Snow Day

Snow would be okay if I didn't have to go outside for anything more than checking the mailbox or building a snowman. I wouldn't try making snow angels for fear that my neighbors might think I was having a siezure and call 911. Snow is great to look at and play in. When I was a kid, snow was a cause for celebration because it carried with it the possibility of a canceled school day. I remember listening intently to the TV or radio as they listed school closings after a heavy snowstorm....crossing my fingers and thinking "c'mon, c'mon, c'mon" until the announcer called out the name of my town's school. A snow day is like an unexpected Christmas.

Alas, I no longer get snow days. When I stagger to the coffee pot in the morning and look out the window to see everything blanketed in white, I no longer light up with joy and anticipation. My thoughts are "oh shit, look at that mess out there" and I consider that I will have to leave for work a bit earlier in order to scrape off my pick-up and then navigate un-plowed roads across the city.

Driving is always a puckering experience. Most people take it nice and slow, but weather like this always brings out those with SUV's who think that 4-wheel drive will somehow prevent the laws of physics being applied to their tires on ice....so they whip in and around traffic about twenty mph over the speed limit, usually with a cell phone crammed to the side of their faces. I often see one or two of them on the side of the road on my way to work; crumpled around a light pole or some other car that they managed to take out upon discovering that it is difficult to go from 50 to zero on a patch of black ice.

Work all day. Watch the snow continue to fall. Repeat the harrowing driving process getting home in the evening.

I need a snow day.