Ages, and what (if anything they mean)... cancelled due to inclement weather!

So it seems every time I've got something planned, something topical comes up and interferes. Graduation, the first day of school, holidays, life just doesn't stop! But today I've carved out some time to talk about something I deal with a lot; what age means and what it doesn't mea...


...what's that? Huge snowstorm headed for the Northeast? Again!?


So, okay, another topical post. This time, on something that affects me in a fairly serious way, even if most of us remember them fondly: Snow Days!


As a kid, I'd watch the snow come down, hoping it would start to pile up. I remember looking out and seeing piles of snow in my back yard, but never hearing my school number called. I recall days I couldn't see a single flake on the ground, but we stayed home. It made no sense to me then. Now, of course, I know why we get off school and why we don't, both the practical safety reasons and the stupid political ones.


The practical reason, of course, is the safety of the students. Since most schools in the Northeast are built to ignore a little snow, the problem isn't the safety of the children in the school, it's getting them to and fro. There can be piles of snow everywhere, but if the roads are clear, school's open. Alternately, if the roads are icy, even if there isn't any snow, the kids are staying home that day.


Pretty simple, but you do need to take into account getting the kids home, too. If the snow is scheduled for ten in the morning, you're better off not bringing the kids in. Sending them home before the midway point of the day (usually noon or one), the day doesn't count anyhow.


Now, if those practical concerns were the only things going, you could check the weather report and know if you're going to have school the next day. Unfortunately the folks making the call worry that the weather man is wrong. If he is, they'll get angry calls from parents. Some of those guys are elected, so they hold off until other districts make the call, at which point they can hide in the herd. The safety of the kids gets kinda lost in the shuffle. Yeah, that kinda annoys me.


Anywho, I still remember those snow days as a kid. Kinda funny, but they're fundamentally the same for me today; I wake up late and wander to my computer. Todays is an Alienware MX-11, instead of my old Vic-20, but I still fire up some games and kill time until my brain thaws out enough to function. After that, I get some food and, if the snow isn't actively falling from the sky, bundle myself up to go play in the snow. Then I'd go by myself and hope to find some friends, now I follow my sons out and make sure they play in the field across the street rather than in the street itself.


Finally, when they're worn out and cold, I bring them in and feed them hot chocolate. After that we sit around covered in blankets and watch some TV; Doctor Who and My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic FTW! Eventually they start to nod, and I take them up to bed, and then my wife and I repeat the same thing, only with Elementary and Almost Human.


So... what do you guys do when weather interrupts your otherwise well planned (really, I swear!) life?