Snow Day?

Hudson, Ohio
21 April 2021
7 a.m.

 When I was growing up in Oklahoma and Texas, I never once enjoyed a school’s-off snow day. I had no idea what such a thing even was.

So when we moved to Hiram, Ohio, in August 1956, my grief at leaving my friends and routines back in Oklahoma was greatly relieved when I experienced my first snow day. I remember one week (1957? 1958?) when we had four days off in a single week ... heaven.

When I began my teaching career in 1966, I soon discovered I had that same heavenly feeling when a snow day was called. A huge sense of relief. I could sleep later, get caught up on work (mostly, paper grading), etc. 

So on a day like today—a day of overnight snow—I would have awakened (as a kid, as a teacher) to see this glorious sight you see in the pic at the top of the page.

But if you look closely at the pic, you'll see that the roads are clear. Yep, the snow coats the trees and lawns and plants but not the most crucial element in a potential snow day.

So grief would have immediately followed that discovery. Maybe even some ... bad words?

The birds and squirrels that inhabit (uh, dominate) our yard seem confused more than distraught this morning. Where did that white come from?

I was due this morning to go into the University Hospitals lab here in Hudson to get a blood draw for one of my regular tests, and so I was thrilled to see the snow, knowing I could postpone the poke a day.

But then I saw the roads, thought Aw, I'll go tomorrow anyway.

And down I went to make some Keurig coffee, to heat and eat one of the apricot-walnut scones that Joyce and I made yesterday, to slump into my "morning chair," catch up on email, FB, and read fifty pages of the book I'm about to finish.

An Old Guy's Snow Day!

Noon: The sun is out; the snow is fleeing fast; the squirrels and birds are now starting to recognize their world (our lawn and trees or—from their point-of-view—their lawn and trees).