08 November 2017

Snow Days Coming

Do you ever have random flashbacks to memories?

I've been watching the weather reports in dread of the first snowfall, especially since I'm the one making the two-hour or so drive to competition this weekend. I really, seriously would usually rather stay home than do ANYTHING if the roads are snowy. But I would also never disappoint my daughter like that. So I'm in, but a little nervous. Luckily the weather for here and there shows pretty clear this weekend. Cloudy, and close to freezing (34 degrees!) but dry so far. I'll stay optimistic.

Anyway. While I've been sitting here, I actually remembered a snow day when I ended up enjoying myself! Fortunately, my husband loves snow days nearly as much as I hate them....

This picture has literally nothing to do with my story. LOL
The kids and I had a snow day from school a couple years ago (okay, the kids had the snow day, but if they don't have to go anywhere, neither do I). We had nothing scheduled, except picking up our family annual passes to the new Sea Life Aquarium at the mall less than 10 miles away. Originally we would have met hubby there (everyone had to get a photo ID card) since it was right after his work day.

You know what I said, "Snow day. Staying put. Reschedule and we'll do it on a nice (read: DRY) day." But hubby was already out, and happy to be in all. that. snow. He offered to come back and get us - we'd make a family night of it.

Besides my hatred of snow, I also consistently have a dislike of cooking. It's complicated, but my family and I don't usually have the same tastes. When he said we could go to this close place, and get dinner out? I was eventually persuaded.

I still remember walking into the nearly deserted mall. We had (of course) no wait to get our annual passes, and take a stroll through the new aquarium. And then we got to pick a restaurant still in the mall to get a leisurely family dinner. It was one of our few visits to the now-gone 'I Love this Bar,' country-themed bar/restaurant.

All anyone talked about at the aquarium, in the mall, and at the restaurant was the horrible storm, and how long it might continue. But it didn't get me down nearly as much as usual. Maybe it was three years ago, and I had two hellish winters still to contend with. Maybe life just hadn't beaten me down as much as it has by now. But I remember laughing, and enjoying my family so much.

And in true kid fashion, I remember their excitement when my phone alerted us of another snow day that next day, as we were still enjoying dinner. Snow days that you know about in advance can be the very best kind.

Now I'll try to get through what I have to drive to this winter, and hopefully it'll be mild like last winter. I'll hold onto this happy memory of a snowy day.

5 comments:

Liz Parker said...

Are we supposed to get snow sometime soon?! I hope not, lol ... it's only early November!

Becki said...

There's just a history of a freakish snow storm around this particular competition....

The Non-Housewives said...

Even though I've lived in Michigan my whole life, I'm still not ever ready for the seasons to change to cold weather! I don't like the snow either!

GeekDad248 said...

Had to use an ice scraper on my car windshield for the first time in awhile the other day. Winter is coming!

Ron Leyba said...

Winter is here and it indeed brings back a lot of memories. :)