At long last, the saga of the Van(vanvan) has drawn to its ultimate--inevitable--conclusion.  After weeks of research and far too many long conversations with the Canadian Border Services Agency, Importation Canada, and other less savory organizations, we have managed to do what apparently no other person has ever attempted before in the history of Canada:  we have legally disposed of a vehicle brought into the country on a temporary importation.  The trick, we discovered, is to donate it to charity....and so donate it to charity we did;  the Vanvanvan will do some good in the world at long last, as it is broken down into its constituent parts, and auctioned off in suport of the Canadian Cancer Society. 

It was with some sadness that I said goodby to the Van this morning...not for the vehicle itself, but for the dream which it represented.   A dream which it was destined to never live out.  The Van, at the end, was sufferring...it was in pain....it begged to be allowed to leave gracefully, on two of its four wheels.  I know that wherever it has gone, it is now happy, knowing that it will be doing the only thing that ever gave it joy: helping people. 

And so, dear friends, I beg a moment of reflection.  Let us consider the good that the Van did in this world.  An icon to sustainable living, it sat--undriven--for two years on the side of the road, its solar panels proudly proclaiming a desire to live in a world that  embraced green energy, even as its immobility made an understated statement: "I'm burning no fossil fuels while I sit here.  I could be, but I'm not."  Let us consider its desire to nurture all life forms, and its particu (more)...