Patience as a teacher is crucial if you intend to maintain your sanity. If you are not patient, and a teacher, I'd love to write you a prescription for wine, but I'm not sure our benefits cover it. My patience was truly tested with a custom part I had a true craftsman create. It was supposed to take a week, and I found out perhaps too late that meeting deadlines was as weak as workmanship was strong.
Of course, the day before my last day, I spent 4 hours of time hovering around the shop pushing this supreme craftsman compete my part. And when he asked me to go grab the necessary part to connect it up my trike, I went and got it. Of course I got an M8x1.25 bolt instead of an M10x1.25. I Would not get the right part after trying Canadian Tire, Home Depot, & Bike Soup. And Brefasco was closed. I would get the part in the morning and try to enjoy a going away party, arriving late and missing people who were sweet enough to pass by but missed my continued change of time updates.
The next morning, the day before my departure at 7am, I went to Brefasco and they had an M10x1!!! I had the rear wheel with me. We tried it. And it didn't fit. We needed an M10x1 find thread. Brefasco didn't have anything like that. I decided to buy a larger bolt that Mr. Machine Craft could manufacture into what we needed. I decided to take the Large thread M10x1 bolts as well. He ended up rethreading those and they would work! I then ran off to the bank and MEC.ca while he finished. When I got back and all was done, I was thrilled. But I wasn't thrilled about what little time I had to get everything done in time for my departure.
I packed my bike, which was no small chore, in Saran Wrap. It looked like a triple decker sandwich! Because it's a trike. Get it? I packed my bags, and uploaded my routes from ridewithGPS.com to my Garmin bike computer, and as the hours went on, everything took longer. I was reaching zombie stage, and wondered if it was worth sleeping or not. I decided to take the hour before I had to get up. Word of advice. Book your taxi ahead of time. Two companies refused because if my large cargo. Thanks to Crown taxi for accommodating me! I didn't book early as they always get there well before the arranged time and stress me out.
I was finally able to relax, but still worried about the adequacy of my trike packing job. Turns out they found my triple decker sandwich to be just fine. I hugged my mom goodbye and told her I would miss her. The support she gave me set me up nicely not only for this trip, but also for Life. I sent through customs and the officer seemed more interest in discussing soccer with his peer than with me. When I was finally free of my bags and joined the security line, directly behind me was none other than a fellow teacher/peer/friend from teachers college, Yolanda, and her daughter Daniela. Her straw fedora with pink ribbon was nothing short of fantastic! And she took a great picture of me with her iPad in my one-hour-of-sleep state of being.
It was quite a storm, before the calm. How calm? When I got on the plane after seeing my friends off as they boarded for Fort Lauderdale, I fell asleep almost immediately in my bulkhead seat as the airplane hit the Tarmac. I woke up an hour later and was confused. We hadn't moved. Turns out they had to reboot the plane and test everything after the reboot. The 8:25am departure turned into a 10:25am departure. Seattle or bust!
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