Thursday, January 7, 2010

Snow Day?.......

This is one of the many times that I'm happy to live in the Deep South.

And a little embarrassed at the same time.

The weather forecasters have been screaming SNOW!!!!! for several days now. It was all supposed to happen today, and several school districts announced yesterday that they would be closing early today.

The first few flakes started falling around 3:30 this afternoon, and we took turns going to the window to make sure it was REALLY snowing.

It's still snowing a little, but really not enough to create any problems.

That's the good news.

The other good news is that here in the Deep South, it doesn't TAKE much for schools to close. One flake and BAM! no school. With our lawsuit-happy society, no one wants to take the chance on one errant snowflake getting under the wheel of a several-ton school bus and causing an accident while carrying the three students in our county whose parents don't sit in the car-rider line to take them to school.

And I'm as bad as the students. I'm hoping and praying that enough snow falls that it will freeze on the ground and we won't have school tomorrow. An unexpected day off on a FRIDAY, of all things, is just like Christmas all over again.

You know, Christmas? That two-week break from which we just returned?

We've had two whole days with the students already, so I'm ready for a break.

It's funny how each of the surrounding counties' approaches to closing schools can be so different. When Sweet Girl was in eighth grade, I was teaching in another county. We had a brand-new superintendent, and the snow talk had begun. In what I thought was a knee-jerk reaction, my superintendent canceled classes for the next day, but our HOME county didn't. They took a wait-and-see attitude, and what we saw was ....... nothing. It was supposed to start snowing around lunchtime, so I bundled Sweet Girl off to school. She was mad as a hornet that she had to go to school and I didn't. I reassured her that once the snow started, they would send them home early, and I would be there to greet her with hot chocolate.

Not one flake fell. Not one. Not in our county, not in the county where I taught, not anywhere in our area.

When Sweet Girl stomped off the bus that afternoon, her face looked like a thundercloud.

"You said it was gonna snow!" she growled at me.

And on top of that, there was no hot chocolate.

Doing my snow dance,

Bragger

3 comments:

Maggie said...

Me chanting: "SNOW-DAY, SNOW-DAY, SNOW-DAY!!!!!!!!!!" I really hope you get one, too! I'll cross my fingers and aim the snow blower your direction.

Evil Pixie said...

I love the snow. Where I grew up, we had it every winter and remarkably everyone knew how to cope. Even more remarkable, everyone knew how to drive in it. Where I live now... a heavy frost sends people into a tailspin. I remember last year we had about 5 inches of snow on the ground and the entire city practically shut down.

Julie said...

Snow! Those few paltry flakes don't count as snow. Just throw a 30 lb. bag of kitty litter in the back and get out there on the roads, and remember to turn into the skid.