446

Thanks for all your good wishes on the move. It went pretty smoothly. What a difference hiring professional movers makes. We learned that when we made the Big Move from New York to Canada, and I hope never to have to cope with a move any other way. I'm grateful we can afford it.

The house is really nice! It's bigger than the old place - newer, cleaner, better kept up - altogether nicer. I walked Cody this morning and there was a distinct lack of lake outside. That's what the old place had. But there's also no huge concrete high-rises, or massive blocks of townhouses, those lovely calling cards of Mississauga. We lucked out in finding an older (for Mississauga) neighbourhood with larger lots and older trees.

Now we're at that everything-is-all-over-the-place stage. That's a challenge for semi-compulsively neat people like me. But I'm going to try to pace myself and not be a in a mad rush to get everything put away. There's a leash-free dog park not far from here that we want to check out - not to mention an Important Day to enjoy.

Here's an odd little tidbit. Allan and I drive a Chevy Optra, which we bought shortly after moving here - our first car together, and the first car I have ever owned. We have never seen any other Optra on the road. There are lots of cars that look just like it, sporty wagons from Ford, Toyota and Volkswagen, but never any Optras. We joke that we Chevrolet only made one of them in 2005 and we bought it.

On New Year's Day, we dropped off a few fragile things at the house, and our neighbour's car was on the driveway. (We share a double driveway with the house next door.) I noticed the cars look very similar, so checked the back. When I saw "Chevrolet," I did a double-take - and yes, there it was: an Optra. When Allan came outside, I said, look at this car, but didn't tell him why. He looked, and looked, a little confused as to what I was excited about, looked... and then his eyes popped open. It was priceless. The only other Optra we've ever seen, and it's next door.

Now, of course, we'll start seeing them all over the place.

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In case you're wondering, this post's title is the street address of our new home. We've lived in 216, 14, 200, 25 and now 446.

I'm getting tired of my one-word titles. It might be time for a change.