Snow Sentimentality

Ah, snow. We had around 2 or 3 inches in the metro Detroit area yesterday and overnight. That's not too bad, really.

I remember snow in years gone by, both as a child and an adult with children, getting up early and turning on the TV to watch the scroll of closed schools, or having an ear to the radio listening intently as the newsreader droned on, to see if either I had a day off or might at least not have to rush clearing the cars and the walks.

I miss those days. Now all there is is to get out there and clear the walks and cars. There's nothing to look forward to after that. No snowball fights. No snow forts. None of the welcome if unscheduled day without classes. Just a nice clear walk and a vehicle you can drive while actually seeing where you're headed, and go to work anyway.

No 'Quiet Ron' here. I just know he has something to say.

No more pencils, no more books

It's August, and that means one thing for parents of school age children: it's time to buy school supplies.

The ads are everywhere, for clothes and backpacks and pencils and notebooks and all those items on all those lists helpfully supplied by our teachers. If you've got one schoolchild it can be a daunting task. If you've got several it can seem too high of a mountain.

I'm past all that and I don't mind at all. Rushing from store to store to get the best prices on different items was simply a chore, especially factoring in all the other parents doing the same thing. It wasn't long before the school supply aisles at Office Depot and K-Mart looked like bombed out cities from the Second World War.

Then there was always that one item which, somehow, became impossible to find. Erasers; I remember one year when we could not find an eraser anywhere. Well, yes, on pencils, but you know how quickly those wear down. You needed actual hand held erasers. Yet there were none, as though the erasers themselves had gathered en masse and decided, nope, we're not having anything to do with this madness this year. You're on you're own; bye!

I don't miss it at all. I pity the folks still dealing with it. I have absolutely no sentimentality for the school day preparation of my children. We ran the race, we fought the fight. And I like the feeling of switching channels the instant a back to school sale commercial appears. It is empowering in ways beside which fighting the crowds at Target pale.