Say It Ain't Snow

Alarm goes off like any other Monday morning, and I roll out of bed. I wake up my son for school, and we grudgingly go about our morning routine. Then the phone rings. The phone never rings at 6:00 a.m. unless it's terrible news. Who in the heck is calling us this early? It's Columbia Public Schools. No school! Really? We had received some ice over the weekend, but I thought the roads were somewhat passable. Nevertheless, no school today. So I let my son know and he promptly returns to bed. I walk into my daughter's room; she's still asleep. I whisper the news in her ear. Her eyes flutter awake and she smiles while rolling over to go back to sleep. Sounds like a good idea. I also head back to bed. I emailed work later that morning to let them know I'd be checking email at home. I had some things to get done because a huge snowstorm was on it's way. An extended weekend was sounding pretty good.

That evening we received texts and emails that just about everything in town would be closed on Tuesday. MU even closed the campus at 8:00 pm Monday night before a single snowflake fell. That's never happened. I thought to myself, "What if they're jumping the gun? What if this monster snow storm never reaches us?" Doesn't matter because I don't have to go to work the next day! So my husband and I open up a bottle of Westmalle Trappist Ale. Good stuff.

Well.... the snow storm reaches us.... in full force! It snowed for almost 24 hours. I set out my famous "snow gauge" to measure the snow. I bought some Mirror Pond Ale for the Super Bowl, so that was the snow gauge of choice. After a few hours of watching it blow and drift, I decided to increase the size of the snow gauge (the larger 750 ml bottle is the empty Westmalle from the night before). I'm glad I did because you couldn't even see the smaller bottle on Wednesday morning.

Needless to say, everything was closed on Wednesday too. I personally was happy to have an extra day to get the driveway clear. I wouldn't have been able to make it to work anyway. They closed school on Thursday as well because of the road conditions and extreme cold. The enthusiasm for my kids is now starting to wane. My daughter was calling it the longest weekend ever (indeed). Thursday night we started wondering if they would have school on Friday. Part of me thought what's the use of sending them to school for just one day? Let's just start fresh on Monday. 

Our suspicions were confirmed later Thursday night. No school again! After my kids heard the news they responded back with "No! Will we have to go to school in July?!?" Not quite. But I know we'll all be complaining about keeping the school schedule after Memorial Day. June 5th is the last day of school as it stands now. And winter isn't over yet, folks.

So please, Mr. Weatherman, I'm begging you. The next time you report the forecast...say it ain't snow!