To Clarify...

It wasn't all that long ago that I was rhapsodizing about the joy that is a Snow Day.  Teaching is full of all sorts of nifty perks like daily opportunities to learn about how mean and uncool you are or all the water you can drink from the fountain in the hall.  Pretty sweet...if you don't think about how many kids have had their germy little lips on that water supply, anyway.

But the Snow Days are better than all those fine benefits combined.  There is really nothing like getting up, watching the news, then going back to bed.

However...

I may have overstated my love of the Snow Day.  Getting one every so often is quite a delight.  Getting one before Christmas rolls around is actually kind of helpful.  Getting one after weeks and weeks of endless toil is sheer bliss.  But this does not mean that we want them all the time.  Well...I kind of do want them all the time.  However, I think that this is the definition of "unemployed" and I'm not really ready for that right now.  There are one or two rather nasty bills coming up and all.  And then there is the part where we have to make up the snow days.  You don't just get them for free.  They come with strings, most notably an extra day in June when the humidity is high and the kids hate you more than spinach and educational television combined.

To recap:  Snow Days=Good.  Too Many Snow Days=Bad.  Are we all on the same page?

I am rather nonplussed by the weather reports of late.  It seems that, having decided to drop the white stuff early this year, Mother Nature is feeling the love for the whole process.  There is a great deal more of it, along with a little of the ice and whatnot, scheduled for our morning commutes in the next few days.  Now, the reports have adjusted themselves a bit and it is not looking quite so challenging for tomorrow's slide into work as I'd feared, but the long range forecasts keep telling me that there will be more snow for me to play in soon.  

This poses several problems, not the least of which being that I do not play in the snow.  I do not care for the snow unless it gives me a Snow Day and, as I have already mentioned, we can't be having too many of those or there are consequences.  

It's a conundrum.  

My Cheerful Teaching Assistant (who did not have to go to her other job tonight as the weather conditions were looking bad for driving and who gave "cheerful" a new definition as a result) was chatting with me this afternoon about this 'n that as colleagues are wont to do.  I queried as to how her first knitting project was coming along.  She beamed proudly and spoke of the progress she'd made last night after getting home from work.  I do love having a knitter in the room.  I'd forgotten just how much I like to talk about the knitting.  But, she is new at it and I wasn't really sure if we were truly on the same page.  I decided to put a little test out there.  I said:

Boy, a snow day sure would come in handy...

She brightened.  Her eyes lit up.  She began to chatter eagerly about how much she could get done on a snowy winter's day when the schools were closed and the hours were her own.

She's got it.  She's really, really got it.  She used to go outside and do things like snowshoe or ski.  I like to think we've put a stop to all that.  I cannot help but feel a little twinge of pride.

Now I'll have to teach her about silk and cotton.  I think we are going to have quite a few Snow Days to make up come the end of the school year.  It fear that we will be knitting together right up until The Fourth Of July and wool isn't going to be quite as comforting at that point.

SA