{"id":24297,"date":"2019-03-02T12:12:09","date_gmt":"2019-03-02T18:12:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/?p=24297"},"modified":"2019-03-04T20:54:24","modified_gmt":"2019-03-05T02:54:24","slug":"not-like-my-snow-days","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/2019\/03\/02\/not-like-my-snow-days\/","title":{"rendered":"Not Like My Snow Days"},"content":{"rendered":"

While the northern part of the nation is having a snowy winter like I used to know (Milwaukee has been getting hammered<\/a>, and not just in the beer and brandy sense) and even the St. Louis area has been seeing a snowy weather pattern like I remember from the late 1980s and early 1990s (this weekend’s forecast: Storm to drop 3-5 inches of snow and wind in St. Louis on Sunday, then temps bottom out<\/a>).<\/p>\n

But here in Springfield, we rarely see that much snow. We’ve had a couple of snowyish winters at Nogglestead, where we’ve had a couple of snowfalls of a couple of inches that has stuck around for a couple of days, but this year, we’ve fallen at the lower edge of all the precipitation-producing weather events which now bear names for some reason. This means that we’ve gotten rain or, sometimes, a glazing of ice.<\/p>\n

My children have had, what, three or four “snow” days this year based on a slight accumulation of ice that has generally cleared by midday. Once, all the schools called the night before precipitation based on the meteorologists fantasies, and we got a little rain before a nice day.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, they were off again based on a little ice.<\/p>\n

The poor lads don’t get proper snow for their snow days. They don’t get to go out and play in the snow, build snow forts, have snowball fights, or sled (just kidding–they’ve never owned a sled or even snow boots because what’s the point of it in Springfield?). They go out, play like they’re clearing the ice from the driveway and deck using a variety of gardening implements (remember, as a parent, I must make things explicit<\/a>, such as “Do not chop the hoe down on the deck.”) Then they come in, ask for some hot chocolate like they’re in the Alps or something, and then they want to go to a pizza buffet, which we often can since the roads are clear by lunch time.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, I’m reading the snowfall totals in places I’ve lived previously, and I’m all:<\/p>\n