GranolaBox

I think this is the first snow day we’ve had all year.

The first thing you need to know about snow days for teachers is that most of us like them and look forward to them more than the students do. The reason is that not only do we get the day off, but we get paid for it. As grown-ups, we pretty much get to do whatever we want on snow days. Kids usually don’t.

There are some teachers who don’t like them because they have to change their carefully made plans to adjust for the loss of a day. That’s why I don’t do carefully made plans. You never know what’s going to happen.

On snowy mornings like this, I wake up and check the internet first. The local corporate TV and Radio monster has all the school closings on their website so I go there with eager anticipation every morning the weather looks bad. I checked before I went to bed last night, and had a little bit of hope. The weather predicted five below zero and and twenty below with high winds.

We ended up getting that and some more.

I checked at 5:00. Nothing closed anywhere. Crap. So I load some wood in the furnace, brush my teeth and pick out some clothes to wear, then jump in the shower. Now it’s 5:15. A few districts closed….and some of them close to mine. It’s starting to look good, but this has happened before only to end in disappointment.

5:20. I’m dressed. It’s the moment of truth. If I apply product to my hair, god only knows what it will look like if I go back to bed. I’ve already checked the computer again, still only neighboring districts closed. The goo goes in the hair. I decide to start getting my breakfast ready, but a quick check of the closings, even though it’s only been about three minutes since the last time I checked.

Nothing… but wait!…. I don’t have the auto-refresh on! I hit the refresh button as my heart pounds. And… there it is…. CANCELLED. The joyous call came in around 5:30. I was five minutes away from getting in my car.

The really cool thing about it is that the students in the district I live in actually had to go to school today. Usually, I wake up and all the districts around Naples are closed, but mine is nowhere near closed, and I drive my car through all the neighborhoods with sleeping kids in them on my way to work.

Back to bed… and my partially clad wife. The problem is that she’s been up all night working, and I just woke up more rested than I’ve been in weeks. I know that DOUG and Bill will be over to work eventually so sleeping in really isn’t an option.

As if on cue, DOUG is at the door and he’s making a mean breakfast and brewing coffee.

Now, after a couple hours of doing little or nothing, it’s shaping up to be a fine snow day.

Filed under: General Observations, Teaching on February 11th, 2008