Snow Days!

The midwestern USA had its first serious winter storm late this week. Now, on a big winter storm the public schools are pretty quick to close (as opposed to risking their busses and their precious cargo on icy roads) but the private universities generally ignore the weather. But this storm was enough that even the private schools took notice and the happy result was not one, but two glorious snow days.

Southern Man predicted this wonderful treat on Wednesday, cancelled his evening classes, announced that he would not be in on Thursday, and (since his rental duplex has an old-fashioned wood-buring fireplace) made a detour by his folk's house for a load of firewood. By the time he got home that evening the closed-school list was already growing and happily enough included his own employers, making both that night and the next day off "official" snow days. Thursday was spent inside by the fire tidying up and playing computer games and drinking hot chocolate and just generally relaxing. He did get out late that evening when a friend with a four-wheel-drive jeep dropped by. What's a snow day without at least one Wal-Mart run?

But the roads were bad enough that Southern Man's employers all cancelled classes for Friday as well for a second "official" snow day. Alas, Friday was also the kickoff for fifty-plus hours of training as one of H&R Block's new hires for the upcoming tax season. Fortunately, the roads weren't that bad and Southern Man's old Explorer (which hasn't had an operational four-wheel-drive for a while now) was able to get him around with minimal fuss.

This is also Southern Man's weekend to have the kids and for once he had all three, as his son's road trip to St. Louis was cancelled (no surprise there). The weekend kicked off at with an evening at their grandparents for pizza and chicken wings and salad and Scrabble. The kids spent the night there so Southern Man could attend even more tax training Saturday morning and we've all spent the afternoon and evening at Casa Southern Man burning through his firewood at an alarming rate and roasting marshmallows and making s'mores and watching OU whip up on Nebraska (14-0 at this writing) and just generally having a great time.

Tomorrow they go back to their mother after church, ending what was effectively a four-day weekend. And only two more weeks of classes and tax training! Christmas is in the air (and wish lists from all the kids are on Southern Man's desk) and he is looking forward to a wonderful holiday season.