Cathie Shaffer: Yes, my snow day was great: 2/2/10

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February 1, 2010

Anonymous The Daily Independent Mon Feb 01, 2010, 11:00 PM EST

Well, I finally got my snow day. It seems like every time we’ve gotten a good snow this winter, it’s been when I had to leave the house and go to work. I must admit, I’ve been kinda envious of all those schoolkids who got to roll over and go back to sleep while I made my way down treacherous roads to the office.

My plan for Saturday was to go to a writers’ meeting in Columbus. With nothing else on my calendar, I e-mailed a good friend and asked if she wanted to go with me.

She canceled for family reasons on Friday. Much as I hated the idea of making the trip alone, I completely understood. And, I rationalized, all those hours in the car would help me work out the plot kinks in the novel I’m working on.

As the weather report called for a dubious forecast, I wondered if I really wanted to take my old car and go north. So I made back-up plans. If I didn’t head for Columbus, I’d hang at my son’s house. I could do my laundry there, play with the kids and enjoy the company of my son and his wife.

Then the snow came. I woke Saturday morning to a picture-perfect landscape, with a blanket of white covering the car, lawn and road by my house. I started my breakfast and let the dog out. Before either was done, my daughter called.

She’d been at work since 5 a.m. and wanted me to know how bad the roads were. And how concerned she was for me.

Stay home, she advised. Don’t try to go to your meeting, don’t go out of town, don’t even leave the house.

Naturally, since I consider myself way too young to be controlled by kids, I did drive across the street to the drugstore and across the intersection for my ritualistic first cup of coffee for the day.

That took up all of 10 minutes. I spent another five sweeping off my front steps, which was the most productive thing I did all day.

Unless you count running the sweeper, and I consider that more amusement than anything. I have hardwood floors, so I use a small vacuum that can be used as either an upright or a hand vac. Either day, it drives the dog nuts when she hears it start up.

I plugged it and began running the appliance across the living room floor. The dog jumped up from a sound sleep and began charging at the small sweeper, barking her head off.

Her uproar brought the cat from her snooze on the back of the couch and triggered her innate “fight or flight” instinct. The cat’s eyes widened as, poised on the velvety back of the sofa, she stood frozen in a semi-panic.

I could almost see her tiny brain working. If she ran toward the kitchen, she’d cross the path of the vacuum. If she ran toward the steps and the safety of the second floor, she’d intersect with the dog.

She chose option number two. Equally torn between the vacuum and the cat, the dog tried an end-run around me that resulted in her tripping over the cord and sliding headfirst into the cushioned side of the recliner.

That confirmed what I’ve long believed, housework can be dangerous. So I shut off the vacuum snapped on the TV and very much enjoyed wasting every other moment of the day.

CATHIE SHAFFER can be reached at (606) 473-9851.

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