WHEN LIFE DOESN'T GO AS PLANNED

That there is no place to put new snow should come as no surprise.  After all, this is New England weather.  Everyone gets the old 'PhD' in shoveling...piled higher and deeper, that is.  I heard that Logan Airport was melting the snow plowed off the runways.  With no salt in it, it was apparently given dispensation and allowed to join the water in Boston Harbor.  The thoughtless guys caught dumping road snow in the Merrimac River were violating all sorts of environmental laws, caught, and I am not sorry for them.  To kill the river like that is murder to the fish just as clearly as throwing a hand grenade into the river would be, only fish life in the river would have a slower, more painful death.

While I am still perfectly capable of shoveling snow, there is no way that I would last piling up the mountains which each snowfall has required.  The berms piled up by the sadistic street plows has been beyond me for each of our several storms this season.

Since the weather reports indicate that tomorrow will be another lost day, I thought I would try to beat my own record at the Japanese game, Kumika.  Thinking to make life easy as I watched  a news program, I chose the 'easy' version.  My best score was 40,460, my worst 630.  I'm an example of practice makes perfect, sort of.  It didn't occur to me that I had improved so much that it seemed I could not end the game.  I played so long, I began begging the God of computer games to set me free.  My prayers were answered three hours later as my eyes were crossing.  I knew I had beaten my old record; only my pride in winning kept me playing.  Then the voice in my head began to lecture.  I heard, "How can you waste so much time?" , "You could have read a whole book in this time you have thrown away." .The worst of it was that the voice was right...naturally, since it was coming out of my own head.

Then rationalization set in.  I remembered the snow days off from school in my childhood which were days when one didn't have to work and could (with clear conscience) goof off.  I even remembered why it is so important to 'goof' off occasionally.  My body was relaxed and I was finally ready for bed after a day in which nothing I had planned when I awakened is what I did. during the day.   I loved it!   Try it yourself, you may like it.