I’ve been feeling under the weather lately, not sick mind you, just feeling oppressed by winter.  Anne has a twinge of the crud, but that’s what she gets for hanging-out with all of those runny-nosed guttersnipes.  Besides she got a snow day on Tuesday.  I had to go to work.

I called my employee hotline, hoping against hope, and I was somewhat rewarded.  Instead of the usual recorded message, “All facilities are open and operating normally and Marquis get your lazy butt into work.”  Caller-ID, I hate you!  On Tuesday, the hotline message strung me along for a while, before dashing all hope.  A couple of locales in the southeast US were closed, but nothing about Saint Louis except the usual, “All facilities are open and operating normally … blah, blah, blah.” 😥

Even Anne’s good tidings came with a bit of grief.  Most Sundays Anne gets the framework of her substitute teaching schedule for the week.  She worked all day Monday, but was only scheduled for a half-day on Tuesday afternoon.  She just loves half-day afternoons.  Fast-forward to Monday night.  The snowstorm is already upon us, but is performing below expectations.  The forecast called for 3” to 6” and by then the storm was running behind schedule.  Monday night her half-day was moved to the morning, not near as good as an afternoon one.

Tuesday morning, the phone rang for a third time.  As per usual this early morning telephone call elicited the desired Pavlovian response: 1) “Oh, [something]!”, 2) The un-ceremonial flinging of covers, 3) The tromp, tromp, tromp of feet to answer the phone.  Normally, I only hear this sequenced response, but on Tuesday, I was already up and was sitting at the computer.  So I had a ringside seat to this little drama.  I also know better than to come between a substitute and her scheduler.  Fortunately, this time it had a happy ending.  The call came to announce the snow day.

I still had to go to work though.  On my drive north I toyed with the idea of taking a sick day, but before I could formulate a concrete strategy, I found myself already at work.  There is a certain bravado about showing up at work in inclement weather.  One can walk around the office and sneer at the empty cubicles, holes for lesser men, but the bravado quickly passes and one is left with a particularly quiet and rather boring workday.