13. snow day

When you’re an adult, it’s easy to forget about the distinct delight of a snow day.*

But when else does light refract and dazzle the way it does the day after a snowstorm, illuminating all the musty crannies of your home? When else, upon feeling audibly the glee of the kids down the street, can you feel relieved that snow days are still an establishment in today’s pandemic-era schools? Is there a pleasure so pristine as tromping fresh tracks in a glistening alley-way, the snow squeaking cleanly beneath your boots while the sun, absent for weeks, makes seven degrees feel icily invigorating? Or how about rushing to shovel the sidewalk before all the dog-walkers compact the snow to ice, and there’s that nice blitz of endorphins that only physical labor can give? Plus, no makeup is a substitute for your smooth, rosy-cheeked glow when at last you stomp your way inside, breathless, for a steaming up of coffee and slice of the bread loaf you had the forethought to bake the night before.

*Under normal circumstances I’d be decidedly more morose about a foot of snow in late October, but snow is the number one thing that Colorado needs right now, and anyway, what happens will happen.

(Oct. 26)