Monday, January 22, 2018

January Blog All About It - WINTER


Blog All About It is a challenge being hosted by Anna@Herding Cats and Burning Soup.  Each month we are given a prompt and have free reign regarding what we chose to blog about pertaining to that prompt.  January's prompt is very fitting for my neck of the woods and is "WINTER."


Winter.  When we are kids, we seem to love it but I will be the first to admit that as an adult, winter is not as much fun.  Bosses do not understand why you don't want to risk your life and come to work and I swear, as an adult, the cold temps are much harder on the body than when I was a child.  When you are young, if your pipes freeze and burst, no big deal - hopefully the parents dealt with it.  And you didn't have to worry about venturing out to get necessities such as dog food and toilet paper.  However, I'd like to focus on another aspect of my childhood winters - snow days!

When I was in school, snow days just weren't as trendy as they seem to be now.  And 2-hour delays - non-existent!  Facebook had yet to be invented and twitter was something a bird did.  When we had snow days, there was real snow (and while I am tempted to insert the old "I walked 2 miles uphill in snow 3 feet deep once to get to school - I won't because technically I didn't - and I doubt you did either).

When I think of snow days, I do have some fond memories though.  My birthday is in January and 3 out of my 4 high school years I was out on a snow day.  Also, I had an inside advantage.  Both my Mom and Dad worked for the local Board of Education.  In fact, my Dad was head of transportation and he was in charge of determining if the roads were too risky.  Now I know he hated dragging himself out to check some of them, but I found it pretty awesome that I knew school was canceled sometimes 8 hours before my classmates work up to find out the old fashioned way - radio and TV.  Now there was also a disadvantage to that.  Once word got out, our phone would ring off the hook with classmates and sometimes even their parents wanting to get an early jump on the news.  I was Miss Popular on those days and I found these calls SUPER annoying.

But snow days were fun.  No, I didn't go out an play, sled, etc. but Mom and Dad usually still had to go to work which meant I had the whole house to myself all day long.  I could play music as loud as I wanted and binge on french fries for breakfast if I chose.  Sometimes I got to miss important tests and had extra study time and sometimes I got to sneak around and find my birthday presents so I could open them before the folks returned home.  After all, it was MY  snow day and MY rules. 

So as an adult, snow days are definitely different.  But a small part of me still finds them new and magical...until I have to walk the dogs, let the water drip so the pipes will still work or even go to work.






35 comments:

  1. "twitter was something a bird did" lol!!! And yes snow days were the BEST!

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    1. I know. They just don't hold the same magic as adults do they?

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  2. Binge on french fries for breakfast, love it. I enjoy snow day's, it is a good excuse to binge read part of a series. I don't enjoy being out and about in it, like I did as a child. Have a great day.

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    1. I know. Snow is definitely something children appreciate more than adults.

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  3. What a cute pup! He looks like he may have been having fun... maybe? I'm from Florida, so I didn't even know what snow days were until I got older. We still live in the south, but with this crazy weather, it seems like everyone is getting some snow! I just take pictures and run back inside!

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  4. Yes... snow days are very few and far between here down on the southern coast of England, but what a lovely article, Barb - thank you so much for sharing:)

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    1. I enjoyed writing this. Glad I joined this challenge this year.

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  5. I am not a fan of cold, snow, or winter. You bring up a great point because I loved the snow as a kid. I remember making snow forts and a whole snowman family. I loved a good snow day. My friends found out that my mom would get up early to listen to the radio to find out if we had school and would call our house in the morning to ask her. My friends had to get up and listen for themselves so calling my mom was a much easier option. I don't want any snow but a good stay at home to do what I want day sounds good :)

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    1. I remember a time when my uncle took me out and built a snowman with me. We both got in trouble with my Grandma because his snowwoman was anatomically correct!

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  6. I loved the snow days when I was young too. But our mom always sent us outside to play. We didn't go back in until we were half frozen. LOL

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    1. I was an only child so my parents knew if they sent me outside, one of them was going to have to go with me.

