Snow Day Checklist

I woke this morning to discover schools all over the city had been cancelled.  Snow and ice were forecast throughout the morning.  I turned off the alarm, rolled over, and closed my eyes again.  Snow days have always been a gift of time to me.  Now that I am out of bed, I am spending this one in a house cleaning frenzy and re-posting a piece I wrote five years ago on the eve of a storm that was far more impressive than today's.

All week long meteorologists have taunted me with threats of a huge snowstorm, so it huge it apparently left them speechless because all their new name-the-snowstorm department could muster for this storm was a single letter.  Massive snowstorm Q was on its way and my life was about to be significantly disturbed.

For several years weather people went through a period of telling fish stories.  You should’a seen this storm.  It was THIS big! Their gift for exaggeration made them suspect in my mind.  So, when they got on this Q kick, I only half listened.

By yesterday the impending storm was all anyone could talk about.  Schools and organizations began canceling today’s events before the first flake fell.  I decided it was better to be safe than sorry, made my pre-storm list, and began putting our house in order.

First, I prepared the bunnies making sure we had a stockpile of bunny food and replenishing their bowls and feeders with water and fresh pellets. I cleared out the hutch and put in a big supply of new shredded paper for insulation.  I did a visual sweep of the path between hutch and the house looking for anything that might pose a safety hazard once snow covered and no longer visible.

I anticipated our needs for maintaining happiness while housebound.  We have amusements on hand: puzzles, games, books, music and movies.  We are set with outerwear for all.  All beds have been made with clean, warm sheets and cozy blankets. Throws and quilts are available on couches, and matches and a lighter wait by the fireplace.

I made a grocery run to stock up on hot chocolate supplies, popcorn, and foods that can still be served in case of power outage.  I triple-checked our tissue and toilet paper supplies.  When I arrived at the dairy I discovered that others were also preparing for a long haul.  They were sold out of butter, cream and 2% milk by 9:30 a.m.

I considered any health needs we might have, double checking prescriptions and over the counter cold medications.  I took a quick survey of the first-aid supplies on hand.

I decided to fill and run the washer, dryer and dishwasher in anticipation of a possible power outage. I checked the flashlight to make sure it is in working order with fresh batteries and put candles and matches where they are likely to be needed.  Then I charged my electronic devices.

I made a quick run through the garage to make sure that snow clearing supplies, shovels, sand or salt, are accessible and that the car was full of gas. Satisfied I was ready to face the storm, I lit the fire and brewed some tea.  So~Let it snow!

To all the meteorologists out there, I extend my apologies.

A Frosty Night's Journey

Day 2 of the Write Before Christmas...‘Brightly shone the moon that night, though the frost was cruel’

The coldest week of the year.  In the past forty-eight hours the temperatures had plummeted and the world had become dark and gray.  Distractedly she pulled together her bags and some blankets, food and supplies in case she encountered ice or became stranded on the highway.

She was surprisingly alert for such a wee hour.  She had been doing this same routine for the past eight weeks so perhaps she had grown accustomed to it.  She didn't question her routine for long.  It was simply what needed to be done.  She closed the door behind her bidding her husband and two sleeping children a silent goodbye.

At the other end of this road a young woman lay sleeping in a dorm room.  She would wake in a few hours having to face another appointment- a post-op check up or more therapy.  When she woke she would call her mother who would be somewhere between Kansas and Tennessee yet again. The sound of her groggy voice on the phone would make the mother smile and press on.

The dark highway stretched before the mother's eyes like a ribbon connecting the two women.  Apart from the moon, the night was black and silent.  Yet this frosty night held a lightness as well.  Had there been another living soul around the lightness might not have been visible to them.  But the mother saw it.  This night, the coldest night of the year, would dawn on the day that the mother would not make the return trip alone.

This time the daughter and the mother together would cross this very path in reverse.  It would feel to the mother that the frost had melted. They would head home to be with the others; and it would be Christmas.

During my oldest daughter's sophomore year she was dropped from a cheer stunt and sustained an injury which required surgery.  We had a very long semester: her with the medical stuff, me with trying to be supportive and present from three states away. These memories were on my mind because at 3 a.m. tomorrow morning I leave on a 10.5 hr journey to pick up daughter #2 for Christmas break.  But this time everybody is healthy!

2011

Snow Day

Several years ago I participated in a Christmas themed writing group: 'Twas the Write Before Christmas.  Dusting off those posts to share again this year.

The week before Christmas.  The pace has been frantic with places to go and lists to cross off.

Overnight a special holiday gift arrived.  The city is wrapped in sparkling white.

I stand at the window admiring the promise of something fresh and new as the radio announcer says the two words people all over town are hoping to hear, "Snow day".

I sigh and release tension I hadn't realized I was holding onto.  My focus narrows as my mind moves inward.

Today is for home, for family, for me.  Tomorrow the rush of the season and its obligations will resume; but today I have a snow day.

Wisdom of the Jonquils

Yesterday was the first day the jonquils were in bloom.  I stood in the sunroom drinking a cup of hot tea admiring their fragile beauty.  Their sunny yellow blooms looked so delicate.
Overnight we experienced the gambit of weather.  I was awakened by a hail storm that rattled the windows along with my nerves.  Hail gave way to rain and I drifted back to sleep.  This morning we awoke to snow cover.
Looking out the window at the white lawn my mind traveled to the jonquils out back and I feared the worst.  I threw on some clothes and headed to the sunroom preparing myself to find them battered and destroyed. How could those delicate blooms survive the storm I wondered.  And there was my answer.  How could they survive the storm?  With heads bowed.

Written in 2012.  Shared again to celebrate the arrival of spring.