On the Current Stormy Weather

It’s snowing sideways out there.

We’re in the middle of what is supposed to be historic blizzard, and I can believe it. But I am inside, where it is warm and snug, and I plan to stay here.

It wasn’t as bad as they said it would be this morning, so I jumped into the buggy and drove to Not Quite So Far Away Campus, which is a good hour and a half on a sunny day. Having a semi jack-knife across the highway about halfway there added another hour, so my students were treated to the slightly condensed version of the Crisis of the 14th Century (Plague! Famine! War! Death! Bundled together and sold at a discount!), but they seemed okay with it. They talked about Boccaccio and what they would do if they had been there, in plague-ravaged Florence, and it was fun.

The textbooks never put the good parts of Boccaccio in for students, though. Someone once made a movie of The Decameron, back in 1971. Few of my students are old enough to rent it given the rating it got. My guess is that Day Three, Story Ten played a prominent role in the screenplay. I would bet that if students understood that sex was not invented in the 21st century but has a long and glorious history, they’d be more interested in the study of the past.

Just saying.

I made it back home without any difficulties, puttered around for a bit and then went to pick up the girls from Not Bad President Elementary. Just as I pulled into line outside, the winds started.

When Elvira Gulch pedaled by, I knew we were in for a storm.

But everyone is now home safe and sound. There are potatoes baking in the oven, tea brewing in the kettle, and books a-plenty on the shelves.

Sometimes I think this is why they have winter storms – to force us to sit still for a while and think and observe, instead of running frantically about the way we often do these days.

We need that, now and then.