Of course, my "I'm just going to write this week" plans were shot to pieces by our electrical panic. Instead, I'm behind on all laundry, grocery shopping, vacuuming, and everything else that requires electricity, plus I was completely exhausted yesterday, no doubt from the stress of "what the hell is going on?" Very little has been written.

So it was especially nice to wake up this morning to learn that Vox Populi has published my poem "Song: The Famous Vision of America," which I drafted in one of my Carruth-Kenyon workshops last fall. And I am loving this cup of coffee (made with the aid of an electric coffee grinder and an electric stove), and everywhere-in-the-house heat (thank you, electric furnace trigger), and non-flickering lights and bountiful hot water and a charged laptop and everything. We were incredibly lucky that the terrible poltergeist event did not blow out all of our appliances and electronics. Things could be so much worse right now.

Today is Paul's day off, and he wants to go for a drive together and look at the ocean. So we will do that. In the interstices I will manage to grocery-shop and deal with some laundry, but vacuuming can wait till tomorrow.

Yesterday, as Tom and I were out for a walk, I spotted early snowdrops blooming in a neighbor's yard. As always, the sight filled me with happiness. Nothing ever feels more hopeful than flowers in February, in Maine, in the snow. Especially when your house has not burned down.