This morning I cleared away the couple of inches of snow that fell overnight. I wanted to be able to see where the ice was lurking below the white covering so that myself and others would be able to walk through the driveway without peril. Where the driveway meets to sidewalk, there is a sheet of clear ice the full width of the drive. Salting will just get washed away or buried under snow. The next messy event is to drop snow followed by freezing rain and rain. That is overnight into tomorrow. The next one begins about 24-36 hours later. It has been every 2 to 3 days for over a week. Today was the calm before the storm. The sun shone a fair bit, there was little wind and nothing fell from the sky -- all pluses in my books.
Winter can wear a person down. The non-stop series of storms from the Atlantic coast of the US, Texas, Colorado or Alberta -- they all bring disruption. Living any form of orderly life can become extremely difficult in wintery weather. The difficulty of dealing with snow removal and travelling on icy roads leads to fatigue. Add to that the approaching midpoint of the academic term and the assignments and midterms that go with that, and people take on a dazed, haggard look. Layer on the multitude of viral and bacterial hazards encountered in the dead of winter and things unravel quickly. The traditional midterm break -- actually reading week -- is needed to catch up with all the work while not having to be in classes or labs. This provides a break from the madness of the routine while affording the time to focus on larger projects. The hope is that one can be semi-rested and ready for the final push to the end of term. At present, that is the carrot on the stick -- still almost 2 weeks away. Learning to take things a day at a time and sometimes an hour at a time could help the journey through the mountain of tests placed in our paths.
A song that came to mind while pondering this made me smile and almost giggle. The lyrics fit some of what I'd been thinking, though written in a more defiant mood than I had today. I found the way the song wove together many individuals with different stories using similar words -- not unlike what I see in the hallways and public places these days. Enjoy!
One Day More -- from 10th Anniversary concert for Les Miserables (ft. Colm Wilkerson, Lea Solanga, Phillip Quast and many others who made the characters so great in different casts)
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