The Snow We've All Been Waiting For

It snowed with a vengeance, last night and today - as if with a literal vengeance, a kind of "pay-back" for the outlandishly mild winter that we had from December through to Leap Day itself - probably the mildest winter of my entire life. When I woke up, the trees were bent with snow on all the branches, the toys and deck furniture outside had what looked like ten inches of snow piled up, and there was a big job waiting for me in the driveway. I knew Daniel's reprieve had finally arrived.

In fact, in the elevator on the way home last night, with the snow already falling in the parking lot, I told a couple of people from work that I knew one six-year-old boy who would be very happy. They readily believed me.

So as I was shoveling the driveway, Young Master Frost himself materialized, completely swept up in the joy of the occasion, swaddled in all kinds of coat/mitten/hat coverings, including his trademark one-eyed monster knit hat. As I attempted to shovel, he threw snowballs at me, and gloated cheerfully as each of my own snowballs inexplicably missed their target. He hopped on the shovel itself, and demanded a shovel-ride up and down the driveway, as I sang Jingle Bells. He inducted my help in building a snowman, with some very precise specifications. Of course, he wanted me to take the day off; I explained that I'm taking tomorrow off as a personal day (coinciding with the boys' February vacation), but I can't just abruptly take off a day without notice.

Daniel was quite happy to learn that I'm taking tomorrow off. He did the math of it, and calculated that I would be off on Friday, Saturday and Sunday - hence three days of vacation and together-time in a row, and this made him even happier. But then he asked the critical question: "But will the snow last long enough?"

In other words, it's all well and good that I'm taking this time off, but it's very important that the time be spent in the snow. If the snow were to go away, I suspect that the whole vacation might seem like something of a waste.:

(March 1, 2012)