The Ice Storm

We seem to be having an honest-to-goodness ice storm today, a thing that I previously thought was just a title, for say, a Rick Moody novel, or an Ang Lee film. But no, apparently there are actually days when for hours on end, tiny, soft pellets of ice--not snow, not hail, not rain--fall from the sky, coating the roads in a slushy pile that resists efforts at clearing it away and forms a slippery mush under car wheels.

Normally, I would seize an opportunity like this to spend the entire day, save school commute, at home, maybe continuing the massive office organization project I finally begun, to great delight, yesterday. Remember Freedom Filer? I got all my (two years worth!) of filing done yesterday in about three hours. I threw out a lot, got everything else organized in a system that will make taxes easier (I hope) and fit everything into one drawer of a wide two drawer filing cabinet. I am a convert. Now I just have to conquer the three eight-inch tall piles of mail that are still on top of my desk, and I'll be a new woman. I have some before, in the middle, and after pictures that if you're lucky, I'll post. Really lucky, that is, because what we all crave is pictures of other people's mess, right?

Anyway, Organize-Me Part Deux was not to be, because instead, we woke up this morning to a half-day of school, a half-day which as it turned out, neither of my children would attend because Dido woke up with a 101 fever and there was no point in forcing the Babe to go to school without her brother for a short day. Instead, I called the ped., and drove Dido to Great Barrington to confirm our suspicions that indeed, he's on his second bout of strep in three weeks. Home schooling looks good on days like these...except that I'd actually have to do the home schooling, and none of us would survive that. So...it's a day of online Elmo stories and Abbott and Costello movies and (fringe benefit) a lot of knitting time for me. I finished a scarf for the H last night and am midway through another project for myself that I had put aside to make his scarf, which turned out pretty well although (surprise!) he had some "notes" (Hollywood-speak for criticism) on the design. Welcome to my world.