North Bay, Thursday July 5, 2012

"It'll all work out" has been an adage that I have faithfully and successfully lived by. Any scenario’s outcome can be drastically altered depending on a person's attitude. It's a common enough theory and one that has had much validation in both positive and negative conclusions. The trip down from Albany to North Bay has continued to support this simply understood but somewhat difficult practice of how to best appreciate how the world works.

Blind River was as gorgeous a gem as it has always been. However, this trip we were able to appreciate it from the point of view of two snuffling, tail wagging puppies who have never left the island that is Albany.
Our first walk with them was somewhat of a failure, with Oji finding something interesting to chew on within the first two minutes of the walk. He promptly lay down beside the sidewalk and began very intensive work on the offensive pine cone. Belinda on the other hand seems to have enthusiastically embraced the speed and action of the South by barking ferociously at passing motorcyclists and attempting to chase down fully loaded transports.

From Blind River and a quick but pleasant stop at Chiblow Lake  we continued our adventures South. In Toronto for a couple of days, we visited family, saw a winning Blue Jays game, and tested both the dogs, and our own patience with the city crowds and consequent noise. From Toronto, we worked our way back up through Oshawa, Bowmanville, Cobourg, and Deep River in order to visit parents, siblings, aunts, cousins, and grandparents. Because my sister was visiting from Australia, the planning and implementation of these visits was very efficiently achieved with the weather and traffic of a long weekend combining so successfully that they were made a non-issue.
For summer accommodations suitable to pets, the pickings were slim, and we felt fortunate at the beginning of June to hit upon a place described by the owner to be all inclusive, pet friendly, but ‘a little rustic’.
Upon arrival we found out what that translated into; No internet. Possible phone. Non-potable water. No electricity. The owner planned on running a generator for a couple of hours in the morning and a couple of hours in the evening. This would have to be sufficient to keep the fridge cold, heat the water for a shower, and charge our computers. With few options available and only three busy, out-of-town days to find an alternative, we brainstormed ways of trying to make this two month summer vacation into a livable camping/studying experience.

While attempting to fit this stubbornly square peg into a round hole so to speak, we continued to look for something else. That something else turns out to be a fully equipped summer cottage on the edge of a quiet lake not far from North Bay. For pictures, I include some of those sent by the owners.

School began the next day for me with a course I had registered for a few months ago. I had been struggling with trying to navigate this different University’s site in an attempt to figure out the actual location of my classroom. Failing this, I arrived early on campus to find someone who could provide an answer. After being shuffled around to a couple of offices, I was informed that the course had been cancelled – hadn’t I been contacted? Haha. Luckily there was another Additional Qualifications (AQ) course being offered at the same times, dates, and price. So I’m doing the exact same things I would have been doing but learning material entirely different from what I had expected. Who knows, maybe it’s for the best. At least I know it’ll all work out.