The past few days have been very intense and have passed quickly. I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that the movers came and loaded my stuff and took it off to Igloolik, Nunavut, where I will be the principal at the Middle School. At the time I didn’t know the details of my travel. I must apologize because I found out about all the ‘Covid’ related details of my travel on July 14. The details, as many of you know, were flying to Toronto and then on to Ottawa today. I got into Ottawa around 4 eastern time and have spent the evening getting settled. In any normal year, I would only have an overnight stay in Ottawa and then onto Iqaluit and then Igloolik the next day. Well, that’s not the way it is now. I have to spent 14 days in isolation at a designated hotel in Ottawa. Now, it’s not all bad, the room is really a suite. It’s quite lovely actually, it has a little kitchenette, a nice sofa, a big screen tv and a king size bed. We also get 3 meals provided and will be allowed to get outside on a regular basis, albeit in a supervised space. It also pays to have family in town to, as Donna’s cousin Shari has agreed to do some shopping for me, since I can’t leave the hotel.
I did bring along a nice collection of reading material, some of it professionally related, but most of it fits into my varied and eclectic tastes. I have recently started to read some of the old classic mysteries, works by Dashiell Hammet, Raymond Chandler, John D. Macdonald, John Le Carre, and Ian Randkin. I’m also looking forward to sinking my teeth into a new magazine that I found, ‘Eye Spy: The Covert World of Espionage.”
One thing that I’ve learned along the journey is that things can change and change quickly. The quality of that change is how we react to it. Sometimes, it’s permanent, such as the death of a loved one. Othertimes, it only seems permanent, such as a job loss, ending relationships, relocating to a new community or just simply getting old and doing different things. I have had the fortune, most of it good, to have a career which has allowed me and my family to move around north and central Saskatchewan. We’ve lived in many communities and met some wonderful people whose friendships I cherish, I’ve also met many people who, while I’m grateful for the lessons I learned, I would rather have not met them at all.
All this is merely looking in the rearview mirror, but as was said in that classic movie, The Gumball Rally, ‘What’s behind me I don’t worry about.” So, if I choose to look forward to this new stage on my journey with excitement and enthusiasm, well who can blame me really.
This blog will give me a great opportunity for me to share the adventure with, well, with whoever reads it. So then, I guess that’s Day 1 in the books.
Grandpa Guy 