Early mornings on bill-day usually meant going out to pick up the mail and paying the bills once the Canada Post postman had amscrayed on his usual rounds. Anyhow, the bills usually weren't all that staggering, but were probably more than most people made in half an year and this was twice weekly, so the taxes/bills combined came out to quite a considerable amount. Then it was back into the house to practice violin. If one didn't keep up their practice, it showed...horribly. Violin needed daily intensive practice to even sound the slightest bit palatable. If one didn't want to sound like a tortured cat, you practiced at least three hours daily, six hours was preferable, but when one was a parent, one had other obligations.
Maybe, that's why real-Haruo took up piano rather than violin. Mom probably didn't want her ears tortured; and probably the cost was a factor too. A good Cremona SV600 Premier Artist costs around $800.00 which should last a student through their years of learning. You won't be getting into a real Stradivarius for less than $1M (more than likely you'll be paying over $10M for a genuine Antonio Stradivari violin) and only those who are in performance lean towards those (mostly those violins are owned and sponsored by those who are rich and lent to those performance artists)
Meanwhile Braden played Put-put Gnome and well, that didn't go so well.
Nights were comfortable, at least for River and Haruo and Braden and Greta, they cuddled comfortably in their respective beds. Probably because they were close to water, the nights were cold and it made it so that the cuddling was even more fun as it preserved their body heat.
Mornings for Braden usually meant dealing with the bees in their beehive, smoking, and tending the honey, which for some reason, never extended beyond horrific. Guess it could have been the smoke and half the time the ornery little b's were irritable.
Luckily for Braden, he didn't get stung that morning.
The children, Karina and Colin, had their breakfast and got busy with whatever mischief they were going to get themselves into that morning.
Braden, after dealing with the bees, chickens and cows...and the garden (in alphabetical order) came in and made some [b]l[/b]unch.
School being a part of the every day (5 days a week) routine for the kids...ended up with Colin cycling home from school and yet another day came to a close for the Chikamori family as the sun set.
...and the lights came on in the town.
River had to deal with another commission and headed out to get her payment, then she ran into one of the Wainright kids (family, of course, courtesy of Haruo's step-mom) with whom she had a long chat.
Typical mornings: The kids heading off to "military school" since they couldn't get their you-know what together in time for Braden to be satisfied with their school performance. Either that or he was just po'd that he'd gotten stung that morning (maybe some cultures may use beestings as a muscle relaxant; for Braden, those bee-stings were no where near therapeutic). No amount of pleading or begging would deter Braden from his assignment of them to City Hall's military base. "Maybe you should have thought about that before you decided to shirk homework. Go tell it to Master Corporal Decker, I'm sure he'll be obliging..." More than likely MCPL Decker would probably tell them to "Shut up and do your motherfrickin' homework, you worm!" They'll learn quick enough.
It was a foggy morning that morning and the mountains on mainland Vancouver Island were encapsulated in fog that danced among the coniferous trees that blanketed the mountains.
It was gorgeous scenery like this that had brought River and Haruo to a place like this. And it certainly was worth it, for both River and Haruo to enjoy their latter years at Cape Garner Island.
And periodically, he'd run into his progeny who had made their own lives on that island and were starting their families. It was always nice to talk to Alanna, his daughter and she listened intently as her father wove an interesting tale.
In the mornings, the kids got to play with their arcade games until it was time for school or in the case of weekends, until they got tired of it all.
Haruo tended the garden in the morning...and then he had a request for garden vegetables from the restaurant, so he headed off to hand over some of the vegetables he'd picked fresh from the garden that morning.
After he'd returned, he dealt with the bees since Braden was off flying that day.
...and poor River, happily married, had to deal with an unsuspecting suitor who got shut down promptly. "I'm sorry, I don't know where you get your delusions, but I'm happily married and inclined to remain so."
Greta after getting off work, headed over to get a meal over at a restaurant of which there were several in Cape Garner.
...while the kids did homework.
...of which they weren't too happy about. Tough beans.
Evidently Sandi French-Chikamori(She's married to Kaneoshi)'s insane trait came out, since she was found talking to herself in front of City Hall (as much as city hall employees tend to turn most rational people into gibbering maniacs, this was a bit much for Greta) and well, Greta phoned for a Car-67, "Uh...Cape Garner General, do you happen to have a rubber-room handy?"
Of course one of her rugrats got her with a hair dye trap when Greta took a shower. Ahhh, kids...if they weren't so cute, they'd be in fear of their lives.
...and once again it was time for the family to head for bed.
...uh...BED?
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