I was sick as a dog the day before Thanksgiving. Unfortunately, Mikey only had a half-day of school Wednesday, which meant my husband was on entertainment duty for the afternoon even though he was still supposed to be plugged in for work. I was in and out of consciousness all day, but the fragments I took in weren’t good. It started in the morning when I heard Mike tell the 7-year-old to get his shoes on approximately 14 times. As expected, his volume rose with each request.

For 22 years I have commuted between Brewster and Mahopac. My route has changed a few times over that period, as a short-cut was abandoned following an unexpected, early morning rendezvous with a deer. It was not an immediate repudiation of that particular commute. I tried the short cut a few more times, but after noticing more than one deer standing on the roadside, eyeing me with a mixture of suspicion and contempt, I decided to stick to Route 6. Commuting affords me a sliv