Iced In & Doing Something With Nothing

Ice storm hit here overnight.
One inch or more over everything.

Ventured outside between power outages to check things. Large tree down on road south of us but someone had cleared part of it away. Lots of broken branches in the yard and our vehicles are impenetrable. The previous day I had shoveled openings in the muddy ruts so the water would flow downhill. That did the trick but two hours later - as we're waiting for things to dry a bit - the sleet and freezing rain began.

Heard from a friend about a electrical line that came down within four feet of her car as she was scraping ice. This was followed by a fireball and a nearby tree crashing to the ground between their home and her husband's vehicle. Neighbors called 911 reporting that they heard sounds like a cannon being shot.

Meanwhile, we've lazed around today. Took a nap, read a book, made a pineapple upside down cake and washed a quilt - how hung across an eight foot rod in our heated back shed.

I've been asked to speak to a home schooling co-op group in late April about recycling, cost saving strategies and my experiences in the early days of homeschooling 32 years ago. Ought to be interesting as these folks can't fathom being investigated by Social Services or threatened with loss of a job because I home schooled.

My art program that many thought would never among to anything is sailing along to the point where we're no longer accepting any more mural locations for this year and about to outgrow our meeting space at the library. The plan is to do murals on location whenever possible and otherwise meet in various parks, weather permitting.

And, of course, at a community meeting last night, before the ice storm, I was introduced as the newcomer who's "made an impact" on the community while having no building, no money, no bank account and no board of directors.

When asked how I managed to do that, I said: "By not letting anything hold me back."