Deus ex Machina

What else could explain it?

On Tuesday I worked until 11pm editing Nativity stories destined to be compiled and bound for Christmas presents from my students to their parents. Then I soldiered on until 1:30 am carefully hand decorating 50 glass ornaments to distribute as holiday gifts to the fifth graders at my school. I was feeling the time crunch because two icy mornings in a row resulted in late starts at school and that meant a significant loss of curriculum time. I was panicked that those stories would not be done in time to go home for Christmas break and it seemed sad to me to think that my fifth graders might have neither a gift to give to their families nor a gift received from their teacher.

Things were made interesting that night because forecasters warned of a snow storm scheduled to arrive mid-day Wednesday. That meant I might only have a couple of hours with the students that day before they were sent home through the mounting drifts, there to remain for days on end until Seattle's cold stretch ended the following week. So I was preparing to make any class time I was granted on Wednesday count; in that small potential window, I had 25 stories with questionable grammar, lapses in plot, and flat out incorrect details to make keepsake-ready and we were going to crank! I figured I'd be able to give the kids their gifts, too, in the event that school was cancelled for the rest of the week. I was prepared to hit the ground running!

Meanwhile, however, I was losing ground on the stuff I had to do to get ready for the holidays at home. We had yet to arrange for a ride to the airport for our upcoming trip to Michigan, a sitter for the cat, or gifts for the relatives. The list seemed endless. I hadn't the foggiest notion what I could do to get it all done. I was trying not to think about it.

So on Tuesday night I did what I could and then dragged my sorry self to bed prepared to grab a couple hours of sleep so I could cram a day's worth of work into the pre-storm hours the next morning.

Anyone else forced to read classical Greek plays back in high school? I've blocked out much from those days but I always got a kick out of how problems without tenable solutions were solved by the quick intervention of whichever God was handiest. I could relate to what seemed to be the lazy writer's way out of a difficult plot situation. Use of "Deus ex Machina" to rescue the heroine of a play would have earned any one of us a C- in creative writing but the Greeks used it with gleeful abandon until it became, to me, nothing but a tired theatrical construct.

Until now.

At 6:30am I got a surprise phone call from school--because there might maybe be snow, Seattle schools shut down. I looked out the window and saw a perfectly ordinary looking morning. No sign of snow anywhere but, hey, who am I to look a gift horse in the mouth? The closure meant I was totally absolved from the obligation of having to finish the book project, was completely excused from academic duties, and had an entire day to get other stuff done. To top it off, I was provided with a free babysitter for the day...Mark's district also shut down on the seemingly remote possibility of inclement weather. Here's the kicker...iIt never snowed. Not even one tiny flake. This day was a total rescue mission. Deus ex Machina!

Last I checked, the forecasters were at it again. They say there might maybe be snow again tomorrow! Can you say SPA DAY?!!