Snow days… what’s to be said except that they are glorious (cue “Halleluiah chorus” now)? I have to admit that I felt a bit like a child on Christmas Eve last night (only I wasn’t exactly sure that I would actually have presents to open). I spent all night anxiously checking the sky and looking out the window to see if it was snowing. I have to admit that I spent awhile watching the weather channel and I checked www.nbc4i.com a few times to see if they had by chance already listed that school was canceled. I know that Scott found it rather amusing.
Nevertheless, I found myself thinking things like: “Oh these bananas are looking really brown, I guess I’ll through then in the trash—No wait! I’ll save them and make banana bread tomorrow on my snow day” or “Should I attempt to watch French Kiss again tonight? (I’ve already tried three times, but have fallen asleep about 10 minutes into it—not because it’s a bad movie, it’s actually one of my favorites, but because I’ve been so tired.) No, I’ll save that for tomorrow to watch on my snow day.”
Obviously, things were a bit dramatic around here. Finally, I was tired enough to go to bed, but not tired enough to sleep until my alarm went off. I was up right at 5:30 am and unable to go back to sleep until I peaked out the window and checked www.nbc4i.com once more. Unfortunately, despite the fact that there were a good few inches of powdery white stuff blanketing everything, school had yet to be canceled. I returned to bed resigned to the fact that I would have wrangle middle schoolers into writing research papers instead of baking banana bread and watching French Kiss.
Thankfully, my phone rang at 6:00. I jumped out of bed and frantically ran downstairs searching for my phone nearly blind (I’d left my glasses on my night stand in my hurry to catch the phone). I answered breathlessly to hear the words I was craving, “School’s canceled”. I promptly returned to bed, shut off my alarm and slept in till 7:45! It was great!
I woke up to a sky filled with falling snow, and made myself the perfect cold weather breakfast—hot chocolate and warm oatmeal. I settled down to finish my currently novel and was rudely interrupted with a loud scraping sound outside my family room window. I glanced out to see that our walkways were getting cleared off. How dare they! I want to stay warmed ensconced inside my house and I don’t want to be shoveled out. I wasn’t too annoyed though because the snow was still coming down and I didn’t think the plowing would really last very long.
I settled back down to my book, only to hear another noise outside my window. They were spreading salt all over the walkway. I know that Scott would insert here, in all his law school glory, that they were just trying to prevent a “tort”…whatever that is…but why can’t they just leave well enough alone?!?
I really don’t understand why we all have to crawl to work on hazardous roads and show up late to work just to find that everyone else in the office is also late. It seems that every once in awhile we should just cave to Mother Nature, and enjoy the beauty of a nice snowfall. Rather than fighting it and ending up with scenes like this:
It makes me want to revert back in time and go live with the March sisters, toasting my socks before a crackling fire (by the way, I mentioned to Scott that someday I want a really fireplace, and he basically told me that was dumb, gas is the way to go. I’m not sure that he’s convinced me yet.), sewing contentedly with Marmee and waiting for Laurie to drop in so we can put together some play.
Instead, we fight. We plow. We salt. We risk our lives on treacherous roads. It really doesn’t make much sense to me. Regardless, who am I to counteract the world? So, I let them put salt on my walkway.
But, I decided to enjoy the day by bundling up and walking through the neighborhood. I took some pictures of pretty houses, since I don’t have cute toddlers to photograph, like others of you do. (Don’t worry Scott, I protected the camera from being contaminated with any moisture!) I figured that these house covered in snow, could give you Arizona readers some idea of what you’re missing out on by living in sunny, 80 degree weather.
Ohio State University’s golf course is just down the street from us and I pass it on my way to work every day. I love checking out its seasonal glory on a daily basis. It’s always beautiful, not matter the weather. During the fall all the leaves were bright against the green grass. On cold mornings the grounds been covered with mist and the trees look like they are floating. On some mornings the creek that runs through the course is frozen over. And, like today, sometimes its covered in snow.
To my joy, I turned one corner and found a bunch of kids pulling sleds around their front yard, although there was a complete lack of hills to actually sled down. The kids were bundled up like little Pillsbury dough people and were having a grand time throwing snowballs at each other. It made me regret all that I’ve missed out on growing up with sunny and 80 degree weather.
I continued on my walk and passed another boy shoveling the snow off of his walkway. At that point I decided snow days might not be all they are cracked up to be; I’m sure my parents would have put us to work shoveling snow, as well. But surely, he can’t shovel snow all day. On second thought, I still think I’d prefer the snow day.
I returned home from my walk, refreshed and grateful for the day off. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I think I’m going to go make some banana bread…
Life in OH-IO, Proof of the Existence of Four Seasons | 4 Comments »
