Quite a while ago my friend Jerralynn, who lives in Osoyoos, asked if she and her friend Carol could stay here the night before they flew to Cancun.  She said they had an ‘early flight’ out of Kelowna, and I gave it no further thought and said of course they could stay here.

It was great because I then bought a single bed for this office, and so now I’ve made an emergency overflow guest room.  Plus the cats are sure I got it for them, and they love it.  I was super happy to shop for sheets, blankets and a bedspread, and found the cutest quilt with matching shams at a thrift store for $6.00.

It’d been foggy for days prior to Jerralynn and Carol’s planned departure, but as they seemed unconcerned, I didn’t worry about it.  They arrived for dinner on Tuesday, and as I’d found out with shock and horror I was getting up at 4:30 AM to drive them to the airport, I hopped into bed by 9:00 PM.  Good night.

They sat up consuming the rest of the wine, and I have no idea when they finally got to bed.  At 4:30 I heard them getting ready so I got up, and shortly afterward we were on the road to the airport.  I dropped them at 5:00 and returned home and said to the dog we should just lie down for a while and rest.

At 6:00 AM, as I had just drifted off to sleep, the phone rang and it was Jerralynn saying the flight was cancelled due to fog, so I drove back out and picked them up.  They then spent the next three hours wrangling with their travel agent, and found a flight out of Spokane, a good five-hour drive south, so they left.

I’m just glad I’m not travelling anywhere right now as I have enough to do around here.  Today I used a tiny part of the gift certificate Liz gave me for Art Knapps, and bought 25 each of early, mid and late blooming tulips.  I want to plant those this afternoon because it’s gorgeous and sunny out.

I also have to do that horrible yearly job of digging out the dahlia bulbs, rinsing them off, packing them in peat moss and storing them for the winter.  Each spring I feel so hopeful when I look into the box, and every year the majority have shrivelled into a horrible dead mess.  Yet I continue to try, which is the fascinating part.

I did my first volunteering gig at the art gallery and it was kind of fun.  I’m assisting for now, and so it’s not too bad.  I liked feeling useful and the way the lead docent just assigned me to things so I can learn the routine.  She said to the kids, “Now when I finish talking Moni’s going to take five of you at a time to hang your things in the cloak room.”

That’s when all Hell broke loose as I don’t know how to coral five kids at a time without mayhem occurring.  Once they’d left I said to the lead docent, you know as a teacher of the deaf I had maybe five students, tops, but at times I’d be assigned a home room of regular grade eights or something equally God awful.

There was no way I could control 30 kids, and so I find it kind of interesting my first foray into volunteering should involve commanding large groups of school-age kids.  I guess I love facing my fears or something.