What My Girl Did On her Summer Vacation

My Girl Child made it home from her adventure at fencing camp on the Prairies. She had a wonderful time and is now looking for a job that will earn her enough money so she can return to camp next summer. 

Just about everything that could have happened, happened. All the good: food, friends, fun, admirable fencing foes, tomfoolery and shenanigans. And what we're calling 'challenges'. Namely a very interesting sports injury and unexpected travel interruptions on the way home. 

On her last day of camp I received a call from the coaches. They wanted to let me know about a situation they were having 'difficulty' dealing with. The Girl Child had developed a most vigorous case of muscle spasms while on the piste. They'd moved her (a project involving a ladder and six young men) to a salt bath, but six hours in and she her muscles were still seizing. A most painful and exhausting situation. 

The staff had consulted the knowledgeable head coach and trainer. Another coach went to the nearest pharmacy for rehydrating salts. A massage therapist made himself available to her. What else was there to do?

She managed to get some sleep. In the morning - her travel day - she packed up early, with help, and headed to town with her coach and the camp's head coach. A carefully timed massage and a trip to the pharmacy where muscle relaxants were obtained. As long as she didn't move very much, the spasms weren't too bad. Her calf muscle had settled and most problematic were the quad and glute on her right side. 

As her coach was flying out an hour after she was, she had company at the airport. Then a bunch of fencers showed up. They were also flying home. 

But then her flight was delayed. So much so that her connection would be missed. Once we convinced her that it was more important to take care of her flight than it was to wait with her new friends at their gate until they boarded their planes, she managed the situation well. 

She obtained a new flight and a different connection. The longest leg of her new flight ended up being first class. On the same plane as her coach. Serendipity if I ever saw it. 

I had great fun tracking her flights home. When she made her connection at Pearson International in Toronto, we waited until it departed its gate before heading out to meet her at the Ottawa airport. The plane arrived as we were parking. Perfect timing....for once that day. 

She was tired and sore, limping and her glute was still having spasms. We made jokes about her 'twerking' at the baggage carosel. But her spirits were good and she was looking froward to bed. 

I'd planned a welcome home dinner for her the next day...the same day, really. My family and her boyfriend came. We had BBQ corn and chicken kabobs and for The Girl Child, a giant pot of comfort food: Mac and cheese with peas. 

So her first 48 hours home were filled with taking care of her. As much food, drink, rest, massage and salt bathing as she could handle. And sure enough, the muscle spasms slowed down and stopped and today she is back to regular activity, next week she's back on the piste. 

♥Mrs. A

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I was trying to sleep in. Although, that's hard with dogs. But sometimes I can trick them into thinking there's still half an hour before they have to get up and go outside. I was hoping this morning might have been one of those mornings. 

Not to be. 

I was lying there in bed, holding my eyes shut, hoping sleep would come back if only the intermittent honking would stop. Not regular car honking though. This was a boat. And it would not. Shut. Up. 

Every minute there was a Seaway freighter blowing its bloody horn. And someone was hauling on it pretty insistently. How do the people in my family sleep through these rackets? I think they're pretending so I have to be the first one to get up....the one to take the dogs out. 

Living here, on the edge of nature, the River is that much closer and there's a fairly clear path to the water - no downtown traffic, buildings or highway to buffer the watery going-ons. Not that it's usually very noisy. It's a lovely river. 

But it is a working river and every day the Seaway is open, many large cargo freighters go by. We've always called them freighters....most locals do. They don't very often blow their horns.

I wondered if one got stuck. It happens every so often. The water was very low the last couple of years. A sea going freighter got stuck around Montreal. One headed to the Great Lakes ran aground in the islands just west of town. Much local excitement ensued. Another ran aground east of the closest lock station. We couldn't drive by and see that one. It took a couple of days to get it unstuck. 

However, this is where my mind goes. A ship is blowing its horn and I wonder if it's stuck....in the very deep and clear portion of the river we are near to. Also, I was annoyed. It's Sunday morning. I've slept for 4 hours after a long day. 

So I popped into my little car and took a little Sunday morning drive down to the river's edge. 

It looked lovely....in the fog. 

Normally, we can see New York and not just two feet past the rocks at the river's edge. 

Of course the poor ship was blowing its horn every 100 meters. You can't see a thing out there this morning!!

I drove home for coffee. But I thought you might like to see a snap or two of my new village. It's pretty and historic and I love the old parts of it. 

We have a tower. It's awesome. 

We have a beautiful Anglican church with the most lovely graveyard. 

One day I'll walk about and take pictures of all the lovely old things in the village. Not this day, though. The boat has moved on to annoy the next town to the east and I have planned a Welcome Home corn roast for The Girl Child to be held later today. She arrived home in the wee hours of the morning after a Friday of managing a most curious sports injury situation and a Saturday of travel complications, cancellations and delays. 

I'm off to clean the pool, husk the corn and dig out the Thomas trains and Playmobil for the wee cousins. 

♥Mrs. A

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One More Sleep!

One more sleep and my Girl will be home! She's having a great time. She reports the food is good, a massage therapist is helping to manage the hurting muscles, she's not sick of the people and she didn't get caught being out after lights out Tuesday night...unlike a few others who are enjoying a 9pm lights out for the remainder of the week. 

The Girl Child also reports she gave a talk about the importance of having and using a training journal. I knew this was important to her coach, but I did not realize that she herself was qualified to educate others on this important training tool. I love it when my kids surprise me. (If I had told her there would be 'required public speaking' at camp alongside the good stuff she was anticipating, she never would have gone.)

Coffee this morning is being enjoyed beside the dining room window. This is where I identified a new-to-me bird with a handy app I have on my iPad. The app comes with examples of bird song and calls which I played while sitting at the window. The Blue Eyed Bandit has been staring at the window for almost five minutes since the bird songs, waiting for the bird to appear. She can hear it. Now she wants to see it. It was a White-breasted Nuthatch, in case you were interested.

Miranda's comment earlier this week is good food for thought. For years now I've been thinking about amalgamating my blog posts from over the years into one platform. For reasons of privacy in a small town where my extended family is well known, I went fairly anonymous a few years ago. And before that blogging change, I had found myself blogging on what turned out to be a strongly religious homeschooling site. It wasn't a good fit and I moved. So my project this weekend will be to look at Wordpress, as Miranda suggests. I expect less hands on teaching time with the kids this year and a good use of that extra time would be to get all the homeschooling records together - and that includes these meandering blog posts. 

Yesterday was 15 official years of marriage for Mr. A and I. We had a quiet working day at home, having had a special date last Friday which we called our Anniversary Celebration. 

On the schedule for today is a stop at the post office to mail off my mini-skein swap packages. 

Inside is lovely sock yarn for 8 Americans, a Scot, someone Down Under and a lady down the road in Ottawa. I'm hoping the lovely lady at the village post office is helpful and kind as many involved in this swap have had problems mailing off their packages. 

As well, I'm supposed to call the people at the local quarry and get a load of gravel delivered to the house. I was supposed do it yesterday so the gravel would arrive today, but they're calling for rain and the only thing I can image that is worse than shoveling gravel in the first place is shoveling gravel in the rain. Also, if the gravel comes on Monday, The Girl will be home to help letting me 'manage' the project. Here's the driveway before:

We've been torching and trimming the weeds and will do another good treatment before the gravel comes. I'm debating weed cloth around the edges where the weeds are the worst. Hopefully I've calculated enough coverage to stop the grass from coming through. It really bugs Mr. A. 

Onward!

♥Mrs. A

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