Yesterday Colleen called. She was about the only person I knew in Victoria before I moved and she had agreed to take my forwarded mail. Canada Post wouldn't let me rent a Victoria box from Winnipeg. She lives near Oak Bay, she had to leave for a squash game by 6:15. She gave me directions involving riding downtown on Douglas or Blanshard, then riding on Fort and turning on Oak Bay Road.
I road on Blanshard - a major arterial road, in a diamond lane for cyclists. On Fort, another major artery, the diamond lane is actually between the curb lane - which is for parking - and the 2 middle lanes. I was able to ride major routes without getting pinched by traffic.
The hills in the east end of Victoria are murder though. I am spending a lot of time on the middle ring, and shifting a lot. I think the rear shift cable was pinched on the trip because the shifts at 3-4-5 on the back cassette sometimes just hang. But I got another 15 k and my third ride in 4 days.
The next few days are forecast for rain and I should start looking at houses for rent.
Canada Post wouldn't let you rent a box? What is up with those f*ckw*ds?
They wouldn't rent a box from Winnipeg - even if I went to a Post office in Winnipeg in person with ID. I had to be in Victoria to get a box. But now that I am here, and within a couple of weeks of getting a real postal address, it doesn't make sense to get a box and redirect my mail to the box and then to my new address.
The real headache in dealing with Canada Post was getting to that point. They don't discuss the issue on the Web and phone calls to the their customer enquiry and customer service centres are handled by a call centre where no one knows anything about those service - lots of information about the price of collectable stamps though. I was able to get a phone number for the Victoria Main Post office by Googling and to get some information from a real employee who knew something about their rules and process.