Day three after the earthquake

Well there ended up being no power outages today. It was a lovely warm day too, so we hardly had to use the heater at all. Things to be thankful for!

I took the boys out to run off some energy at about 10.30, we didn't get back until 12.30. So warm we were out in T-shirts and my youngest went pink on the cheeks. We were at the school playground and ended up running into a friend with her two pre-school children. She's volunteered to help provide lunch at the CRASH strategic centre just nearby, so I watched her older child while she did that. It was good to do some small thing toward helping.

When we came home I fed the boys peanut butter sandwiches and they went upstairs and read, then played for ages. So quiet! 

I spent some time checking out our earthquake bags. It has been a long time since I seriously looked at them. I photocopied all our important travel/health/ID documents to add to the bag. Found batteries to go with the wind-up torch (not sure how that totally works!). And was very happy to find the single burner stove with three cans of disposable gas (about the size of an insect repellent can). So if we get desperate we can at least use that, though I don't know how long one can lasts. We have a camping grill too, but no charcoal to go in it.

While we were out I saw a lady ride past with about 40 or 50 rolls of toilet paper strapped to her bike. Why? According to other's reports on Facebook, panic buying has been in full force today. Because I wasn't on my own, I decided to forego a trip to the shop. I didn't even want to think about dragging the three boys to stand in long lines. Nor was I willing to leave them alone. Though it was quiet all afternoon, the tendency to fight over trivial matters was very evident at other times. Our middle son was particularly touchy today. Obviously the unsettled nature of life at present isn't to his liking. It isn't to mine either!

So I went through the cupboards, we have plenty of soup and carbohydrates and chocolate and brownie mix. A little low on milk, butter, veggies and fruit, but overall heaps to survive several days of an unbalanced diet if we had to.

At lunch time we received an email saying school was cancelled for another two days. The good news is that my husband isn't required to be at school, just checking email often. So he is more available to help with the boys (not that it was a massive chore today). If tomorrow shapes up as nicely weather-wise as today we might take the boys to a big park (our default setting!) where it doesn't matter whether the electricity is on or off and the boys can run off some more steam. It seems strange that that there are awful things happening only a couple of hundred kilometres away and yet we need to keep these boys on a fairly regular, reassuring schedule. It's part of maintaining our mental health as a family.

At 4.45 there was another loudspeaker announcement saying the power would be going off in five minutes. Then 4.50 came and went, just like 6.20 did this morning, and no power loss. They kindly sent out another announcement at 5pm saying sorry, but there wouldn't be a loss of power. I wonder if they are trying to scare us into using less electricity? I did hear a rumour that they were waiting to see how electricity use went today and if it got too large, to start cutting. But I think that many people didn't make it into work, as the trains were on a much reduced schedule, so that probably helped reduce the load considerably. But probably didn't help the economy much.

So we cooked and ate dinner. I read 1 1/2 more chapters of The Magician's Nephew to everyone and then we had so much time left before bedtime that we played Uno, Go Fish and Scrabble Cards (a variation on Scrabble). A lovely evening in most respects, except in the back of our minds is the devastation.

It is 9pm and I've just gone and rubbed another back. Our worrier - our 8 y.o. - was having trouble going to sleep. He's worried about the preparation for their Spring Concert in two weeks and whether they'll have the concert at all and whether his much anticipated Soccer Camp on the 28th will go ahead. We sent our worries up as prayers and he settled down, I hope he'll be asleep soon.

Sorry this has been long again. People keep telling me it is helpful to read, so I keep writing. It looks as though I might also have a writing assignment to put together some short articles for our mission's international magazine about the disaster. I agree with the person who wrote on my Facebook wall: "Thanks for all your 'on the spot reporting', Wendy, although personally I wish you weren't 'on the spot!'" Wow, do I agree!