The day before school started, we had thunderstorms.. they woke me and Nik up in the early morning since the thunder was so loud. I took the kids outside in the morning to watch the lightning, significant for us, since thunderstorms aren't common in California. The kids were duly impressed and enjoyed the sudden downpour.
Unfortunately, we soon found out that thunderstorms and dry California brush are not a good combination, since the lightning ignited scores of wildfires in the area. Very early Wednesday morning, one of our neighbors sent word that our neighborhood was under an evacuation warning, Nik woke me up at 3 am when he found out and we hashed out an emergency packing list. The rest of the night, I slept fitfully, imagining that I was hearing sirens outside.
The next day, I facilitated the kids' remote learning while packing a weekend bag for them just in case.. though the prospect of actually needing it seemed remote. By afternoon, the warning became an order so we gathered together important documents and various irreplaceables. We had spoken to the kids about the possibility of having to evacuate over the breakfast, but at hearing that we were actually going, Sora was nearly in tears, worried about our pet fish. We headed over to my parents' house in Fremont and slept uncomfortably in an unfamiliar beds, while worried about our house. Kai didn't sleep until 11:30 pm, saying that he had "bad dreams," but was reassured after I showed him the webcams of our quiet street and house, to which Kai exclaimed, "oh good! Our house didn't burn down."
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| ♫ "All my bags are packed, I'm ready to go.." 🎜 |
The next day, we had the kids log into remote learning as usual. I figured that the routine of "going" to school would take their minds off of the fact that they weren't at home. It was good, though it was even more challenging to get the kids to focus in an unfamiliar place.. so as soon as we started hearing that it may be safe to return home, I immediately began to pack up. Fortunately it wasn't long and we came home on Thursday evening after having dinner with my parents.
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| Breakfast at Po Po and Gung Gung's |
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| Remote learning can be done from anywhere.. including my old bedroom at my parents' house |
This whole evacuation fiasco has taken away from the fact that last week was the kids' first week of school. Though we are still learning remotely, we now have a second grader and kindergartener in the house! As I mentioned earlier, the kids have done better than we had expected. In fact, Kai was really excited to start school and woke up early for the first day of school. He's still a bit fidgety while at the computer and we have to keep a close eye on him, but he regulates himself and keeps an eye on the clock to make sure he is back on time for his Zoom calls. Sora is having more problems with remote learning, but I think things are improving with the routine of daily of Zoom calls and the fact that her kinder teacher is actively trying to keep the Zoom time short and sweet.. transitioning between brief Zoom check-ins and assigned activities.
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| Another Noble Knight in the house! I had the kids take pictures in front of the school on the Sunday before school started :P |
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| What's the first day of school without an obligatory photo op? |
We're not yet in the clear with the wildfires. My parents' house is now in under evacuation warning due to forecasted thunderstorms and erratic winds. Also, there's no telling whether our house is in the clear yet with such a large wildfire just a few miles to the east of us (at the time of writing, it's the second largest wildfire in California since 1932). So yeah.. this has been a strange way to kick off the school year to say the least.
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| On the very edge of ordered evacuation area |
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