the EPIC week...

So, last Monday the urchins got on a school bus, waved good-bye to me, and began their first week of school. On Tuesday, they experienced an Emergency Evacuation of their school after an earthquake rocked their classroom (Big C reports that two kids in his class went to the ambulance after getting hit in the head with books that fell from a bookcase in his class, while the girls indicated that the falling ceiling tiles - and crying classmates - were the extent of the damage over in their classroom). They literally disembarked from the bus that afternoon with nothing but the clothes on their backs - no backpacks, no lunch boxes, no coats, nothing. Seems that, once the Evacuation of the school took place, they weren't allow to re-enter the building.

Which brings us to Wednesday.
Wednesday school was canceled so that all school buildings could be inspected and deemed safe after the earthquake.
So we went to a local orchard and picked apples. And peaches. And Asian pears.

On Thursday, the children were told by a fellow classmate about the impending hurricane. On Friday, they watched as millions of stressed out adults prepared for the upcoming hurricane by rushing about like brainless twits, purchasing bottles of over-priced water and shiny generators...(in my defense, I did neither. Although I DID buy extra wine for the pantry and a new chain for the chainsaw).

It was rather an Epic First Week of School.

And as a completely anticlimactic denouement to this fine drama, the much-ballyhooed hurricane was a non-event in our part of the world. We've had worse storms - with ZERO media coverage - in the past, that took down more trees and did more damage than Hurricane Irene. Our loss last night was one large tree down by the creek, and a bunch of branches from some of the older black walnut trees. Our power line, which runs snakily through the woods for half a mile before reaching the relative safety of our side road, remained unscathed. So you might say that we dodged at least one bullet...

Alternatively, you might say that I shall never watch the alarmist show known as "The Weather Channel" ever again. Either way.....