backtracking

It’s been a while since I’ve had a chance to do updates, sorry. I’ll try to backtrack a little… after all, a whole lot of things have happened since August 2nd.

August long weekend we were offered a cottage of a good friend of mine (well, her parents, to be exact!). I was totally thrilled about the idea, especially since I had the Friday off and we could avoid the long weekend cottager’s traffic. Yeah, the traffic out of the city on long weekends in the summer can be absolutely grueling! I rushed home from work, packed, organized everything and was almost ready to pack the car, when we found out that there was a massive rainstorm raging in the Minden area. So, we decided to put off the trip until the next morning. On Friday we did leave early enough that the 2.5 h trip only lasted 3h and 45 minutes. Not all that bad! However, Kaspar was in no mood to be in the car for ANY length of time and I spent most of the trip turning back toward him to keep him occupied and got out feeling a bit like an invalid – with a sore neck and feeling all crooked in my spine! But that was not the last of our worries. As we were approaching the cottage, we noticed a lot of fallen trees. I refused to believe that the cottage might have no power. After almost four hours on the road you really don’t want to arrive and find out there is no electricity, no running water, no fridge to keep milk cold etc. But… yes, we found just that! There had been a huge storm with over twenty-hurricane touchdowns in Ontario just the previous Wednesday. I was so determined to be at the cottage that I instantly convinced my mom that we could stay for a day, because the power would probably come back overnight. She was not thrilled about the idea, but the weather was gorgeous and the sun was out and the BBQ had a full tank of gas and the lake was warm, so she sort of agreed. She regretted it a couple of minutes later, when (thanks to a working cell phone) we reached a friend, who informed us that the Minden area is not expected to have power back until Monday or Tuesday. Oh well! We still went for a swim. Kaspar tried out his brand new lifejacket! He’s such a water baby, that I thought it would be wise for him to wear a life jacket, when we go swimming or even while we hang out on the dock. I cannot say that he was in agreement with me, but we managed to go for a short swim with the jacket on. Before I knew it, it was time for dinner, the meat tasted spectacular, especially because I had hardly eaten all week (I had been very ill the previous week-end and it took me another three days before I was able to hold down any sort of food, save toast and black tea). However, my joy for food lasted no more then about 20 minutes. The nausea came on slowly, like a dark rain cloud on a windless day. Within the hour I was rocking back and forth on the couch completely sick to my stomach, unable to respond to Kaspar’s joyous screams. He had just discovered a whole tub of toys behind the door in the other room. All I could think was – I need a toilet. One that flushes! We waited for a bit, but my mother refused to wait around until I got worse and began to pack the car. Our cottage experience lasted a whole two hours. It was sad, really! By the time we hit the highway it was Kaspar’s bedtime and he fell asleep after about ten minutes of complaining, I was thankful for small blessings! We arrived at home shortly before 10 pm, me – well drugged with my mom’s heart pills (the valium kept the nausea at bay while we drove); Kaspar – just waking up from the long nap in the car seat; and my mother – totally exhausted after all day of driving and taking care of both of us. So, instead of hanging out at a cottage, I spent another weekend nursing myself back to health, while Kaspar dug in the dirt in the back yard!

The past week Kaspar and my mom and I spent at the kid’s camp, where I was teaching jewellery making to six boys aged 8 to 12. It kept me away from the telephone, computer and such. Felt kind ‘a good! I only had to teach for about three hours a day, so the rest of the day was spent hanging out with Kaspar, going swimming and goofing around in the little kiddy pool. It was awesome! Great weather! We also had great company, because I had asked my friend’s daughter (a gorgeous twelve-year-old, who’s great with kids and very mature!) to help with the teaching. She ended up being a spectacular assistand as well as an awesome babysitter for Kaspar. Our week passed very quickly. Before we knew it, I was packing up the studio and rushing back home, just to have enough time to do laudry, unpack and pack the car and leave for our trip up North. Here is Kaspar playing peek-a-boo in the car!