It's been cold and winter stormy in Oklahoma today. I had to work really hard at getting my car back into my garage after I picked up Cora from school. If you'd like to know a quick way to warm up when the wind chills are in the teens, I'll tell you: shovel snow and chunk through ice. Our driveway is short and steep, and it leads to a one-car garage. There isn't much room for error - in this case, sliding one way or the other. And there was no way to avoid the tracks I'd made when leaving that had since turned into a layer of ice. Shoveling was easy. Chunking was tricky. It took about 20 minutes. Let it be known that this was the first time I have ever shoveled snow. Man, that one inch was for the record books. When I pulled the Prius in, I felt like I'd just won an epic battle.
But you can imagine how this intense determination to get my car into its shelter multiplied the guilt I felt about having a garage as a prize at the end of conquering an icy driveway.
It's supposed to snow more tonight. I think there's something really fun about waking up to a still new world after it's snowed all night, but there's also something a little sad about missing the show. I hope I wake up at least once so I can peek out the window for a minute or two. Or ten.
Cora's school is cancelled tomorrow. We're waiting to hear if OCU is closed too. OCU closed at 4 today, but it was opening night of It's a Wonderful Life tonight, so he went back for that. He actually just got home. I love snow days, even just snow mornings or afternoons because my whole little family gets to be together for a few hours, which rarely happens. If it takes a snow day for Jake to get part of a day off, I'll take it! I have every intention of baking lots of goods and watching Chronicles of Narnia tomorrow. All while in my super warm cozies and snuggled up to the cutest people in the world.
Gratitude and guilt are odd bed fellows, but it's common to find them together in your head.
ReplyDeleteHere's one solution. I figure that the thing I have (in this case, a garage) has saved me money and time (in this case, the cost of a de-icer to be able to get into my car when the lock is frozen shut and the time to scrape all the snow off). And then I make a comensurate contribution to a charitable organization, (Habitat for Humanity?)
It makes me go from social awareness guilt to social awareness contribution and leaves the whole bed to gratitude.