LIKE CAMPING BUT WORSE
‘What are we having for breakfast?’, I heard my daughter ask me as she strolled into the kitchen late this morning. She then saw that I was making crepes and gave me a hug and thanked me. It was one of those moments I would forever cherish. Something as simple as a hug made my day. She then returned to her room until the crepes were done.
Though I knew she would be leaving later today, I tried to stay positive. I would deal with things one day at a time and hope for the best. As I finished making the last of the crepes, I called her back into the kitchen to make whipped cream as she is the one who usually makes it for us.
In the meantime, I found a clean stainless steel bowl and washed a whisk the best I could with a bit of soap on a paper towel and half a mug of the water from a large bowl I was saving. Though she wanted whipped cream, she didn’t feel like whisking it by hand this morning. So we took turns until we made freshly whipped cream to accompany our crepes.
We enjoyed our traditional special Sunday breakfast together, and then each went our separate ways. My daughter returned to her room whilst my son sat on the sofa and read two more chapters from ‘Scorpia’. He will be done with the book tomorrow and will start the sixth Alex Rider book on Tuesday. I am proud of him having read over 300 pages in a week. It is a great accomplishment from even over a year ago when he would at times refuse to read for weeks at a time. Now he is reading every day.
I turned to the internet to find out what was the status with the running water, but the news was not good. The water treatment facility is still not fully operational and there was no specific time when the entire city would have running water. Some people had their water restored. However, we were not amongst those lucky few. By the way, whoever signed me up for free water, thank you. Two mason jars of boiled water were delivered to my apartment shortly after breakfast. The jars are really pretty and will be used for my baking supplies once I use up the water.
The situation is now dire as the conditions in our home are quite revolting. The glass table where we eat has not been washed since Wednesday. Dirty dishes are stacked and dispersed across all counters in the kitchen. I have used every mixing bowl and cooking pot and pan in my cabinets as well as almost every plate and utensil. For the crepe batter, I had to use my 4-quart stainless steel pot and a small glass cup, the one from Costco which had tiramisu in it, to pour the batter onto the crepe pan I used earlier in the week. I simply wiped the pan with a paper towel as I couldn’t use too much of the half gallon of water left in a bowl.
The bathroom is yet another catastrophe as there is no water to flush the toilet. We simply use it as an outhouse and have now had to move to the other bathroom. The situation reminds me of camping, but it’s much worse. When camping, one does not pitch a tent next to the outhouse. But that is exactly what this feels and smells like. It makes us want to gag and run as far away as possible. Perhaps tomorrow we will go for a drive to take in some fresh air and a change of scenery. That is, if my car starts.
I did have one more empty pot I was able to use to make soup for dinner tonight. The 8-quart pot I had used to melt the snow a few days ago. I took the diced onions and vegetables from the refrigerator that I had chopped on Friday when I planned to make lentil soup and made split pea/red lentil soup instead. My daughter did not want any soup. Her father ended up picking her up around 19,00 tonight. My son and I continued our dinner with him eating a big bowlful of it. I added freshly sliced shallots and diced garlic on top of the soup and served it with some Everything Crackers.
As if the Coronavirus pandemic wasn’t enough, we now have to continue dealing with the aftermath of the great snowpocalypse. Our patience is waning. I keep listening to the faucets in hopes of hearing any sound of falling water. The first thing we will do is flush the toilets. Then we will take showers and I will start the great task of washing all of the dirty dishes. Clothes will take their turn after the dishes.
Before dinner, my son and I finished the last of the ‘Bez Servitky’ episodes online. Episodes 31 to 35, which ended up being our favourite week thus far. We look forward to watching a new episode tomorrow.
The temperature a reached a high of 23 degrees Celsius today. Quite the contrast from yesterday’s high of 14 degrees Celsius and -8 a few days prior to that. The next week holds promise of warmer days.
