No Snow Day

Snow Day?
(by R.P.Edwards)

White and wonderful
falling down
Dancing children
Play the clown
Teachers…sleep in
A winter’s gift
But for other slugs
“Go work your shift!”

You’d call it a walk-in basement.  Towards the front of the house…it's underground.  In the back…a sliding glass door that leads to the rather large back yard.  I remember as a kid ( no internet) getting up in the middle of the night and making my way to the glass portal to cipher the accumulation.  With a flip of the light switch I’d watch it come down and even though I grew up in a New England town (accustomed to the winter white stuff) I knew that if a certain height was reached…no school.  For confirmation…the radio.  If my school was mentioned…joy.

It’s early in the a.m. and the local television stations are milking our little snow storm for all its worth (this is “not” New England).  Yes, school is cancelled (cancelled “before” the first flake) and, even though we home school…we tend to mirror the other guys schedule.  For the children…joy.

Alas, there are many whose occupations are oblivious to the blizzard.  No snow days.  No snow angels.  No snowmen, leisurely built between snowball “pops.”   As I stepped into the home last night (after a double), my son asked if my work would be cancelled on the morrow.  “No, son, it would take another foot or two for that possibility.”  However, in-between my steel mill tasks this day, perhaps a snow angel would be appropriate.  I wonder if the plant manager would accommodate?

That's what I think. How about you?  Click comments below...and say.

The Coming Blizzard

 

 

Blizzards
(by R.P.Edwards)

Blizzards are subjective things
Depending where you’re at
Up north; a driving foot or three
Down south…much less than that
In fact, an inch can paralyze
The streets, so used to none
And make us pray for warmer days
When blizzards…do not come

Hans hardly slowed (though three miles into the trek) as he quickly shifted the hundred pound “rullning” stone (Swedish for “rolling”) from his aching right shoulder to a position centered on his heaving, flannel draped chest and, shifting slightly, he locked it securely with his powerful arms, crossed at the wrists.  “Hmmph,” he audibly uttered as he thought of his fellow weightlifters who spent their time in comfortable gyms, flexing in between applications of baby oil.  “Wimps,” he grunted (hurdling a fallen pine).  “Sport is not in the lifting…but in the race.”  As the last word exited his lips, so too the covering of the wood fell behind; and before him?…the last leg of the marathon; a mountain with a pleasant moniker (for others), but to the “athletes” it is simply known as “dumdristig,” which, translated, means…foolhardy.

On Sunday, last, we had, what I jokingly refer to as the Blizzard of ‘09.  Oh, we must have had an inch or two, but this was enough to raise the caution flag.  You see, we’re not used to a lot of snow around here.  We’ll get a few inches now and then.  But, generally, it’s a cause for concern and I, knowing the limitations of “Bubble Butt” (affectionate term for my vintage Roadmaster) I proceeded to shuffle some of the hibernating weights in the basement…to the trunk of said vehicle.  Yes, years ago I purchased the heavy rounds and proceeded to religiously “pump iron.”  That is, until my elbow let me know that a threshold had been passed.  Now, for the most part, they serve as a little extra “oomph” for the powered rear wheels and, even with the extra hundred pounds of ballast in the hold, I still proceeded to skate past the first stop sign (normally I would have thrown it in reverse, but I had a coffee mug in my hand).  “Physician heal thyself,” came to mind; as I had just given one of my boys the “how to” as far as winter driving goes.

Anyway,  this whole underwear bombing thing is like my two inch blizzard.  It reveals the weaknesses in the hardware (vehicle) and the software (mindset.)  I’m a little better prepared now.  But will this nation follow suit?  For surely…a real blizzard…is on its way.

That’s what I think.  How about you?  Click comments below…and say.