First night and day.

Yesterday, after sitting and twirling my thumbs and pacing around and drinking coffee and sitting around and watching people talk to themselves and sitting around – We finally boarded our plane at 6:55 p.m. From that point the flight in was seamless. Why couldn’t it have been so easy 6 hours earlier?

I ended up sitting next to a lady who lived a few blocks from us in the Fraser Valley and worked at a local grocery store that we frequent. We had a good chat for most of the way, but she was clearly anxious about flying. She revealed some interesting traits. Coming in for landing she seemed to be sweating profusely and nearly tore the headrest off of the seat in front of her at the moment of touchdown. That made for a little entertainment.

I walked in to the airport from the tarmac and was in the luggage pickup and the vestibule for exiting at the same time. Well, that may be a bit of an over exageration. Small airport though. As I walked in I saw the friendly face of my accommodations host. For privacy sake, I’ll call him Mr. G. A nice guy, my age and a pastor of a local church. He and Mrs. G agreed to take me in me and rent their suite for 3 months while we wait for A to finish Kindergarten.

That being said, someone is currently in their suite until April 1st and are actually allowing me, a guy they have never met, stay in their guest room in the main living area of the house. They have also been feeding me, allowing me to drive their vehicle around town after work and Mrs. G has been…. making my lunch. I swear I have told her not to. And it really actually makes me feel a little uncomfortable, but she has been persistent that she wants to do it. I will do it once I am in the suite.

It was late by the time I went to bed last night, I could barely keep my eyes open. I had my own pillow, a whole bed to myself, cozy blankets and the peace and quiet of no children I haven’t had… in almost 6 years. (Sorry Nicole) For the life of me, I. Could. Not. Sleep.

I woke up half a dozen times through the night. I think Nicole and I are connected through the cosmos or something. Boy K waking Nicole up to feed 1,128 km away sent parental waves of disturbance my way. Or I was just anxious. One of the two.

I woke up at 6 a.m. to have a shower before the rest of the house was up. I got dressed. I had a banana. I walked to work. It took 15 minutes. Shortest commute of my life. I met my fellow New hire (also from the Lower Mainland), Officer. P and my supervisor B, Then the counsel, then the City manager, so on and on and on. The mayor tomorrow.

We did a lot of admin stuff. IT stuff. Got our uniforms. Toured the City a bit. At the end of the day B took us to a look out on the edge of town. It was a sight I was waiting to see. I miss the mountains. But this was a fair exchange.

Tomorrow and the rest of the week seem to be packed with training, courses (One of which is ‘Use of Force’ in a month or so) and more office duties. We do get to go out on calls starting tomorrow. I am pretty excited about that.

Moral? “find the beauty in what’s around you”.