Evidently my ideas and comments are very important to President Bush. Evidently he thanks me for e-mailing him, but asks me to understand that he cannot answer every e-mail, though White House staffers consider and report citizen ideas and concerns.

Touching, isn�t it?

Well. So. How are we today? Where is everyone? You kids out east stocked up for the snowstorm? Plenty of groceries and water on hand?

It wasn�t too dreadful here, not so dreadful that I stayed home Friday, when it merely rained all day. Perhaps a smart girl wouldn�t have stayed in town at the bar until the sleet started, though. Maybe she wouldn�t have crawled home on a highway with only semis for company. Perhaps, considering the pileup she passed before the halfway-to-home mark, she wasn�t very smart to be driving at all. But I made it to bed before the heavy sleet, and then snow and raging winds started.

When I wandered into the 56-degree kitchen Saturday morning to make tea, my landlord was pouring boiling water on my landing, since such a thick layer of ice had accumulated on the landing that the screen door couldn�t pull open. There is a slight snowdrift in my enclosed porch.

I don�t know how much snow we have. The winds were so strong that I couldn�t see the neighbors� house on Saturday. When the snow stopped, the winds continued, so in places we have about a quarter of an inch of snow, yet there are 5-foot drifts elsewhere.

What lesson did I learn? I learned that I should not spend so much time alone. I can only read, watch movies or listen to the radio for so long, and then there was way too much time to stew about where I would be and what I�d be doing if I momentarily discounted any family and/or financial issues that have historically held me back. It just seems like this shouldn�t be so hard, doesn�t it? I�m so tired of thinking about it, talking about it, and writing about it. And of course reality climbs right in and reminds me of the other issues that keep my concrete feet from taking any sort of step forward.

Maybe all I need is a shot in the arm. Heh heh.

And so, here it is, Monday lunchtime, and all I know is that I ate too much leftover chili for lunch, that I�m going to file my taxes tonight, that I need to buy eye cream on my way home (but I won�t), that I�ll go straight home, put on the gray velvet pants, the black long-sleeved t-shirt and the creamy yellow zip-front sweatshirt, that I�ll have a chocolate martini and that I�ll watch the final Joe Millionaire. Because this is how to get by�drink, stay warm, and get distracted.