Snow Day

So, in keeping with our town’s hypersensitivity to falling frozen flakes, I got the automated phone call at 5:30 a.m.:  No school today.  I shambled out of bed to the window and was not surprised to see clear roads, clear sidewalks, and no precipitation in the hazy aura of the streetlight at the neighbor’s yard.  Oh well.

Unable to fall back asleep, I channel surfed for two hours.  One by one the little ones arose and plopped into bed with me.  Then, magically, just before making the call to work, I saw a snowstorm actualizing on the street scene out my window.

The wife is overnighting in Boston so I’m the children’s caretaker right now.  And now I must call in a personal day.  Despite the mounds of work, the pounds of pressure, the insecurity of continued employment, I actually needed this day off.  Don’t know how I’ll be tomorrow, but tomorrow’ll be Friday, so I think I’ll be able to manage.

We had breakfast, watched an episode of Star Trek (“Balance of Terror”).  I went to the basement and started working on our taxes while the girls watched some cartoons.  My boss did reach out to me to work on a major issue, so I logged in to my company email and did my best working from home.  At lunch we had sandwiches, took a couple of goofy online quizzes, and the girls went out in the backyard to play in the snow.  I dozed a bit then read some more Sheen and Lewis (sounds like an old vaudeville act).  We settled down with popcorn to watch Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man, then I steeled myself to shovel us out around 6, once I saw that the storm had moved on.

All in all, though, we only got about four inches, despite a weather prediction of six to ten.  And it was fluffy powdery stuff, so I didn’t throw my back out or anything.

Not a great shot, but here’s a picture of the view out my front door just after the snow stopped falling:

  

So, back to the grind tomorrow.  And it’s grinding me down.  But then – there’s the weekend, there’s books to read, movies to watch, and my two little daughters to play with.