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  7. Awww snow days do sound like a lot of fun! I only ever had hurricane days, which were kind of a mixed bag lol. And as an adult, if a hurricane gets so close that schools are shutting down, you definitely don't get excited. But ahhh I love the little stories of how much fun you had while home alone XD

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    1. Hurricane days sound like something that would cause me a panic attack - whether it hit or not!

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  8. I grew up in the desert where it barely snows, maybe once every 7 years or so, so I've NEVER had a snow day. But then I've always lived in a place with pretty decent weather year round😊

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    1. There are advantages to that I am sure. Do you ever find yourself wanting to vacation in the snow?

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  9. I used to love snow days. We would spend all day outside building things. I still love snow days when it's bad enough that I can't get into work. But I hibernate now :)

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    1. Hibernation is a great hobby - we should make it part of the Winter Olympics.

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  10. The news reports about which schools were going be closed were useless over here-the announcement would come at 8.30 or later and we started class at 8.50 which didn't give you much time if they were open! I'd arrive sometimes to a closed sign!

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    1. That sucks. Why bother if you were already on the way there.

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  11. We never had snow days being in Florida and all. lol There was snow once growing up but it was over Christmas. Ahhh!

    I'm with ya on the cold being harder on a body. I moved to NC almost 20 years ago now and it wasn't quite so bad back then. lol

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    1. Yes, I saw pics of your recent snow and it was very pretty.

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  12. I decided not to do this TTT because... I'd have to add ALL my books LOL with my Dory brain I don;t remember ANY book I read more than a week ago ;)

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  13. My favorite snow day happened in college. It was a Friday morning and people were running up and down the halls banging on doors screaming that classes had been canceled. The University hardly ever cancels classes! It was the best feeling ever to just lay back down and sleep until noon.

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    1. I don't recall snow days when I was in college but I'm sure we had them. Hmmmmmm....

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  14. oh I found my missing comment! LOL! How on earth did I do that! Barb feel free to delete that comment. As you already figured it out it belongs to the other post :) well... Dory brain is the only excuse I have :) . I have bittersweet feelings about winter too. I agree with you Barb! How can't bosses understand it is risky to drive in a storm??? and YES! My body is not taking the cold temp too well! It never did, not even when I was a child. But everything looks so fresh and crispy and it is so inspiring! :) Great post!

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    1. I bet you are really used to snow up where you live!

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  15. Great post! Snow days were so much fun when I was young and even here in Missouri I remember going to school when there was a lot more snow on the ground than there is now days. :)

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  16. So true. My perspective now and when I was a child a drastically different.

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  17. Ha! I never thought to do that. I've worked in the school system for 20 years and know who goes out to check the roads, but it never occurred to me to call and nag them about it. We get the word by 5 am anyway so why lose slieep?
    And yes, this means as an adult, I anticipated snow days as much as the kids. We also get temperature days when its determined that its too cold for the kids to stand out at the bus stops which actually is what we get more than snow days these last few years.

    But, yes, I do notice the weather and temps and all the winter prep work now that I didn't as a kid.

    Great post! :)

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  18. There is no part of the year where I wish I worked from home more than I do in Winter and snow days are just one of the very many reasons...

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  19. I grew up in NY where we had some snow days and delayed openings when the roads were legitimately unsafe. Now I live outside of Washington, DC and they seem to delay if there is so much as a flurry! It drives me crazy! But I do have fond memories of that feeling of finding out that school was closed and knowing I had the whole day free. My kids are homeschooled so I guess they will miss out on that!

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  20. It does seem that snow is enjoyed far more by the young, doesn't it?
    That's cool that your dad was in charge of such a big decision.

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  21. Thank you for sharing your memories with us! My daughter loves the idea of snow and is very sad we don't live somewhere where it snows. Her only experience with snow so far is the fake stuff, I'm afraid. Someday she'll get to experience it in all its freezing cold splendor. It's beautiful in the pictures, but I'm sure glad I don't have to shovel it, drive in it, or walk in it, or feel it. Haha. I am not a cold person. There is something magical about it though, I agree . . .

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