Whoa, I'm Leaving When?

Somehow in all the activity over the past week or so something has fallen through the cracks. That would be the fact that we're leaving for our rural home after Shabbat (i.e. Saturday night) and we're going to be gone for just over a week.

I have tons of things I need to do in preparation and Friday's a short day! I have to work until 3 pm, pick up our lulav and etrog, go to the deli for all the challah, cheese and meat we'll need to eat during our time away, pick up DC at 4, come home and make both Friday night dinner and Shabbos lunch. Before sundown.

Plus, I was supposed to set up a furnace guy to service our oil furnace and the plumber to finish the job he started in July, plus find out if I need a separate electrician to install a programmable thermostat or if the furnace guy can do it. We're there so seldom during the work week that we need to take advantage of that and we're probably not going to go back until winter break, so we really need to be sure the place is winterized okay. We were fine last year but, having had that water leak underneath, I want to be sure the pipes are still fully insulated etc.

I'm just freaking out a little. Yom Kippur went very well but it's still a loooonnng fast and I have a headache. Now my brain is whirling with all these things I need to do tomorrow and I don't know if I can do it all in the time I've got.

Once we get there we'll be really busy. We've got Sunday and Monday (which is a statutory holiday) to get our sukkah up and buy anything we need for it. The holiday of Sukkot starts Monday night and the first 2 days are holiday days (fancy food, no TV, no blogging, no shopping) so I basically have Sunday for anything I need to buy in town. We really loved spending Sukkot there last year but we were way better prepared! And we had a lot more spare cash.

I expect to blog on Sunday, at least. Monday is iffy. Then I'm off for 2 days and will probably post again Thursday because I'm sure I'll be going into town then. We're coming home Sunday evening, leaving after dinner. Because we only eat in the sukkah during Sukkot that just leaves Monday to deal with and there's a sukkah at the community centre that I can use for breakfast and lunch (though I'll need the van that day to take everybody there for lunch). Then the last 2 days start and they're also holiday days. There's a big meal and dancing at the rabbi's house (he has a sukkah that holds literally hundreds of people) Monday night and we're invited there for Tuesday lunch, which is the last meal we eat in the sukkah.

Now, all we need is good weather. There's nothing I love more than eating outside when the weather's good. There's nothing more miserable than sitting in the sukkah all bundled up as the rain drips off the skach (plant material we use for a "roof") into your soup. But it will be what it will be. And the Okanagan does average 300 days of sunshine per year! We should make sure we have a couple of logs for the firepit too. We can only use it certain days, but it's really nice to have it in there when we can use it.