snow day

my alarm went off at 5:15 this morning. i hit the snooze button, setting the second alarm to go off at 5:30. sarah's alarm woke me up at 5:28. to my happiness, it wasn't her alarm, but a phone call to let her know school was cancelled. this event not only keeps the girls at home, but allows sarah to stay in the warm confines of our house as well. not wanting to shovel 3-4 inches of snow at 5:30 in the morning, i decided to call off work today too.

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looking out your window at that much snow develops 'big fish' stories in your head. calling everyone you know on the phone, the typical "yeah... dude... we got like 12 inches of snow or something" comes out. once you grab the yard stick, however, you start thinking even 6 inches is over-exaggerating. but after plunging the meter stick into the snow on our back steps, the official read was approximately 9 inches. after all was said and done, it was probably near 9.5-10.
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living on the corner we do, the city doesn't plow our streets for a day or two after the snow flies... at best. last snow fall took them at least a week to find pavement. basically, if i shovel my driveway, i have a wall of snow 10 inches high keeping me in my driveway.

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the day has been good so far, though we're just shy of dinner at this point. i spent most of the morning reading epicenter at the dining room table with a cup of coffee, occasionally glancing out my picture window to bask in the beauty. after lunch, i moved my activity to the other side of the window with sarah and the girls in tow.

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sarah drug the sled down to the end of the street, and the four of us took a few trips down a hill on the neighboring golf course. it wasn't a huge hill, but it beats our 50-inch mountain out behind the house.

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now i have to pause for a moment to gladly apologize to the city of norton... a snow plow just drove by, plow to the pavement and salt spitting out the back. yay!

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so after sledding, we let the girls play a bit longer while we shoveled out the end of our driveway. we didn't shovel the whole thing as a friend of ours volunteered to trailer over his snow blower so we didn't have to take 2.5-3 hours to shovel everything. but we wanted to at least give him room to pull in. thanks steve!!
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after the cold was a warm cup of hot cocoa next to a fire.

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though not over yet, only a cataclysm could make me categorize my snow day any different than 'great'. thank you, God, for the beautiful snow and for allowing us all to stay home and enjoy a much needed break from real life. with this monster storm pounding most of the northeastern u.s., i can only hope thousands of others were able to enjoy half the day i did.

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hoping you had a safe and enjoyable snow day - ben

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