Snow Day!

Well, friends and neighbors, the glorious is upon us here in Central Standard. A late night front passed through and the snow just kept on coming until about one pm this afternoon. It's been cold (as I've mentioned), so the snow stuck from flake one. At 5:30 this morning, the news was in: schools were closed! Of course, by then I'd already had coffee and a paper sat on the coffee table, so I read the paper and enjoyed my morning beverage. Ah, luxury!

The Monkey went into work for the morning (damn clients!). We managed to get together for a lunch date and went to the university book store to buy a faculty discount computer. This monstrosity is just getting too long in the tooth to be anything but a pain in the ass. Take a look at it now, because its days are short.

After the purchasing and some other errands, we played with the puppy in the snow for a while. He is particularly fond of chasing clouds of dry snow as they waft through the air (of course, I have to throw them). He also likes the catching of the snowballs, but today's snow was powder dry and icy cold--no good for forming into projectiles. He also enjoyed chewing up some branches that had fallen from our fragile silver maple last night. I tell you, that tree is lucky to have any branches. Its limbs break easier than Chris Chandler's!

I also got some grading done and played some basketball. I have to admit, only an idiot would play basketball when he's fighting a chest cold, but there I was. Idiot!

Monkey packed for her NY trip and left at about 5:30 this evening. She recently phoned to tell me she had arrived in KC (she flies out way early in the AM). The forecast in NYC is not looking good, as the front that just blew through here is making its way out there. Our fingers are crossed that her traveling is uneventful and as little delayed as possible.

In other news, our Christmas cactus is right on schedule, bursting out with pink flowers that should be in full bloom just a week or two before the day for which it is named. It really is an amazing little plant. It survived the summer of neglect while I was in OR (the Osculator may have watered it...I think he did, but I don't remember if I asked him to), and it is really a low maintenance plant--just the kind that I can take care of. I manage to kill most everything else.

Speaking of killing things, Monkey and I did not partake of the "Black Neil Diamond" last night, but we did treat Uncle Joe and Aunt James to sushi as thanks for watching Ripken over the holiday weekend. Uncle Joe was disappointed that Ripken didn't come to dinner with us, but Jenny doesn't like dogs in her restaurant. She says they are "bad for business." Of course, she says it with a furrowed brow and a Japanese accent, so I just nod and say, "Hai." James, as is her general winter time MO, was giddy as a school girl anticipating the snow day. You'd think she just got new runners on her sled or a Red Ryder BB gun, she was so excited.

And so, as snow day comes to a close, I leave you with these parting words, be they wisdom or drivel. I am inspired by James' enthusiasm last night for the potential day off that was in the forecast (which I doubted (for which she grieved me for raining on her snow parade)). A snow day for a teacher is about a hundred times better than a snow day for a kid. Sure, kids go sledding, or play football in the snow, or make snow angels, or bury the dorky kids in snow banks, or fall into frozen creeks and nearly freeze to death from wet feet (not that I ever did that), but as a teacher it is just so much better to sit on the sofa and drink a cup of coffee in the dark of morning and read the paper with the light on. The only things that would have made the morning better is a fire place and if the Monkey had gotten up and shared the time with me. But she likes to sleep and I respect that. Gee, even the dog went back to bed, now that I think about it.