Snow Day!?

Arlene Blackman Yolles ♦ March 7, 2018 ♦ 3 Comments

When I was a teacher, I prayed for snow days.  After teaching without a break for weeks during the winter, we all needed a well-deserved rest and when that phone call came (usually at 5 in the morning), I happily turned off the alarm clock and went back to sleep, content in knowing that I had no responsibilities, no lessons to teach, no students to entertain, no colleagues to complain to, and no meetings to attend.  When I would finally get up at the decent hour of 10 or 11, I knew the lazy day stretched before me and began planning.

If I knew ahead of time that there was going to be a snow day, I would shop for the ingredients for my famous parmagian (see my son’s ode: https://arleneyolles.com/2014/06/18/an-ode-to-my-best-dish-2 ) My son and daughter would pray along with me for the First Snow Day of the Year, knowing that their parmagian piles would be waiting for them in the freezer when they next visited!

Today, happily retired, I had planned to take the train in to the city to visit with my two granddaughters, one of whom has a half day of school.  Then along came Mighty Quinn, our current Nor’easter with the threat of 10 to 12 inches beginning in the afternoon.  Not willing to take the chance on the commute home (and being cautioned to stay home by all weather reports), I decided to cancel and reschedule for another time.  So now, what to do?

Since many of my loyal reader (OK, two) have asked, “When will you write another blog post?” I decided that would be on the top of my list so here it is.

I love how the meteorologists get us all hyped up about the intensity.  I have found, however, that they’ve gotten a lot better at predicting.  And the weather maps!  Such pretty colors, arrows and swirls!

I’ve already started a fire, put in a laundry, straightened up the house, done my email and played some games on the computer.  Here’s what I’m planning for the rest of the day: I’ll finish the novel I’m reading, bake a batch of granola, work on the current knitting project, clean out a drawer I’ve been putting off doing, watch something from Netflix and phone some friends.  I have one (you know who you are) who has been without power since last Friday as a result of the last Nor’easter and the power company is not expecting to have it restored until this Friday. Yikes!  He could use a bit of cheering up.

So there you have it — a grown-up snow day.  Yesterday I moved all our firewood from the stack outside to its rack inside; today, I can’t wait for the end of the storm when I get to shovel all 10 inches!  Or, maybe I’ll splurge and hire a teenager.  Now, that’s what I call living it up!