And we aren't even on the steppes of Siberia

Some Russian author (or at least I think it was a Russian author) once said, "Any idiot can handle a crisis. It is the day to day living that wears us out."

This is a week for wearing people out. The kids are sick. Along with the normal work/kids activities/school program schedule, we have had an electrical issue because the ceaseless rain last week caused a never-seen-before lake in our front yard and the standing lighted outdoor Christmas decorations shorted out. Siding blew off of the house because of the wind and we had to replace it in the pouring rain.

The rain finally did stop, only now it has turned to snow, snow, and even more snow. It took me 90 minutes to get to work today. And, of course, the kids assumed there would be a snow day, then responded with the expected whining and complaining of "that's not fair" when the bus could get through. I mean, we live in Northeast Ohio--this is what we always have, and why expect that the world is going to shut down because of two inches of snow?

Then there was a water problem in the basement, which turned out to be a leak in the pipe which carried dirty, murky, stinky water from the sump pump to the outside, and which I couldn't help but discover when I was standing right next to it when the sump pump engaged and the effluvia spurted all over me and the clean laundry. And of course, shutting down the pump before it completed its cycle was not an option, so I had to just wait it out or walk through a worse spray to get out of the way. The kids told me that I smelled like hard boiled eggs. Plus our renters called us--they are having problems again with their electricity, oh, and they can't pay the rent on time. Again.

EG had my grandfather clock fixed this week, and it strikes the hour--one o'clock--on the hour, every hour.

The clock man informed me that it was right--twice a day at one o'clock.

Plus, the SWAT team was outside work today, one of my students now has a warrant issued for her arrest, and in an unrelated case, there was an alleged theft in my classroom yesterday.

And it is only Wednesday.