Earth Hour and stuff

To be quite honest, I had never heard about Earth Hour until today when my daughter told me about it.  So at 8pm, we lit a bunch of candles and turned everything off.  Gerald napped on one couch with the greyhound and the shepperd snored away on the floor.   We turned a battery powered radio on and my daughter gave me a makeover, complete with nail polish.  With my schedule the way its been the past 3 or 4 months, it was great to spend some time with her, doing girl things and just hanging out.  Even after the hour was up, we kept everything off.   It was a nice way to spend some time.  Maybe we'll turn everything off everyday!

Not surprisingly,  we haven't done anything else that would be considered remotely noteworthy.  We haven't gone to the beach, or snorkelled in a cenote, shopped at the mercado,  or visited ruins.  

I get up, go to work, come home, run to school, run home, try to tidy up, hope I'm in time to say good night to my daughter, spend a few minutes with my son, before crashing for the night so I can get up at 5am to do it all over again.  This isn't exactly the life I'd envisioned for myself.

This morning, a Saturday, I got up at 5am again, showered, browsed through my favourite blogs for a bit, catching up on what people have been up to.  I got ready and was gone by 7:30 to drive an hour to the town my mother lives in.  I had to see if I could find her a room in one of the two retirement homes so she can receive some respite care for the next month or so.

On January 1st, she plowed her brand new Sportage into a stopped SUV, while driving about 100 km/h.  She has no idea how lucky she was to escape with only she injuries she had - some broken ribs, and an open compound fracture of her right ankle, which was in about 12 pieces.  3 operations later, 2.5 months of this borg-like looking set of external pins and screws holding the entire thing together.  Now she's ready to be sprung from the hospital, but where to put her is the question.  She healthy enough to leave the hospital, but not healthy enough to go back home by herself.

Necesito unas vacaciones!!!!!