anatomy of a snow day.

Woke up this morning to snow. Light snow, but too much for Bennett to take his daily 6am bike ride/jog with M. Which means one thing: He's going to be bouncing off the walls all morning. True enough, after Fi wakes me up by sitting on my bedside table and knocking off my lamp and the leaning tower of unread books and magazines, I come downstairs to find that he, Efram, and Francie had made snow-cones using a gallon of grape juice. And tracked snow everywhere. And left all the doors to the house open. Happy Monday to me.

Still, school had not been canceled, so they could have done just about anything and I'd still have managed... by staying focused on their imminent departure. At 7.45 I sent them on their merry way with M - who drives them to school.

I spoke to a friend who kept her kids home today b/c (unlike mine) her kids don't ride the bus home, and she had heard that the "snowstorm" we're expecting at midday will make it impossible for her to pick up her kids. (School is in the Capitol Hill neighborhood, which is notoriously icy.) Feel mildly guilty for forcing mine out of the house w/o even a though to their safety. But it quickly passes.

Then the email comes. School closing at noon. Kids headed home on bus and will be here around 12.30. Am not-s0-secretly wishing the bus doesn't make it and they are stranded at school for a while. Given that I almost killed them this morning, I think that they are safer there.

Ok, 3 hours of relative quiet to enjoy. And it really is quite a delight to stare out of the windows and watch snow fall on Lake Washington. When it's snowing this old house is even more charming. And when it's quiet, well.. all the more so.

UPDATE:
On the way home from school the bus broke down. Mind you, this was completely unrelated to the snow -- or so I think. The bus has broken down three times this past week.. so, something is slightly amiss at the bus company. Anyway, I found out and went to meet the bus, which was stuck in the middle of the road about a mile or so away. It's not snowing, but it's cold and this is a Jewish school which means.. Jewish mothers. So everyone is frantically trying to get their kids off the bus, squeeze other kids into their cars, and to contact other parents to let them know what is going on. It's quite a scene.

Still no word on whether there is school tomorrow.

UPDATE:
School tomorrow highly unlikely.