It's a beautiful sunny day when I am writing this, and I'm taking a half-vacation day this afternoon. I have a pile of work to get through, and it's feeling mighty difficult to concentrate on anything at my desk for too long. Today I might blame it on spring fever, but sometimes I get that way even in the dark of winter. Do you ever feel that way?

This past weekend, there was a huge storm in the Northeast US -- the worst in at least 50 years. Last night we hosted one family plus two other children, with offers out to many others in case they changed their minds about sleeping with no electricity. There are thousands of people in our town who have no electricity and extensive flooding in their basements. Others had trees crash onto their homes or cars. The streets of towns were littered with downed trees -- enormous, healthy trees -- and power lines.

The weather has been pretty crummy recently in my part of the country, with lots of rain, snow or simply overcast skies. I've been shocked at how many people drive in these weather conditions without their headlights turned on.