"Girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes, snow flakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes...

silver white winters that melt into spring. These are a few of my favorite things!"

So, last night there was a HUGE, HORRIBLE, thunderstorm. It started up here about 2, lighting the works... The lighting was constant, blinding white flashes and then little flashes in between. The thunder wasn't so bad until about 2:30. Maddie was sleeping over at Jens and I was alone in my room. Anyone who's been to my cottage knows we've got skylights, so I felt like I was surronded my lightening. One of the big cracks of thunder got to me and I headed to my mom's room. She saw me coming and pulled down the sheets on the other side of the bed. I climbed in with her and cuddled into the blankets. Her room isn't much better, it's got a skylight and window facing the lake - but she was in it. She was pretty sleepy and being the religious person she is kept saying, "God Bless us everyone". So I said, "Thanks Tiny Tim!" But she really didn't get it. There were some more HUGE cracks of thunder and at one point I resorted to crawling under the covers. Mom was wondering how Maddie and Jen were doing because Jen's parents were both in the city.

At about 3:10 the phone rings, I'm next to it so answer it and it was Maddie. At first I thought she was checking in with us, then she told me what was going on. She said, "I'm at the MacFarlanes, Jen's boathouse is on fire and her phone is dead." I was shocked and kind of sat right up and told her I'd be right there. So I got up and put on some more decent clothes got in the car and drove down to the MacFarlanes. Maddie and Jen came running out to great me, both so scared. Neither of them knew what to do. They said they were up because of the storm and went downstairs to check on the cat and when they came up they smelt smoke, looked out the kitchen window and the boathouse was blazing. They frantically went for the phone but the line was dead. Mrs Joyner (lived next door) and her daughter and her had been up in bed with each other watching the storm as well, they saw the lightening hit, a little spark and then the whole boathouse was a blaze, caught quick because of the gaoline and paint thinner. So the daughter was in the car at the Nicholsons honking her horn and the girls went and got in with her. They couldn't go to her cottage though because it's a mere 20 feet from the boathouse and if anything else caught it would bbe burnt as well. So then they ended up at the MacFarlanes. We looked out from her deck and the boathouse was just a big mass of flames. Totally gone. It was so scary.

Jen was crying and talking to her parents so they decided to come right up from the city. The Bracebridge Fire Department is a volunteer service. The men carry around pagers and anytime they're paged volunteer themselves. They were out to Jen's cottage in 25 minutes from the call - which considering where we are, is awesome. We're at least 10 minutes out of town - that's on a good day, not when the rain is blinding. They all did an awesome job so kudos to them!

At around 5 Jen had calmed down and her parents were on their way, the fire was almost out so I decided to come home so I could get some sleep before work 3 hours later. I teach on the MacFarlanes dock so at first we worried about debris but most of it had drifted off. Madds came home at about 6:30 when Jen's mom got up. Today while teaching swimming lessons 3 canoes came by and 2 boats. Jen's mom was walking the dog with Mrs. Kingston who I'm sure wanted to see the gossip of the Bay. Mrs. Peterson had come down last night when she saw the trucks.

Up here we're all a close community and it's nice to know were here for each other. I've known most of these people since I was little and most of them knew my Dad when he was young. In fact, Mrs. Peterson was his first kiss! Last year the morning after the first day of the black out some families walked around making sure everyone had enough to go on and that they all got through the night okay, it's nice to have that sense of family up here.