There are a great deal of benefits to snow days that other provincial governments would be wise to take note of.  First, with a heap of places closed there is far less traffic on the roads.  This of course makes it much easier for the road crews to clean everything up instead of navigating around cars and leaving huge-big piles of snow everywhere where huge-big piles of snow don’t really belong.  Then there is the mental health aspect of it all.  I mean come on… who doesn’t remember the anticipation of listening to the radio an hour before leaving for school and the incredible joy that came from either hearing your school bus on the cancelled list, or hearing your school is completely shut down ?  That was like a get-out-of-jail-free pass for kids.  We’d be into our snowsuits and headed out to play with our friends before the news announcing the blessed occasion was done.  So now we’re adults, but I still feel that little buzz when I think of it.  A whole day to hang out at home in my slippers – I don’t normally wear slippers, but slippers just seem to be something one should wear during a snow day – and do all those little chores that you never get a chance to do like watching 5 hours straight of HGTV or sorting out 100s of CDs and DVDs that have that amazing ability to mix themselves up when no one is looking.

Living in the country lends another aspect to a snow day that our city friends don’t get… silence.  It’s so silent outside on a snow day at our house that all you can hear is the odd crow cawing at my dog who seems to be too near to a speck that may or may not be a bug for the crow’s lunch. Yes, I know there are very few bugs out crawling around on a snow-covered field this time of year, but I won’t tell the crows that as they seem to enjoy poking about none-the-less.  Carley and I (Carley is our goofy Chocolate Lab) like to just walk around and find stuff to do outside in the snow, much like kids do on their fortunate days off.  We just don’t build snowmen and forts, all due of course in part to Carley’s lack of opposable thumbs which really reduces the amount she can help when building a fort.  However, she is always ready to entertain me by chasing her Frisbee at least 367 times an hour

I had to go into town yesterday – during the snow day – to go to the bank which of course was going to close down at noon.  Afterwards I decided to take the plunge and get myself some real snowshoes.  I’ve had snowshoes for many many years, but it wasn’t a sport to use them.  They were the big clunky cargo-carrying jobs the Army gives you to make your life miserable, not to mention to leave large bruises across each shin from falling face-first on their outrageously sharp ends.  Wait now… I never fell face-first on the actual snowshoes… Mostly my face landed very close to where my shoulders hit the show, driven forward of course by the 60-pound rucksack I was fortunate enough to carry, and equally propelled by the nasty weapon someone thought I should carry along as well.  So I bought some snowshoes and to make a long story slightly shorter, Carley and I have discovered how much fun it can be to trek out across the fields and along the wood lines, me huffing and puffing as I walk on top of a couple feet of snow and Carley running back and forth from wherever I’ve thrown her toy to wherever I happen to be.  Fun stuff.

Here’s a thought… why don’t you try a Snow Day of your own?  I bet you’ll love it !

Cheers !