1.
I gotta tell you, as I sit to write this, the thing I’m most grateful for in this moment is that the day is nearly done.

It started with oversleeping, which meant I didn’t get a head start on writing this. Then work was a wild ride. I’ll simply say this: if anyone in your life is saying  that educators and school staff are exaggerating the stress of teaching kids in the age of COVID-19, kindly tell them on my behalf that they are utterly full of shit. I’ve still got a Franklin select board meeting ahead of me at 7 p.m. (and it looks like a long one), but at least I can Zoom in for it from the comfort of my couch. 

I really want to go to bed, and when my head collides with my pillow, it’s going to be a sublime experience.

2.
Last night was the first time this season that we turned on the ol’ pellet stove. 

It wasn’t below freezing, but the temperature had been consistently dipping below 40 at night. And it’s not going to get any warmer. We have a furnace back-up that kicks on, but we decided it was time.

Over the course of summer, I forget how the heat from the pellet stove feels like being wrapped in an atmospheric hug. It was so nice to wake up to that warmth this morning. And Ziti, our dog, is so blissed out from the consistent heat.

I’m thankful, not just for the heat from the pellet stove, but that we are able to afford such a thing. I try not to take the sound of the auger feeding pellets into the hopper for granted. And Vermont winters have a way of making me constantly aware of how important the warmth of home is.

3.
Sometimes a song comes along, and it just scratches an aural itch you didn’t know you had.

That happened last night when I was messing around on Spotify, trying to make a playlist. Wheel In the Sky by Journey showed up as a recommendation for what I was putting together, and I thought, “Sure. Why not?” I’m not a huge Journey fan, but I do like that song quite a bit.

Heading back home this afternoon, I put it on, and oh man! It really fit the mood.

Wheel in the sky keeps on turnin’/I don’t know where I’ll be tomorrow

Uncertainty has become an all-too-familiar companion over the past couple of years, and we find ourselves in unexpected places – sometimes daily, quite often without traveling anywhere at all. 

Wherever I end up, I’m glad I have music to keep me company.