border hopping

I wish I had photos for this post...but the professor has borrowed my camera (it's pocket sized...if you have big pockets) and I haven't gotten it back. He's shot photos of every single house we've seen with the real estate agent (over 20, I'd guess?) and he's not done yet!

Today we took a break from the house hunting marathon. We drove down to the North Dakota/Manitoba border, about 70 miles away in Emerson, Manitoba and Pembina, North Dakota to get our work permits squared away. On Tuesday we'll try to pursue a social insurance number and other bureaucratic endeavors. These details are important and practical because the next time we come north, we're likely (we hope) to be Winnipeg home owners, toting two dogs, two cars, and a long list of things to come in the moving van.

All went smoothly! The border agents on both sides were efficient and kind. We were even wished a "Congratulations!" and "Welcome to Canada!" when we were done with our paperwork. The relief the professor felt (he's been anxious about this) was palpable. It's one thing to be offered a job. It's another to have bureaucratic permission from the government to actually live in the same country as the job...

We did observe a person having a bit of difficulty crossing the border. Apparently he'd once been convicted of snowmobiling while drunk, and while his hunting buddies waited for him, he and his 4-wheeler had to either go home and give up on the trip north or pay a fine of a couple hundred dollars. It's been years since I'd thought about this sort of thing...but gosh, yet another reason not to be stupid and do something illegal that you'll regret..much, much later. I used to mention this to my students when I taught high school and college...but, aside from privacy issues, I wished I could have shown a recording of this to the nearest available rebellious teenagers! (Reason #37 to Avoid Committing Crimes: It could be mortifying years later when trying to cross the border!)

The other thing that's happened is exhaustion. I'm so very tired that I even managed to screw up turning the heel on my very simple sock knitting project. I always travel with a mindless knitting project, and I've made perhaps 2 dozen pair of these socks..and designed several for publication as well. When crying seemed like the best solution to fixing the problem, the professor gently suggested I give up on knitting a couple of evenings ago and try again later. He was right. This morning in the car, I ripped it all out, turned the heel without incident, and knit half the foot on our journey. Sometimes, one's energies are just spent. Turns out househunting, crossing borders, and meeting lots of new people has really worn me out.

Meanwhile, this city is just as friendly, diverse and smart as the last time we visited...we've eaten Japanese, British, Vietnamese, Greek and Indian food in the last few days...and the temperature has warmed up, too--no more snow flurries!

So, ever face a basic knitting problem with such exhaustion that it seemed insurmountable?! How about house hunting? Does it exhaust everyone, or just me? Are you just reading this stuff cause you're curious--or are you moving to Winnipeg too?

humbility

My dad is a great fan of made up words. I didn't realize for quite a while that they were made up...but his whimsy certainly prepared me for reading students' papers when I taught writing, or for becoming a writer one day. Anyhow, when I was a kid, instead of saying "having humility" he would say something humbilified me or one had gotten humble or"humbility" after a particularly embarrassing mistake.

This weekend, the professor was out of town at a conference. I was on my own with the dogs and spent a lot of time working on my new mitten project. I was cruising along, feeling very good about myself. Really good about how GREAT it was coming out. Then, I looked down and realized something.

I was knitting the chart upside down. Now, this was because I'd turned the book upside down. On purpose. I realized this while speaking with the professor on the phone late at night. He urged me not to rip it out immediately, but to sleep on it. (It's usually my habit to rip out a big mistake right away, as it's hard to live with once I know it's there.) If it's a little mistake, I live with it. I move on. As the Persian carpet makers concluded, only the Almighty is perfect. Leaving a small mistake is ok with me.

I listened to his advice. I slept on it. In the AM, I looked at it again. Doh! Stupid! After feeling completely humbilified and embarrassed again, I ripped it out. I put the book and the chart right side up. I moved on. With considerable knitting time this afternoon, I'm now further along on my first mitten then when I ripped it out the first time--and this time, the pattern is right side up. While knitting, I listened to The Uncommon Reader, a novella, read by the author, which I am heartily enjoying and can recommend.

I also succeeded, this weekend, in finally figuring out how to dry all my laundry outside. This is part of my effort to avoid using the clothes dryer, which uses tons of energy. You'd think, (at least, I thought) that drying one's clothes out on a clothes line wouldn't be difficult, since all our foremothers did it. Hah. I've been able to manage a couple of loads, but the whole week's wash? Getting all of one's clothes washed and dried in one day in the South of the U.S.A. can be a trial. If it's a nice day, above freezing, and you hang your wash out? It's still probably very humid. It makes it take longer to get everything dry. Today, I managed to get 4 loads of wash out and drying before about 11:30 AM. It turns out that early wash helps...along with a low humidity day, some sunshine, and a small breeze. Yet again, I prove through hard research that our foremothers got up early and were smart cookies. It's no wonder that they didn't wash clothes all that often...it's a lot of work.

Note: Since this was a lesson in my own humbility (humility), I cropped this photo so as not to include any embarrassing underthings that might mortify my shy professor. After all, this was my weekend to get in touch with my inner upside-down embarrassment. Not his. :)

PS: Willow is another smart cookie. Note the blog tour information on my sidebar... I hope this is helpful! I hope you'll take the tour with me!