Monday, February 04, 2008

Alternative Fun For Snow Days

During the snow day we had on Friday (A big snow storm blew through town depositing a wonderful blanket of snow all over, and, of course, causing all kinds of school boards, community centers, etc to close down for the day) I'm noting, of course, that in the two other places where I have lived (Ottawa and Sudbury) a snow storm like this would barely have even made the news. It's all relative, and the simple fact is that people in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton area simply are not winter savy, at least in my experience.

Alexander and I enjoyed shoveling the snow several times on Friday as well as early Saturday -- I made sure to take care and move ALL of the snow from the driveway and sidewalk in front of my house into one spot on our front lawn -- the goal, of course, was the great as big a snow pile as possible so that we could create one very massive snow fort.

On Saturday and Sunday we made a cool new snowman to guard our back deck from monsters and in the front yard created a new version of Fort Alexander, complete with two stairways, three tunnels and a hallway.


But it made me wonder, since my family seems to be the exception to actually enjoying being outside in actual winter weather, what we might have done instead of playing outside. Here's a list of alternative ways I might have had fun during a nasty snow storm:

  • Pick up Calvin & Hobbes books and search out all of the "snow" themed cartoons - particularly the ones featuring Calvin making bizarre and hilarious snow art.
  • Call up a series of paving companies and ask them what they would charge to do my driveway today - record the phone calls and post them online.
  • Make up signs that say "Repent Sinners. The sky is falling" and head to the nearest open shopping mall and march around inside one of the entrances.
  • Head out to a local hardward store as early as possible, buy up every single shovel, then stand near the empty shovel section and laugh at all those people who didn't plan ahead
  • Run around in the driveway with a hair dryer trying to melt as much of the snow as possible before it hits the ground (note: long extension chord required for this)
  • Call local news media (newspapers, radio and television) and inform them that your driveway and home are now officially closed to visitors due to inclement weather.

What are some other fun alternative things you can do to amuse yourself during a snow storm?

2 comments:

lime said...

i am more than a bit shocked to find that drivers in canada can be so unable to cope with snow. really.

love your suggestions for alternate fun.

one year for a snow day we had friends over and we built a snow godzilla in the yard because the one little girl in the family LOVES godzilla. then we put a small city at his feet for him to stomp.

Bunny said...

I am definitely calling in my home and driveway closings to the media!