Ice Storm

Here’s what the ice storm did to my pretty new gutters, via a giant oak branch:

On the bright side, at least the bathroom tile has been laid, and it looks beautiful. I imagine they’ll grout early next week. I can’t get the Internet to cooperate right now, so no pictures.
The freeze also brought heartbreak. That can be mended too, I suppose, but right now it sucks. I find solace in occasional glints of blue sky and quiche at the Big Easy in Watkinsville. And especially in doses of Extra Dark Scharffen Berger chocolates.
The cold also brought absolute chaos–at work and at the house and for holiday preparation. Nonetheless, I managed to do some reading, in an effort to distract myself from the unpleasantness of reality. And, since I work for a publishing house, I got free galleys to peruse! Galleys are bound printings of a book made for marketing purposes from page proof, which means they are like cheap paperbacks without any of the proof corrections made. They’re sent out for early reviews, for blurbs for the book jackets, and probably other reasons I’m not aware of. Once the book is published, any leftover galleys are useless. Except to me! I enjoyed reading Campus Sexpot, which won the AWP Award for creative nonfiction, for good reason. Just started the Flannery winner Copy Cats. Here’s my favorite bit from it so far:

Photocopies had authority. The way to make something true was to make one hundred copies of it.

Today I’m off to Griffin for the big Hollingsworth Christmas, and tomorrow it’s Canton for Christmas at Brookwood Farm. Will be wonderful, even if this gray weather holds.