Snow days and communities

I enjoy snow days.  I love the anticipation the night before. Will class/work be canceled? Will it not?  I love watching the kids get bundled up and play in the snow.  I love comparing notes with my friends the next day. "We had a snow drift that covered our grill!"

Mostly though, I love the sense of community I have after a big snow-in.  Most weeks, the extent of my interaction with our neighbors is a friendly wave or a few sentences exchanged while loading the kiddos in the car.  After a snow day though, I love to look out in the morning and see the pristine, undisturbed snow.  There may be a single set of tire marks through the 15 inches of snow we received.  There is something very comforting about knowing that all my neighbors are tucked snug and warm inside their homes.  Usually, no one stirs until 10 or so.

Then, I start to see people venturing out, shovels and ice scrapers in hand. We bundle the kids and follow suit. For one of a handful of times during the year, I actually have conversations with my neighbors.  We chat while Ry borrows a snow blower.  We talk while the kids make snow angels and snow balls. And for an hour, I can imagine what life on our little block might be like if we didn't have television and video games and air conditioning.  We might be sitting out on our patio in the summer evenings, actually talking to our neighbors, being involved in each other's lives.  And I revel in that sense of community and connectedness. Tomorrow we'll all go back to our bubbles, but for today at least, I felt like I was really part of a neighborhood.