ice man cometh

We had snow last year a couple of times.  But I don't remember the last time we had ice.

School was canceled, and when I heard the rain coming down at 4:00 this morning, I knew it would be a day that I would miss Mass, too.  So I slept.  I woke up to a world with a light coating of ice.

It was kind of a winter wonderland effect.

The pine trees across the street were especially festive looking.

 

Ice shuts down everything here.  We don't know how to drive in it, and we don't have any equipment for clearing it off of roadways.  But by early afternoon, the temperature was above freezing, and things were melting away pretty quickly.  I took one of my offspring to spend the night at a friend's house, and thought I would stop in at the Adoration Chapel down the road.  Imagine my surprise to find a note on the door that said the Chapel was closed due to weather and would reopen on Saturday morning at 10:00.  That's nearly 24 hours away!  

So, I was left with Plan B.  I have plans to go to confession on Saturday afternoon - just because it's been a month, and the next few Saturdays are crazy and I probably won't have the chance.  [Preventive maintenance, my pastor called it in a homily a few weeks ago.]  But before I can just pop into the confessional, I need to have some kind of idea of where the problems are.  Maybe it's obvious to some, but when I'm in the midst of living, it doesn't always occur to me that, "OH!  That was a sin!  You need to confess/change that."  I have found that sitting in the Lord's Presence and asking for help often is just what I need. I ended up going to the church near my school, and just sitting there in the almost-darkness.  Lord, show me what causes pain.  To You.  To others.  To myself.  I had my journal, and there was just enough light to write.  In about a half  hour, I had a fairly decent assessment of where the problems areas are. 

One kid is sleeping at a friend's, so that was the opportunity for the other one to have a friend over.  Four people is about the limit to what this house can hold!  

Back to school on Monday!  But I must admit that this mid-winter break was quite nice, and that for once, the school system probably made the right call on a school closure!

Stay warm!