The past week has been dominated by one thing: SNOW!
The forecast was extreme: Expect snow and lots of it.
It was all anyone talked about for the week preceding this
storm. The predicted snow totals grew as the storm system moved closer to the
East Coast. 6 inches. 8 inches. Up to 12 inches possible in the Triad.
There was already a teacher workday planned, but the schools
canceled the afterschool care Thursday night.
We waited to see what would come. Friday morning, the ground
was covered with a couple inches of white powder. Then the sleet started. It
would stop and start again all day. Sometimes it would change to snow.
My office was closed, although I had to work from home. Ray
didn’t go into work either. Sawyer was DYING to go out and play. I accompanied
him outside for a few minutes, but it was too cold for how I was dressed. And I
don’t enjoy being pelted with ice.
About lunchtime, Ray, who’d decided to go drive around and
check on some properties, asked if we wanted to get out of the house. So we
loaded into the 4x4 and tooled around town for 45 minutes. The roads were
terrible. Almost nothing was plowed, even though we passed several city trucks
with plows.
We spent the rest of the day at home. With Sawyer bouncing
off the walls, Ray piddling around and me trying to work. We don’t do “stuck at
home” well. We both get cabin fever immediately and want to go out.
After I was finished with work, I started on dinner and
ordered Ray to take Sawyer out for a while. I reminded him that he was going to
be in a pilot class ALL weekend and I would be stuck trying to entertain
Sawyer. So Sawyer sledded down our tiny hill while Ray shoveled. The sleet
sounded more like hail when I called them to dinner.
Sawyer and I played several rounds of Connect 4 and then
went to bed.
Ray left early Saturday for his class, and after lounging
around, Sawyer and I dressed to go out. We watched a neighbor get stuck in the
street. We walked Hank around the block and then found an OK hill for sledding.
We have no steep hills around us, and I didn’t feel like going out and getting
stuck (especially with Ray tied up in his class).
We got in some fun sledding and then retired to the house
for the rest of the day.
Sunday was nicer because we got out of the house: We went
shopping, saw a UNCG basketball game and Sawyer got to sled at the airport
while I went to rowing.
School was out Monday and Tuesday, and it took all my
patience to stay sane. Sawyer is pretty good at entertaining himself, but I
believe I heard “Mom, I’m hungry” about 853 times and was asked about 26 times
to help find the remote control.
I totally get Sawyer’s frustration. I remember wanting to
spend every minute outside in the snow when I was a kid. But I had lots of
friends in my neighborhood. Sawyer doesn’t.
My house was in a development with no traffic on snow days.
And we could pretty much go anywhere or do anything we wanted. My parents’
house sits on a terrific hill, so we didn’t really have to leave our yard. Most
of the neighborhood came to our hill. But we often did go check out other hills
just for something different. There are no great places to sled near our house,
and I don’t feel comfortable just turning Sawyer loose to play.
I enjoy playing in the snow to a point — but never as long
as he does. It’s nice not have get out of your pajamas — but that makes me
crave going out. It was a pleasure to be lax about bedtime and lunchtime and
all times in between — but then I am ready for some routine.
So it was music to my ears to hear “two-hour delay” on the
school district robocall.
I love the snow. But five days at home is my limit.
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