snow day

Wow - if there's two feet of new snow outside, this must be Canada. And it's still coming down. I have shovelled twice and my homeless friend Bill once. Bill has now disappeared, probably because he wore his scrawny body out shovelling, and also made so much money that he can afford to comfort himself at some local happy hour.

It's beautiful out there, especially the happy birds at the feeder against a backdrop of white. The city is muffled, and my friend Sam the teacher was anticipating an easy day at school with only a few kids. The cat is sleeping with her paw over her eyes and has not awakened even to eat. My son is in bed at home, still recovering from some vile bug, and my daughter and grandson are visiting friends in Saskatchewan, where it's even colder and snowier.

February in Canada: a good time to be self-employed.

Today I added up the travel agent work I did on-line yesterday, and am proud to report that I am traversing the North American continent, flying non-stop direct from Toronto to Washington to Austin to Los Angeles to Vancouver to Toronto for less than a thousand dollars. How amazing is the internet. Not to mention airbnb, that my friend Shari Ulrich told me about - I've got a big bright room in someone's Austin home for $44 a night. How did we travel before? Oh yes - people were employed in the travel agency business. A whole industry wiped out - one of many.

I spent this afternoon preparing for tomorrow's job - leading a three hour writing workshop at the Hamilton Public Library. Quite a few have registered already, but I have no idea of the final size of the crowd or the demographics, as Jill, a former student of mine who organized it, told me she was aiming at the homeless people who live around the library. So I'm getting the bus tomorrow to Hamilton with general notes about writing and writing exercises to do with - 20 or 30 miscellaneous Hamiltonians. This will be interesting.

And then Jill is taking me to a Nepalese restaurant for lunch. Great, as long as there's not too much yak's milk, I said.

I have just had a huge platter of macaroni and cheese for supper. When I had recovered from a childhood illness, my mother made macaroni and cheese. It's a dish of comfort and celebration. So please celebrate with me - we've survived the snow, we've survived everything else so far, we're alive on this Friday of February 2013, and the only word that matters is: Onward.

PS. Bruce just sent me this - a gay Conservative - Conservative! - MP's plea in British parliament for the equal right to be married. Eloquent and moving. And by the way, he's a Conservative.

http://dish.andrewsullivan.com/2013/02/07/400-175-for-marriage-equality-in-britain-ctd/