Moving On #3

Duncan, at first glance, is a much more likely place to move to. The weather, while it is quite frequently grey and gloomy for what feels like months on end, is also rather glorious for even more months of the year. During the warm months there is very little humidity. No matter how hot it is during the day, by evening it generally cools down. The range of temperatures is, as compared to central Canada, fairly small. Temperatures in Duncan on average only fluctuate 35 degrees in a whole year (-6 to 30 degrees Celsius). Ontario's temperatures can fluctuate 25 degrees within a week. And no matter how wet it gets in Duncan - seldom does one have to shovel the stuff!

The housing costs in Duncan are very comparable to cities in Ontario. While I have not seen the insides of any two bedroom apartments, it appears as if $800-900 can get one a  reasonable two bedroom apartment - about the same cost as Ontario. Duncan also has a vibrant social and cultural life. There are number of open air markets in the area, there is a lot of home grown music, and if there are fewer (and less varied) restaurants in the area, there are certainly sufficient for my needs. People are more relaxed/friendly (in part I have argued because of the more benign weather). They are, for example, more likely to talk to you on the bus.

But there are no seasons here. Because there are far fewer hardwood trees on the West Coast, the fall colours are significantly less glorious. Summer sort of seems to slip into the rainy season they call winter which by February slowly evolves into summer.There is no mad celebration of spring after a winter of fighting the cold, of wearing boots and mitts and hats, of shoveling the snow from the end of the driveway or getting into a car with the vinyl seats so cold that the heat is sucked from your flesh. One wonders if the various equinoxes and solstices of the northern climates that mark either the leaving or the return of the sun were ever as important to celebrate in warmer climates when the seasons have less impact upon daily life.

The cost of living here is higher. Food is substantially more expensive, in part because so much of it is shipped across the strait by ferry, but also because there is so little competition. Duncan has three reasonably large grocery stores. All three stores in Peterborough would be seen as reasonably high end stores. There are no low frills/budget grocery stores in Duncan or anywhere else on the island.  People just seem to accept the high cost of food as being normal. The cost of getting around is also more. Gas is more expensive and if one wants to visit any where off island - the cost of the ferry makes one hesitate.

Moving to B.C. also means switching health care systems, car insurance and getting a new driver's licence. It means having to learn how the civil service/bureaucracy works. It means that my fairly comprehensive knowledge of how the courts and the social service system operates in Ontario will no longer be useful to me or anyone else. Moving means that I lose contact with some people that I have known for much of my adult life. Moving away from Ontario means that I will no longer see the hills, the river and the lakes that have shaped so much of who and what I am.

While it would be fun to watch my two youngest grandchildren grow up, and to see how they evolve ( and perhaps they need my attention more), it is unlikely that my son would commit as much energy to watching out for me as would my daughter. I suspect I would have to work harder to remain connected.

There are so many things to consider about moving. I know I have to move. I know that I will move. I suspect that whatever decision  I make - part of me will feel that it was the wrong one.