Snow day

Working for a newspaper, I don't get a lot of snow days. Storms are news and I have to be there.

When the kids were young, Rob and I used to try to be the first one out the door on a snowy day because the one who wasn't working was home with two constantly battling kids, and often friends whose parents said, "Why don't you go and see your friend?" before I did.

When we had snow days (and there had to be a foot or more of snow), my sisters and I would bake cookies. Batches and batches of cookies. And of course, we fought. We went outside and played for a half hour or so until someone hit someone else in the face with a snowball. That hit usually was answered with snow down the back, which was followed up with a bunch of snow rubbed into the offender's face. Then all of us went into the house crying.

My father missed most of this because he was a newspaper reporter and snow was news.

So, when my kids were young, we had to call in and ask whether they needed a reporter or an editor more because one of us had to be home with the kids.

It is kind of fun to watch kids play in the snow. I loved watching my grandkids play in 10 inches of snow last month in Massachusetts. They had never seen that much snow before.

It all lasted about 45 minutes until someone hit someone else in the face with a snowball ....

I'm getting a snow day tomorrow. Since all of us at Gannett have to take five furlough (unpaid) days in the first quarter, I decided to take one tomorrow, and it's snowing tonight. So, I'll bake some bread -- actually some bagels. I've never tried that before. But they're in the refrigerator rising overnight and I'll boil and then bake them tomorrow.

I'm loving this new bread cookbook Rob got me for Christmas. If I could afford it I would stay home and bake bread and crochet and cook and garden, go hiking, read, take pictures ... all the time. I would never be bored. Never.

Still, if I have to work for a living, I couldn't ask for a better job than the one I have.