The Protestant Work Ethic on a Day Off

I have taken the day off due to the weather.  We are having the fourth nor’easter in the last three weeks.  The first was an absolute blizzard with snow accumulations over one foot.  Today appears it will be a repeat of #1, with the added disclaimer of additional accumulation over 16 inches.

This gives us an excuse to take paid time off (where available).  My office did not close, but Warrior Queen’s place of work has shut down for the day.  From my point of view, it is practical for me to just take the day off.  Sure, the roads may just be wet and our state highway department will plow and salt often to keep the streets passable.  It will be easy for me to drive down my hundred feet or so driveway in the morning, but 8-16 inches of frozen precipitation on the driveway at night?   No sir, I wouldn’t be able to clear that in my Ford Focus.

Today’s blizzard is a study in irony as it is the first full day of Spring, 2018.  We should be seeing our grass getting greener, flower beds sprouting, and birds chirping the forthcoming warmer months of the year.

With this in mind, I must speak directly to those who believe that climate change is a hoax.  In the old days, weather like this would happen and be done with us no later than the last week of February.  Now, it seems like the season of cold temperatures and frozen precipitation has moved forward a bit into Spring’s territory.  We are now having our worst winter weather in March, and (in some years) April.

Clearly the world’s climates are running amuck.

Please dear readers, indulge me just long enough to focus my thoughts now on the climate changer deniers. I particularly invite those deniers living in the northeast corner of the United States to right now GAZE OUT YOUR FREAKIN’ WINDOW AND WITNESS THE ABSOLUTE TRUTH OF CLIMATE CHANGE.   IT IS SPRING!  YET DO YOU SEE ANY GREEN GRASS?  DO YOU SEE ANY FLOWERS BLOOMING?   DO YOU HEAR ANY SWEET BIRDIES CHIRPING?  NO, BECAUSE IT IS ALL WHITE, WHITE, WHITE, AND I’M NOT TALKING ABOUT THE COLOR OF OUR FREAKIN’ CARPETS. *

Okay, I feel better now.

Anyway, I am fending off boredom on my snow day off by completing a list of tasks worthy of a weekend.  It is a case of the Protestant work ethic kicked into overdrive. Warrior Queen, who is content to relax and view social media/knit all day, believes that I am too ambitious for my own good.  Horse feathers!  I have to accomplish some task (or tasks), else I will feel the day has been wasted.

On today’s to-do list:

Create a batch of vegetable beef soup for lunches at work 

This can be a multi-step process starting with braising the beef, boiling a pound or so of frozen soup vegetables in a pot of tomato juice, add a few spices, crumble up a bay leaf or two, add the beef, and let it simmer for a while.  I will let it sit overnight before packing it up in smaller one serving containers.  Several containers will be stored in the freezer for use in the coming weeks.

Fry potatoes for breakfasts 

One of my lingering wonderful memories of my childhood was waking up on a Sunday morning to the smell of potatoes being fried in a skillet for breakfast.  I cannot do this every Sunday these days; Warrior Queen does not believe that sliced potatoes frying on a Sunday morning produces a wonderful aroma, and she is quite blunt in her description of my culinary efforts.   Today I thought I would fry up a batch with my extra time today, to be stored like the soup for later consumption.

Dishes 

This is no big deal.  I will unload the dishwasher of the clean items and load it back up with the various pots, pans and utensils I used to make soup and fry potatoes.

Clean CPAP mask and tubing 

This is a ritual I am trying to get in the habit of doing every two weeks.  It involves dissembling the CPAP (Continuous Positive Airway Pressure for apnea patients) mask and tubing from the pump device and soaking it in a solution of one part vinegar, four parts water to kill any nasty bacteria which may thrive in the humid environs of the mask and tube.

Laundry in basement 

Another no big deal, but time consuming.  I will sort and fold clean laundry in the baskets, organize it for easy extraction by myself and Warrior Queen during the work week.  This cuts down our time we must spend every morning to get dressed.  This will be done in our basement television room, enabling me to watch some programs while sorting laundry and petting our basement cat, Oreo.

Blog 

Self-explanatory.  I am struck by not one, but two ideas for blog entries today.

Nap 

Short moments of respite taken between the completion of the other tasks.

As I write this I find that I have completed all but the laundry task.  Ah, the Protestant work ethic is alive and well in my house today, no matter what Warrior Queen says.

*Paraphrasing Andreas Voutsinas in The Producers.

(Thank you for reading.  Spo!  Warrior Queen is making fun of our Protestant work ethic!  Make her stop!)