12:47 p.m.

For the second day, I am relatively calm. The facial swelling has subsided and the itchy arms have improved, although the hives have spread to my legs now. Has my body settled down because I got calmer, or have I gotten calmer because my body has settled down? I don’t know why, but what a relief it is.

Perhaps it’s because I’ll be seeing Mom and Dad tomorrow morning. Or maybe the best wishes sent my way and the candles lit by friends are having an effect. Or maybe it just takes a week to get over a shock like this. Perhaps it’s because I have said a few prayers myself. Or I feel some acceptance and hope mixed in with the dread. Maybe it’s a little bit of all these things.

We are off to Saskatoon in a few hours, to spend the night at Aunt Jean’s and take a cab to the airport at 5 a.m. I’m packed and ready to go, except for a bit of work I have to get done and sent, and some granola I’d like to get made so Emil and Scott will have quick and easy breakfasts. Everett won’t eat granola, of course. He’s a storebought-cereal boy, and we don’t have much of that around here. He fills up on my bread, toasted.

The mother cat went missing with one of her kittens over the weekend, and the remaining four were taken into the other house and have been fed and cared for by Scott’s teenage niece. School’s in again today, so she brought the kittens here in a cardboard box so Everett can take the day shift. It will be good for him to have that to keep him occupied while I’m away.

The flowers I planted out all froze during the night. Scott covered them at 3 a.m. but they already had a layer of frost on them. I don’t care. They’re the least of my concerns these days.

It snowed heavily this morning, so much so that I feared a storm and not getting to the city, much less out of the airport in the morning. It’s still grey and cold; Kelowna and Salmon Arm will be tropical in comparison.

Here are two of the three sweethearts I'm leaving behind for a week:

Better get my ass in gear if I'm going to be ready when Karen and Grandma arrive to pick me up.