The Post I Didn’t Want To Make

I'm not a journal person, and I'm a person that only wants to write with a purpose. Today, I needed to get something off of my chest: December has been really damn hard - personally.

The whole year has been like that. Adapt and overcome, constantly.

That's how I do it and that's how the people I surround myself with do it: you get back up and you don't quit. We're not soft. We're fighters. We'll keep fighting. 2023, come at me. This year has shown us that there's no stopping this fight.

December Has Been a Mess, in Order:
-Our new house closed two days late after paying $11K for a 7-day bridge, losing two days was frustrating and costly. To top that off, our 1-year-old son was sick the whole week so I moved with a 1 y/o attached to me. More and more things kept going wrong with the move daily, but I'll save my breath.

-My wife was diagnosed with a sleep disorder and cannot drive until treated for that; I'm doing a lot of driving. I hate driving; there's a reason that I moved away from rural NB and all of its driving.

-Southern Ontario had a freak storm that left our family trapped in our own home for three days without power or heat, and no way to get out. We lost power late on the 23rd of December and it didn't come back until the 27. We got out on the 26th to my in-laws where they had a generator. It was a cold and disappointing Christmas, but thankfully the kids were still excited on Christmas morning. It was scary and upsetting. I've never felt so hopeless with keeping my family safe.

Plows couldn't do the roads because it was such a whiteout, and power crews couldn't start work until the roads were safe. There were 100-120KPH winds blowing snow everywhere. I couldn't see my own truck in the driveway. It was terrifying and we learned a lot. There's a snowblower coming Saturday (though that would not have helped during THIS insane of a storm to get us out), and we're investigating generator options. I've never needed more than a shovel in my 11 years in Ontario, and I haven't had a power outage since 2012. With our move, we are with a new utility company in the part of the region with the most snow. We're never getting caught again. No way.

-Multiple trees fell on top of our cottage investment property during the same storm, along with ripping our eletrical box off, a power line and pole falling on the building. Our roof and at least one entire wall of the cottage are ruined. They need to be replaced. We're not able to physically get in as it is a safety hazard and are waiting on disaster relief to provide us with direction, and I'm sure that's just the beginning.

-I really missed my parents and "home" extra this Christmas.

-My father (for now) finished Cancer treatments.

-Little things like armed person alerts, tornado warnings, chest pains, and accidentally losing 12lbs I had no business losing from stress piled on top of it all.

Wonderful Things Have Happened, Too:

-Our new home is everything we've ever wanted in a home. We all have the space we need, we're in a slower city, and we're able to easily spend more time in nature. We're enjoying it and we're enjoying the projects that come with a new home.

-Our neighbours graciously helped us plow out the 4-5 feet of solid snow from the plows with a snowblower after I shovelled the rest.

-We've found a wonderful school for our daughter and daycare for our son that they trialled and will start in the year year.

-The kids were as excited about their toy Chevy Colorado on Christmas morning as I was.

-We're all safe. We're together. We'll be seeing friends tomorrow for NYE.

-We're enjoying exploring our new Hallmark Christmas town and all of its offerings.

-I'm in love with the work that we're doing at FlexDealer and the direction we're headed; this is an amazing rocketship to be on.

-Our families both have saved us (as always) from our hard moments; heat and shelter, advice and long phone calls about what to do, comfort and joy for us and our kids.

-I've been able to enjoy joining ball hockey and found a team to join as we move into winter season in January.

This is all proof that we can fight and we will keep winning. There's no stopping me.

That's it. That's what I needed to share.