Our stuff is here…..where are the horses

Well, the household stuff arrived today and it is a welcome sight. We were able to cook in the kitchen without having to improvise measuring devices (those little plastic sandwich containers work well in a pinch) and we no longer have the limited choices of sitting on the floor or standing in the kitchen when we have dinner. The guys who unloaded our stuff worked very quickly and got everything off the truck in about four hours. Thus far, the only damage we have found was a dent in our metal trashcan.

In other news, the painting is progressing albeit a bit slower than I would have liked. In the perfect world we would have completed two rooms prior to the arrival of the household goods, but since our world is anything but perfect, I have just finished the second coating of primer on the master bedroom. With luck, I can paint the whole thing tomorrow and we can move most of our furniture out of the other rooms and into the bedroom. That would mean we could sleep in our house, on a bed, how cool.

The arrival of the household goods is not without a hitch. The staircase that leads upstairs is a bit narrow. The house is 100 years old, it is an old New England style farm house, and the stairs are narrow. Come on, it is 100 years old, and beds were smaller then. Our bed, a queen size, was unable to successfully navigate the stairs. The mattress made it alright, but the box spring got stuck, and since we are renting, we did not feel the comfortable pushing it through. So, we have a mattress upstairs, a box-spring in the garage, and one more item on the “to do” list.

Medical News
Now that we have arrived on the island, I am beginning to get the last minute in person details finished in order to legally work, and receive compensation for that work. To bring things up to date, the process of getting a license to practice on the island was far easier and more straight-forward that things were in Texas.

The process involved completing the application for the College of Physicians and Surgeons PEI since they are the licensing authority. This was pretty straight-forward and did not require any complex actions on my part. Much to my surprise, it was relatively efficient, and not too expensive. The attitude of the College is trust but verify, so I have been granted a temporary license until all of my credentialed are verified by the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates (ECFMG) for PEI.

Again, this was pretty straightforward. I had to complete an application, send some money, and await the verification process to be completed. In less than one week I had received an e-mail from the ECFMG folks telling me that they had received my application, and that it would be reviewed and processed in three weeks. Once this is complete, I am fully licensed.
With all of that rolling along smoothly, we arrive at the last minute details that cannot be completed prior to arrival in Canada. These include things like the application for a billing number, malpractice insurance, and training on the computers at the hospital. The one thing that is currently outstanding is the acquisition of a Social Insurance Number (the Canadian equivalent of a social security number) and we are applying for these tomorrow, as well as squaring away our insurance.

Not bad for a couple of folks from Texas. Now if only our horses would arrive things would be great.

It ain't home till you strip the wallpaper and paint the rooms

C+3

Today we began the repainting process. It seems that no matter where we go, we immediately get involved in the process of repainting the house. Today was no exception, we bought paint yesterday along with all the equipment needed (brushes, paint, tape, drop cloth, rollers, pails, etc). Today we put those to use and began taping off the master bedroom as well as stripping off the wallpaper in the other bedrooms. You would think that we would have gotten quite a bit done today with the painting, but we had social obligations that came first.

Dr Dickieson and his wife wanted us to have brunch with them at the local golf club, and brunch turned the house so they could look it over and render their opinions. So, the noon brunch ended around 3:30 and we began to tape the bedroom and strip the wallpaper. However, we were not to get too much done because at 6:30 we had a dinner date with Pam and Jim at their house and by 11 pm we were back home to gather our things to go to the hotel for the night.

“Hotel for the night? I thought that you were in your house?”
Well that would be correct, we are in the house, but our household goods will not be arriving for another two days, and so we spent last evening at a hotel, and we will spend the next two nights at a different hotel.

“So that is Saturday and Sunday night in hotels, what happened Friday?”
Well Friday we arrived at the house and got things set up in the home (including the movement of the fridge etc) and then we settled in to fall asleep. The trick to the sleeping was that the only bed in the house was the dog bed. Granted it is a nice bed, but it is not a proper bed. As I mentioned yesterday Nancy had the bed and I had a yoga mat. Well everyone insisted that we could not sleep on the floor again, and so they put us up at a hotel. We had the best night of sleep that we have had in several days. Needless to say, when they offered to continue to put us up until our stuff arrived we took them up on it without question.

