Sunday Reflections: Scenes from an Icepocalypse!

My children and I are lying in bed, snuggled under a mountain of blankets.  Thing 1 is reading a book, Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief if you are wondering (she loves it).  Thing 2 is watching a Christmas special.  We have the bedroom door closed and a space heater on.  The heat stopped working early Friday morning, the outside unit is frozen solid. I sincerely hope one day it will get warm, the ice will thaw and it will just start working again. Our mission: to stay warm.

The street is littered with tree branches. Two have fallen from our backyard tree, taking out two sections of fence with it.  The good news is we now have firewood to try and keep the house warm; the thermostat says it is 57 degrees.

Thursday as news of the impending Icepocalypse came, the stores were flooded and shelves were emptied.  I needed a few important things – like Pepsi and cookie dough and toilet paper – to make it through what I hoped would be a marathon reading weekend.  Well, as marathon reading as a weekend can be when you have kids who want to eat eleventy billion times a day.

As we tried desperately to stay warm, I couldn’t help but think of the homeless man I saw walking down the freeway the other day as I drove home from the library.  Is he warm somewhere?  I know that we barely are.

It looks like a frozen, post apocalypse out there. The roads are empty, a barren landscape of asphalt and tree limbs.  Next door a small pine leans over from the burdensome weight of the ice.  Its crowning tip is touching the ground and I can’t help but see the sad Christmas tree from A Charlie Brown Christmas reflected in its melancholy arc.  It’s an exaggerated frown.  I understand, this cold makes me sad too.  Thank goodness I have some books to read.

Everyone stay warm and safe.  Read a good book or two.  Snuggle with the people you love and marvel in awe at the deadly beauty of nature.

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