This is a first. Colleges rarely shut down no matter how bad the weather gets. Last year, I nearly had a wreck driving up to the main campus in a terrible snowstorm; all the public schools closed but the campus stayed open. The snow was really coming down.

And speaking of which. . . .

The local campus shut down around noon today, because of a terrible snowstorm and below-zero temperatures.

I’m home, and I still get paid because I was there and got sent home.

If I weren’t freezing to death, I’d be ecstatic.

Oh, and I’m freezing because we have no heat. The furnace went out. What timing.

The furnace guy took the motor out of the furnace home with him; he’s going to try to fix it by tomorrow but he told me not to count on it.

In the meantime, I’ll keep throwing wood into the woodstove. If I can keep that going, the house will be toasty warm.

Some people have been buried in snow for months now. I guess when I can go until February without much furnace use, and still have a few blooming flowers at New Year’s, I should count my blessings.

In spite of all my whining, I have many.