So today started off pretty good. You know that feeling that you get when you're a kid and there was the possibility of no school the night before? That anticipation deep in the pit of my stomach was there this morning. I didn't even have to look out the window. My alarm went off at 6:00, I turned it off planning on sleeping for another five minutes. At 6:16 I heard no one stirring across the hall in Amy's room or my mom's room. I reluctantly pulled the covers back and padded on over to my parents' room where my mother jerked awake when I said her name and mumbled no school. I didn't need any more telling to go and hop right back into my cocoon of covers. Around 9 I finally got up for real and practiced piano while pancakes were being made for breakfast.
An hour later saw the females of the Collins family shoveling their way to the back of the house where we planned to clear the deck... why the deck and not the driveway? Two reasons: 1. we planned on having dad snow blow the driveway and more importantly 2. The cats need to be able to play outside. I shoveled the entire deck for the cats.
Before we finished there was a snowball fight of course; you can't shovel this kind of snow, the snow is perfect for it, without one.
I finally abandoned my shovel, sweating in my rain coat (the winter coat was too hot), and sat down at the piano again. From the garage I could here the struggling sounds of the snow blower not starting. When dad finally realized he simply didn't turn on the gas, we all let out a sigh of relief... Dad's not pretty when he's in a bad mood. Unfortunately, the good mood did not last long, because only ten minutes later I was called out to help him: the newspaper is halfway eaten in the snow blower as we speak with no signs of being thrown up. There are little shreds littering the driveway. I found the Sudoku and what I think is a piece of the Peanuts comic.
