A friend of mine who’s lived here for 12 years, recently compared living in Yellowknife to living on an island. It’s true. You are cut off from the rest of the world by ice/snow/water and you need a ferry or an ice road to get here year round. She said that we are all in this thing together. There is a built-in comraderie to living in a place like this. You need to be friendly to cope with the harsh winters. It’s like complaining about the ferry to your chosen island in B.C. You need to be able to joke with the person in the coffee shop line-up about the weather or you’ll feel more isolated than the weather already makes you feel. If it weren’t for the people up here, you’d want to shoot yourself!
This week, was like living on an island for Edzèa and I. We came down with a cold last week that would not let go. We didn’t leave the house until Friday morning when I had to take her to a follow-up appt at the hospital. We had ended up taking her to emergency on Thursday night because her cough was so bad that I was getting worried. It takes up to two weeks to get regular doctor’s appointments up here so when things are urgent, you go to Emergency. Not a great system. Tim had to take Edzèa there after work because I was still sick and needed some rest. It turns out that she has bronchitis and it will last two weeks. Ugh.
There was a South African woman that I knew from the Family Centre sitting in Emerg with two of her three children and we both joked that it was like a social event for us as neither of us had left our houses this week due to sick kids. There was only one doctor in Emerg and lots of people waiting and everyone chatting. At one point, a woman with her daughter who potentially had broken her foot, offered to get Edzèa and I something to eat from the cafeteria. Edzèa was sleeping in her stroller and she figured I wouldn’t want to move her. She came back with a bagel for Edzèa and wouldn’t let me pay for it. That’s Yellowknife.
Five hours later, we were told to use saline drops to clear some of her congestion and were sent on our way! Anti-climactic!
On Saturday, I just couldn’t cope with spending another entire day at home with the same TOYS, the same MUSIC, the same routine so I decided to steal one of my other Mom friends ideas…and venture out on the Ice Road to Dettah (small Aboriginal community across the lake from Yellowknife). I’d never done it before so…we packed up baby, brought some hot chocolate and mosied on down to frozen Great Slave Lake. Edzèa slept in the back and Tim and I were able to chat about our new house purchase and life in general. It was a nice break although Dettah is only 10 minutes away from Yellowknife on the Ice Road so it wasn’t a particularly long road trip but it was fun anyways. The Snow Castle was built, there were kite skiiers on the lake and skidoos. A regular weekend day in the ‘Knife. I will post some of the video footage when I get it edited. Here are some pics of our “Road Trip” fyi.
We had whitefish that we got from the Fish Barge on the lake for dinner and then crashed early as we are still sick! We are ALMOST over it.
Tim heads to Ottawa for a week tomorrow so I’m hoping that this week will go a little easier than last week. I can’t wait to get out of the house. Cabin fever mixed with sickness, lack of fresh air and too many baby games nearly drove me around the bend this week. Hopefully we’ll have our full social schedule back in the swing this week.
I was talking to my friend Helene in New York on the weekend and I mentioned that it was Spring here and she laughed. I had to explain it. I meant that the long daylight hours are beginning. That’s why it feels like Spring. The temperature certainly isn’t co-operating! -35 today. Yuck. Tim and I took Edzèa for an outing to the library this afternoon. Mommy needed new board books as she was getting sick of the repertoire at home! The Yellowknife library is not particularly inviting. I miss the West Van library with it’s interior coffee shop, great comfy seats, private carousels,courtyard garden and amazing selection. Plus the crocuses would be coming out by now and there would be no snow to be seen. Although I heard it snowed today in Vancouver…wierd!
It looks like Dad is coming in early April to paint the interior of our new house for us before we move in. YAY! Can’t wait. He expects some Char for his efforts though so we better go on a search.
That’s all for now, enjoy your “true” Spring conditions wherever you are…we’ll just appreciate that it’s ALMOST April and the snow will start melting soon. YAY!