The Big Chill

There was talk on the news yesterday that the "big chill" was finally going to make an appearance. I always have to laugh at the idea of snow here, where we go for years with neither snow nor ice. As a matter of fact, the last time we had real snow in San Antonio was 1985, and the big reason I remember when it was is because Rachel was born in October of 1984, and the snow hit right before her sister, Alana's second birthday in January. We had great fun building a snow "person" in the front yard- Alana had ziplock bags over her shoes to keep her dry.
But I digress...the "big chill" makes people crazy here. The kids get excited because of the possibility they might get a day off from school. They don't sleep because every 10 minutes, they go to the window to check out the snow that is surely falling by now. In the morning, they leap out of bed to check one more time, praying that while they dozed off for that final 10 minutes, a miracle happened and the meteorologist was actually right. The forecast last night was for sleet with a strong possibility of ice by mid-morning. Even the teachers were beginning to imagine a day off by the end of the day yesterday because it was really getting cold outside. I woke up this morning, and I have to admit, I peeked out of the window, halfway hoping to see that blanket of snow. (I always figure if it has to be cold, it could at least snow so that we can play in it!) I couldn't tell from upstairs if there was anything on the ground; I went downstairs and opened the door to see a completely clear sky and no sign of any precipitation of any kind. OH Maaaaaan. How is it that we get fooled over and over again? Then there's the number of accidents that happen when the roads are icy because nobody in this part of Texas knows how to drive in it. We recognize the Northerners by the chains on their car tires, but none of us would know how to get those chains to stay on ours. We secretly laugh at them as we go barreling down the road, pretending we know what we're doing until CRASH, BAM, BOOM, we run into a utility pole and total our cars as that New Yorker rolls by shaking her head. So, in the end, it's probably a good thing we only have snow and ice once every 25 years. We'd just have to make up the school day we miss sometime in June anyway, when the sun is out to stay, and who wants to be stuck inside when the beaches and parks are beckoning? Oh, that is so much better than building snow people and wrecking our cars...