Maybe it was the wind beating senselessly against the bellowing panes or the fact that I pulled a quilt up from the foot of the bed. I knew last night that it had to be snowing outside and I couldn’t sleep.

I’m not one to watch the local news, never cared much for the sensationalism of the weatherman, I think it’s cheating to look at those apps and thingies with radars on them. I usually plan the clothes I’m going to wear for the day by looking out the window. If it’s real hard to tell, I feed the dogs in my boxers. By then, I usually know what the weather is like.

In all that wild cold wind, I couldn’t sleep so I started thinking about those Southern Snow Days. A Snow Day is a special thing. I will not digress into a Yankee’s version of how we treat a snow day around here. I celebrate that lack of preparedness and the wonder. The joy of a neighbor pulling a car out of a ditch with their not driven enough truck, the mad rush for bread and milk, and that businesses close.

A Southern Snow Day is for lack of better terms a holiday (the father South you go the more it is the case). Since we just got finished with a couple of holiday weeks, I sat there in bed anxious, not ready for a little more down time. I was a little disappointed that God couldn’t spread it out a little bit. You see, a snow day is best when it falls by grace on a day when you need a little time to shut down. It’s usually best if it comes on a Thursday or a Friday and politely cuts a week a bit short. A snow day is a good thing, a snow week can bring havoc– a pile of catching up, but those magical snow days are something special. I really needed today to be normal and the snow day to come later, unannounced and magically.

So it is really cold today, it almost seems aberrant relative to the short-sleeve weather we’ve enjoyed through the Christmas-tide. The dogs are hanging close to the backdoor, asking to come in with sad eyes. Today, it is clear out and dry as a bone. All that cold wind fooled me. So, there won’t be an impromptu neighborhood cocktail party, not today. The kids have to go to school instead of breaking out the sleds and rubber boots. There isn’t a big bowl of chili or pot of hot chocolate simmering and filling the air of a warm kitchen, but I’m ready. I think once life gets back to normal and we all need a little break: it will snow.