Snow Day!

Snow. I've seen it every year of my life, some years more than others. I had more nights than I could count in my childhood when I went to sleep praying for a snow day and woke early in the morning after the buses had time to test the roads, scrambling over the covers, flipping on the local news and crossing my fingers until USD 383 either scrolled across the screen below the newscaster or scoffed at my incessant wishes by presenting a void between the closures of 382 and 384. So many times in the most treacherous weather the numbers skipped past my district and I was bundled into an unmovable mass of down feathers and wool and sent on my way to waddle on to school.

I never lived in the mountains, but I must say, I have faced my fair share of inclimate snowy weather. And this, London, this is a joke.

Four inches of snow in the morning caused all buses in London to hault, shut down the Underground subway system, closed more than 260 schools and canceled or delayed all incoming flights to the city's airports. One out of every five Britons didn't show up for work. The surprising storm sent grown adults into the streets throwing snowballs at strangers at 2 in the morning and encouraged families to venture to the park to build snowmen. It gave conversation topics to people who have nothing to talk about any other day.

Amir and I were going to watch the Superbowl after I got off work, which kicked off at 11:30 pm, but as soon as I realized the commercials wouldn't be aired I took to the streets to photograph.

The snow was at least 2 inches by the time we were out and it kept coming down heavily. Buses were still operating but found the snow too difficult to handle, calling it quits around midnight. We were stranded in a city-wide recess with frozen fingers and toes, so we walked home and were back by 3rd quarter.
The next morning we took a stroll around Regent's Park and watched the sledders, the snowman builders, the fellow strollers...everyone was happy.

I love snow days. And even though this city's reaction to the snow is just silly and laughable, I'll take a distraction from the work rut when I can get one.