Careful What You Wish For....

For my own personal amusement, I have decided to blog-flash back to Sunday night, January 9th.

There have been a few times over the years, that the official meteorologists have claimed that snow was on the way. I think I had become a "Doubting Thomas" because rarely did this seem to happen. So when we are informed on Friday that Chattanooga will indeed get snow sometime Sunday night/early Monday morning, I am skeptical. The amount we will receive is uncertain, but it is rumored at that point to be around 3 inches. We receive the expected phone call from the Hamilton County Dept. of Education (HCDE), that school will be closed on Monday, January 10th.

The grocery stores were insanely busy. Why does everybody stock up on bread, milk, and eggs before the threat of snow? Is there something about snow that makes people crave french toast? I know, bad joke. But if you've lived here long enough, it may be funny but it is true. Pick a grocery store, it does not matter which one. If there is a threat of snow, chances are there will be no milk, bread or eggs to be found anywhere in the city by the time the snow is supposed to hit. People around here stock UP on these items.

With all of the hoopla, I found myself wishing that if it was really going to snow, I wanted to really get "dumped on" - I wanted to KNOW that it snowed.

Yeah, I know...be careful what you wish for, you just might get it... Little did I know.

Sunday night, Gabe performed (with GUSTO, I might add) all of the "Snow Rituals" that have been passed down from school children and teachers alike. This apparently has been a tradition for several years now. "Snow ritual" you say? What on earth is that??? Being raised in Southern California, I had NEVER heard of such a thing.

I had to find out what these "rituals" were and believe me, Gabe knew every one of them by heart. I thought I would share these rituals with you for your amusement, just in case you were as in the dark as I was about this whole thing.

Snow Ritual #1: Wear your PJ's inside out

Snow Ritual #2: Sleep with a spoon under your pillow

Snow Ritual #3: Flush ice cubes down the toilet (Yes, I'm serious)

Snow Ritual #4: Open the freezer door and turn around 5 times

Snow Ritual #5: Do your own variation of the Snow Dance

I have learned that numbers 4 and 5 on the list are up for debate and can be performed or not performed, but numbers 1-3 MUST be followed in order for the snow day to happen. Well, I took great pleasure in waking Gabe up to let him know that it worked... Boy, did it work!! Gabe was thrilled! We received a whopping 8.4 inches of snow when we woke up Monday morning, January 10th. Come to find out, this is the biggest snow storm to affect our area in 18 years.

When people learn that I'm "not from around here" and ask me when I moved to Chattanooga, I tell them it was in October of 1993. Of course, the first comment I usually get is, "Oh, you MISSED it!" Of course after 18 years, my response is, "Yes, I SURE did!" What I missed was "The Big Blizzard of 1993" when the city was paralyzed with 20 inches of snow in a 24 hour period on March 12-13, 1993.

Well, we may not have made the top 5 biggest single event snowfalls in the history of the Scenic City, but we came pretty close and tied for 6th place. As an interesting bit of factual trivia, here is a list showing where this latest storm ranked:

1. 20.0" on March 12-13, 1993 (Big Blizzard of '93)
2. 11.0" on March 1-2, 1927
3. 10.2" on January 8, 1988
4. 8.7" on February 13, 1960
5. 8.6" on December 22, 1929
6. 8.4" on January 29, 1966 AND January 10, 2011
7. 8.2" on January 23, 1940

Of course, the boys were thrilled to be out of school. Each day, they'd wait with "bated breath" until the phone call would come from the HCDE stating that school would be closed for yet another day. They were absolutely ecstatic when the call came on Wednesday that school would be out for the rest of the week. Hip, hip hooray for SNOW DAYS!!!

For the first time in more than 8 years, the Cricket office in Chattanooga was actually closed all day "due to inclement weather" on Monday. I had to take a vacation day on Tuesday, when I couldn't get my borrowed rear-wheel drive car one whole block away from my house.

Our neighborhood was a mess, quite literally. I was extremely grateful to my friend and co-worker, Teresa who has all-wheel drive in her car, lives about 5 blocks away from me in our neighborhood and carpooled with me the rest of the week. I don't know that I've EVER been so happy as to actually drive somewhere myself for the first time in a week on Saturday the 15th.

So now when I hear rumors that we're supposed to get more snow showers next week, I am not amused. There are still big piles of snow in places where it has yet to melt. I really don't want to get stuck again.

I wonder if I wear my PJ's right side out, sleep with a fork under my pillow and flush hot water down the toilet, if the snow will completely pass right by us this time....

HEY - this working Mom can dream, can't she?