5:48 p.m. - 2004-03-08
Pyrotechnics and more
Where do I begin . . . .? Well I suppose I should start by saying that T has finished!!!!!!! He finished writing on Friday. Made all the necessary copies and sent them to his committee. Leading up to Friday and even during some parts of Friday it seemed apparent that this !@#$% thesis would never be done, but Lord willing - it made it. Now we wait for said committee to approve it by stating that it is defendable. T will defend it sometime early April, but I believe it is safe to say that the hard stuff is over. Yay T - time to celebrate.
People, including T, have been reminding me that our lives crossed and committed at a very stressful time for him (the end of a 5-year Masters program, and a total of 11 years in University). If we can survive this it can only get better from here. For my part, I haven't felt our relationship and marriage as having seen stressful times due to schooling. Wow - that must mean that T is very good at handling stress, or that I'm oblivious to the stuff. The first part is truer than the last. None-the-less I can't wait to watch our lives unfold from here.
Now - back to Friday. I had pre planned to go visit a girlfriend on Pender. I love visiting Pender and haven't had an opportunity since our honeymoon. This was an opportunity I felt I needed to take. I quickly began to second guess myself when I got home on Friday to find Tim so excited about finishing his thesis that he was almost bouncing off the walls.
We should be out celebrating . . . . instead I was packing to catch the 6:20pm from Schwartz Bay. I knew that as high (on exhilaration) as T was, he would be crashing hard. He's been so tired, overworked and stressed out that the burden of thesis had now been lifted - he was due for a good crash. I decided to go ahead with my plans.
Trying to get him ready to take me to the ferry was a bigger task then I thought. There kept being one more thing to attend to before leaving the house, compounded with Friday night traffic. Hence, when I slid my $ over the counter at the ferry terminal at 6:20 - in fact my ferry was pulling out. I was SO disappointed, and to add insult to injury I had forgotten the phone numbers at home of where to reach my friend to NOT pick me up. So we raced home (approximately taking 30 minutes) to rush in the house, call over and find out that she's just left to go pick me up from the ferry I wasn't on. The next ferry wasn�t until 8:oo, which meant that we basically had to turn around and go directly back out to the ferry. Phew . . . . . that�s exhausting just thinking about it. But truck on back out there we did. I kept wondering if this was some sign that I was supposed to be a good wife and stay home and be with my husband, but T felt otherwise. He knew the value of me getting away and him being alone.
Arrived safely and had a nice cup of tea with my girl J. Saturday morning came all too quickly. Fast shower and cup of coffee and our feet hit the ground running.
The main reason I was to visit this particular weekend was because Jane has acquired property and in the process of clearing the land to start building this summer. Part of the clearing involved getting rid of an old cottage, long since past the point of liveability. J had arranged for the local volunteer fire department to come in and use the cottage for a burn practice. What fun!!!
The fire department was there at 9am to start things going � literally. By 9:30 small wisps of smoke were starting to be seen. By 9:45am the big trucks arrived and fire fighting guys and gals started to gear up. I noticed a funny phenomenon amongst we on-lookers. We all had this sense of impending . . . . doom (? No not really) . . . . fear (no not that either) . . . . �shouldn�t someone do something� feeling. Flames are licking out from the broken upstairs French doors. Glass is exploding from the roof where there once had been a skylight . . . . but the firemen weren�t doing anything.
It was as if they weren�t concerned . . . . as if they didn�t care. . . . .
OH YA � they didn�t care!!! We ALL wanted the place to burn, but can you see the mental games you would play with yourself? It would have been an interesting study into the mind.
What I really did find interested is that this was a very controlled burn. The actually managed to get 3 burns out of this old house. Light it once -�get it going � put it mostly out. Toss in a couple of old mattresses � get it going again � put it mostly out. But the last and final fire was a beauty!!! Flames jumping 10 � 20 feet into the air. Coming out of any and every crevice the house had. There started to be bets as to which wall would fall first. Or would the roof? We all watched totally mesmerised. It was like a symphony playing a beautiful concert � simply musical.
What is it about fire that fascinates us so? I have firmly decided that there must be a little pyro lurking in the hearts of all Firemen and Firewomen. These people enjoy working with flames. Admittedly � this was an unusual burn. There were no lives at stakes, no personal belongs to salvage. Just a good old-fashioned mondo wiener roast. Which I might at is what we had for lunch, but before your wondering how we got wiener sticks 20 feet long � we had a small campfire going on the adjacent property. It just seemed fitting.
The house was gone by 2pm. Nothing left but hot coal and ash, some bent metal and a rather crooked chimney still standing. I�m told that the rubble will continue to burn underneath for a day or two. A few neighbours came over to give their respects to an old cottage that had stood on the property for 40 or 50 years. They brought some old wood and garbage to throw on top and would be burned up eventually.
All in all it was an exciting day, and I caught the 5:30pm ferry home. Home to my now somewhat subdued husband. He�d come down from his exhilarated high and was a bit at wits end to know what to do with himself now. I�m sure that won�t last for long.
Sunday was as per usual � early to church (both T and I serve in two different areas over two morning services), out to lunch, and home to relax for the rest of the weekend.
On a footnote to all the above excitement: I also came home on Friday to find a wonderful piece of snail mail waiting for me. The art of using the unfashionable postal system is not lost on Laura-Jane, and I am a definite appreciator of her efforts. It�s really fun getting something that is stylish, and definitely not a bill. Thank you Laura-Jane.
