And we DID get snow. But probably only about six inches of it. Hardly worthy of a reference to the end of times, I think.
In addition to the snow, though, we got sub-zero temperatures and wind gusts up to 50 mph--which, I think, was significantly worse than the snow itself. In preparation for the weather, we moved a bunch of stuff from out of the yard and put it under our back porch--cushions and toys and other what-nots and such-likes. Because of the wind, though, we would have been better off leaving the stuff in the middle of our back patio.
Under our back porch. Clearly, if we ever had an ACTUAL Snowmageddon with the kinds of winds we had yesterday, we would be unable to get out of our back door. The wind just whipped the snow around the back of our house and straight into the porch area, which was shielded from the wind, and dumped it all over our stuff. You can't see the door from here, but several times during the day we had to empty out the area between our screen door and the back door--snow kept blowing in the screen and piling up to six or seven inches in there.
Our back patio. See the bald spot there? That's where we should have stored everything, apparently. The big pile of snow there is what accumulated as we shoveled off the concrete immediately outside our back door throughout the day. Had we not kept up on it, it's very likely that we wouldn't have been able to open our back door.Anyway, because of the weather, school was canceled yesterday--and again today, in fact, mostly because the wind chills were around -25 this morning. Which meant Gabe had his SECOND snow day of the year! Pretty special considering he only goes to school two days a week and our district is notorious for NOT canceling school no matter how bad the weather is.
I remember snow days. They were awesome. An unexpected day off in the middle of the week that didn't require making fake throwing up noises while dumping a glass of water into a toilet in order to stay home sick (as I'm sure I've mentioned before, I faked sick A LOT throughout my school career, so having a day off wasn't such a big deal, but having a day off that I didn't run the risk of getting in trouble for faking sick was pretty fantastic as it meant I could run around the house and do whatever I wanted instead of having to stay in bed reading comic books).
The glory of the snow day continued on into adulthood for me, too, as I began to teach shortly after I finished grad school. Not only did it mean that I didn't have to teach that day, but I was effectively being PAID to not teach that day! Even better than just getting to run around the house!
But, now that I am not a student, nor am I teaching, snow days have lost some of their luster. Don't get me wrong. I still like getting enough snow or ice or other winter weather to strand us in our house. Being a bit of a homebody, I always appreciate when the weather FORCES me to stay inside because it means I don't have to feel guilty about not going out. And not feeling guilty about one's own shortcomings/flaws is a pretty fantastic feeling--possibly akin to not having to go to school.
Still, there's just a little bit of something missing. Maybe it's just having the kids and knowing that we're stuck in the house with them for a day or two without the OPTION of being able to get out somewhere. Or perhaps I'm just getting older and jaded and the simple pleasures aren't enough for me anymore. Either way, we spent very little of yesterday just enjoying our time stuck in the house, and that's a shame.
The weirdest thing about this weather pattern (well, it SHOULD be weird, but since this is Kansas we're talking about, this is actually pretty normal and happens a couple times every winter) was the weather that bookended (or will bookend, I suppose) it. Last weekend, it was nearly 70 degrees. We had some friends over who generously helped us cut down a couple of our nasty elm trees (and Libby got a little video of Gabe not riding his motorcycle that I'll put at the end here). Then sub-zero temperatures and a subpar Snowpocalypse. And by this weekend it's supposed to be in the upper 50s again. Basically, within about forty-eight hours, our temperature varied by more than 70 degrees (not counting the wind chill). That shouldn't be normal. And, being a winter person, it doesn't seem fair. We don't have that kind of range in temperatures during the summer. It's not 105 one day and then 40 the next. Why should we have to suffer through seemingly eternal heat during the summer but not get eternal cold during the winter? Our weather is dumb.
Anyway, here's the video of Gabe. It's not really relevant to anything, but his description of what's wrong with his motorcycle at the beginning is pretty amusing.
I remember snow days. They were awesome. An unexpected day off in the middle of the week that didn't require making fake throwing up noises while dumping a glass of water into a toilet in order to stay home sick (as I'm sure I've mentioned before, I faked sick A LOT throughout my school career, so having a day off wasn't such a big deal, but having a day off that I didn't run the risk of getting in trouble for faking sick was pretty fantastic as it meant I could run around the house and do whatever I wanted instead of having to stay in bed reading comic books).
The glory of the snow day continued on into adulthood for me, too, as I began to teach shortly after I finished grad school. Not only did it mean that I didn't have to teach that day, but I was effectively being PAID to not teach that day! Even better than just getting to run around the house!
But, now that I am not a student, nor am I teaching, snow days have lost some of their luster. Don't get me wrong. I still like getting enough snow or ice or other winter weather to strand us in our house. Being a bit of a homebody, I always appreciate when the weather FORCES me to stay inside because it means I don't have to feel guilty about not going out. And not feeling guilty about one's own shortcomings/flaws is a pretty fantastic feeling--possibly akin to not having to go to school.
Still, there's just a little bit of something missing. Maybe it's just having the kids and knowing that we're stuck in the house with them for a day or two without the OPTION of being able to get out somewhere. Or perhaps I'm just getting older and jaded and the simple pleasures aren't enough for me anymore. Either way, we spent very little of yesterday just enjoying our time stuck in the house, and that's a shame.
The weirdest thing about this weather pattern (well, it SHOULD be weird, but since this is Kansas we're talking about, this is actually pretty normal and happens a couple times every winter) was the weather that bookended (or will bookend, I suppose) it. Last weekend, it was nearly 70 degrees. We had some friends over who generously helped us cut down a couple of our nasty elm trees (and Libby got a little video of Gabe not riding his motorcycle that I'll put at the end here). Then sub-zero temperatures and a subpar Snowpocalypse. And by this weekend it's supposed to be in the upper 50s again. Basically, within about forty-eight hours, our temperature varied by more than 70 degrees (not counting the wind chill). That shouldn't be normal. And, being a winter person, it doesn't seem fair. We don't have that kind of range in temperatures during the summer. It's not 105 one day and then 40 the next. Why should we have to suffer through seemingly eternal heat during the summer but not get eternal cold during the winter? Our weather is dumb.
Anyway, here's the video of Gabe. It's not really relevant to anything, but his description of what's wrong with his motorcycle at the beginning is pretty amusing.
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