A busy day today. I went from an early morning check-up at 9:00 am with my family physician to 10 o’clock blood work at the adjoining lab followed by X-rays in the hospital at noon, then a 1:00 pm COVID nasal swab at a local pharmacy and finally a late afternoon drive to Big-Rigs Bakery at Antrim Truck Stop in Arnprior. The latter inconsistency was overtly and unabashedly for the sole purpose of acquiring a large carrot cake with mountains of creamy white icing. The exigency and shamefulness of appetite!
The drive along the Queensway to Arnprior was a springtime delight – clear air, blue sky, yellow sunshine, fresh temperature. Somewhere along the undulating highway and the vast open fields I spoke by telephone with a business associate who had lately taken what he called a “bucket list” trip to Iceland. When he asked about our own winter I gleefully replied that we were thrilled to be back in Almonte. As I explained, though our winter sojourn on Hilton Head Island was uneventful but consistently satisfying, it felt terrific to be home.
We have today succeeeded to a significant moment in our otherwise quotidian activity. Our estate agent sent to us a copy of the signed lease (residential tenancy agreement) between ourselves and the landlord of Riverfront Apartments, the building being constructed along the Mississippi River on Johanna Street in Almonte. The lease is effective November 1st next. We have accordingly notified our current landlord of the upcoming transition – which constitutes for the landlord and his family a similarly necessary transition. It gives me shivers to imagine the frozen reality of both our positions. Each is prospective; each relates to anticipated future events. Both are likey sooner than later.
Meanwhile it appeases the imperturbable truth to know that we have confronted the impending alteration. We have indeed translated anxiety to fortuity, brooding worry to happy chance. I have recently referenced the matter of perpetual existence. It is a feature which sufficiently denotes a landlord such as a numbered company, especially as in this instance one having dominion over a 42-unit development which is not a condominium. The corporation never dies; and the units are not for sale.
We have the summer to prepare ourselves, to enlarge upon our moving requirements, to ready and acquaint ourselves with the anticipated change. We’re moving to the other side of the river. For me it is back to my beginnings in Almonte at Matin St N poignantly nearby St. Paul’s Anglican church of which I was formerly a Warden and of which my first landlord George Bickely was then the Rector. The area is as well within the scope of my third residence in Almonte on Laura Cresent. The names of the streets on that side of town, on that side of the river, are familiar to me, not only the family of Albert T. Gale but also well known and respected community members such as Robert Hill, (Hal) Merrithew, (Gordie) Kilburn, Stewart Lee and Jack Dalgity.
The Town of Mississippi Mills has done a superb job of endorsing residential growth while preserving the best of the natural beauty along the river. While we are as yet uncertain of the precise amplitude of the view upriver from the new apartment we’re fairly certain it will have its appeal. And if the view from the windows of the apartment is insufficient to feed the desire to look upriver, there is ample open river frontage immediately adjoining the residential property. The entire property overlooks the Almonte Agricultural Hall and Fair Grounds on the other side of the river. It was there in 1976 that I first introduced my Labrador puppy Lanny to the soothing waters of the Mississippi River.
And by the way the carrott cake was divine! Moist and sweet! Absolute perfection!