There is one day, I do not remember which one, when everybody in Montreal who is going to move that year, moves. I have not come across anything exactly the same since then, but as far as our family is concerned, August felt just like it.

To start with, I did a little bit of old fashioned traveling myself. I attended an international congress on Carboniferous and Permian periods which was held in Utrecht in the Netherlands.
(Click on the picture to see it full size, use a back button to return to this spot.) Looking back, I have made a lot of trips to the NL and given the small size of the country I am beginning to get the feeling that I know it quite well. The last trip gave me an opportunity to taste the extreme temperatures that Europe was exposed to this summer. Who would believe 38 deg Celsius in Paris! Holland was not quite that hot but it was hot. Coming from Houston, there was not much of a change, if anything it felt little bit cooler outside. It was a totally different story inside. The congress took place on the campus of the University of Utrecht, a large school, with a modern (and as a consequence not very pretty) campus. But, since elevated temperatures are almost never a problem, there was no air conditioning. Air became quite dense by mid morning - combine that with darkened rooms and jet lag - it was difficult to stay alert. I might have even taken a nap here and there.

Alice was able to "enjoy" the heat a little longer. Three out of the four weeks in Prague were pretty hot. Luckily, in Prague one is never too far from a pub and a pint of beer is still only 30 cents. The language program she was taking a part in was well attended with a truly international participation - one has only to wonder what possessed all these people from the four corners of the world to learn Czech - not exactly a language with global application. But, according to Alice, many students came to the program after having studied Czech in their home country for a couple of years and so there appears to be a motivation stronger than just an opportunity to participate in a pub crawl every night. Alice is heading back to Calgary - the one place that can guarantee cooler temperatures in the coming months.

Last week we took out the two back seats in the minivan, put in a small fridge and a lot of boxes and headed for San Antonio. It is about 3 hours along a surprisingly little frequented I10 highway. About an hour west of Houston the road enters a patchily wooded rolling hill area where names like: Frydek, San Felipe, Weimar, Praha, New Braunfels, etc. give a nice indication of the ingredients in the Texas melting pot. University classes start on Monday, but Monica decided to move into the dorm on the first possible day (Thursday) to give herself a chance to get familiar with the campus. We arrived on Wednesday afternoon and cleaned up some remaining administrative items before hordes of students started to show up. Monica did some last minute rearrangement of courses and ended up with a better schedule than before. We then proceeded to buy books for the first semester. Talk about sticker shock! $ 700 ! When I went to McGill (few decades ago) I paid $ 600 in tuition for the whole year.

The next day we were at the dorm at 8 a.m. but the big move-in was already in full swing. Monica's room is on the second floor (better than fourth) but I took one look at the refrigerator and thought: "This looks like a potential lower back injury, slipped disk maybe?". So we started small, carrying lighter boxes to warm up. And then 6 fraternity brothers showed up and carried up the rest of the stuff, including the fridge, so that we survived this unscathed. Monica shares the room with another girl who came from University of Michigan and according to her the room is at least 50 percent larger than up north. All the luggage we brought in disappeared in the closet without a problem and the room actually feels kind of empty. Each room has its own toilet and shower, and that is a substantial improvement on the dorms at U of C.

The next family member who left is the African dwarf frog which has been with us from the days of our first house in Dallas. Ten years and two moves later she made another move, this time to the Woodlands where she will probably set a frog longevity record.

The baby cockatiel Hiyoko moved back to the big bird house she was born in. We will miss her, but I think she will enjoy the company of the other birds.

The gardening experiment from last year was very successful, I now have a true papaya grove in the back of the house and the harvest will be plentiful. I also solved the problem of what to do with the narrow shaded strip on one side of the house. It is well on the way to becoming a ginger garden. The lamp post in front of the house presented a difficult challenge but I finally hit on a perfect solution. I planted an air potato, also known as bitter yam, which is growing at a very good pace now and will cover most of the lamp post before long. (It is called air potato because it produces potato-like fruit under the leaves.)

Unfortunately, we will not be around to harvest. Three months ago when I was asked whether I wanted to move to London, it sounded like a great idea. Now, with two cars sold, one more to sell and the house on the market, in the middle of moving preparations it seems like a very stupid idea. It will probably all work out fine, but I think age is catching up with me. This may be our last (or second to last move).

Note, that it may be a while before I post another update, I may have to change ISP and therefore the address of my home page. Do not know yet. When it is decided, I will send everybody in my address book a note. If you are not in my address book and do not see an update after the end of October, it means that you are accessing a fossil home page. Drop me a line at checoloco8@yahoo.com and I will send you the new home page address.

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