Snowed in. (!)

One thing’s for sure: I love a snow day. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to work in an industry that doesn’t observe them.

School was out last Friday in anticipation of a storm that was forecast to rival the one that pummeled us this time last year. I wasn’t too keen on reliving the power outages, my broken windshield or any other ice storm goodies, so we fled north to Fayetteville to wait it out with my in-laws. They have a gas space heater.  And cable TV.

We left my mother at home. She was equipped with coveralls and a contingency plan to walk the 8 miles to my dad’s house if the roads iced over and the power lines failed. His potbellied stove doesn’t need electricity.

Luckily, we just ended up with a long, white weekend. Six inches of snow is a lot for our neck of the woods (it took three days for the highway to be plowed). It was the most snow Jack had ever seen, and he was excited until he learned that the slides were impassable.

I love the snow.  I like that it gives everything a coat of white (I’d do the same if I had tons of time and no-VOC paint). I like that if you throw wind in the mix, the air sparkles. I like that the contrast makes me feel like I can see forever, makes the landscape look like a folk art painting, makes  me think I could count every tree.

When Jack is older, and the slide isn’t the only thing at the end of his tunnel vision, I imagine he’ll like to crawl through the tunnels the bamboo makes when it’s heavy with snow.

In Arkansas, snow is always short-lived, so three days of this was not too many.