But when I picked them up after school (RB had driven to Denver for a job interview), snow had been falling for a while and we had a few inches on the ground. They'd gone off to school in sneakers, so I brought their boots with me in a bag. I saw another mother who had done the same thing, and her son obediently traded his shoes for boots. But not my kids. Kid A scorned them, marching off by himself in the snow. Kid B did the same, but when we were about halfway home, Kid B suddenly decided the snow was too deep, so we did the transfer standing in the middle of the creek path. And RB didn't get home until 8 pm because the roads were so bad he ended up pulling off and having dinner at a restaurant, so as to wait until rush hour traffic at least was gone. I had a feeling we might be looking at a snow day today, especially after the university announced it was delaying opening by two hours.
Sure enough, our landline rang a few minutes after 5 am. Neither of us could wake up enough to answer it, but a few minutes later I got up and checked voicemail. "All Boulder Valley Schools are closed today..." I went back to bed and turned off my alarm.
When I finally got up again, the world was white.We got about a foot of snow, maybe a little more. It was supposed to stop snowing mid-morning, but it kept on going until at least mid-afternoon. What made it a problem was that it was so cold! Our low last night was just below zero, and our high today was maybe 9 above. Tonight we're supposedly headed for -11 (it's 3 degrees right now, at 9 pm). I enjoy snow, but I don't enjoy bitter cold. I also do not have any boots that fit. So I "let" RB do all the shoveling, and there was no walking in a winter wonderland.
Our furnace got into the act by conking out around midday, and Rocket Boy spent an hour or two trying to fix it. For my part, I did a load of laundry, to keep the pipes from freezing in the unheated laundry room/garage, and made a loaf of lemon poppy seed bread from a mix, to help heat up the kitchen. When the bread came out, I turned off the oven but left the oven door wide open to get some more of that heat into the house. Finally RB called our old plumber, who installed the furnace, to ask him what to do. He made various suggestions and while they were talking, the furnace roared to life. Fingers crossed that it stays alive through the night.
The kids seemed pleased to be back at home after only one day at school, wrapping themselves in blankets to watch TV, but they also got bored quickly. Eventually they decided to build a train track and play with Legos in the hallway. This was fine except that it made it a little hard to walk.I read an article in the newspaper today about a fire in a house that contained so many items, it was a hazard to firefighters. Wonder what firefighters would do if our house caught fire? We've had candles at the dinner table every night since Advent began -- 32 days ago? -- and the kids keep messing with them, so fire is not impossible.
So anyway, still no resolutions -- those will have to wait until tomorrow, maybe, when (I hope, I hope) the kids go back to school. What I don't look forward to is getting them to school. It'll probably still be below zero when it's time to leave, really too cold for little people to walk that distance, and my car's windows will be solid ice, although Rocket Boy did scrape the car off today. Oh well, life in Colorado.
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