Thoughts from a Thinking Girl

Is this enough snow to call a "snow day"?

Today is our third snow day in a row. My son has been in school for 2 hours this week; that included P.E. (rollerblading) and lunch. The remaining time was spent in the classroom, with the substitute teacher phoning parents to tell them of the early dismissal. Kids shared their cell phones (11 out of 32 kids in a 5th grade classroom have cellphones – am I missing something here?) so parents got an email notification from the school district, a call from the classroom and a call from an unidentified cell phone, so that there could be no mistake: drop everything and come get your kids, who you, yes, sorry about that, just dropped off two hours ago. Did you have meaningful activities today? Yeah, well.

Here’s our schedule so far this week:

Monday – School closed for MLK, Jr. Day

Tuesday – 2 hour late start, then the 2-hour early dismissal

Wednesday – School Closed

Thursday – School Closed

Tomorrow? Doesn’t look promising. Snow is still falling. Temperatures haven’t risen above 30 degrees and it’s almost noon. We don’t have that many more hours until the sun will set.

Did I mention I live in an area that is supposed to get negligible snowfall?

The only thing that’s negligible now is the contact with the larger world. Emails and phone calls have tapered off, work demands have ground to a halt, all extras (marketing, going to the gym, endless errands) postponed. Replaced with sledding, snow forts, table-top snowmen, snowy walks into the village, photos of snow-covered branches, hot spiced tea, baking projects, wet gear in and out of the dryer so it can be put on again, music in the background. Plans cancelled, remade, cancelled again. We seem to take turns watching the snow fall outside our picture window. Just watching the flakes come down, noting the angle, the way they are white and flaky at times, sometimes wetter and making the tat-tat-tat-tat of sleet.

Another day of slow, slow unwinding. Is this the pace of life that old people remember wistfully? The time to sit with a cup of coffee and not have to do anything else but drink it. The time to watch a daytime movie or play Scrabble in the – gasp – middle of the day. The time to watch the snow fall. And the space in our minds to actually do it.

Let it snow, let it snow.

Thank you, Niko's Gyros, for this dapper Tabletop Snowman (1/18/12)