Into the sunset

Photo by Marc-Olivier Jodoin on Unsplash

I’ve been awfully silent lately. Obviously because nothing happened: no international wars, no political tensions, no environmental crises… Zero reasons to speak up. Personally, same: I only have 2 young daughters, 2 companies, a variety of Instagram accounts and blogs, the latter of which I apparently neglected as has already been established. In other words, no reason to get excited.

In truth and before I get back to cracking the jokes the likes of which you haven’t seen since a White House Correspondents’ Dinner, I have been a little busy with things, no matter how high my tolerance for emergencies is. Speaking of, my wife spent last Sunday morning at the ER with our oldest daughter, luckily for nothing, as we are getting ready to depart.

That’s the best news in a while, the one I wanted to focus on here so people don’t criticize me for being overly gloomy. In a few days, we’ll be flying to Montreal, close to the US but not too close. Also, this happens to be the first long-haul trip with our youngest, who just turned 19 months and therefore doesn’t have to pay for the plane ride. Lucky for her, she doesn’t have a bank account.

In any event, we are about to — literally — embark on a 20-day trip with kids, backpacks, diapers and piles of T-shirts which should be more than enough if the recent French heatwaves are any indication. And after having spent the past couple of weeks preparing for this, as we are exchanging flats with a lovely Canadian family who are not used to A/C-free buildings (so we got ceiling fans) and have bigger kids — so we got brand new bunk beds big enough that I can fit in.

My state of mind? Mostly, exhausted. A little anxious about the amount of stuff that we still have to do, including the actual packing, getting on an airplane with 2 young kids for 6+ hours, deciding on where to have our first poutine, no matter how hot it is outside. Luckily, I am also feeling a sense of relief at the thought that this will all be over.

I mean it: we’re not coming back. Don’t tell the authorities.