Orlanth Pantheon

"Valind" is what they called him; the Gloranthan god of winter who is portrayed as a giant, with a frozen beard and dripping with ice. Although I'm not one to promote mythology I find his description quite fitting for the nasty wintry weather we are experiencing here in the Northeast.

This is the second day this week the kids and I have had off from school because of nasty weather and school closings. Tuesday it was an ice storm that left about a quarter of an inch of ice everywhere. Paul called me from work that morning to warn me that he had nearly crashed twice on his way to work and I was relieved I didn't have to try and drive in it myself.

Ironically, while I'm on the phone with Paul I decided to open up the front door and check things out. It looked like there were a couple of dry spots, so as I took a step out onto one of them, much to my dismay I realized it was all ICE andI slipped, fell on my butt, and proceeded to slide down each of the steps on our front porch to land on the sidewalk below. Luckily I wasn't hurt, just totally embarrassed and laughing hysterically. It took me a couple tries to get myself back up the porch and into the house since i was wearing my house slippers with absolutely now traction. I'm sure it was quite a hoot for any neighbors who happened to catch me out their windows. :-)

Today is the second day this week we have off due to more bad weather. It can't decide whether to snow, sleet, pour down icy rain, or do all three. And in fact, it's been doing all three for most of the morning. There's now about a good inch or more of ice and sleet built up on everything outside. It's cold, nasty, and ridiculous.

Although I'm always up for a free day off of work, this cold and dreariness is getting to all of us. Oh, how we miss the mild winters of Redding, Ca...