Thursday, January 31, 2008

Hoping for a snow day.

When I was a kid, I missed exactly ZERO days of school due to inclement weather. Not that we didn’t have snowstorms, we just didn’t get the day off to deal with them. My parents, being from Northern Ontario, didn’t see a little snow and wind as any reason to keep us home from school if the school board didn’t see the need. So, even on the worst days, I would grab my best friend and force her to walk the 2 km (through a corn field!) to a school that had MAYBE 30 kids there. Our school board often cancelled buses, but never closed the schools.

During university, we had one day where school was cancelled. That was due to an ice storm, which made driving impossible. The bummer was that the ice-encrusted power lines also made the power go out for two days, which was really cold and unpleasant.

During my first few years of full-time work in Toronto, we had lots of snowstorms, but I don’t recall even one snow day. Not one.

THEN, I moved to my current job (not in Toronto) and it’s been a snow day paradise. If I don’t get at least 2 snow days a year, I feel completely ripped off. A couple of things happened to bring me this glorious state:

1. (this is sad) A teacher from a neighbouring school board was killed in a car crash when trying to get into work on a day when buses were cancelled but the schools were open; most of the school boards then took a no buses=no school policy.

2. The university where I work had an interim VP Administration who “had better things to do” than make decisions about snow days, so he decided that if the school board closed, so did we. So, now we all benefited from the more lenient school board policy.

We haven’t had a snow day yet (the last snowstorm happened on a Sunday), but they’re calling for a whopper of a storm to hit in the early morning hours tomorrow, just in time to make a big mess for rush hour. Folks around here are taking bets on when/if the snow day will be called. I’ll be watching the Weather Channel obsessively, hoping that the storm doesn’t fall flat.

I think the only thing better than a snow day on a Monday is a snow day on a Friday. Of course, there was that year when we had three snow days in a row. That, was awesome.

19 comments:

Tess said...

Oh, you were TOTALLY HOSED on snow days as a kid! Even in Minnesota, we had tons. Of course, we built them into the school schedule, but even then we sometimes had to go a week or more into the summer to make it up. But my school district was made up of a ton of tiny towns and so some kids had to travel for 30 miles or more on country roads to get to school.

artemisia said...

I never had any snow days until college, either! I always felt like I'd be ripped off.

When I moved to DC I was so excited about the snow days that got called over two inches of snow. Wusses! Seriously, folks get all sorts of hysterical out there. (It always made me feel smug. I am a jerk, I know!) But I loved having two or three extra days off from work every winter.

Saly said...

We had tons here in Buffalo! I'm looking forward to when the kids start school. As long as they are of school age, and the schools are closed, they can come to work with me. Right now, if daycare closes I am SCREWED.

We're supposed to get the same storm tomorrow morning. YIKES.

Family Adventure said...

I make my own snow days...and then we go skiing. Everyone's happy!

I'll be hoping for a snow day for you tomorrow. A Friday snow day would rock for sure :)

Heidi

LoriD said...

Saly- that's a BS policy, isn't it? Are you then able to take it as a sick day? If not, what the eff are you supposed to do with your kids?

Chantal said...

I hate the fact that the schools cancel buses but keep the schools open it drives me nutts (they still do that in our board, in the city anyhow). The province is to blame. If the school closes for a snow day they lose a day of funding. Our boards are so stretched already. Ugh

bananafana said...

I too am praying for a snow day tomorrow. We're supposed to get up to 10 inches and it's got a pretty good start going now. I've already started picking out brownies to bake and craft projects to do. I'm going to be so disappointed in the morning I'm sure . . .
Good luck!

LoriD said...

bananafana - that's exactly how I like to spend my snow days too... and also playing in the snow!

Anonymous said...

Yay for you, Lori! Snow days from work, wow! When I was in a corp. job, the company would be PISSED and DOCK YOUR PAY if you didn't make absolutely every effort to get into work. I.E., you couldn't phone and say, "I'm not going to risk it today". NO. You had to risk it and be a hero and too bad if you couldn't dig out your car from the parking lot to get home at 5pm. A-holes!

I never had a snow day as a kid, either, and neither have my kids. Our city board never closes schools and rarely shuts down busing, either. They're afraid parents won't listen to the news and will just drop Junior off at the bus stop as usual and head out to work. Sooo...because the schools are "public buildings" they will always be open. Fine by me, I can see my kids' school from the kitchen window so it's no biggie to get there.

I have heard tales of schools closing and/or buses being cancelled in rural areas, though out here it happens more for the cold (-35 on Monday, brrr) than for snow.

email said...

Growing up in Charleston, SC, I never really got a snow day either, and now I feel TOTALLY ripped off. We also never got any snow. Also a rip off. We did, however, get hurricane days, so there ya go. :)

Actually, we got snow about once every 10 years. It didn't have to be much at all for the entire town to completely shut down. There were no snow plows or those trucks that spread salt or any kind of stuff that deals with snow, so even a little snow made driving hazardous. Though it was fun slowly sliding and spinning through intersections, hoping not to hit the other cars that were also slowly sliding and spinning through -- sort of like car ballet.

Don Mills Diva said...

Oh I can't believe you didn't get snow days as a kid - they were the BEST. I think tomorrow might be a snow day at our office and I'm pretty excited.

Pickles and Dimes said...

Our school was always the last to cancel classes; my brother and I would watch the TV crawl obsessively and every other damn school would be on there but ours. And if they did do anything, it was usually that damn "2 hours late" bull.

One time they cancelled the buses but not school, and I missed out on my perfect attendance award because the country roads were too bad for my mom to drive me in. Bastards. I AM STILL BITTER.

In college, there was a giant storm and it was bitterly cold out yet they didn't cancel classes. I went to class and 5 people out of 50 were there. The teacher walked in, saw us, and handed us all $5, saying, "This is crap. Go get yourselves some hot chocolate."

Banana said...

I love me a good snow day. In Seattle, because snow is so rare and there are nothing but hills everywhere, the entire city shuts down after about 3-5 inches of snow. It's awesome.

Banana said...

I love me a good snow day. In Seattle, because snow is so rare and there are nothing but hills everywhere, the entire city shuts down after about 3-5 inches of snow. It's awesome.

Sarah said...

Wow, here in middle America, snow is still a big deal, even though we get it every year. We always had about five snow days per year. Spoiled, I know. People around here panic about it, rushing to the grocery store in hoards if they hear there's going to be a few inches. We're babies.

Jess said...

It's sad that policies like no buses=no school are always reactive, after the bad thing has already happened. Still, I'm glad it had a positive outcome to the rest of you.

Misty said...

I grew up with not snow days, but hurricane days...or weeks or whatever. The neat thing about that is that we always left town for an impromptu vacation with Elvis.

Snow days sound a bit better. No worrying about whether your house will be there when you get back and all. ;)

shay said...

The Vancouver area has a crazy amount of snow days. It's funny for me, having moved here from Calgary, but they are crazy scared of the stuff. I'm crazy scared of the other drivers (now that we've lived here over a year) so maybe they have a point.

Hope you get your snow day. Looks like we might be in for another one!

Laura said...

I had a snow day today! And I want another one tomorrow! And it just might happen! As a student teacher.... snow days are fantastic :P What a horrible attitude.... I know... :P I'll use the day to plan I promise!!