Rain over Snow

A Capriccio View Of A Town With Figures On A Frozen Canal

It’s a child’s worst nightmare: After a freshly fallen snow, it rains before they get to play in it. School goes on as usual, and there is nothing left with which to make a snowman when they get home. Ugly piles of dirty ploughed snow line the streets. Boots step into piles of slush rather than soft white fluffy stuff.

My eldest daughter woke me up at 6:00 yesterday morning, announcing a still-falling snow, with significant ground cover. Rather than rise to power up the computer to check the online status of school cancellations, I turned on the local news channels. I impatiently flipped from channel to channel, waiting for the byline to get through all the New Jersey school districts. Finally I found Suffolk County and was disappointed that our district was not listed. I told the kids to go on and get ready.

The school bus comes to our driveway, so the kids were able to play in the snow while waiting. It was a dress-down day, so they did not have to wear their uniforms. After a half-hour, my daughter came in. “We’ve been waiting out there for an hour! Can you check again?”

So I fired up the computer and found that there was a two-hour delay. I told the kids to come on in until the appointed time. They got another twenty minutes of snow play while waiting.

Later that morning, the rain started; it kept up all day long. I was so glad we had made the mistake of going out twice that morning while the snow was still fresh!

They were disappointed that afternoon, but today made up for it. My backyard was paved with pools of ice, and they got to go ice skating in their boots!