Snow Day

School was canceled pretty early the night before, which meant lots of extra sleeping, sort of. Dogs still wanted to go out at "normal" time, which meant walking them instead of turning them loose in the backyard, since I wanted to keep it pristine for daughter and niece and nephew, for playing. About 4 inches of snow, still cloudy, with that ethereal light that seems to come from all directions when it is snowing. Even as a child I was mystified to why it seemed lighter outside during a snowstorm than when it was clear. Plus, I could stand under a streetlight for what seemed like hours, just marveling at the flakes drifting through the beam of light.

I wish I could say I did great wonderful relaxing things, but I really didn't. Worked on learning my new smartboard software - learned how to do at least one thing I wanted. Discovered that NetFlix has Season 4 of "The IT Crowd" (seriously, you need to watch this show, 6 episodes to a season, about a small computer support team in a large corporate company), played some Kirby's Epic Yarn on the Wii to entertain the aforementioned children.

Didn't go outside at all apart from walking the dogs. When I was young (and lived north, so when school was canceled the snow was SERIOUS - plus we had friends and hills within walking distance) it seemed all the neighborhood kids would bundle up (plastic bread bags on feet over heavy socks for waterproofing - gloves under mittens, or double mittens) and forge a trail through the at-least knee-deep snow, either for the hills behind the house (Big and Little Pigeon Hills, respectively), or really venture out to Great Hill. Little Pigeon Hill was a bump with some clear spots on a couple of faces, rocky at the top. Closer by a few hundred yards than Big Pigeon Hill, which was a broad, treeless expanse with a field at the bottom. Excellent sledding, usually. And for the thrill seekers, the back side of the hill was a sand/gravel pit. Yes, we were forbidden from going there, but usually some idiot with a snowmobile would pack down a trail and we would consider that "safe" - although the denser snow made for a hellishly fast ride, and climbing back up was always problematical. Great Hill was a good distance away, behind the school, through wooded trails, and up a large tree-lined path. The only way to sled there was after the snowmobiles had come through and created a sort of luge track - otherwise the twists and turns would be impossible to navigate. In later years, development of low-income housing made the trip there less adventuresome with the advent of paved paths and such. Pigeon Hill is no more - the sand and gravel excavation finally consumed it, and it is a subdivision.

After all the sledding we could take, weighted down with pounds of caked and frozen snow all over our half-frozen bodies, we would trek back to one house or another to huddle under blankets, drink hot chocolate and play board games. I lived in the center of about six houses on the street with kids in my grade so there were plenty of options. I don't ever recall, though, having kids to my house. It was smaller by far than the old farmhouses on each side and across the street, and had no large rooms to gather a bunch of kids.

Now it is the day after, but still my school system is closed. Daughter's school has delayed opening until 10am (but she insists she isn't going). I have phoned the pre-diabetes study to see if they can accommodate me sometime today for testing my blood sugar (so I won't have to take a day off) but have heard nothing - which kind of sucks since I have a splitting headache, but in case I have the test I have to have fasted and refrained from medications (like headache remedies). Grr.