all real estate holdings seven years ago now, we are very obliging about helping out family members still bound to the ball and chain of home maintenance. It doesn’t seem to be so much of a hardship to paint another person’s walls when you are not fretting about what should have been painted in your own home, had you gotten around to it.

So we have painted, and replaced carpeting, and fixed the various things that always need to be fixed in a house.

Again, we have turned my sister-in-law’s house upside down. 

In order to paint and re-carpet bedrooms, someone has to be moved out of it. It isn’t as though we have an extra bedroom to play musical beds with, either.  We invited a nephew who was in-between jobs to stay and play with us, and then kicked him and his belongings out of his room a few days in. At least we were fair. Hubby and I also had our turn at trying to find our luggage in amongst the relocated furniture and linens. And so did the poor beleaguered owner of the house.

To say that my husband is enthusiastic about projects like this is understating the matter.  He attacks these things like a football player tackles the opposition. We always start out with a well defined plan and specified improvements that could easily be accomplished in our time schedule. Yet even before the first goals are achieved, other things seem to come up that are important, too. 

So instead of merely having her upstairs redecorated, my dear sister-in-law now has a new kitchen sink and the main water shutoff valve to the house replaced. 

The front patio, started many years ago by her late husband, is now finished and new motion sensor lights adorn the outside walls.

But alongside these multiple projects, we also had summer without enduring a fickle Canadian spring. The weather was usually sunny and warm. Jackets were optional, and only occasionally worn with the shorts and flip flops that were our daily uniform. The landscaping that we slaved over four years earlier has come to maturity, with masses of flowers creating a colourful carpet in the garden we built.

And we had one fun day in San Francisco, playing tourist. We enjoyed a stop at the Golden Gate Bridge in the morning, clam chowder in a bread bowl along the Fisherman’s Wharf, and a visit to the Bay Aquarium before giving up the pretence of being tourists and joining the rush hour crush heading back home.

We are flying back into Canada in the first week of May. With luck, Mother Nature has matured into a more reasonable version of spring. We are more than eager to pull our Airstream out of her winter home and get her ready for summer.

It’s time to get our own house in order.

W