Snow Day

Christmas holidays have arrived and so has the snow.  As Courtney and I watched the snow fly, we reflected that it’s too bad we weren’t in school because then we could have had a nice snow day.  Then again, we were in the middle of our Christmas break, so I guess we can’t really complain.  It did get us thinking to a time a just before Christmas two years ago.

It was my first year of teaching, and I was teaching grade 7 & 8 at Oxford.  I was living in St. George and was dating Courtney.  When you’re dating, you tend to be on your best behaviour, but it was during a particularly bad snow storm that Courtney’s dark side came out.  

Oxford is in a snowbelt.  Powerful storms from Georgian Bay sweep across Southwestern Ontario and dump piles of snow on the beleaguered people of Oxford County.  My first year teaching at Oxford seemed to be quite a severe winter.  

The storm hit and in the space of two weeks, we had five snow days.  The odd part was that in St. George, we only got a slight dusting of snow.  For all of those snow days, I would get a call early in the morning saying that school was cancelled because of white-out conditions.  I would look out of my bedroom window and see blue skies, rainbows, and butterflies.  By the fifth day, I was getting a little skeptical about how bad the snow in Oxford County could really be.  I turned the news on that evening and saw that the highway going through Oxford County was closed due to a pile up and white-out.  So maybe it was bad after all.

The first thing I would do after getting the phone call saying school was cancelled was to text Courtney the news.

Day One

Me: School is cancelled today.  Snowday!!!  :)

Courtney: Oh.  I have to work today.  : (

Day Two

Me: You’ll never believe it – another snowday!!! :^0

Courtney: WHAT!  I’m jealous! :' )
 

Day Three

Me: Snowday today – day number three!!!  Yippee!  : ^)

Courtney: I am going to drive down there and start clearing roads myself!  I’m very jealous! : ^[

 

Day Four

Me: You will never believe it!  Another snow day!

Courtney: Life is not fair. 

Day Five

Me: The storm is letting up, but the roads are a mess.  Snowday!  

Courtney: The only thing that will make me happy right now is an engagement ring!

Life did return to normal after than – for two days anyway, then we were off for two weeks of Christmas holidays.  Life was tough back then.

It was strange having five snow days right in a row when there was no snow to speak of where I was living at the time.  By day five I was getting a little cabin fevered.  I was beginning to feel like a castaway and was even starting to talk to a volleyball that was in the house. 

I did find a new favourite spot to go and mark during those snow days.  It was a little cafe in Paris (no not Paris, France – I didn’t have enough air miles for that) called the Brown Dog Cafe.  It was perched on the banks of the Grand River and was oozing coziness.  The coffee was amazing and they had a nice fireplace where I would sit beside to drink my coffee and tackle my stack of marking.

The Brown Dog Cafe, Paris ON

Courtney still does not really get snow days (unless we get a jumbo blizzard and the only way out of the house is through the attic) and so the next snow day I get may not excite Courtney too much.