Quite a weekend

Yesterday morning Chuck did a run up the mountain to our first-stage water intake and discovered that there's still about six feet of snow and debris over top of our little dam. Definitive repair will have to wait for a while -- maybe a couple of weeks or more. For now we're getting enough seepage to keep the reservoir full so long as we don't use too much water. We even let the younger kids play in the sprinkler for a while yesterday.

In the evening a string trio was performing as a fund-raiser for our summer arts programs. I managed to be there two hours early to set up the multimedia stuff for our open house (PowerPoints, DVDs, etc.) and get all the kids and Chuck there in time for the performance. We're definitely all concert'ed out. Enough concerts for a while, thank you very much. Counting the two filmfest nights I think we've done seven concerts in the past 3 weeks, most in the last week and a half. We went home tired.

On the way to the concert we'd heard that a mud and rock slide had closed the highway south of us. Since the next morning involved an early start to an all-day Aikido seminar 5 km south of the slide, this was rather disturbing news. I checked the internet before bed; it said one lane was now open to alternating traffic. Thank goodness! The closure would have turned a half-hour drive into a three-hour drive.

Shortly after we got home, the power went out. Fiona, who was asleep by then, awoke in the middle of the night without her reassuring nightlight and came upstairs to her parents' bedroom for comfort. She fell on the way up the pitch-dark stairs. Middle of the night tears ensued. She settled.

This morning I roasted coffee and boiled water on the BBQ. Coffee first. We arranged to loan our generator to a group running a story-telling event (with multimedia) in the evening as part of our community's May Days celebration. Then the younger three and I headed out to the Aikido seminar on the assumption that the single lane was still open. It was. Fiona was to be part of the first hour and a half, then I would bring her home and Sophie and Noah would stay for the rest of the day.

Fiona, in an effort to keep up with all the big kid stuff going on, did a flying roll and landed wrong, fracturing her collarbone. Not a nasty fracture as these things go, but she's sore and it was very sad. Especially since it happened about 2 minutes after I left the dojo to go fill my gas tank at a nearby gas station with electrical power. For three months I have waited at the dojo through every minute of aikido classes. I leave for 14 minutes and my kid immediately snaps her collarbone! She was comforted by her sensei (thankfully both sensei were there and one was able to take time out with her). I took her home sobbing. I should mention that dogi belts make perfect figure-of-eight bandages, and she got a lot of comfort from that. The car seat restraint harness also felt pretty good on her shoulder, and she fell asleep for most of the trip.

Back home through the road-clearing at the mud-slide site, we got the generator hooked up to the sound system at the community hall in preparation for the story-telling night. Erin headed off to the home of her Asia-trip compatriots for a BBQ, planning session and get-together including her two adult friends, the third adult on the trip and her 13yo daughter. The girls had never met, but seemed to enjoy each other, which is great, since they'll be sharing each others' lives fairly intimately for three months next winter.

Fiona and I came home and cozied up for some readaloud time in the hammock. It was the sort of time you'd like to buy a kid an ice cream, but there was nothing available, power being out, the stores and their freezers being closed up. Alternatively it was a good time for lying on the couch watching a favourite video. Alas, that wouldn't work either. But we read, and chatted, and she gradually felt better.

We went back and picked up Noah and Sophie. We were in time to watch the belt testing. Noah and/or Sophie may be eligible for this at the fall seminar, so they were curious and also apprehensive. It was handled beautifully by the sensei. They'd had a lovely day, though Sophie had injured her foot about halfway through and Noah had given his nose quite a scrape during the massive game of hide-and-seek the group had played after lunch in the forest. Between Sophie's limp, Noah's nose and Fiona's broken bone, and miscellaneous stiffness, scrapes and bruises, they were a pretty poor sight. Two lanes of traffic were open on the way home, so that at least was easy.

We made a quick supper on the campstove. Headed out the story-telling event, which was lots of fun. When we were driving back from retrieving the generator we realized there was traffic redirection happening again at the main intersection in town. They'd had to close the highway again. We may have to take the other "long" way around to Nelson tomorrow morning to get Erin to piano lesson. It's not much longer, but a bit.

The kids practiced by candlelight. I washed dishes by hand for ages, as we'd been ignoring the kitchen all day. We read by the light of a lantern. I cinched Fiona's splint up tight for the night and put her to bed.

Now I'm up late at the computer because our power has finally come on. It was out for about 23 hours. They had been predicting "up to two days" so I guess we should be thankful it was just one. Our water is flowing enough for the necessaries. Perhaps the highway will be open by tomorrow.

It has been quite a weekend so far. Power outages are pretty common here, but this was a longer-than-usual one and the coincidence with water troubles and highway closures made it seem like someone was really out to get us. Kind of reminds me of the week leading up to and including the August long weekend last summer. Perhaps tomorrow will bring a bit more normality.