Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Wednesday night

It's 10.15pm and I am really tired but not willing to go to bed. There have been no quakes for hours so I guess I feel that one is on the way...? I also haven't heard from Sam today, and Dom is at either ice hockey or a Stake HC Meeting. Not sure which one as I daren't call him at either place!
I had another long day at home with the kids today. The dance competition was probably the highlight of our day. That, and the fact that Megane found some very old gypsey dolls in a store and I bought them for her. She has been in Doll House Heaven ever since. Lucy built an amazing "birthday cake" for Bob the Builder. I'll have to take a picture of it. It has towers and people on the turrets, and a complicated kind of bridge system. Sebas finally went outside for an hour and rode his bike around our dead-end and gave me some peace at about 5pm. He is like a caged animal when he can't run around. I cannot imagine how it would be living through a Canadian winter with that boy.
I read some interesting stuff today by a UN Disaster Assessor today. He reckons that going under a table or in a doorway will NOT save you. He has a pyramid theroy that says if you go beside a table/bed/sofa (in feotal position) then you have a much higher rate of survival. He has seen whole schools of children squished flat like frogs because they went under the desk and all the weight of the roof pushed down on that surface and killed them. Dad seems to think this makes sense. Darn it, I've had to retrain the kids! They all practised sliding out of their beds and curling up on their sides before I'd let them go to sleep tonight.
I also heard we have had over 250 big aftershocks. No surprise there! I often think I feel the house swaying but it is possibly my distorted sense of balance. I hardly know what is stable anymore.
Dad seems to be okay. His house is still (semi) standing and he is working on having the brick firewalls removed and totally rebuilt. If this happens it will be a miracle and a testament to his love of that old house. Thankfully Gaye has been given some leave from work - it must be awful living with that kind of stress on top of all the shaking.
My school has decided not to re-open until Monday. I wouldn't mind teaching at the moment to distract myself but there is no way I could do it unless the kids were with either Dad or Dom. Dom however is back at work. Their office space is going to take a good two months to rebuild (it was on top of the new car parking building which was designed to move with the earthquake like the agitator in a washing machine) so he is now on the second floor of an old out-building on the airport grounds. He is not in love with where they have put him but at least he is back in his normal routine. He *hates* earthquakes and the building he is in rattles when trucks go past... but he knows that there is no point in complaining about it. I am always telling Dom and the kids that there is no past or future, just the NOW and right now they have everything they need, so not to worry. He is working on that.
Tomorrow I am going to have to find a way to go for a run. If it is raining again the kids will have to put on raincoats and go on the swings at Elmwood Park... or I will go insane. Wish me luck!

1 comment:

A Girl Called Chuck said...

See, I told you the go under the table plan was rubbish.

About Me

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Our family of 5 currently lives in Christchurch, New Zealand. I love being here because of the weather, the clean water, Dad living 5 minutes from us, and our Ward. I miss my friends and family overseas and invite you all to come here for a holiday!