Chapter Thirteen - Living Affordability

The one thing that I noticed about our place was the increasing amount of property taxes. Vancouver is one of the best cities in the world to live in, but the amount of property taxes one pays is astronomical. We get taxed out our ying-yang to live here. I don't know if it's any better in the BC Interior but man, having to dish out a §1800 every three days...it's nuts. But well, we still have to keep that roof over our head, at least for the time being as we look for alternatives; maybe 100 Mile House or somewhere like that or we may even go as far as Clearwater, BC.

I've always been leery about being close by my mother, whether in the same city or the next one over. Because I don't know what she's going to do. She's always been vindictive and River and I don't need the added stress of wondering if she's seen our wealth and is making plans to try to grab it. We're keeping our fingers crossed, but I don't plan to have this city be our end-spot. Maybe we might just uproot and move to Edmonton, who knows at this point.

Of course, while in the midst of my thinking, I get this call from Rogers Tower, one of the companies there, was asking me to train one of their employees in logic. As it turns out, that particular employee was a former classmate of mine. He and I went back a ways and there was a history between the two of us - let's just say that we didn't like each other. but hey, simoleons were simoleons and if his company was paying me for the effort, I might as well. Besides, I'm sure he grew up by now. I got in my Evasion and headed out to see where he was. I tracked him down to one of the food stores in Coquitlam.

After a lengthy tutorial session with him trying to get him up a level in logic, we said our goodbyes and I hopped back in my car and headed over to Rogers Tower with a "hey, I did what you asked, so where's my money?" I got paid - good enough.

Then, it was back to the usual: sit at the computer and feel my rear-end go numb as I wrote chapter after chapter of my next book. I'm not sure exactly how my writing is going, but at least I'm getting some sales from the last few books I wrote. River at least is doing well in terms of painting; the value of her paintings are earning a good four figures now and still rising as she gains experience and earnings. That's the nice thing about paintings, they appreciate in value.

Full moon was always fun. I don't know what it is that puts us both in the mood, but well, we certainly enjoyed ourselves as far as the full moon was concerned. After making sure that Sally was inside. We went upstairs and enjoyed a little private time together.

Oh, of course, some jack-wagon decided that he was going to go after our possessions again. Needless to say, when I finished with him, he probably needed to get some medical attention. I don't know if the Richmond RCMP dealt with him, but anyhow, he certainly got his comeuppance. Maybe it might teach him to walk a straighter path in life. Who knows?

It was hard to drop back to sleep again after getting rudely woken up like that and being keyed up from the adrenaline, but eventually, we did. When we woke up in the morning, we had our usual breakfast, and I headed out to deal with the greenhouse garden. At least it kept the plants harvestable and it was warm in there. Of course, River thought I was completely nuts seeing me practically in underwear harvesting plants.

Once my playing with dirt was done, I headed down to Aleister's to pawn off a few more gemstones. Let's just say that I knew the value of my goods to the point where I could deal with the consignment shops with relative ease. I usually ended up getting about 30% more in simoleons than I would get selling it privately, so it behooved me to get to know the clerk a bit better so that I'd be able to get better returns. Anyways, it helped the sales numbers for Aleister's too.

It just so happened that Sally was out nosing out the frozen ground for rocks, so I headed to the computer to do some writing. After finishing off the book and sending it in for publishing, I headed down to the gem-cutter/smelter to cut some more gemstones, River, of course, was painting. I guess this early morning's excitement left her tired enough that she hadn't bothered dressing and was in her night-clothes. And we did whatever tasks came around till night fell. City Hall lit up very nicely, when it came to nighttime. We could see the tower spire from Richmond.

Vancouver's affordability has always been a critical bone of contention. With the increasing number of foreign investments coming in and buying up as much property as they could get their hands on, the affordability of homes was becoming a major issue as residents of Vancouver were getting the short-straw and forced to either pay-up in increased taxes or cut their losses and sell. This has always been the situation in any location that allowed foreign investment of their housing infrastructure: rising costs of living and housing unaffordability. And long-time residents of Vancouver had no choice but to uproot from places that they had lived in for many decades and move out into the interior. The migration inwards had driven up prices in those locations as well creating a trickle down effect in housing costs rising. It was going to be only a matter of time before the housing-bubble broke.

Chapter Twelve - Honeymoon Deferred

Next morning, it was back to the daily grind. No honeymoon for us; we had to keep the simoleons rolling in. River trudged out in the snow to retrieve the mail. Just because we were newly married didn't mean that the bills would stop in celebration of our union. We still had things to do, tasks to accomplish and we had to keep making our life work.

River met with Phil again to pass along yet another painting that he'd bought from my wife. Thank goodness for winter tires. River's a good driver so I didn't feel the slightest bit worried about her being out on winter roads. It's the other dim wits on the road that I worry about. After all, you never know exactly what they will do in a given situation.

