Snow Day

Many Wasatch Front school districts as well as diocesan schools called a “snow day” yesterday.  Snow days are rare in Utah.  The last time I remember a snow day being declared, I was in elementary school at Cosgriff!  My mom was driving the carpool that morning, and we arrived (after a very harrowing drive) to find teachers outside the building with signs reading, “No power, no heat, no school!”  Going further back, in 1993 we had a snow day that dumped enough snow to be over my 13-year-old brother’s head.  We stayed home and made a home video for my grandmother’s 80^th birthday that day.

Snow days can bring out the best in people or they can bring out the worst.  Some take childlike delight in the activities that a large snowfall affords.  One of the boys in my neighborhood took the opportunity to test out his go-kart (even though he doesn’t have snow tires).  Others gripe about how much there is to clean up.  Shoveling can be very difficult work, and snow blowing can be almost as difficult if there is a ton of snow.  Of course, snow days can cause headaches for parents who still have to go to work, leaving them scrambling to find childcare for their kids who won’t be at school that day.

With the big gap between snow days, we may have lost our wonder at the power of God and nature to produce such a marvelous thing as a foot or more of snow overnight (in some locations).  It is an awesome thing, in the truest sense of the word.  Just take a look at the piles of plowed snow the next time you visit the parish!

How did you spend yesterday’s snow day?  What was your attitude about it?