Shhh

What’s that hush? Must be November. Simon and Tammy are busy typing away at novels in the evening with no time for posting. 🙂

Actually, there are a few more reasons for the silence. One is the sheer number of trips off to the dojo these days between Miranda’s karate and now that Jackson has sublet some space there and is starting up his bujutsu classes. As of now, we’re heading into Cedar Hill from Sooke five days per week. It’s eating up time and energy. Heck, last night I didn’t even make my NaNo word count. I only made 1660 words instead of the minimum 1667. Good thing I’d built up a considerable cushion.

The other thing is related to the first. We’re early in the process of putting our house on the market so that we can move closer to town. I know, we’ve been there before, but this time we mean it, honest! We’ve been out here in Sooke for seven and a half years now, and if that time has taught us anything, it’s that all things being equal, we tend to gravitate inwards towards Victoria, rather than outwards towards the recreational potential out here. Whether it’s my work, or recreation things for us and the kids, it all seems to happen more towards town than not. I don’t see this pattern changing at any time in the future, so it’s probably time to stop fighting it and get a move on.

As ridiculous as it may sound at first, it’s the karate/bujutsu that is spurring the change. As I mentioned, we’re currently looking at travelling to the Cedar Hill area five days per week. Since we only have one car, and Tammy doesn’t come along with Ian very often, that means she’s sort of stranded for the time (even for an hour class, it’s a three hour trip with the hour’s travel there and back). Due to the way that the payment Miranda’s karate works (and mine as well), we’re financially committed for the next few years, unless we wanted to cut the loss and walk away. I did discuss this option with Tammy, but neither she nor I really agree with that. The karate is a very good thing for us and we’ve made a commitment to it. Then there’s Jackson’s return to Victoria and the recommencement of that training. I figure that there are a limited number of years left in my body for getting punched, kicked and thrown around, so I think I should grab the opportunity to reach my goals while I can.

The martial arts are just the straw breaking the camel’s back, though. Add to that the proximity to work and to the University. The thing that has really postponed a move for us is the fact that work has granted me the option to work from home for the past three and a half years. This has been a wonderful time, and I’ve had a lot more time to be with the family and the kids, certainly much more than the first years of Miranda’s life, where I was only seeing her for about an hour per day on weekdays. But all things being equal, it would probably be better/less friction with work if I was able to be in the office on a regular basis. And to do that, I want to be in cycling distance of the office. Not “crazy” cycling distance, reasonable cycling distance.

So what do we know at this point?

• We want to move either to Saanich or the Burnside areas
• We will be paying more mortgage, for a smaller house
• We have already found out that we are preapproved for more mortgage than we are likely to need
• We are interviewing different local realtors this week to see who we like.

We don’t know when the house will go on the market. Tammy and I have already begun clearing things up a little. We will need to rent a storage locker in the near future and pack our excess stuff in there. Probably one of the biggest differences this time compared to the last is we aren’t quite as financially bound, so instead of trying to sell for more and then buy less, we have the freedom to extend ourselves a little financially. Tammy will probably feel better about the move if it doesn’t feel like it’s a huge sacrifice. But we definitely won’t be able to afford a house like our current one. Those are well out of our reach.