Icemaggedon (or what I did while most of you were working)

We knew the bad weather was coming, but that's what the meteorologists told us two weeks ago, and nothing happened. So I did not want to get my hopes up, or my daughter's, or my students'. But this storm was clearly coming, so I prepared everyone. 

My district is always the last to close. Being located in the center of the DFW metroplex, Arlington will wait for every other district to close first, and they usually wait until 6 AM the day of. But by 6 PM the night before, we were already watching every other district around us close. When the Fort Worth call came around 7, I knew it would only be a matter of minutes. 

My daughter and I curled up on the couches with the dogs and some TV, and I was asleep long before 8. I have been pushing myself to extremes lately, and exhaustion caught up to me. 

Around midnight, the power started flickering on and off, but when I got up at 5:30, we were in good shape. I checked outside to see the accumulating layer of ice (and all of my plants dying), took the dogs out, and started my tea kettle. 

Ten minutes later, the power was out. For eighteen hours. During an ice storm and below-freezing temperatures. 

I attempted to get some cleaning done, but it is really hard to want to do anything when it is that cold. I started charging my Nook, Ipad, phone, and computer in my car so I would have something to do if the power was not out by the time it got dark at 6 (I'm glad I did). I spent the rest of the day reading and napping and dreaming of hot tea. 

Had the power been on, I very likely would have spent it grading papers and working on my final exam. As much as I hated being buried under blankets and living on Crystal Light and peanut butter and jelly, the day forced me to relax and read. 

I finished this one after five weeks of trying. I always struggle with her writing, but I know it is going to be worth it in the long run. I am glad I stuck it out, and I am sure the library will be happy to get this one back.

This is book three of four in a series I started with my daughter. She lost interest quickly, but I love teen fantasy novels. I had to stop reading this once it got too dark to see my paperbacks any more. 

I said no non-fiction, but my Nook was glitching, and I only had a couple of books downloaded on my Nook app on the Ipad. I read a few chapters of this one in the dark. Very interesting so far. I have always been pretty introverted, but I am actually discovering that I am more extroverted than I realized.

I have been working on this one on-and-off. Once my Nook started behaving, I read about a third of it. Very good story so far. I think I am going to finish this one before finishing any of the others. (Ha, I am always reading a minimum of four books.)