When most of your city is snowed in, you have extra time.* You might clean your closet. You might work. You might realize your electricity has gone out and you no longer have heat. You might start to get a little cold and then you might remember you can actually do something with your hands other than type. So you might make a fire.

Sure, it’s pretty simple but you were never a boy scout, or a girl scout, for that matter, so it takes a while. But you get it going, and your house is warm again.

You read a book. You take a nap. You have silence, but you might not be entirely comfortable with it. Time to think isn’t something that you’ve had a lot of lately. And now it’s all you have. Or maybe all you can’t ignore.

So you think, but not about anything in particular. You remember warmer places you’ve been, trying to fool yourself into believing you don’t live in Colorado.
You close your eyes and think of warm sand and gentle waves.

Or maybe you make a grocery list and clean the bathroom by candlelight. Cleaning is a good way to stay warm.

Eventually, though, your mind drifts again. Like back to last Sunday afternoon when you were at home, folding laundry, with football on the t.v. and you thought to yourself “this is really nice.” Except, when you walked down the hall to put towels in the closet, you told yourself it was sure nice, but something was still missing. Your mind wandered then, as it does now, and you realize there are just some things about you that can’t be denied.

And when that get’s old, you open a bottle of wine and sit by the fire. Soon the electricity returns and you realize your house has been at a balmy 56 degrees (F) for a few hours. Should have opened the wine sooner.

So you enjoy your wine, watch some mindless television and wander around your house a little. You check your email, chat with your mom and revel in the beauty of a working furnace.

Then, you create a profile on an online dating site because when it comes to finding ways to stay warm, you just never know.

* A LOT of people worked today and had absolutely no extra time to think, muchless stay warm. I appreciate that and I take electricity for granted way too much.

This is a really tough day for me. It’s 28 degrees (F) and snowing. Blizzarding, to be exact.
And I’m freezing. And you know how I feel about that.

I have a list of things running through my head that I could do:

Watch movies
Clean
Write my article that’s due next week
Work
Sleep
Organize the pantry
Laundry
Read

But none of those seem particularly interesting. The only thing I’d really like to do is catch the next plane out of here. But good luck finding a flight to take off anywhere in this mess.

If you were stuck in a blizzard right now, what would you do?