A text showed up from a friend on Day One of The Ice Storm last weekend: "Hi, I'm eating turkey chili Frito pie, drinking a glass of cabernet, and watching an episode of 'Bookish.' What's going on at your house?"

Your plan, I replied, is better than mine. "I'm cleaning out each and every one of my kitchen cabinets."

"Oh, now you're making me feel bad!!!" she responded; "well, not enough to move off the couch."

She wasn't surprised to learn what was going on at my house. I don't sit still well, especially on a day when, thanks to an average temperature of 16 degrees with 17-mph winds, it's not feasible to take a long walk with my small dogs. Since our temperamental tankless water heater has so far decided to cooperate (having been installed on an outside wall, it's been known to freeze when it gets really cold, leaving us to heat pots of water for self-scrubbing, dishwashing, and other such tasks), I didn't have much else to fret about other than embarking on a productive if........

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