Snow, Snow ... Don't Stop

As I watch Tom Clark from WNEP-TV forecast the weather, it looks like it's snowing mightly heavily up in Moosic, Pa.  I'm sure area kids are sitting home, hoping and wishing they'll be off of school tomorrow. Teachers are doing the same.  Parents may or may not be doing it, too.  Me?  Well, it really doesn't affect me one way or the other.  Either way, I'll work - whether from home or the office, but during these times I always hope it keeps coming -- for the kids.

I have the best memories watching the TV all night, praying for a school delay or closing so I could awaken early and head out with all the neighborhood kids to throw snowballs and sled down plow-made hills. My best neighborhood pal during my youth would knock on the door in the mornings and we'd set out to conquer the street by making mazes, slipping and sliding and getting lost under all that fluffy white stuff.

I always felt that snow was a reason to stay home for kids.  It gives kids new games to play, new atmospheres to interact in and a way to bond with all the other kids in the neighborhood you might not forge such ties with if it wasn't for the snow days (when you're forced to).  See, I didn't go to school with any of the kids in my neighborhood.  They attended a school nearby and I attended a school several miles away, so snow days were the times when we were forced to hang together.  Basically, I guess I have the snow to thank for some of my best childhood friends.

But, besides the kids, my dog, Riley, is another reason I hope for snow. Seeing the look on his face and the excitement in his tail as he rolls around the yard is enough for me. 

He's a 2-year-old Golden Retriever, so he's still a puppy, which makes it even more fun every time I let him loose in the yard on a snow day.  Maybe when he's 5 he won't get as excited, but for now all I want to do is roll around in the snow with my pup.