White Material

Another Snow Day here. Again short of the blizzard standard, but pretty much a steady downpour of the white material all day, beginning long before dawn and lasting, in a small way, until after dusk. Room Mother Olivia dutifully call at about 6:15 am and said that Lilly's elementary school would be shut for the day, and I was the only one who heard it -- I heard as she recorded the message, since I'm not going to get out of bed at that time for a mere phone call.

No one else heard it. (How can they sleep through a ringing phone?) A little later I got up and turned off Lilly's alarm clock. She woke at about 8, alarmed by not hearing the alarm. Even at that moment, there would be enough time for her to slap herself together and make it to school without being late. But I didn't want to be cruel enough to let her get ready for school in a hurry and then tell her about the school closing as she headed for the door. So I told her right away, and then she did the rational thing. She went back to bed for a few more minutes.

As the snow tapered off to a -- snow drizzle? -- we need a term for the snow equivalent of a drizzle, since "light snow" isn't quite the same, just as "light rain" isn't a drizzle, and "flurry" is too happy a word to compare with "drizzle" -- I spent an hour or so courting certain death shoveling the driveway. Well, maybe the risk is a little exaggerated. I survived. Perhaps it's because when I got tired, I either stood around leaning against the shovel, or went inside, so that hour wasn't without pause. There wasn't much wind, so the time I spent leaning against the shovel was actually enjoyable, giving me a chance to look at the snow-capped bushes and trees and roofs and listen, when no snowblowers active, to the relative quiet.