Sick Day

I am a waitress in a restaurant here. It is one of two restaurants in town vying for customers, both fighting to make it through the winter. We'll see who wins.
Today I'm sick and couldn't go in. Luckily there is a helpful woman here who will take over for me if necessary. She's not actually a server, but a local woman willing to help out. If I were sick and she couldn't cover for me we would just shut down the restaurant. If the cook is sick we definitely shut down - its an interesting situation. The owners live in Whitehorse and we're on our own during the week here without them.

We don't have a phone at my house so this morning I had to go to the restaurant to phone my replacement. I've had lots of questions about why we have no phone (not from people here of course, they completely understand). It takes about 2 months to get a phone installed here - if you're lucky. There are a lot of other everyday conveniences that people have to wait for here - water is a major one. Most people do not have wells and must have water delivered in to big cisterns. Another "convenience" is heating oil. Pretty much all the houses are heated with diesel and of course this must be delivered as well. At my house we have a well but the water isn't fit to drink. Instead, we get our water from a spring about 5 minutes away. We are some of the lucky ones. Still, since we're on a septic system we have to limit our water consumption so it doesn't back up. I miss taking baths.

I'm sitting in the living room as I write this and have a pretty view of the shack next door. My car is in the way, but I'm posting a picture of it anyways - I'm too tuckered to move the car. This type of little shack is allover town - some are lived in, some just sit on people's property, many a remnant of the gold rush.