Snow Day

This morning at 6:00 a.m. the house phone rang and the alarm clock went off simultaneously. I turned off the alarm and squinted to see the caller id. It was the school. I picked up the phone and heard a recorded message telling me that the school would be closed today in anticipation of the snow storm. I hung up the phone, jumped out of the bed and looked out the window. Because if the weather is real bad I may have a difficult time navigating my way to work. Guess what I saw? Nothing. Then my cell phone rang and the school was calling again to let me know that school was closed in anticipation of the upcoming storm. They certainly are thorough. I remember when I was a kid in Connecticut (where it really snows) we had to sit around the radio to find out if we had a snow day or not. We didn't have the scrolling messages across the television and automated phone calls.

It's awfully quiet in my office today and I'm beginning to wonder if I'm going to stay. Last night after I left, a notice was put out about the storm and everyone was encouraged to take their laptops home so they could work from home and not risk coming to the office ... you know because of the treacherous conditions. I missed that note so here I am along with a few others. I'd rather be home watching the news. Snow days were the best when I was a kid. We would get all bundled up and go sledding, build snowmen and lay in the snow and make angels. I felt quite differently about cold weather back then. Today I just can't take it. Probably because for the past sixteen years I've enjoyed very mild winters so when the mercury drops below freezing I get a little peeved. I seem to have forgotten that winters in CT started in early November and didn't usually end until late March and snowfall was a weekly occurrence. I don't miss it.

So my daughter is home for another day. She offered to record the Inauguration for me but I know it will be rebroadcast a million times on every station. Over the weekend I watched the celebration on H.B.O. and as I watched the parade of celebrities I wondered to myself who would be performing if McCain had won? Hmmmmm. I also wonder how history will really remember GW. What will my grandchildren and great-grandchildren be told about our 43rd president? Surely, they won't be told about the Mission Accomplished sign. Or his non-reaction to Hurricane Katrina or the lack of WMD. No. I have a feeling that history will be quite kind to W. No shoe throwing will be recorded in those history books. I'm not sure how I feel about that. I mean, no one wants to be remembered for their failures. I know I don't. Regardless of how he's remembered I'm sure he'll be fine. Today he'll hand over the reigns to our nation's first African American president. And I hope that history will remember Barack Obama for being more than just that.

This is a special day.