Snow/Ice Days

The weather today has me thinking about one of the most wonderful things in the world...snow days. Not that we get many of those in Austin, but that is the point. The fact that they are not a sure thing and you never know when they might come until possibly a week or a few days in advance is one of the reasons why snow days (or ice days) are like a special gift straight from God. It is like God saying, "Here, don't go to school today." How great is that? God getting you out of school. Between Him sending HIs son to die for us in our place and snow days there is no doubt that God is good. Very good. So in honor of the the blessed snow day today and the one we are hoping we get tomorrow I thought that I would share a story of my favorite snow day ever.

I was in tenth grade and snow was in the air. Just like any morning when there is the possibility that school may be canceled I was up early with no complaints watching the news also with no complaints. I was eagerly anticipating the name "Leander ISD" scroll across the bottom of the TV with the words "school canceled" following close behind. Sure enough there they were. Oh glorious day. It was as if fun itself had just showed up at my door and had asked me to play with him. But instead of opening that door right away I went back to bed. For what's a day off if you get up when you are supposed to for school? I was determined to take full advantage of this spectacular day and according to the manual of how to enjoy a day off it said you must sleep past 9 am.

I awoke again with a smile on my face. Glorious snow day! I watched the Price is Right, a must watch show on days out of school whether for being sick or for snow. And then I called my best friend Ryan. Ryan was awake and had also just finished watching the Price is Right. Ryan and I had the same idea, football. We quickly came up with a list of guys we needed to call and split the list between us. We spent the next hour on the phone calling every guy we knew that lived in our neighborhood to see if they dared come play football with us in the regular spot, the park with the bridge. By 11 am we had a very nice game put together. Kendal, Josh, Ben, me, Ryan, Joey, David, John, Ben T., and Shane, 5 on 5...perfect. The game was set for 1 so we could all grab lunch, get dressed appropriately and meet out on the field.

At 1 p.m. everyone was there. Some were in short sleeves, some had their shirts off, others were wearing way more than 4 layers of clothes. We were ready. Football in Austin on a icy field with patches of snow. It was as if we were playing on Soldier Field. And of course we didn't play any kind of pansy touch football. No we were there to play the real thing. All out tackle football. The weather was perfect, the teams were fair the field was crazy and the game was awesome. People came to their back porches to watch out of shear amazement. People driving by in cars honked out of the shear joy of seeing us taking full advantage of the snow day. It was incredible.

I honestly can't remember what side won. It didn't really matter. We must of played for two hours, maybe longer. No one wanted to leave. It was the greatest game ever. When we did finally call it quits we all promised to meet back out there the next day at the same time if school was canceled again. We headed out to go home and drink some hot chocolate and watch sports center dreaming of the day when we would see Stuart Scott covering a piece on each of us.

The next day school was canceled again. Just like clockwork the whole gang was out there right at 1 ready for another amazing game. In fact there were actually more people there that day. We played another incredible game, but on the last play Ryan broke his ankle. I ran to the Losurdo's house to get Joey's parents and Ryan's girlfriend. They took him to the hospital and the football game came to a tragic end.

Those two days of snow football in the Buttercup Creek Park, the one with the bridge, will always be two of the greatest snow days of all time. They were amazing. My hope for all of you today is that you at least get a taste of the fun that can be had on a snow/ice day. If you do I would love to hear about it. Enjoy your day off and have a great time!