Island Happy

/ Diane Henders

This is just a short post since I’m having computer and internet problems, but I just wanted to check in and say… We made it to Vancouver Island, and we’re thrilled to finally be here!

There were some tense moments (okay, some tense hours), but after weeks of “everything that can go wrong will go wrong”, we finally got here despite Murphy’s best efforts.

One thing:  Driving the Coquihalla (Highway Thru Hell) in winter is off our Bucket List – we don’t need to do that EVER AGAIN!

Despite the fact that it “never snows” out here, we had four inches of the white stuff on Boxing Day, but at least it’s warm(ish) and the snow is mostly gone where we are.  The Island is putting on quite a show for us – we’ve seen everything from a peaceful happy Island:

island-happy

…to a cranky Island the very next day (yes, those are snowflakes fluttering down in the foreground):

But it’s all beautiful – I have to keep reminding myself that we don’t actually have to leave!

If the computer gods smile on me, I’ll be back to my regular programming next week, but in the meantime I’ll wish everyone a very happy New Year.  “Talk” to you again soon!

P.S. I’m on Pacific Standard Time now, so my posts will be showing up in your feeds an hour later.  It’s “Island Time”! 🙂

28 thoughts on “Island Happy”

  1. The Coquihalla in winter! And I thought I was nuts 😉

    It’s so many years since I was on VI that I hardly remember what it looks like. I seem to recall it’s got of lot of hills, but then we only went to one place to visit a friend of my Dad’s. That whole region is great. All the little inlets and islands from south Alaska to Puget Sound offer a lot.

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  2. Glad you were not stuck in the snow on the Coquihalla and that you made it safe to the Island. A great place to live. And you have learned the definition of a contractor, I see, which is someone who digs a hole in your yard and disappears for 6 weeks.
    Happy New Year. Housewarming party in August!

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  3. I finally managed to read a complete post for once. I am so glad for y’all to have made it to the island. It looks beautiful. I know you’ll love it there. The animal pics are still making me laugh, gotta’ love ’em. Your hubby sounds like a sweet soul, that Christmas tree is awesome. Easy to see it comes from the heart.
    Been a hectic couple of months around here. Both hubby and I have had bouts of illness, flu and really bad chest colds. Finally getting over it and while I have recouped for the most part, hubby is still not too good. His overall health has been going down for a while now and the VA has been dragging their feet, as usual. I got a call through to his outside heart doctor and made a fuss about the stalling etc. They called today with a date, next month for the heart surgery. One more heart cath before then and it will be a go. This has been a sucky year! LOL
    I am wishing you and yours, and all that post here, a really wonderful 2017. Safety, contentment, health, and if it happens, love and fortune too. One thing for sure, politically speaking, this next year will be a doozy! Interesting if nothing else. LOL!
    Happy New Year to all.

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    • Hi Moondance! It’s great to hear from you! I’m sorry things have been so rough for you and your hubby – I’ve been thinking of you lately and wondering how it was going. That’s good news about the heart surgery – I’ll keep my fingers crossed that it happens on schedule and that all goes well.

      Thank you for the good wishes, and I wish the same for you and yours. Sending positive thoughts your way for a happy (and not too interesting) New Year!

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  4. I’m happy you made it safely. We made a decision many years ago that the Coq in winter was a combination we weren’t about to tackle. Having been caught in a blinding snow storm on a May long weekend, it isn’t a good experience. Enjoy your new Island home. Happy 2017!

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    • Thanks, Nelson! We were lucky to sneak through the Coq without a snowstorm, but it had snowed heavily the day before so it was still pretty slippery. My new Escape has 4WD but I lost traction on a few of the uphills anyway – probably because it was loaded so heavily that it didn’t have enough weight on the front wheels. But I don’t have any desire to test that theory with another trip. No more winter Coq for me!

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  6. I heard about the snow in BC and wondered how your drive went! Glad you made it okay. And, egad, you were already hours behind us here on t’other coast; now you’ll be nearly yesterday 🙂 Happy New Year, Diane – and thanks for the smiles. I’m glad to have found your blog!

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    • Thank you, @jenny_o! That’s very kind of you, and I’m glad you found my blog, too – I always enjoy your comments!

      And you’re right about the time zone – if we move much farther west we’re going to be east. 😉

      Happy New Year!

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  7. Congratulations on the completion of your relocation adventure (trial, challenge, curse etc.) and I wish you the very best going forward. It looks like a very beautiful location. Reading your last few posts it’s obvious that you and yours overcame some big time problems that occur with every move but were amplified by the distance involved. We look forward to your future posts.

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  8. welcome to the Island.. we have lived here 5 years.. it will probably take you about 6 months to get used to Island Time, depending on where you moved from. Long range forecast is for more snow and much colder temperatures week after next..

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    • What?!? Okay, I take back what I said about not minding the snow. A couple of weeks of it is all right, but now I want to be done with it.

      And thank you for the welcome! We’re coming from high-pressure Calgary, so we’re braced for a major culture shock. We’ve already confronted Island Time with our builder, who thinks nothing of dawdling for weeks at a time before getting back to us. He’s still promising that our house will be ready by the end of March, and I seriously doubt it. But all we can do is wait and hope… it’s Island Time!

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      • from Calgary, my goodness, it will take you a long time to get used to Island Time but it is wonderful when it takes hold. Yes, things are slower here. we live in the Cowichan Valley and it has been amusing to watch a flood dike and an apartment building in the process.. we wonder if they will ever be finished, but they are on Island Time. Re the snow, we have had no snow since Feb of 2014, this year is definitely different. But if you live in Victoria you shouldn’t get too much.

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    • Thanks! We are having fun; mostly because we only had to deal with the contents of two vehicles. Our shipping containers won’t arrive for another couple of weeks, and then they’ll sit waiting for another couple of months until our new house is ready. But I’m not looking forward to confronting all the “stuff” when the final unpacking begins!

      I was wondering if you were buried in snow by now. When you get such a nice long fall it always seems as though you pay for it later. 😉

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