Snow Day!

This is the consolation of winter in upstate New York.

We may be battered by the elements day in and day out, we may hardly see the sun for months at a stretch, we may spend hours and days of our lives scraping our icy driveways with chapped hands, and we may sacrifice our automobiles to early deaths from cancerous salt and slush, but every once in a great while the weather is so dreadful that we get an entire day off from our responsibilities.

And today is a great day to have off. Today is my big teaching day. I teach elementary school lessons all morning, lead two rehearsals, and then drive an hour south to Houghton, where I teach my three trumpet students. Then it's a long drive back through the elements, up 590 during rush hour, and straight to the boys so that J can leave for orchestra. She might actually still have orchestra tonight, but I'm hopeful she won't.

The one redeeming part about the long teaching day is that I can practice in the cracks of lessons and commuting more than any other day. I've started to find a practicing rhythm here at home, usually putting my softest mute in around 7 AM and playing in the basement with a space heater cranked until everyone else gets up. It's easier to get through the rest of the day knowing that, no matter what happens with naps and trips and responsibilities, I've put in at least 30-45 minutes to start the day.

And today, I have put some time in already. All that's left to do for the rest of the day is to play with happy boys and try to keep the driveway clear. Uncle Tim is still up visiting us (and probably not going anywhere today) so we'll have extra hands to help run the kids around. The house is still mostly picked up and put together from all the company of the weekend, and there won't be much to do there. It's a good day to be snowed in.

Of course, there still are more long-term projects to be done. For instance, we ought to make up our minds about what to do with Tanner tupperware.

One of J's students brought us a meal after Owen was born, and it was a really good meal. It was almost a feast. And it came in nice tupperware. Tupperware is--or are? are the --ware a singular or plural--one of those badges of middle class domesticity that count rather highly in J's subconscious. She is never happier about the state of her kitchen than when her own tupperware is stacked and organized neatly in her bottom shelf. This almost never happens. For one thing, tupperware make excellent drums. For another, I eat a lot of lunches between rehearsals or between lessons, so the tupperware are constantly entering my lunchbox and returning to sink with only mixed success. At any given time there are tupperware that are technically "ours" on my desk at Lima, in my car, and even in the trunks of some of my fellow carpooler's cars. J hasn't looked upon her tupperware as a complete set in many years.

And yet, I know this is important to her. So, I make an effort to bring home my tupperware whenever possible. When the Tanner feast was dropped off, she assured us that there was no need to return the tupperware. We insisted we would. She insisted that it wasn't necessary, but it would be alright if it wasn't an inconvenience. This is code for "she really wants them back." It's one of those codes like "shoes off or shoes on is fine," which really means "shoes off is fine and shoes on is not."

We ate the feast months ago, and then J washed the tupperware and then put them in a tied up plastic baggie which is now on top of our microwave. I keep on looking at the plastic baggie and forgetting what's in there. When I look inside, I remember that we really ought to drop off the Tanner tupperware. I'm tempted to move it somewhere out of the way, like on top of the fridge or down in the basement. The plastic bag on the microwave keeps the kitchen from looking completely clean. (As does the topsy turvy pile of incomplete tupperware bases and lids in the lower cabinet.) But if I move the tupperware out of sight, we'll surely never remember to bring it back to the Tanners.

It's a big problem. But today is a snow day, and this is what snow days are for.

I think James and I will start work on the problem by doing some drumming.