February 18, 2000
Snow Day
You can't really tell in the picture, but it's snowing heavily here in Michigan. It's one of those fine snows. "It's like looking at the world through cheesecloth," someone on the radio said this morning. So, after two days' worth of dire weather predictions, it's finally blizzarding here. (Yes, blizzard is a verb. Around here, at least. Well okay, around me.) The picture was taken out my computer room window about twenty minutes ago. More snow has accumulated since then. I have to drive to work in a little bit, and I'm dreading it.
I love blizzards and snowstorms though. I just love the feeling of 'hey, something cool is going on with the weather!' And of course, when you're a kid, there's always the possibility of a Snow Day. I can remember from middle school on, listening fervently to WHMI or to WJR, stopping everything when they'd start to read the list of school closings, keeping my fingers crossed and hoping to hear that Howell Public Schools were closed. They almost never were. The kids used to always joke that the school superintendent actually lived in Florida, which is why he never saw the need to close school because of snow.
Oddly, the two years I spent working as a preschool teacher, snowy mornings were remarkably the same: listening to WAAM in Ann Arbor, hoping to hear that Peachtree was closed. And again, it almost never was.
The company I work for now will never close because of snow. Especially not during tax season. They most they've ever done was close an hour early (8pm rather than 9) because of an ice storm. No, as long as they have phone lines that work, support is open. After all, you try explaining to an accountant in Miami how he can't get technical support because of the snow.
Still, I remember snow days. I always would get ready much slower on potential snow days. I mean... what's the point of getting all ready for school if you're just going to get to go back to bed? Everytime the radio or TV would go into the list of school closings, there'd be this feeling of anticipation, like waiting to hear if you'd won the lottery. Unless the world was in danger of ending due to snow, however, Howell wasn't usually closed. Every single school district in the county could be closed, and Howell would still be open. But in a way, that made the whole ordeal even more like winning the lottery, when the schools really did close.
The years I lived in Tennessee were endlessly amusing to me when it came to snow and to winter storms. I can remember when I lived in Martin with Gary, there was a week's worth of warning about the huge winter storm that was due to hit us. The town was in a panic. The day before the storm, we made the mistake of going to the grocery store. People were stockpiling much the way people stockpiled for the whole Y2K thing. Shelves were empty. Bottled water, batteries, non-perishable foods... everything was gone. Shopping carts were overflowing. Lines were long. People were tense. I just giggled.
Then the snow started. Oh horrors! I think they got maybe an inch before it stopped. And a little bit of ice, but nothing major. A typical Michigan winter day, in other words. The town closed down. Completely. We went out for a drive after the 'storm' stopped. The streets were completely deserted. Every single business in town was closed. I admit, I laughed my ass off for two days. Gary -- the Tennessee native -- just muttered things like, "Well we don't have snowplows down here like in Michigan," and "Well, no one here knows how to drive on snow..." I still giggled.
I think Mother Nature's doing the giggling today though. Driving to work's gonna be a bitch. So... I suppose I should go get ready for it. I wish I could sit here and watch the snow fall all day. I want a snow day.
Posted by Lisa at February 18, 2000 09:51 AM
