How well I remember 'snow days' when the children were younger. I was always fortunate enough to teach in districts whose snow days coincided with the snow days of the kids. Capt. SO worked in corporate America and I honestly do not remember him ever having work cancelled due to snow or any other of Mother Nature's bag-of-tricks. (One of my spelling asides.....sorry. Did you know that it is acceptable to spell cancelled with one or two l's? One 'l' is considered American spelling, two l's is the British preferred spelling. Oh, the things I learn every day!) Because he traveled a great deal he was probably out of town on most occasions when the deepest snowfalls occurred and it would have been the kids shoveling and me operating my dad's trusty old behemoth of a snow blower.
Our old Sears snowblower was a heavy thing and it had more than a few quirks.....like flooding easily, a broken throttle lever and a Quixotic pull chord (no automatic start) that liked to recoil unexpectedly. That, plus the fact that my arm wasn't quite long enough to pull the chord all the way out, made for many an interesting interaction between it and me. Not to mention the choice words that usually flew out of my mouth when the chord would suddenly retract, trying to take my shoulder socket with it.
Because Dad's snowblower was heavy and had chains on the wheels, it would rumble through most snows easily. It's weight could be problematic, though, especially when blowing a driveway that had a slight lateral pitch to it, which describes our last home's driveway. That driveway presented a continual challenge to me when using the blower because I would have to 'man'handle the behemoth......preventing it from sliding off the driveway, down a slight embankment with me still attached to it. The old machine and I always stayed upright and united - thankfully.
As I type, I can see two roads from my laptop. One, our neighborhood street, has movement on it today, whereas yesterday no one could move because the plows had not been through. The other road is a state highway which, yesterday, had little to no traffic. People heeded the warning of public safety officials and stayed off the roads, perhaps because they could not get out of their front doors, let alone their garages. With the second 'snow day' in a row having been declared, I'm sensing that the thrill is gone and students and adults alike are getting a bit stir crazy. The snow days are quickly morphing into snow daze. Perhaps the students will actually welcome the return of classes....whenever that occurs, which will not be soon enough for the adults of the households, I'm certain.
Stay safe and stay warm. The groundhog did not see his shadow. Spring is a-comin'!
Ancora imparo
