Snow Day

Yesterday before we left school, all the talk was of the incoming winter storm.  Preparations were made in case we needed to start school late.  Phone chains were checked.  Reminders were given to keep everything in the building safe.

I have to admit I didn't really expect any snow.  Every year, snow is predicted, and every year, the hearts of local children are crushed when we get four flakes or none at all.  Their bright little eyes glimmer with the thoughts of waist-high drifts which prevent the school buses from running, but the reality of living this far South is that if we get enough to cover the ground fully, we've had a heck of a storm.

I woke up about 4:30 as usual, my never-ending fear of oversleeping my alarm kicking in, and I wondered if it were snowing, but not enough to get up from my warm cocoon, dislodge cats, and go see.  Thirty minutes later, the alarm sounded, and I dragged myself out of bed and started the wait for notification.

District told us they'd notify us by 5:30 if we were going to try a late-start day.  At about 5:15, my phone started chiming.  The person above me on my phone tree, a person in my department I depend upon to get news, the actual email and call from the CO all told me I could go back to bed.  Late start was a reality.  I rolled over with great happiness.

About thirty minutes later, everything went off again.  School was officially called off for today.  Snow day protocol was in place.  I got up, looked out the window, and even in the dim light, I could see white everywhere.  Against all probability, we had snow.  I have to admit, I was glad to have been wrong.

I slept late, got up, took the dogs out, and got wet from the thick clumpy snow still falling.  Roux went out and came in quickly.  Chewie absolutely frolicked.  He loved the snow.  He ran in huge circles, kicking up mud and snow everywhere.  He dove face-first into the tiny drifts.  I laughed and laughed, and I realized as I did it that it was the first time I had really laughed in days.

I took some pictures, came in to get what I needed to fill all the birdfeeders.  When I went back out carrying the twenty-pound sack of birdseed, Roux slipped out with me, and she and Chewie took off before I could navigate the slick steps and get her collar.  Memories of the last time she ran off played back almost immediately.  Those 22 hours where I was waiting for Chewie and her to come home were some of the longest of my life.

I waited for several hours to see if they'd come back on their own before I grabbed leashes, bundled myself into forty layers and a purple hat, and headed after them.  I walked through the woods road to the far pasture calling their names.  I'm sure if the hunters who hang out across the road were there today, they got very tired of it.  As a teacher, I can be exceptionally loud when I need to be.  I made it all the way to the line of trees at the edge of that pasture and still, no dogs.

I stood and I called over and over, and just when I was thinking that I would have to give up and just go home, I saw a flicker of movement in the trees and heard the distant and longed-for jingling of collar tags.  Roux appeared and disappeared behind the trunks of the pines.  Then Chewie burst out of the woods in a blur of dirty wet white.  I captured him and put him on the leash, and we chased Roux down, leashed her, and we all went home.

I took the time to make breakfast, fought my ridiculous, useless coffee pot and managed to eke out a cup with it, got on Amazon and bought a new coffee pot so I can have the exquisite pleasure of destroying the one I have with a hammer, did some online research and browsing, and was as useless as possible.  I decided to watch Friends, and it has turned into a marathon.  It's been fabulous.

Roux has been sleeping all afternoon.  Chewie is mostly wiped out, too.  As I look at them, all I can think of is how grateful I am that they came when called.  If the weather hadn't been as nasty as it was, I'm not sure if that would have been the case.  Maybe we all got a chance to do some things today we don't normally do, and we all got it out of our various systems.  Tomorrow will be a return to what passes for normality around here.  I guess all good things, even the unexpected ones, must come to an end.