Thursday, July 3, 2008

Ready For the Weekend

It's been a long stressful week and I'm so ready for this weekend.

With the whole mammogram thingy and the fire that is still out of control it's been a very trying week for me. To compound the challenges, The Husband has been crazy working 16 hour days and not getting home until well into the wee hours of the morning. In fact one day I got the voicemail message, "I'll try and make it home before you go to work." Not really want I wanted to hear but I understood. He's in the beverage industry, and for obvious reasons, the 4th of July weekend is one of the largest volume weekends of the year for him.

The fire has burned over 1000 acres and is less than 5% contained. Throughout the day you can see and hear the planes heading toward the edge of the fire to drop the retardant to help fight the battle. There was a lot more smoke in the air yesterday and today County Public Health has issued a health advisory because of the increase in ash in the air. Lot's of people woke to a layer of ash on their cars and I'm feeling itchy eyes and a little headachey from the poor air quality. The glow from the fire was much more prominent throughout the night but still several miles from my home. The chance it actually heads in my direction is slim. But being one who worries about everything, I still have a very noticeable level of anxiety about it.

There have been power outages across the city and I lost power around 7 last night. I broke out candles and flashlights and tried to make being in the dark a game for The Little Miss. We had fun playing I Spy in the house, a game usually reserved for car rides, by shining our flashlights on different objects. We read bed time books by flashlight and pretended we were camping. It was such simple innocent fun.

Regardless of the fun times I had with The Little Miss, it was hard being a single parent this week. I miss The Husband and learned I do count on him for so much. I was single for 39 years and in my adult years, relied on myself for everything. But I now know, I'm not in this by myself anymore and now share the weight of it with another person. It's amazing to me in just a few years how much I have grown to rely on The Husband. Everything from making sure there are flashlights in the house to holding my hand when I told him about my call on Tuesday, even if it was at 2 in the morning when he got home. I was reminded over and over again what a nice family of three we are, and I like it that way.

So today I pack up our things and head out of town. We're making the drive to San Francisco for a few days to get away from all this craziness. We're going to see a baseball game, have dinner with a long time friend and watch fireworks over the city.
Happy 4th of July for those who celebrate it and for those of you who don't, have yourself a very safe and lovely weekend.

8 comments:

Christine said...

Happy 4th of July to you and yours :)

I'd love to visit San Francisco, and probably the air is better there and will do you good :)

Christa said...

Enjoy your weekend with the family--you definitely deserve it :)

Tony said...

Have a good time in San Francisco :).

Unknown said...

Enjoy your time away to relax. It sounds like you REALLY need it.

Irish Mom said...

It must be so scary to have the fires so close!! Have fun in San Francisco!!

Anonymous said...

Have fun in San Fran. Sounds like you need a break. I hate fire season in CA. Between that and the mammogram I can totally understand needing time away! Spend a weekend JUST HAVING FUN :)

Anonymous said...

hope you had a good trip.
it IS so hard playing single mama huh?
Ive no clue how those who do it all the time, well, DO IT!

M.

Fairy Princess said...

I hope your weekend gives you so much needed rest! :) Enjoy chica!