Tuesday 4 December 2007

the sounds off the tundra

have been a mixture of screams, groans, whines, and general bitching. I need a drink.

Yep. It's a snow day.

Three minutes after I answered Canada's question about weather out my way (Tra-la-la! Nothing to see here! Maybe a little snow! A little rain! But nothing!) yesterday B came into the room a bit wild-eyed and started yammering some nonsense about snow and rain and black ice and impenetrable roads - what was this?

Surely he'd been sniffing the chain-saw oil again. I was just on the Environment Canada site, and there'd been nothing. I punched it in again and.....aw, crap.


Doooom! It shrieked. Dooooooommmmm! Lock up the children! Prepare to chop up your furniture for warmth! Do a quick check to see which pet is the plumpest! Tie a long line out to the barn so you don't get lost in the blinding whiteness of it all! Doooommmmmmm!
So it snowed. And it snowed. And then it rained - big fat gobbets that splat! in your face and stung like ice. The region dug out its' snow plows and salt trucks.

Around six pm Cass spoke up from where he was huddled in the corner in the buffalo robes we keep for really cold weather finishing the last of his supper and wondered aloud 'Will we have school tomorrow?'

'Of course!' I assured him. After all, I'd had school in the middle of blizzards, where walking down the road to the bus stop chapped your cheeks and made it impossible to talk, weather so cold you avoided the metal tang on your zipper when you tucked your head down in your jacket, scared it would cut your lips off.

Apparently we were sturdier back then. Or the school boards were less worried about lawsuits. Take your pick.

So today was cold. A bit slippery, but nothing that any reasonably good winter driver couldn't handle - and the rain had washed away most of the snow. Messy, though, and bitter cold. So the kids have been inside, alternately playing nicely (just until I relax, because they're sadistic like that) and screaming like banshees. Even the dog has been banished right now.

And it's quiet. My ears are ringing with the quietness of it all.

Right now I would love a cup of something hot - maybe vegetable soup? - in a big sky-blue mug, a big cuddly blanket, and one of my new books.

Short of tying them out in the woodshed (and B doesn't let me do that anymore) I'm thinking I might not get quiet until they go to bed.

It's kind of a damned good thing I love the little buggers.

And that there's school tomorrow.

9 comments:

BabelBabe said...

here in the wilds of Pennsylvania, you must run to the grocery store and stock up on milk and toilet paper. sigh...

witchypoo said...

We had the same weather deal here. The thunder and lightning were spectacular, and we had a momentary power outtage.
I said a very bad word, and all went back to normal. As for the children, you will miss them when they are old enough to discover World of Warcraft. Then you will only see them when they come out for the food you so lovingly cooked them.

Stomper Girl said...

My 4yo said in his best hard-done-by voice this morning Mummy I never see the snow.

Can I send him over?

alison said...

We had snow day on Monday. I feel your pain. Thank God for lego and old Scooby Doo movies on tape.

molly said...

Perfect weather for a nice hot toddy!

molly said...

Perfect weather for a nice hot toddy!

Angewl said...

The bread disappears off the shelves and the milk out of the iceboxes when they call for snow around here. You look down that grocery isle and there will be nothing stocked as far as the eyes can see...

Anonymous said...

I remember snow days....sigh

evilpinkcupcake said...

I cannot WAIT! I am beyond excited to brave the cold Canadian winters once again...

I MISS SNOW!!!

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