Texas Snow Days

There have been a couple of "snow days" in the past two weeks down here.

They look something like this:

You see, this city is not equipped with trucks that can lay salt tracks before a storm, nor with snow plows.  They don't stockpile rock salt for the winter down in the south.  And because the weather is usually fair, the roads aren't built to prevent icing.  So anytime that it gets cold and there is a chance of rain, the city shuts down.

And I like snow days in Houston better than snow days in Ohio.  In Ohio, only the schools close.  But most businesses stay open, and as a result, child care centers have to stay open, too.  Even though the roads aren't safe, many people still have to travel them.

Here, on a snow day, everything closes.  The businesses close their offices, schools are closed, and there is no Pokemon or soccer or anything else really.  It's kinda nice.  Kevin worked from home several of those days, and I didn't run around with the kids anywhere.

But all these unexpected snow days have kind of thrown off my internal clock.  I totally forget to put the recycling out this week because I didn't know what day it was.

And this morning was tumbling.  But I didn't set my alarm clock last night.  I woke up on my own at the exact time when we should have been leaving the house.  I quickly woke Lex up and got the kids together and we got into the car.

On the way there, Lex was talking and talking and talking, and I was nodding along and saying things like "uh-huh" and "yeah" and "mmm-hmmm" whenever it seemed appropriate.  Because I was driving and we were running a little bit late.

And then he said, "Then I kicked that dog right in the face."

I almost said, "uh-huh," but then what he had actually said registered and I realized that wasn't actually an appropriate response.  So I told him that we don't kick dogs in the face, and asked why he had said that.

His response?  "Because the president is a dog!"

I didn't know what to say to that, but fortunately I was spared the need to come up with anything because just then there was a very interesting spectacle on the side of the road.

There were a bunch of prison inmates picking up the trash on the side of the road, under the watchful eye of the County Constable, wearing their orange striped prison jumpsuits. 

Things sure are different down here in Texas.