A day of delays, declogging, diagnosis

Today for lunch I'm eating yesterday's PB&J, the sandwich I made early in the morning on the assumption that I'd be able to get out of my driveway and drive to campus, which would have been a good assumption if we'd received the one-to-three-inches of snow in the forecast instead of the solid eight inches that actually fell, and perhaps if my road were not down so low on the county's priority list that we didn't see a snowplow until close to noon, when, instead of eating my PB&J at the office, I was sitting at home watching birds at the feeders.

Dozens of cardinals, three different kinds of woodpeckers, sparrows and juncos galore, and then two handsome starlings notified all their friends and we soon had dozens of starlings squabbling over the suet feeder. They put on a very entertaining show, but I really should have been grading freshman essays except that I had left my computer at the office so I was unable to do a lick of grading or prep work on my unexpected day off and consequently I am now behind on absolutely everything and scrambling to get caught up.

But I used my time wisely (ish). Sat and watched birds. Read a big chunk of a Louise Erdrich novel. Cleared snow off the front porch and a bit of the driveway (until the shovel broke). Cleaned the bathrooms (and used the plunger on the clogged toilet). Made brownies. Cleaned the kitchen (and unclogged the clogged kitchen sink, using the old-fashioned vinegar and baking soda method since I wasn't eager to brave the snowy roads just to buy drain cleaner). Examined the wood-burner in hopes of discerning why it hasn't been able to raise the temperature in the house above 63 all week (and called my husband with the results, which allowed him to diagnose the problem from a distance--a plugged-up chimney--but I'm not the one responsible for climbing ladders to clean out gunky chimneys, so he made a special trip home last night to fix it in the night, in the dark, in the cold).

I did not do laundry since our dryer is still on the fritz and the dryer dude who was scheduled to come and fix it last week couldn't get here because of snowy roads but is due to return tomorrow, after another night with snow in the forecast, so who knows when we'll have a functioning dryer again? Good thing we all so love the laundromat!

But at least I didn't have to make a new sandwich this morning--and hey, I brought one of those brownies to work too, a delicious treat. I've been working like a maniac just to keep my head above water today, and if I remember to take my laptop home with me tonight, I may be able to grade those papers while waiting for the dryer dude, assuming that he's actually coming.

Winter in the woods! You never know what might happen next, but you can only hope you'll have the right tools to cope with it.