Snow day?

This morning, at 6.30 am, we got an automated call from the school that it was a snow day. I promptly went back to sleep, as did Travis, but S could not. She was so thrilled. At 8 am I came downstairs to get oz a bottle, and took a look outside. The above picture is what I saw. Yep, the same skiff of snow we've had on the lawn for the past 3 days.

Just in case it was a funky lake effect snow, I checked the backyard to make sure there wasn't a half foot of snow out there. Here is what I saw:
Which brings me to the theme of this post: New Yorkers are wussy. Maybe not about certain things, like extreme discomfort on public transportation, or braving massive crowds when shopping, but when it comes to snow, these people are as soft-core as it comes.

They essentially had canceled school yesterday; this morning's phone call was simply a formality. The first indication I got was an email I received from a woman at the district office. I had written her a note telling her I'd bring the deed to our house and a utility bill (things they've been asking for since August, but I haven't had the time to do) on Friday morning after dropping off the big kids at school. Her reply was to bring it in after the break, since she knew it was a busy time of year and there was a storm coming. I should have known then.

When I picked up the kids, their teachers were sending them home with their holiday gifts for the parents, and both kids had holiday parties today instead of Friday. Those poor class moms. If they are anything like me, they were probably planning on running around Thursday to get everything they needed for the parties, and then the teachers called and said the parties had to be on Thursday because of the STORM. I bet there was some serious scrambling around yesterday. Once again, very grateful I am not a class mom this year.

Since I had now 2 clues that school would be off, I decided we better go to the grocery store to get butter so we could make sugar cookies on Friday. The A+P was out of control. I recalled similar situations in Brooklyn, where a big storm was promised and all the bread and milk would be gone from the shelves. It was chaos in the store, heightened by the fact that my kids discovered that our grocery store had mini-carts. So in my cart I had oz, who likes to reach behind him and grab stuff out of the cart to throw to the ground, and behind me I had S + C, each pushing their own mini-cart, fighting over who got to put what in their carts. S was the one right behind me, and pushed her cart into me so many times I'm convinced I have a slew of bruises along both calves. Needless to say, the other grumpy shoppers were not entertained my by entourage. Neither was I.

In other weather-related news, the repairmen from our oil company showed up this morning at 8.11 to install our "aqua booster" and clean our coil. They have promised me that the lukewarm showers will come to an end, for the bargain price of 2000 dollars. Believe me, I'd pay double that to have taken my last cold shower. I had passed out with the kids last night, and darling Travis had cleaned the kitchen and turned the heat down, like we always do, to 60 degrees. I turn it up first thing in the morning to a balmy 66. Since the repair guy showed up about 9 minutes after I had switched it on, we didn't get to warm up the house at all before they shut off the boiler. So right now, in the dining room (by far the warmest room in the house, and where the thermostat lives) it's 60 degrees. When I went upstairs to get yet another layer (I'm adding a lined flannel shirt to my other 3 shirts), Travis was holed up in the bed, wearing a hat with his sweatshirt hood pulled up OVER it. I guarantee he's got his Ugg boots on under the covers as well. He decided to work from home today because of the storm. 

If you can't beat 'em, join 'em.