I have taken THE big step towards accepting that I will be back in a house semi-bound life for six months: I ordered internet service. Telus has a special; super fast internet with 500GB of bandwidth for $30 a month for the first six months. I will be downgrading my cellular modem to the flex plan so that I still have it available should I travel this winter or the other internet goes down. So that will be $35 a month. The total will be $65 (plus taxes and fees, of course), which is exactly what I pay now for my 5GB mobile account!

Once again, I’d like to make it clear that the only reason I am staying in Lethbridge this winter is the sudden availability of health services. Getting signed on with a family doctor in just two phone calls was life-altering, but what followed was even more amazing. I had initially booked a physical for January, but I don’t want to wait that long to see the doctor. So I called and asked if I could get a regular appointment sooner… and I got one for October 5th!

I have no intention of getting settled into this apartment. I will make it as cozy and functional as I can for six months, but I am bringing the strict minimum with me and will invest as little as possible into making it habitable. There are so many things I will miss: having many rooms, the double sink in my kitchen, my kitchen’s much more functional layout, my huge shower. But I am looking forward to having a bath!

In the next week I will scrub every inch of the apartment and start to make an inventory of what is coming into it. Of course, Miranda will be parked very close by, so I can grab what I need, but I want to see how little I can live with.

November should be a much slower month for me with nice days at the beginning. So with the rig empty, I’d like to repaint the study and do another coat of yellow in the kitchen/library/loft. I’ve made a list of other small projects that I could do weather-depending that would be much more doable with the rig empty.

The only big project on the table for this winter will be planning my shortened US route for my trip through there in the spring! Six months will go by fast, I know it, and soon I will be back on the road, healthy and ready for more adventures. That’s how I’m looking at this winter; just one more adventure in this crazy, wonderful, nomadic life of mine.