Important distinction

So, my students have another crap-ton of busy work due midnight, tonight.  I just had a student email and ask if she could have an extension until Sunday, because her teenage son managed to get her laptop infected with a virus, and she was having to reformat everything. 

See, that's the kind of requests I grant: asking for an extension ahead of the deadline is asking for an extension.

If she had, for example, sent me the same email tomorrow morning, the answer would have been entirely different.  That's not asking for an extension, that's saying "I didn't get it done, and will turn it in late.  Will you grade it?" 

Requests for extensions I grant.  Requests to grade late work?  Not so much.