The official snow total from the backyard of the Kangaroo is 5 1/4 inches. It's a near perfect snow as well. No wind, no drifts. No ice on the front end or the back end of the storm and snow wet and sticky enough for building any decent snowperson or hurling any snowball.
It's been a bit of a hodge-podge morning, since we knew before going to bed last night that there would be no school today. The first snowflake touched down at 2 p.m. yesterday and the school district announced the closure at 5 p.m. Where the K-12 schools go, mine usually follows, so there was much rejoicing in the land.
I spent some time on reading blogs this morning and then was suddenly inspired to hit my poems in progress and spent a good hour or two revising. There were several poems sitting there right on the edge of feeling "ready." I don't say "finished" until it's been a good two years of so! In any case, I polished up four of the poems to a state where I think they can go out in the February round of submissions and I read and re-read the remainder until I couldn't stomach it any longer. Those will have to sit some more.
As an intermission, I went out and swept all the snow from the two cars and cleared the porch, sidewalk, deck, and driveway. Since it is such a rarity for us, I'd forgotten how snow can quiet a neighborhood (not many kids in our neck of the woods). The snow was deceptively easy to move, and only now am I feeling it in my arms, shoulders and back. Here's a pretty picture of our backyard, untrespassed upon. (Not sure you can see it, but back by the fence, there's a tipped over red wheelbarrow, upon which so much depends.)
Back at the desk, I realized I had two more folders out that needed attention. These were folders for two book publishers who accept unsolicited manuscripts during January. No contest fee! (No award beyond royalties either.) Bless their hearts for accepting manuscripts online ~ no loose ends of having to wait to slide over to the post office tomorrow. I started to send the manuscript to one more contest when I discovered they were accepting online submissions; however, as I went through the steps, I realized they hadn't given clear directions about payment. It appears I'll have to send in my check no matter what (rather than be able to pay online), so I decided to just send the whole thing together to avoid confusion. That will have to wait another day or two.
While I'm not up for sliding to the post office, the mail carrier did manage to stop by on schedule. Go USPS! I only note this because, the bounty of the mail box included my signed copy of After the Ark by Luke Johnson...hot off the presses people!
And now, since I need a bit of a break from the desk, and today was supposed to be the first day of classes and I'm all prepped for that, I suppose I'll adjourn to the couch and get in a few hours with my all-time favorite detective, Lenny Briscoe (RIP Jerry Orbach), on Law & Order. I'm sure there will be freshly popped popcorn (from the stovetop not the microwave!) and maybe some pomegranate tea. The work of teaching will have to wait for better traveling conditions.
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