River came home and started another painting. Her canvas creations were impressive and my friend Phil, whose career with the VFD was going really well, was more than enamored of his new acquisition which he promptly hung on his wall. And it was a couple thousand simoleons more that went in the bank thanks to his purchase. River and I were now doing pretty well.

I, of course, had things of a more agronomical bent, toiling in the greenhouse and keeping our chickens and cows well-fed. At least it was something that I could do with my hands and it kept me busy.

...and I had to make deliveries to our local Jules Bistro of some fresh produce from the garden. Luckily my Yomoshoto Evasion could negotiate the roads as well, considering that we'd put winters on the vehicle at the beginning of the season. Trust me, they're expensive to exchange tires. I could technically do it myself, but knowing my ineptness with mechanics, I'd probably end up having the thing go off the jack and crush me, or my tires would fall off the axles while doing eighty down Highway Number 1.

Of course, the minute I got back, I got lovingly accosted by my wife. Though of course we had to have dinner beforehand. Yeah, being married made that especially fun. Hey...at least we got clean...

We didn't have very many animals to deal with; cows and chickens at the most. It kept us in farm-fresh eggs and milk (which we turned to cheese). I find that the cheese sells pretty well down at the local market. Of course, there's always the sim that likes stinky cheese. That's why I've been able to sell my the putrid and the well-aged cheeses. Whatever suits their palate; who am I to judge.

River continued her painting from earlier and I worked on my writing skill. Once I was finished that I worked on my guitar skill which I was going to need to accomplish my Lifetime Wish which was identical to River's

Yes, River and I were grateful to be living in one of the best cities in the world. Of course the prices of home in Vancouver were getting to be outrageous and it was hard to figure out whether or not we would continue to be able to hold this property or end up having to move into the Interior of BC but we figured that we would try to do our best. With the mayoral change in Vancouver, it was something that we would have to consider in the future, but for right now, we were going to hang on and see what happens.

We'll do the best that we can and let the chips fall where they may.

Chapter Eleven - Forever

River and I had made a life for ourselves after being unceremoniously dumped on the street by my mother and left to fend, practically penniless. We had grasped, clawed and fought our way back to some semblance of financial security and it meant that we had a place of our own. I didn't have to tolerate the abuses that my mother heaped on me and we'd been able to live our lives. I don't think that my mother was interested in meddling in River's or my business and well, we finally set a date. It was a private wedding of course, we didn't bother inviting anyone. The most important people to each other were present and that was what was important.

It was an emotional moment when River stood in front of me with her wedding dress on, her hair up and a gleam in her eye that spoke of the deep love that she had for me. I'm sure that I had the same look of love for her present in my eyes, because her face just lit up.

I lost the scruffy hairstyle that I usually wore in favor of a more neatly combed hairstyle. I guess I cleaned up well. She took my hand...as we spoke, with deep feeling, the vows that we'd wrote for each other. This wasn't a fancy church wedding: we didn't need that; it was the meeting and joining together of two souls in holy matrimony, in a bond that would stand the test of time itself.

We had no formal pastor to tell us to exchange rings. We didn't need that. All we needed was a mutual look and River took my hand and slid the custom made ring that was to be my wedding band on my finger as she whispered, with emotion, "with this ring...I thee wed..."

I repeated those same lines; the lines that had been spoken by wedding couples for centuries in various similar forms. I, Haruo, take thee, River, to be my lawfully wedded wife, to have and to hold from this day forward.... I swear there were probably invisible ninjas cutting onions, because the both of us teared up, knowing that we were taking a monumental next step over the threshold of a new life together.

When we drew in to kiss each other for the very first time as husband and wife, even though we had kissed many times before; it was like discovering ourselves for the very first time. That through whatever life would throw at us, we would stand side-by-side, weathering the storm; no matter how rough the seas of life got. And that, is the glue that holds a marriage together. That was what would keep us together, as we had come through so much together already; building a life from nothing. Not even my mother could keep us apart and if that couldn't fracture our relationship, nothing on God's Green Earth ever would.

We didn't need to have a pastor present to tell us when the wedding ceremony was over or formally pronounce us as a married couple. We knew that we were married and the only formal thing that we had to do was sign the marriage license and be formally declared as a couple in the Province of British Columbia and that was easily done at Vancouver City Hall.

Of course River was looking forward to something else, while I was more interested in setting up the camera so that we could get our formal wedding portraits done.

Setting up the Hikon DH300s was probably one of the funnest things I've ever done knowing that we could do our own formal photographs.

Let's just say that it felt great to try out different poses and see just how romantic of a wedding photo set that we could get. I've always loved photography even though I wasn't a big fan of portraiture - I was more the wildlife/landscape type, introvert. Heck both River and I were. We kept to ourselves only needing each other's company. We didn't need to be out at the local hotspot socializing. All the socializing that we could ever want was with each other.

Happy is the man who finds a true friend; and happier still is the man who finds that true friend in his wife~Franz Schubert. Yes, it was enough.