Snow and Sense and Speech

I'm sitting here in my relatively cozy home, freshly fallen snow outside with more ice and snow in the forecast, and I'm listening to the local Ohio news station for the latest on school delays and closings. So far, nothing that affects my kids, but they did just finish up a bit about how shoveling your walk and driveway can get you sued. That's right, if someone injures themselves when they're walking on your shoveled walk, they can sue you for damages. But if you don't touch it with a shovel, they can't.

The catch is, the postman won't deliver your mail if your walk isn't cleared. I guess we're lucky our mailbox happens to be on the street.

What is wrong with people?

I'm toward the end of a book my friend Ruth recommended for me, Diana West's The Death of the Grown-Up. It's really been food for thought, the kind of thoroughly researched book that puts so many thoughts into words that I didn't know how to say, and also gives you pause to consider paradigms that you might not even realize you have.

I'm jonesing to get to a few more pages of it tonight before I pass out, and just thinking about it is increasing the sensitivity of my PC Radar. What I like to call the Absence of Common Sense. And other things I can't quite get my mind wrapped around right now because Sean-Peter just started playing Jack-in-the-Bed. Humph. I might not get any reading in after all.

But speaking of Sean-Peter, the weather tonight will affect whether we keep our appointment with the school district for his IEP tomorrow morning, the final step before he starts preschool and speech therapy. Maybe they can teach the weasel to stay in bed on his own while they're at it.

I wonder if their walks will be shoveled.