Last Thursday, I packed my things to head to the cottage. The plan was to leave Friday morning and spend the weekend scouring the floors & windows and getting everything sparkly clean. In my basket I had the requisite three jugs of Vancouver water, tea, old rags, and my favourite cleaning potion...

I love this stuff - I use it on hardwood floors, painted wood, leather, etc. It's lovely smelling too - and environmentally friendly, apparently.

Anyway, Friday morning came and went and somehow I was still here. Postponed my departure for the evening but when the rains came pounding down I didn't want to leave the cozy sanctuary of my home. Set my alarm for Saturday morning. Slept in and talked myself into having a headache. More rain and wind - stood looking out the window and everything outside looked gray and bleak. Put the kettle on and considered my options. Wrist still felt a bit sore, maybe I should wait. Sunday became the new goal: I resolved to take the 11am ferry and get to work! Then Lorenzo casually mentioned that if I waited until Monday, the ferry costs would be much cheaper. Sounded good to me - poured another cup of tea and curled up with my book. By Sunday night it just seemed like a really dumb idea all around.

So we decided to bail on the whole thing, rent a trailer, and head over the following Friday. I'd spend this week getting things packed up and preparing the house for our absence. For some reason, I just couldn't face being there alone. And it didn't help that Lorenzo was talking about wolf spiders hiding in the wood stack outside....ready to pounce!

Yesterday I began making phone calls but unfortunately there were no trailers to be found. Not one. I guess it's end-of-the-month moving time for everyone. So we rented a truck, and we're picking it up tomorrow...

On Sunday, my daughter and I went to Sears and ordered a double mattress and two twin mattresses. And I discovered that Sears can ship to Mayne Island - the Home Hardware is an official Sears distribution centre. And then I saw these great couches on sale....

It has been about fourteen years since Lorenzo and I bought any new living-room furniture, so I felt entitled I guess. He liked them, so I put them on the charge card and arranged to have them shipped over with the mattresses...

They are soft, supple Natuzzi leather and on sale for 50% off until the end of June. I could just imagine how spectacular they'd look against the hardwood floors. A whole vision appeared before me: There we are - jazz music tinkling in the background, a glass of red wine, fire crackling in the stove, candles flickering on the mantle, and there - in the centre of it all - these gorgeous Natuzzi leather couches! A little dash of Italian design on Mayne Island! I enter the scene, wearing something silky and sophisticated - Lorenzo is composing something on the piano....

Woke up this morning and realized I'd been imagining someone else's life.

Who the hell puts white leather couches in a cottage? Suddenly I had visions of chasing my kids away from them, worrying about wood-smoke and finger prints; fretting over every tiny stain and wrinkle. Dog scratches and bunny fluff. Everyone is miserable and scared to sit down.

Gloom descended on my sparkling fantasy. Reality is, I have three kids and two pets and everything in my life is sticky.

With a sad heart, I called Sears and cancelled them. The cottage gets the hideous brown boat from the basement...it's wrinkly and lumpy....I hate it. It's like a big brown ghastly barge and there's rips and tears from when Sachie was a pup. I'll have to get very creative with this one...

Then I pondered over the fact that the mattresses I purchased wouldn't be arriving on Mayne until early June. I decided that I wanted the cottage to be set up by the time we leave on Sunday. Every bed made, every last little thing put in its place. The thought of leaving with yet more work to do in the future made me antsy. So I called Sears and cancelled the mattresses because I needed mattresses right now. When I get a bee in my bonnet, look out. But where to find mattresses at a moment's notice?

I remembered that the Salvation Army sells new mattresses. I called around, and the New Westminster location had what I needed. My son was horrified. He figured they'd be used....you know, bed-bug infested mattresses that someone dragged out of an East End crack house...

I explained to him that it's illegal for any company to sell used mattresses under the Health Canada Act. I called Lorenzo about my plan and he yelled, "I'm not buying used mattresses!" Veins bursting in his head.

Anyway, after he came home from work we hitched his little trailer onto the truck, headed into New West and bought three perfectly acceptable, brand new, pillow-top mattresses for a few hundred bucks. This is a very impressive thrift store - I saw all kinds of interesting things but we had to pick our son up from soccer...

I have to mention this: years ago, when Lorenzo first went into business for himself, he had to go to Edmonton. It was winter-time and the temperature there was minus-30. He didn't have a winter coat and we couldn't afford to buy one. So I went to the Salvation Army. I found a beautiful, Humphrey Bogart-type men's dress coat. Merino wool and cashmere, silk lining, triple-stitched pockets. Made in Italy. Price? $28.

My father trained to be a tailor in Italy. He examined the coat and said, "This would cost about two thousand dollars to have made right now." Lorenzo wasn't keen on wearing a used coat (because he's a snob) but it fit him beautifully - he looked so handsome in it, and he said he was warm as toast on his trip. Thrift stores are amazing - you never know what you'll find.

Today I sorted out linens, pillows, duvets and duvet covers, mattress protectors, etc. and put everything into labelled garbage bags.

So, tomorrow the truck will be here, and we'll be finally loading up a year's worth of clutter and Craigslist finds. Our basement is going to be empty! Yay! I've arranged for my niece to stay and police the teens while we're gone, everything is going to get done, and I'm really, really excited about this.

Around 10pm, my daughter mentioned that she isn't feeling well - her throat is sore. My younger son informed me that he can't hear out of his right ear. We already had this checked out a few weeks ago and the stupid doctor gave him nasal spray. Anyway, I filled his ear with warm olive oil and tomorrow I'm taking him up to the clinic. I can see it now: The trip to Mayne Island gets thwarted again.....

I'm reading such a riveting book right now...

I'm halfway through, and right now Ernest Shackleton's crew has been stranded in the antarctic for two years. Two years living on penguins and seal blubber, battling frost-bite and despair. I cannot fathom how anyone could ever sign up for something like this...it is mind-boggling to me. But what a great read this is. I'm an arm-chair adventurist.