Monday, February 5, 2007
Baby, It's Cold Outside! (Monday)

According to the nerdy meteorologist's best estimates, the temperature here will not be above zero at all today. And probably not tomorrow either. I'm not even going to mention how cold it is supposed to be with the wind chill. It will frighten even the toughest person.

I didn't even consider the fact that cold temperatures make for a really unsafe environment for kiddos to attend school. Not until this very morning when my phone rang at 5:45 a.m. In a teacher's house, a 5:45 a.m. phone call can only mean one thing. . . . SNOW DAY!

You learn at a very young age that, besides the obvious Christmas break, summer, chicken pox epidemic, and the time when you realize the smelly kid who picks his boogers and eats them is sick, Snow Days are the best damn thing to happen to your school year.-Chad Stevenson

Seriously. There is nothing better than a snow day, not even summer vacation. I so wasn't expecting to have off work today, but guess what?!? I do. I imagine this is what it would be like to have a surprise eighth day in the week. I wasn't expecting it. I don't have anything planned. It's just an entire day to do exactly what I want to. I just won't think about the fact that this means there's an extra day tacked on to the end of the year. . .

What would you do with an entire unexpected day off? What is your favorite childhood snow day memory? What's the weather like where you are?

When I saw the words "snow day", my first thought was of parents that work and have to find alternative means of babysitters for their children. What is great for one person can be a problem for another. That said, my daughter works for a school and LOVES her snow days because it means she can stay home with her two girls.

I actually don't remember having snow days when I was a kid (that was a long time ago) but we did get an extra day off not too long ago for the passing of President Ford. I had a long weekend anyway and then got the extra day off, which turned out great. Right now we are snow free, but it is still very very cold.