First Pho, Godspell and Redoubt spews

Thursday morning the volcano blew again. This time the ashes blew towards us. We had a 4 hour warning before the ashfall was due to hit Homer. It was the closest thing to a natural disaster I've ever experienced since the earthquake of 1989 in California. I filled up every container we had with clean water in case something happened to our water supply. Then I shut down and covered every electronic device.

It's more annoying than anything else. Besides wearing masks, I should have worn goggles. The ash gets in your eyes and it's very irritating. Matt told me later that the ash is like tiny shards of glass. They get under your contacts and scratch your eyes. If you use you windshield wipers, they can scratch your windshield. I should have picked the kids up before the ash started to fall, then go home and put my car in the garage where it would have been safe.

But I was having my own natural disaster. The annual tax preparation crisis. I opened my tax organizer for the first time. The cover letter from our fairly new accountant said due back March 20. Oops. I had a panic attack, then got to work while beating myself up for being the queen of disorganization and procrastination. Then I had to drive to the post office during the thickest part of the ash fall to express mail my package so our accountant wouldn't fire me. I'm sure that was really good for my car.

Today I waited in the carwash line for 30 minutes to wash my car. It was the fourth time I had driven by the carwash. The first three times there were cars lined up around the building. Luckily, it's been snowing a lot so most of the ash is wet now and bound to the ground instead of blowing around where it does the most damage. The volcano has been spewing off and on for 5 days. Most of it has not blown high enough to be a danger to us. Matt said last night during dinner: "I wonder what Redoubt's problem is? Why can't it just blow once and get it over with?" Yeah, why can't natural disasters happen when it's convenient for us anyway?

Speaking of Matt, he made his first pot of pho yesterday! I gave him a choice of going with us to see our high school's production of "Godspell", or staying home and learning how to make pho. He chose the latter. He made an excellent batch of pho bo.

I took the kids to see Godspell. Our high school choir puts on a great musical every year. The first time I saw Godspell I was in high school I think. I caught the end on of it on TV during Easter week. I cried my eyes out when they tied Jesus to the chain link fence. My mom said, "What's wrong with you? You never cry when we watch the religious movies and now you're crying because they tied this clown to a chain link fence?"

I've always been deeply affected by symbolism. The high school choir did a great job. They improvised and made it their own. Most of them were dressed in very creative combinations of 7o's and 80's style garb. One kid was dressed as Mario, as in the Mario Brothers video game. Riley and Chris enjoyed the boys wearing hockey jerseys, of course. Instead of a mime, Jesus was a surfer dude. Mary Magdalene was a cheerleader. I had to work hard not to start sobbing when they tied Jesus to the big piece of driftwood hanging from the top of the stage.



Ash on snow

We've been enjoying all the birds coming to our bird feeder. They are going through the bird seed so fast, Matt said we'll have to start buying 40 pound bags.

Maya approved of Daddy's pho.