Big Winter Storm Hits Our Town, Traditional Snow Days Follow

The weather wasn't supposed to set in until 2 PM that Sunday, but it was 1:40 and already the snow was coming down fast enough to cover the roads. It had come to my attention that someone in our community was already out of water, their pipes having already frozen (this is why they tell you to leave the faucet dripping). We were on our way to deliver a five gallon jug and a grocery bag full of bottled water to them when we came upon traffic backed up by what must have been a wreck ahead, hidden beyond the curve of the road. Luckily our turn was coming up before we reached the traffic, and the road that we turned down looked as if it had been freshly cleared and salted. As we went along, the road's surface was being covered with snow as quickly as the windshield in front of my eyes, where I had the wipers at a good steady pace. A task that, in normal conditions, only took a few minutes, dropping off the water turned into quite the fiasco. During the return trip, the road was already completely snow-covered. Avoiding a giant hill that I was certain was too slick to attempt, we drove the long way around, meeting the snow plow, the driver giving us a big wave in return as I cheered him on. Driving in low gear and going slowly along the road, we were nearly home when we met the only other cars on the road, a jeep stopped and waiting to enter the roadway, an officer who waved, the snow plow, again, roaring along on its return trip up the hill. By 3 PM everything that had been plowed was covered in snow again. I watched out the window as the snow fell quickly, the tiny white balls of it piling up even faster than anticipated. I was glad that it was snow and not ice. 

When we had been out delivering the water, even as slowly as we were going, driving at a reasonable speed still felt excruciatingly slow and reminded me of a few mornings prior to the snow storm, the morning I failed to get the notifications for the school delay. Though we had shown up at the bus stop on time, it became apparent after the time for the bus had come and gone, that it wasn't coming up the hill after all. I thought that we had missed it, having had to drive extremely slowly on the ice covered roads. But no, I had just missed out on the messages stating that there was a delay. Great. I wish that I could have blamed the miscommunication on a failure of the district's mass-texting system, but I'm pretty sure that it had more to do with the phone having updated overnight that night than the system itself. I used the time to instruct the children on how to spot ice on the road (if it looks wet, it's ice) and that it was important to go very slow. Perhaps I could go back to listening to the local radio station to get the news of any closures or delays, like when I was a kid, way back in the day. Maybe. The radio is always entertaining. 

That stormy Sunday evening was spent watching out the windows as the snow, then sleet, was blown around in blustery wind gusts. The limbs of the trees were bending, their ice-laden boughs covered in a thick icy crust, the shards of which went flying when the weight of the ice sent a branch smashing to the slushy ground below. Enough snow had fallen before the sleet began that the children had gone outside to play in it briefly, dripping snow onto me and giggling upon their return to the warm comfort of indoors. Only the light of morning would reveal just how much ice and snow would accumulate overnight.

It was still snowing a tiny bit when the sun rose on Monday, but that soon subsided and we were left with what appeared to be a several inches of snow topped with some ice. The day was spent entirely indoors, a traditional snow day, and the children were already complaining of boredom. They don't like to bother me too much with that complaint, because I begin to suggest things that they could tidy up. Because that's what you can always do during a snow day--tidy up. After things are neat and there's nothing left to tend to, one can then spend the evening enthralled in a good book or an interesting magazine, curled up with a cup of hot cocoa, and snuggled in for what you know will be a good winter's nap.