It's sort of oxymoronic, but we've had 3 'winter' storms since spring began 2½ weeks ago. The National Weather Service has issued formal warnings with time limits and everything.
The first was the worst. The school district canceled school preemptively because of it. This is the same school district that hasn't canceled school all winter and only called one delayed start. The kids and I were on our way to school when a neighbor and the father of one of Samuel's classmates stopped me and told me school was closed. I hadn't even bothered to check because it was 35 F, with no current precipitation and no wind. I figured that if the storm really got bad, they'd close school early. Oh, well. So the kids spent the day with Jennifer and her boys, which they loved.
The snow started at about 8:30 and picked up considerably all morning. At work, people were calling in and rescheduling their appointments faster than anyone could answer the phones. Finally, the afternoon schedule was completely cleared and closed off. I left at lunch time and went to Jennifer's house.
I had planned to pick up the kids and go home to ride out the storm but I quickly changed my mind. The snow and wind were so bad, I could only see about a ½ mile ahead of me. I skidded a few feet several times and twice thought I was going to go off the road. It was not fun. It took me an hour to get to Jenn's house; that drive is usually 15 to 20 minutes. So we camped out there until the next morning.
Blizzards are lots of fun the next day, though. We went sledding and had a blast. It was the kids' third or fourth time to go sledding but they've never gone on a hill as big as we used this time. It was really high and really fast and really fun.
There is something simple about sledding and playing in the snow. Being bundled up a la Christmas Story-I-can't-put-arms-down! is a novel experience as an adult. Tramping through snow half way to my knees is hard but it's a fantastic work out. And when I fell, I didn't care. What's to care about? And there's nothing quite like getting a big shove down a 20 foot hill and not having any control over where I stop or if I go flying face first into the snow.
3 comments:
I am so jealous! That sounds like a blast. There is never enough snow here to even build a decent sized snowman! Lucky!
-Charissa
You make me so jealous, with you beautiful blogging about sledding and running through knee high snow. Both of which I have never done. Sometime in the next couple years I have to come up there to your guys' place for a small winter break and partake of this majestic winter wonderland. With love from the land of 2in. snow and frost, Levi says, "Farewell the well."
i am so jealous - i really miss the snow!
Post a Comment