Thursday, January 17, 2008

Pair o' Dime Props: Snow Days!!

I work on a college campus, which for many appears to be a utopia. It's not. But it's still really great. It's nice walking across campus for meetings, and having doors and windows near my desk. I'm a state employee too (read: pretty good job security), so that's a plus. And I definitely can't complain about the 7 figure salary.*
In Charlotte, North Carolina we get a plethora of blue sky days, and wonderful springs and falls. But also when it snows 2 inches, I don't have to go to work! The university was closed today. Now for us "Yankees" it's hard to understand this, but we'll take it! It's like being a kid again. We got up and ran outside. My wife built a snowman with the boys (although they got cold and ran in and she had to put on the finishing touches herself), and I made pancakes and hot chocolate. The boys loved the snow and we all enjoyed the time together. Sadly, my oldest son's school was smart enough to realize that two inches would not bring the sky crashing down on all of us and he only got a two hour delay. A good call for them, but the self-imposed guilt we had because we got to stay home wasn't welcome. Oh well, I'm sure he'll be smarter because of it. Honestly though, anyone who grew up in the deep south and didn't have the anticipation and joy of school being canceled in the middle of a hard winter do not know what they are missing. Thankfully we're not in the deep south, so we get to live vicariously through our kids.

*Yeah, you read that right. Seven figures, baby! And that includes a decimal point too! Eat your heart out! :-)

7 comments:

Starling said...

"I definitely can't complain about the 7 figure salary."

I presume you are including the cents portion of the figure, as well? If not, I'm abandoning the whole doctoral program thing....or, maybe not.

Besides, we Deep South refugees know the pleasures of a snow day (even if we have different concepts of what a snow day means). The two inches of snow you're so cavalier about would mean a week of no school for us. Even the THREAT of possible snow somewhere in the county meant that school would be canceled for the day (and occasion a major run on all grocery stores in a 60-mile radius). Sigh...the only problem is, we rarely got the actual snow :(

Unknown said...

Yeah, I put a footnote the best I could on the salary at the bottom.

It's fascinating the differences in reactions to snow. Of course there are other differences too. In the north, we're more inclined to whine about whether that is just under 90 degrees, which down here is nothing.

Wendy said...

For Christmas I got a snowman kit. It comes with the all of the necessary items made out of wood (pipe, scarf, eyes, buttons, carrot nose). It's great because you don't have to search around for items to put on the snowman. Just a tip from this Northerner.

Unknown said...

Great idea, I'll pass the idea along to Tina since she never reads my blog. :)

Aimee Ashley Myers said...

That morning, I saw on the news that Charlotte was getting snow and all I could think of was you guys. I can't believe they cancelled school for 2 inches. Wimps...

Unknown said...

You know, Charlotteans would take to a Turkey farm more than they would snow. :-)

Aimee Ashley Myers said...

Oh, the guilt...