Sunday Salon: Snow Day

It doesn't take much to make a Snow Day out here in Pacific Northwest, due to our lack of snow plows or even adequate sand to make the roads passable. The snow fell while we were at church performing a Music & Worship service to a sparse congregation that would normally be completely full on this melodious Sunday.
One of the readings for the service was Christmas as Fezziwig's Warehouse, by Charles Dickens (the whole piece is at the end of that link). It was wonderful to hear it read aloud, and even more wonderful to hear the laughter that Dickens still inspires, 120 years after his death. It made me want to read Dickens again. Any recommendations? A Christmas Carol is the obvious choice, but what else?

The drive home from church was an adventure! I first learned to drive in Wisconsin, so I'm comfortable driving on snow and ice without chains. I know all the tricks: start and stop slowly, so you won't skid. If you do skid (I didn't), steer into it. Don't pull up directly behind someone stopped facing uphill. And last, but certainly not least: if you have barely enough traction to make it up a hill, go-go-go until you get to the top!

Unfortunately, the person in front of me didn't understand the 'Go-go-go!' part, forcing me to come to a complete stop on an incline that, what was it the nice police officer said? "I wouldn't attempt this hill without chains in a million years." He mentioned this to me after that person made it up the hill leaving me 10 blocks from home with zero traction.

We could've walked 10 blocks home, but after that very helpful remark, the nice police officer offered to pull up behind me and give me a push uphill with his front bumper. We're home to stay now, and I would be holed up reading but I keep falling asleep while reading The Titan's Curse to my kids so I sent them back out to play in the snow while I snoozed a bit.

This week I read Miles From Nowhere with some great ladies through J. Kaye's Noontime Book Chats. This was so much fun, I really recommend checking future book chats and getting on board for one of them. I'll definitely do it again.

When I wasn't reading my chapters for the book chat, I'd pick up Maya Angelou's Letter to my Daughter. These are short essays about moments in her life and lessons she has learned, a nice break from the dark world of Miles From Nowhere.

Now I'm eager to get back to Sunrise Over Fallujah, which I set aside when I realized it wasn't a good fit to intersperse with Miles From Nowhere--I need to get back into that world and stay there until the book is done. Juts as soon as I can sit down and read without my eyes closing on me...