The Magic of the First Snow Day

Most of us came out of quarantine (*cough Declan cough*) in time for me to head back in to the office ... to resign. After 15 and a half years at Emerson, I was leaving. That sentence makes it sound so.much.easier than it actually was. In truth, it was the hardest easiest decision I've had to make professionally. Emerson has been my family for a long time - and I loved my current job, team, and awesome network of friends.

But the new opportunity was just too great to pass up. Even good friends at Emerson who wanted to give me a hard time for leaving couldn't when they heard about the new role. It's absolutely something I needed to take a chance on! While there were many sleepless nights leading up to the resignation, everyone was so incredibly supportive and I proud of how I transitioned out. 

I'm on Week 3 (but with the holidays, Day 4) at C.H. Robinson and I'll tell you more about that in a different post.

All that to say, my final day at Emerson was ... weird. A huge winter storm was predicted to blow in that Friday afternoon so my happy hour was postponed to the following week. My boss told everyone to work from home ... except for the two of us. We headed in, finished up a few transition plans, packed my cube, and were on the road by 1pm. Only a few flakes were falling at that point, so the drive home wasn't too back. I ate a quick lunch and by 2pm (when the kids were due home - school was releasing 2 hours early to beat the weather), I was out shoveling about 2 inches off the driveway. 

The kids immediately put their gear on and gathered their neighborhood friends. Our backyard has a great sledding hill and promises to be a popular winter gathering spot! The kids sledded, played in the snow, helped me shovel the rink, and enjoyed the storm for over 3 hours. There is nothing more magical than a snow day. And since I was temporarily unemployed, I was able to simply enjoy the magic with them. Around 5, we invited the gang in for hot chocolate and then tucked in for the night. 

The roads were getting pretty questionable by the time Mike headed home from work. I had just finished shoveling another 3 inches off the driveway when he pulled in. Quinn had hockey practice, but Mike and I decided that a snow day and a family night were more needed than practice. We ordered pizza, ate Christmas cookies, turned on the fire, and watched a movie! All with the snow continuing to fall rapidly outside. It was the perfect winter day!

After we put the kids to bed, the day became slightly less perfect (adulting is hard). Mike's rink hadn't frozen through yet, so the weight of all the snow on the ice had pushed it down and pushed water up. Mike and I spent over an hour shoveling the heaviest slush I've ever tried to move. Especially when one has to throw it over the boards. Mike was convinced that the rink was ruined for the year, but I know he would save it. [Spoiler alert: he did!] We wanted to give up when we trudged back to the front of the house and saw about 7 inches on the driveway. Thankfully, our neighbor and his snowblower took care of it for us. We were tapped (and we learned our lungs were not fully recovered from our covit bout). 

It snowed all night and there was probably another 7-8 inches on the driveway in the morning. Mike figures we got around 20 inches total. We did not make it to Q's 7:45am scrimmage (through very little effort on our part), but Mike and I did work hard to clear the driveway so she could make her 10:45 game. We got a path cleared for them - just in time for the plow to come through and deliver the plow pack death blow to the end of the driveway. I shoveled it as fast as my covid lungs would allow while Mike and Q got ready for the game. I cleared a path just wide enough for them to get out - and then our neighbor snowblowed the rest for me later. 

We spent the rest of Saturday playing in the snow and shoveling all.the.things. Including our shed. Mike got it framed up during quarantine - but he hasn't got the roof on it yet. So yes, we shoveled the driveway, rink, deck, patio, stairs, and inside of the shed. No wonder our arms were sore for the next few days!