NO DAYS LIKE SNOW DAYS

It's not that I don't want to go back to work after the holiday break.  I actually do want to get back and get into the grind (and away from all the food and drink at my house). 

It's this damn snow.  Or, rather, it's this damn threat of snow.

I'm very manic-depressive when it comes to snow; I love it and I hate it.

I love to look at it.  I love when a storm is brewing.  I love the smell of it (yes, those who live in snowy places understand exactly what I'm talking about).  I love how it makes everything look clean for a day, even the innermost dark crevices of the cities.  I love walking in snow.  I love seeing snow piled high from the plows (anyone remember the giant snow mountain at The Loop?).  I love the first real snow of the season, and, eventually after dealing with it for months, I love seeing the last snowfall in the spring.

I hate driving in snow.  I hate shoveling snow.  I hate when the snow blows back in my face when I'm cleaning off my car.  I hate the dirty crust snow gets after the plows have made a few passes and after car exhaust has spent days blackening the snow banks.  I hate the idiots in the city who use chairs and cones and furniture to hold "their" spaces, like they own the street.

I hate that with all the computer models, the forecasters still can't seem to get it right.

Here's what we've been told: By mid-morning Thursday, there should be an inch of snow on the ground.  By the afternoon there should be four inches of snow on the ground.  Overnight into Friday, we would be looking at as much as twenty inches in spots.

This could all be a huge pile of bullshit. 

However, schools all over New England are cancelling classes ahead of the storm, most as early as Wednesday evening, and most cancelling for two days, Thursday and Friday.  I hope this maneuver doesn't come back to bite us as, it has so many times, when storms and winds and various other natural phenomena never materialized.  I understand that part of this is an economic decision because it's just too damn expensive to heat the schools for one day (assuming Friday will be a bonafide snow day) after the long, cold Christmas/Holiday break.

But, still.

Can't people wait until morning to call off school?  Can't superintendents wait to see the snow situation, the latest reports, and then make educated, common sense decisions?

Here's what I'm going to do.  I'm going to get up, look outside, listen to the weather report, and then decide if calling off school for two days has turned into a great gamble.  The thing of it is, though, that I'll be doing this investigation later than usual, posting commentary about this blog entry a few hours after when I usually do during a work week.

You see, I have these next two days off from work due to the snow ...