A day at home

Yesterday, the federal government's Office of Personnel Management (OPM) made a really bad decision - they kept the government offices open despite the fact that several bus routes were closed and some major arteries were still not clear. This took the cost of staying home and put it on those least able to afford it. My husband took the train to work and discovered that only perhaps a third of the staff were there at all. The roads that were cleared quickly clogged up, and the whole thing was apparantly a mess. And those train routes that were primarily above ground ended up being single-tracked. Just bad all around.

I called in to my office and said that if a major emergency happened, I'd take the train, but otherwise I'd be home, and set about making bean soup and homemade pies. Since it was Valentines day, I dug out the individual pans in the shape of hearts that I keep in my bread making bowl, and made steak and mushroom pies, to be served with green pea soup. (I got this idea from a Terry Pratchett novel - apparantly, it's a famous dish in Southern Australia.) It was really good. With sweet pie for dessert. Now, bean soup takes two days to make, so tonight will be bean soup (with potatoes, onions, carrots, and plenty of garlic.)

I didn't get much work done on the blanket, though I'd hoped to, because my shoulders and arms were aching from all the crocheting I've done recently, so I took a fallow day. Just read, made soup and pies, and visited with my husband when he got home. Got a couple squares added, but not much. Still, I'm down into the teens, waiting for my last package of squares to arrive, with 2 more. And that's it. 2 squares to edge, and about 14 to attach. And the extra squares I now have will either go to Afghans for Afghans or to a pillow to go with the blanket. (If it looks big enough for a baby blanket, it's going to Afghanistan. If not, I cover a pillow.)

And I thought about the pace of my day, and the really bad decision to send people out onto icy roads, making the job of deicing those roads harder. How much was accomplished that absolutely could not have waited until the snow cleared? Especially since several police departments were asking people not to go out unless they really had to. What was the hurry? Why did the government force those who take certain bus lines to take a day of leave since they could not come to work?

To me, this is a further sign of how far we have moved away from taking time out. Ice storms had knocked out electricity for many people, the roads were not cleared, and even the train lines were iced over, yet the government decided that people should come in to work. It was a natural day for drinking cocoa, having bean soup and bread, and waiting for the snow plows to do their work. Given the amount of productive work that I suspect happened yesterday (how many people stayed home? How much work gets done on such days?) couldn't we have saved all the fuel that went into turning roads from sheets of snow and sleet to sheets of ice, heating nearly empty office buildings, etc.?

And as an update, I did take some of my yarn stash and make a pretty bright pseudosphere at a 3 to 1 ratio - which is looking like the most cuddly brain coral ever thought of.