snow day!

This day will go down in history.

Our office is CLOSED! In 10 years, and many snowstorms (although none during the last couple years) we have never closed early let alone closed before the day started.

I am actually very proud of boss wife (or whatever) she is. When she called this morning she said she had to argue with boss about it. Sigh. Sometimes he is such a dolt.

I had already decided I wasn`t going and had texted her to let her know.

Honestly, I had decided before I left work yesterday evening that if it was bad at all, I was calling in. So, for me this was kind of a planned event!

I can`t even tell you how disappointed I was when I went to bed … and we didn`t have ANY fresh snow. The storm rolled in around 3, so by 7:30 we`d gotten enough to legitimize my decision.

Dodged a bullet there! Thank you Mother Nature.

… although, I know big storms like this aren`t good for people who are on the roads and really I shouldn`t be celebrating.

When I was a teenager, my Dad and I took a spring trip down to the college I wanted to attend. I had to do some exams to be able to bypass the first year of the course (cause I`m so smart, don`tcha know …) When we left home, it was a beautiful morning – clear, sunshining.

About an hour in he said `we`re running into some snow` … I asked him why he was saying that since it was still a beautiful morning – clear, sunshining.

He pointed out the grills on the transport trucks we were meeting. Smart guy, my dad.

Within 3 hours, we hit the snow … but we`re Canadians so, meh, we could handle a bit of snow!

Another 2 hours, and we were in a raging blizzard … the freeway was down to a single lane in each direction and, according to the radio, was officially `closed`. You know it`s bad when they close a major highway! Dad had a big old Chrysler and there were times when we couldn`t even see the ornament on the hood. The horn was a strip of rubber that ran along the inside of the steering wheel. Every now and again, he`s blast the horn. I thought he was doing that deliberately – kinda like a boat with a foghorn. He told me after that it was because he was holding the steering wheel so tightly so he`d be ready when he hit a drift.

At one point, I remember a cop car driving wrong way on our side of the highway. Even now, that doesn`t seem like a good idea! But, everyone was moving so slow, even a head-on collision would probably not have even caused a dent!

I was terrified!

We ended up getting off the highway and going to a motel for the night. I remember when he made the decision – we had stopped under an overpass where we were sheltered and he surveyed the situation ahead (a jacknifed tractor trailer!) and he said `we aren`t going any further!`and we actually drove off at an `ON ramp` – there was no risk because no one was trying to get on that road!

Once we settled into our room, we walked up to a nearby convenience store to get some food … ended up with a package of donuts and some juice. By that point, the shelves had been picked over pretty well by people stocking up.

The next morning, it was still snowing, but not nearly as bad. We went out to the car, cleaned it off, got in and he turned on the radio … and we sat there until he heard the road report. Then we snowplowed out of that parking lot. Honestly, the snow was over the fender … it was a good thing he had that big old heavy Chrysler!! Today`s smaller cars would just not have been able to make it. A smart car would have been buried!

Once we hit the freeway, we were okay because the crews had been out, the snow had stopped and the wind was calm. It was just one of those freak spring storms that crippled the area for a day.

Kinda like what is happening today (although this storm doesn`t have the drifting winds). The road conditions are atrocious. I feel bad for anyone out there.

* * * * *

Enough stories … back to the present.

So – as one would expect, I`ve kind of directed our snow day … telling everyone to call in and change their voicemail message, I changed the general mailbox message, I`ve put autoresponders on everyone`s e-mail, I`ve made sure that the warehouse has been notified (they`re on the other side of the country and would be unaware of the storm), I`ve notified the sales team. Boss` wife (or whatever she is) and I talked about coming up with a procedure in case this happens again … this was a good dry run.

… and I got out of a dentist appointment!

Now I need to figure out what to do. It isn`t going to be watching the boob tube, that`s for sure! OMG. Daytime TV is AWFUL!

* I WISH YOU WELL! *