Snow Day!

by Julia Phillips Smith

If you live in Canada, or in one of the northern United States, snow days are one of those gifts that seldom happens. 

It requires several pieces to fit into place:

- an accurate forecast of an incoming blizzard (since blizzards can still manage to sneak up on us)

- a workplace with the safety of its employees at the top of its priority list (a challenging call when employees live at different distances and take different forms of transportation)

- individual storm-readiness in the home (a snow day can turn into hardship if you lose power and don't have supplies to ride it out)

However, if all of those pieces fall into place, what do you get?

An entirely unscheduled day in which to do whatever you want.

We had a snow day here yesterday on Canada's east coast, and I made the most of it. Some of it was simply watching the storm from the coziness of our home, feeling grateful for that as I watched the blizzard pick up strength throughout the day.

I fed my creative well by watching ballet -- a lot of it.

I got more rest, which feels so much better on a snow day for some reason. 

Today the roads are plowed, the buses are running and it's back to the day job. I have spent many storm days trudging home from the bus terminal closest to my house after being let go from the day job early, when the buses can no longer safely operate and can't make it down my street -- a 30-minute walk under normal circumstances, but an hour of exhausting effort during a heavy snowfall. Not every winter storm announces itself with enough warning, so I'm grateful that yesterday's blizzard came with a calling card.

~~~

Do you live in an area where business shuts down because of weather? Do you get storm days? What do you do with them?

Photo by Helen Tansey

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