So, today was wonderful with a series of meals and conversations. We did not get as much taped as we would have like to do so, but we did get some “work” done. Tomorrow we get the last of the customs papers completed and fax off the last of the paperwork for the horses. Also, we will get some painting done.

A dog's life....

We are on now on C+2 (that is Canada day 2) and things are falling into place. We have some internet connectivity so it is time to catch up on everything that has happened over the last several days. When our adventure was last updated, we were in Keene New Hampshire and enjoying a brief respite from the daily grind of loading, driving, and unloading everything. The animals seemed to enjoy the break almost as much as the humans.

Thursday August 14th
We got up and drove to the last US town prior to the Canadian border so we could get an early start with the border crossing escapade being well rested. As we headed further north we came to realize that there are some very desolate places in the United States, and northern Maine is one of those places. We stopped briefly in Augusta Maine to talk with the barn where the horses will board until the Canadian Transport can pick them up for the final leg of their journey. The barn owners were exceptionally grateful, and they had some very good advice before heading further north, stock up. We took the advice and are very thankful, because northern Maine does not really have any stops for gas or anything else once you head out from Augusta. We made it to Houlton Maine and spent a nice evening getting everything together for the morning.

Friday August 15th
06:00 We get up
07:10 Everything is loaded
07:40 Breakfast on the go and entering the ramp headed north on I-95
08:20 Arrive at the border
08:30 Finish the preliminary chit chat with the border guard
08:35 Begin work on the temporary worker visa
09:15 In the car headed north on Transcanada Highway 2

They did not check any of the contents of the vehicle, nor did they check any of the pets, not even the bird. This was far easier than we had thought it would be and the answer lies in the fact that the initial work visa is a one year visa. In the eyes of the Canadian government we are simply visiting for an extended period of time.

Well, that left us ample time to drive across New Brunswick and over the 13 kilometer bridge to Prince Edward Island and allowed us to arrive on the island at 2pm. After a quick stop at the visitor center to get a free updated map, we were headed “Up West” to Alberton to check out the new house.

Home Stinky Home OR Where is my Bed?
Well the house looks exactly as it did in the photos we had seen before, but there was a strange smell in the kitchen. It smelled of old fish and mold, and good lord, it is the refrigerator. It was apparently a refrigerator that was used to store old fish and the drip tray for the condensation had a nice thick layer of mold. It was clear from its condition that it had to go, so out comes the dolly, the restraining straps attached, and the fridge is out in the garage (but not without leaving a trail of slime across the floor). It took two rounds of cleaning before the smell was exorcized form the room. Well, one piece of furniture that we will need is a new refrigerator (put that on the “to do” list for tomorrow).

As we wondered through the house it became clear to us that certain rooms were going to have to be repainted in order to match any of our furniture. Additionally since three of the rooms had been painted specifically for children, they were going to have to be repainted on general principles.
As renters, we need permission before we alter the property so before anything was unloaded from the vehicles, we spoke with the owners to make sure we could make some changes to the property. Thankfully they felt the same way about the paint scheme, and had no real attachment to the fridge, so everything is going well.

As we settled in to sleep, we got a call from the driver who will be delivering our household goods and the arrival date has moved from Sunday the 17th to Tuesday the 19th. Well that is not so bad, but we do not have anything to sleep on except the floor. Wait, we do have a large dog bed form Orvis, and since the floors are all hardwood, that thing is starting to look pretty good. However, it will only sleep one comfortably, and so it goes to Nancy while I get the thin yoga mat. It was a pretty good night, we were both so tired we did not notice any difference between these beds and anything else we could have had, and we woke early (the sun comes up at 5:30) and started our day.

C+2
It has not been as eventful as yesterday but we have been out to see the stables where the horses will board, and we made contact with the driver who will be bringing the horses across the border. We also had the time to get into Charlottetown to get the new washing machine and fridge. As we were out running our errands, we got a call from the folks here on the island to make sure that we had arrived alright and that everything was in order. They were a bit shocked that we had slept on the floor overnight, and so by the end of the day they had set us up with a local hotel gratis until our household stuff arrives. I guess it is a dog’s life overnight.

Well, tomorrow starts the painting……