Sometimes rain that’s needed falls

It’s been an interesting few weeks. Certainly not all bad, but just a lot of mental load and long days.

• Mr Turtle took a long time to get over the infection he developed end of April, though finally he is on the mend.
• My province has been crazy hot and dry and hundreds of wildfires have broken out over the past few weeks, especially in the northern areas (none near me).
• Last week I took the kids on a solo road trip to AJ’s dance festival (about a 3 hour drive away). Usually this would be a fun family weekend, but Mr T was on IV antibiotics and could not come. I took a deep breath and decided I could do the trip on my own. 
• …..and all was going well until about half an hour from the hotel when my car broke down on the highway.
• I kept my head and did all the right things, getting the car off the road, calling AMA, etc.
• The weekend was still enjoyable in many ways. There was no wildfire smoke at the time (though it was unseasonably hot) and AJ’s performance went swimmingly. Gold medalist!
• One of the nicest parts: thanks to my car trouble, we reconnected with an aunt and uncle of Mr Turtle’s we hadn’t seen in years. The kids were especially happy to meet this lovely new auntie after they had just had the stressful experience of getting stranded by the road in an unfamiliar place.
• My father in law drove up to rescue us, yay.
• Back in home city, we went out for a nice dinner on Mother’s Day with the recovering Mr Turtle. All was great, and then AJ woke up puking the following night. She recovered quickly though and nobody else got sick.
• The wildfire smoke blew in with a vengeance last week, turning the air yellow on the worst day. The air quality index was 11, which sounds like a number somebody made up because 10 wasn’t bad enough.
• Several of my students graduated this week. I think work is going fine. I can’t remember right now.
• My car is still in the other city, but reportedly fixable. It’s getting expensive to maintain through, so probably will be car shopping in the future. Not exactly excited about that but better in summer than winter.
• Mr Turtle is off the IV and able to do most things again. Yay!
• On a day with no smoke, we met up with some friends in the park. The kids played, and we just did nothing and talked, then went out to dinner and talked some more. The sky was blue.
• The smoke came back. It was hot. I couldn’t sleep.
• I came down with a cold.
• But most importantly…..

IT’S RAINING TODAY AND TONIGHT.

Not spitting, but a juicy downpour spiced with thunder, for several hours. I’d forgotten how good it feels to hear and see and smell rain. I think I believed it might never rain again. I’m typing up these ridiculous bullet points with my stuffy nose listening to the rain through the open window, and it makes me unutterably happy. I’m assuming it won’t lead to floods or other epic nonsense. But right now everything is just right.

(The title is from Painting By Chagall, by The Weepies, which is also Dani’s song in my mind)