Snow Days

I officially hate snow days. I used to look forward to them when I was a kid, but that was back in the day when schools didn't have to make them up. We have to make up any days that we miss in our school system, but fortunately we have three days built into our calendar in the spring to use as makeup days. If we don't need to use them, we have those days off. Those are days off without pay, by the way. I'm not saying that to try to get sympathy where none is deserved, it's just that I always feel the need to correct public perception that teachers have all these days off and still get paid for them. The snow makeup days are typically Fridays and Mondays and this year, they are April 2, May 7, and May 17. They make for nice three-day weekends when the weather is warm, but I was really looking forward to having April 2 off so that we could extend our spring break by a day. I was thinking last year when I was lying on the beach in Gulf Shores how much I would have liked that extra day in the Alabama sun rather than having an unscheduled day off in the middle of a snowstorm.

This morning, school was called off, but not before Magi was already showered and dressed and I was in the bathroom getting ready to shower. It's always remarkable to me that the decision to close school is made so late. Were road conditions significantly better 30 minutes before it was called off?

It's also amusing to watch the game unfold on the bottom of the screen on the morning news. Little schools in the area close all the time but the Big Three, as we call them, check to see who will blink first. Elkhart, Penn, and South Bend are the major school systems in the television viewing area, with thousands and thousands of students each. And each morning following a snowstorm, we watch to see who's going to call it off. This morning, Elkhart went first. After we went back to bed, we watched for a while, and our local school system (Penn) called off at 6:45. I did not envy those poor teachers. We would have already been dropping Sera off at daycare by that time!

So, I guess we'll make the best of it. Magi and Sera are going to bake a King Cake today to celebrate Mardi Gras. I'll shovel the driveway (again) and maybe do some drawing. I haven't had the chance to do that in a while!